This is a meeting of Postmasters and the Chairman has very kindly given us some brief explanation of why this special general meeting has been called. It is really that you should consider some problems arising from a very im­portant and crucial matter that is facinrt most public servants today. In other words it is the prob'em of their efficient work, satisfactory service to the people and at the same time the preserving of healthy trade union traditions. This is a most important problem that faces all public ser­vants and the trade unions in which they are. That you are addressing yourselves to this prob'em is very encouraging and I sincerely hone that other sections of public servants in the country also will proceed quite dispassionately and im­partially to consider the problem and the various issues involved in the problem.

I should like to give you, what in my opinion is a certain background against which public servants might consider th,~se issues. As you know, we only regained our freedom ten years ago, in February, 1948. Prior to that we were under one form or another of Western colonial rule. Portuguese, Dutch and British. I have tried to point out on various occasions what colonial rule has meant to us. politically, economically and socially, what freedom should mean to us and how we might proceed to make freedom not merely a word but a reality. I do not wish to cover that wide ground with you. Here •: ou are concerned with this subject insofar as it affects public servants.

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