UNSCRUPULOUS SALESMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 6

UNSCRUPULOUS SALESMEN.

PLAYING ON PUBLIC SYMPATHY,

ATTITUDE OF RETURNED SOLDIERS* ASSOCIATION.

That the Returned Soldiers’ Association had learned from bitter experience that the public was being victimised by unscrupulous salesmen, who were employing the name of the association to.aid them in selling their goods, was a statement made by Mr J. M. White (secretary of the association) during a conversation with our representative ou Wednesday. Mr White went so far as to say that no salesman needed to state that he was a returned soldier, because, he added, if the article was worth the money asked, the public would buy it. The difficulty was, however, that the sympathetic nature of the public was imposed upon. “It costs only Is and it will help a returned soldier,” the salesman stated, and the sympathetic housewife bought the article although she did not need it, because she thought that she was doing the man a kindness. In many cases, however, the salesman had not been on active service, and was not even in the employ of a returned soldier.

No salesman had any connection with the Returned Soldiers’ Association or was recognised by it in any way, Mr White added. It was at one time the custom of the New Zealand Association and the various branches to issu© cards to returned soldier salesmen certifying that they were bona fide ex-service men, but it was found that this system was being abused, and in 1926 th© conference of associations changed its policy, and decided that the name of the associations should not be used in support of any commercial enterprise. Briefly, the step was taken because many of the salesmen were of the wrong type, and were securing business more through the sympathy of the public than through the quality of the articles they were selling. “ I don’t think that any salesmen need state that he is a returned soldier. If he is wearing his returned soldiers’ badge it can be easily seen that he is an exservice man. There is no reason why a man should foist useless articles on to the public simply because he has don e his duty in the Great War. The tactics employed by some salesmen cast a direct reflection on the whole of the men who were on active service as well as on the pension system and organisations which help disabled ex-soldiers. “ Day after day I receive inquiries by telephone regarding these salesmen,” Mr White continued, “ and in most eases I find that the people have been victims of the old plea that the salesman is a returned soldier badly in need of financial assistance.”

In conclusion, Mr White mentioned an Australian organisation which, be stated, sold thousands of booklets in New Zealand by informing the buyer that th© proceeds helped an Anzac. The statement had been made by a Melbourne newspaper some time ago that a proportion of the proceeds was to be handed over to the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, but, as a matter of fact, that organisation had not received a neiiny.