POLITICS BARRED.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 149, 12 September 1932, Page 3

POLITICS BARRED.

THE BAN ON CIVIL SERVANTS. DUNEDIN, Saturday. The decree that Public Servants must not take part in political life was described by Mr M. Connelly, representing the Society of Amalgamated Railway Servants, as one of the greatest blots in their Legislative history. He hoped that the day was not far distant when it would be removed. Mr Connelly was speaking at the annual reunion of the Dunedin branch ol’ the Post and Telegraph Employees 1 Association. Mr Connelly said he believed that in the near future they would see a Postmaster-General who was not a farmer, a Minister of Education who was not a merchant, and Ministers of Railways and Mines who were not farmers. Every industry should he able to produce somebody who was in a position to control that particular industry. As things were, some men occupied important Parliamentary positions, even when they were not successes in private life. He thought that one of the greatest things that Public Servants as a whole had to fight for was the same rights as other people. He failed to see why, through so many farmer members, the Farmers’ Union should have represenation in the House, if similar concessions could not be granted to Public Servants.

Mr H. Brown, the assoication’i

Drganiser, said that when the Government placed its embargo on the association there were people who said that the organisation would become a body of disgruntled and dissatisfied members. He was proud to say, however, that the results accruing from that step had been exactly the opposite, for instead of a disgruntled membership they had a solidity that had not been apparent for a long time. There were some, also, who said that the action taken by the Government would result in the resignation of many members, whereas in reality the membership had increased. The association was not a political organisation, anil had never contributed £IOOO to further the Labor Party's campaign.