was generally on the left, although his wide network of friends included people of all political persuasions, and perhaps the person he most admired was the centre-right politician Gordon Coates. He was involved in a number of left-leaning organisations and associations, and helped edit and publish literature connected with them. In 1939, he assisted the publication of "Psycho-pathology in Politics", written by Labour Party dissident John A. Lee which was an attack on the party's leader, Michael Joseph Savage. Sutch wrote numerous books. Among the first were: Poverty and Progress in New Zealand (1941, 1969), which echoed the work Progress and Poverty, by the Californian Henry George (1879), known as the "single [land] taxer"; and The Quest for Security in New Zealand (1942, 1966)., which to Sutch was a related topic. Early career In 1933, following some teaching in Palmerston North Boys' High School, Sutch took up a position in the office of Gordon Coates, who was Minister of Finance. When the government changed, he continued on in the office of Coates's successor, Walter Nash of the First Labour Government. During this time he was elected as the first President of the newly formed New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers (now known as the N.Z. Association of Scientists). He had considerable input into economic policy at the time. Eventually, Sutch's political activities were deemed incompatible with his official role, and he was transferred out of the economic sphere. He left the civil service to join the army, becoming an instructor. He returned to the Ministry of Supply arranging equipment and finance. Work overseas At the end of the war, he took up a position with the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), working in Sydney and then in London, covering war-devastated Europe. As a result of this work, he was selected to head the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations, where he held positions with the Economic and Social Commission and UNICEF. He played a crucial role in a UN decision to continue with UNICEF, despite a United States desire to close it down. Ben Alpers has said that some of the credit for UNICEF's Nobel Prize for Peace should go to Sutch and New Zealand. Soviet documents claim he was recruited as a spy in 1950. Return to New Zealand Upon returning to New Zealand in 1951, Sutch worked for the Department of Industries and Commerce,