The Returned and Services Association has reaffirmed its strong support for the existing New Zealand flag, but says it will accept a change if that is what the public wants.
"We've got to have the debate, there's no question about that," RSA president Robin Klitscher told the Weekend Herald.
"There's
a basic assumption out there that the RSA is rigidly against change to the flag. What [our] policy actually says is not quite as rigid as that. The RSA would follow the wishes of the people."
The RSA's policy states that any change should be out of the hands of the politicians and "solely the prerogative of the people of New Zealand, as determined by a substantial majority of electors in a referendum".
Air Vice Marshal Klitscher felt the country would have to decide if it was mature enough to accept its past for what it is.
"Or whether we want to try and draw a veil over [it] in some way. My personal view here would be that it's probably much healthier just to accept what we were, and accept its symbols, because that's what made us what we are. And if we start trying to draw masks over it, or re-litigate history, then we are at risk of deluding ourselves, quite frankly."
Air Vice Marshal Klitscher acknowledged many returned servicemen who fought under the flag would have stronger views than the official RSA policy.
Patrick Duggan served two tours in Vietnam, and said every day the New Zealand flag flew with pride at his post. He saw no valid reason to change it.
"When I die, I want to have the New Zealand flag, as it is now, put over my casket."
New Zealand Defence Force chiefs declined to comment on the issue.
Retired Colonel Ray Seymour, director of the National Army Museum, said more than 33,000 New Zealanders had lost their lives serving under the country's flag.
And it remains central to the activities of the military today.
"At daybreak, the New Zealand ensign goes up on every flagpole in every military camp. And it comes down at the end of the day's work. And when it comes down ... the soldiers stop whatever they are doing ... and they turn and face the flag.
"If it was changed, I guess one could say, 'Well so be it'. But I would imagine many serving soldiers today, and certainly many soldiers who have served under that flag, would not be happy."
Colonel Seymour recalled an MP asking him his views on a new flag in the 1990s.
"I said I wouldn't entertain it until the last World War II veteran has passed away. Because certainly my reading of history up until World War II, those soldiers served King and Country, and by inference the flag."
Stanley Newman, president of the New Zealand Defence Association, a think-tank of ex-military personnel, said the issue of a flag change had never been discussed within his circles and he had not seen any desire for it.
Although he had fought in the British Army, Mr Newman has spent most of his life in New Zealand, and he finds the presence of the Union Jack on the flag a "matter of sensible identity".
The issue has also been debated online at nzherald.co.nz, with one reader, James, saying: "Thousands of Kiwis did not die fighting for the flag. They died fighting for the country, or our allies. They died wearing tin hats into battle, not carrying the flag."
He said New Zealand soldiers used the Silver Fern to identify themselves as Kiwis.
"The fern, not the Union Jack, is often found on the gravestones of fallen New Zealand soldiers.
"As a former soldier in the New Zealand Army I have no problem ditching the Union Jack and Southern Cross for the black and silver fern."
NO CHANGE
PATRICK DUGGAN
Vietnam War veteran
"When I die, I want to have the New Zealand flag, as it is now, put over my casket."
NO CHANGE
ERIC BRADY
World War Two veteran
"If and when we become a republic, that would probably be the time for a new flag."
NO CHANGE
VIRGINIA MCKENZIE
Daughter of Victoria Cross recipient Charles Upham
"I'm happy with the present flag. We are (part of) the Commonwealth, and I believe in that. But I know a lot of people don't now."
NO CHANGE
STANLEY NEWMAN
Former British serviceman and president of the New Zealand Defence Association:
"I'm under the impression New Zealand is still the most British (in) origin of countries in the world."
Flag debate: Leave any change to the people, says RSA
Vietnam War veteran Patrick Duggan. Photo / Simon Baker
The Returned and Services Association has reaffirmed its strong support for the existing New Zealand flag, but says it will accept a change if that is what the public wants.
"We've got to have the debate, there's no question about that," RSA president Robin Klitscher told the Weekend Herald.
"There's
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