GRADUAL CHANGE ADVOCATED

Southland Times, Issue 25669, 11 May 1945, Page 2

GRADUAL CHANGE ADVOCATED

CONTROL OF U.S.A. BY 2ND N.Z.E.F. MEN A suggestion that the transfer of control of the Returned Services Association from Ist N.Z.E.F. to 2nd N.Z.E.F. members should not be made too hurriedly was made in an issue of the Newsletter which the South Taranaki R.S.A. sends regularly to men from its district serving overseas. The following extract from the Newsletter is published in the minutes of a recent meeting of the Dominion Council of the R.S.A.: — "These letters are usually packed with comment as to what the R.S.A. is doing for men of this war. You may infer from this that most, in fact about all, of our activities are now for the benefit of the men of the present conflict. “I think it only fair that the position of the men of earlier wars should be known to you and the voluntary sacrifices of the ‘old hands’ appreciated. They are cheerfully giving services to the association in the certain knowledge that the benefits are and will continue to be given to those of the present generation. They also know they are ultimately going to lose their hold on the R.S.A. to you men and I have heard no complaint. “Many of these, although in agreement with the general principle of the change that is coming, are concerned at the risk that we may proceed too fast, in the direction I have indicated. The R.S.A. is a very specialized business, and its work traverses a particularly wide range of subjects; in fact, it touches on nearly all classes of community effort because membership comprises such a big proportion of the community. There is no tendency, as yet, by the present war members to hurry matters, and it is suggested that we must be careful not to. Our new members must pass through a period of training and they must, at least for some years to come, be stiffened by the experienced and wise counsel of a number of the older hands.”