Growth

It took a year or two after the war for things to take a decided turn for the better. The wave of interest in politics which travelled round the world touched New Zealand. This and the return of old stalwarts and the growth of a new, able generation of speakers made the opening years of the 1920s the beginning of an era of tremendous development, not only numerically but in morale. In a memorable tussle with the then Governor - General (which I shall refer to again) the society found it necessary to express publicly a fact which had not up to that time been precisely ascertained or tested. It had a conscience.

In the meantime, they deplored the revolutionary tendencies in the New Zealand Party, they said "no" to the public ownership of industry, by one vote they gave Ireland self-government, they declared the Peace Treaties of [unclear: 191] "economically impossible [unclear: an] politically unjustifiable," the condemned censorship [unclear: ove] political literature in [unclear: Ne] Zealand and abroad, [unclear: the] argued "that the Russia Revolution, being the [unclear: oppo]tunity for the true genius Russia, intervention in Russian affairs was unjustifiable, and they viewed with [unclear: gra] apprehension the activities the Navy League in [unclear: sta] schools.