Editorial: The end of the campaign

Some weeks ago, we observed in this column that there are no winners in war, just losers and others who end up losing a little bit less.

With the RSA yesterday deemed insolvent, its doors closed, its members effectively homeless and disenfranchised, how prophetic those words now seem.

For months, the iconic clubrooms in Strandon have been the centrepiece in a battle between two sides on different sides of history – the old and the new; the time-honoured and the trashy; the brave and the brash – with the only common ground appearing to be folly born of stubbornness and arrogance.

On one side were the loyal diggers representing sacrifice and tradition, pitched into one last battle to save their hallowed clubrooms, their meeting place of mates and minds; on the other side were two brothers working hard to honour a pledge to their dying father with the gift of their own hard work and funds.

But as in all battles, not much can stumble from the fog of war completely intact. Reputations on both sides have taken big hits in the march for the moral high ground and campaigns appear to have become muddled in clashes of big egos and individual agendas.

Lost in that fog, collateral damage to the bigger forces at play have been the rank-and-file members of the New Plymouth Returned Services Association who, like the public, probably never had the full picture of the background to this particular theatre of war until it was too late and the campaign was lost.

The RSA painted a picture of an overbearing and intolerable partnership with the Crow brothers, who rode roughshod over members and never treated the association with the respect it believed it deserved.

Some of that appears to be true, and the Crows have admitted stepping over the line on more than one occasion.

But as reporter Ryan Evans discovered in his story and feature revealing the RSA's awful finances, most of the blame for the demise of the organisation rests with the association and its leaders rather than with the Crows.

The brothers simply made the final death march a little less comfortable.

If the RSA had devoted as much energy to finding real workable solutions as it did to making itself appear above reproach, the doors might still be open.

If the Crows had finessed their message a little more and shown a little more deference to their battle-hardened elders, maybe the members would still have a spot to share a beer and a chat.

But it is too late now.

Once again, a war and no winners.

- © Fairfax NZ News