A COMMENDABLE DECISION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25279, 16 July 1943, Page 2

A COMMENDABLE DECISION

The decision of Mr Perry to relinquish the office of president of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association in the special circumstances that have been created by his acceptance of a seat in the War Cabinet is one that reflects credit on him. An uneasy feeling must have been caused among large numbers of members of the association when the appointment of Mr Perry as Mr Coates’s successor in •the War Cabinet was announced. The adherence of the R.S.A. to the principle that it should be a nonpolitical body had only recently been reaffirmed, and in the face of this declaration it was impossible wholly to disregard the danger that the acceptance by the association’s president of office in the War Cabinet might be open to the interpretation that it involved a violation of the constitution of the organisation. The position of president of the R.S.A. of the Dominion is one which Mr Perry must have been proud to fill, and it must have been a source of very considerable satisfaction and pleasure to him that he enjoyed the confidence of the association to such an extent that he was repeatedly re-elected to it. That he is as jealous for the fair name of the association as he was proud to preside over it is indicated in his present resignation of its presidency. He has bowed gracefully to a sentiment which had manifested itself within the association and which, in the interests of the association, it was desirable to respect.