LOYAL AS ANY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21159, 8 July 1940, Page 6

LOYAL AS ANY

NEW ZEALAND TEACHERS BASELESS CHARGES DEPLORED VAGUE GENERALITIES (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Monday Unfounded and unwarranted allegations against the loyalty of teachers had become so frequent as to demand an emphatic denial, said Mr Forsyth, president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in an official statement to-day. On the radio and in the press all sorts of fantastic charges, quite unsupported by eviednee, had been made by persons not all on which could be classed as anonymous irresponsibles. “Those whose duty it is to discuss educational affairs should be particularly careful to avoid making statements calculated to undermine public confidence in the very service upon which the democratic system relies most for its continued growth and progress,” said Mr Forsyth. “Yet examples have not been wanting of indiscretion bordering upon irresponsibility in the statements of some public men. Whole-hearted Support Teachers had given and were giving whole-hearted support to the national war effort, he continued. “On their behalf I state quite bluntly that, those who by rumour-mongering and by making unsubstantiated charges undermine public confidence in the teaching service are themselves guilty of subversive activities. Teachers as a body have no sympathy with subversive elements of any political colour.” Mr Forsyth said that during a recent tour of the North Island where he met literally hundreds of teachers he had been impressed by the manner in which they were facing up to their responsibilities, and by the wholehearted enthusiasm with which they were entering into all forms of community patriotic efforts, in many cases as leaders and organisers. Everywhere, too, they were smarting with indignation at the charges made in vague generalities, with no substantial facts that might be fastened on and refuted. He was convinced that teachers as a whole were as loyal as any body of people in the Empire.