Veterans bristle at RSA criticism

Some old soldiers are accusing their top brass in the Returned Services' Association of activity bordering on sedition.

In the latest association newspaper, RSA Review, and in a defence statement issued last month, the organisation tackled the Government over defence policy.

The statement, prepared by retired Air Vice-Marshall Robin Klitscher, outlined the RSA's "major concerns" over Government decisions such as the cancellation of the F-16 fighter deal and the Project Sirius upgrade of the Air Force Orions.

Air Vice-Marshall Klitscher said successive Governments had avoided solving defence problems, creating a mood of damaging self-doubt in the armed forces.

Recent equipment decisions had diminished New Zealand's ability to protect its immediate interests, or to contribute to collective defence, he said.

"Never since 1939 have we been so weakly positioned.

"New Zealanders need to know this and to understand the implications in full."

The statement has riled Second World War veteran and New Lynn RSA member Frank Hitchcock, who said the statement was an example of the hierarchy giving its views without seeking rank-and-file opinions.

The former torpedo fighter-bomber navigator, who was shot down over the North Sea and spent a year as a prisoner of war, said the statement was incredibly slanted and "vague political claptrap typically void of specifics."

Parts of it bordered on the seditious, he said.

Peter Campbell, a three-term Auckland RSA president and Second World War veteran of the North African and Italian campaigns, said the association should be fighting for the welfare of its members instead of attacking the Government.

Bill Hopper, the editor of RSA Review, said: "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and just the same as every other paper, they have the recourse of writing a letter to the editor."