The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY’ MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1922. NO COMPROMISE.

Southland Times, Issue 19657, 6 October 1922, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY’ MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1922. NO COMPROMISE.

The House of Representatives very properly endorsed the action of the Government in refusing to permit the officers of the Post and Telegraph Department to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour. The voting was decisive, Mr Holland’s amendment being rejected by 53 votes to 11 and it should be clear to the employees of the Post and Telegraph Department that the House of Representatives is just as determined as the Government to protect the interests of the public in this matter. The quibble was raised that the proposal of the Post and Telegraph men to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour was not contrary to any statutory prohibition, and that they were only trying to do what they had a perfect right to do like other people. The Government was asked by what authority it refused the Post and Telegraph men permission to exercise their lawful right. That way of putting the case sounds plausible, but it will not hold water. The officers of the Post and Telegraph Department are employees of the public, engaged in an important branch of the public service. The Government as the executive of the people is the custodian of the public interests and exercises’ the authority of the public as employers. It is absurd to suggest that the Government has no right to prevent a body .of State employees from taking a step inimical to the public interest merely because there is no legal bar to the course proposed to be taken. Undoubtedly a mistake was made in allowing the affiliation of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants with the Alliance of Labour to go through unchallenged. According to the Prime Minister, the thing was done before it was noticed, but that any branch of (lie public service should be associated with an external labour organisation is inconsistent with the rights and interests of the public. So far as the redress of grievances is concerned the employees of the State have their own organisations, they have friends in Parliament and they have the public behind them. So far as other people’s grievances are concerned and the case of Labour in general it is necessary that the employees of the State should stand apart. It is all very well to say that the Alliance of Labour would not call upon the employees of the Post and Telegraph Department to strike, or that the employees of the Department, if called upon, would refuse to strike. But suppose the organisation of the Alliance of Labour was used to obtain for the employees of the Post and Telegraph Department some concession they desired, how could lhe employees of the Department refuse their co-operation when called upon to assist another section of the Alliance. No body of men can accept the benefits of an organisation without acknowledging obligations to it, and if departments of the public service were permitted to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour important pul)lie services might be held up over disputes with which they had nothing to do, and in which the Government had no power to effect a settlement. While the Post and Telegraph men cannot be permitted to affiliate with the Allance of Labour, wc are sure that they will not lose through remaining outside that organisation. They can rely upon their case receiving fair consideration and upon public support for all reasonable demands.