RANDOM OPINIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 211, 22 June 1950, Page 4

RANDOM OPINIONS

Veto and Democracy Democracy works' only when there is a certain homogeneity, when all parties are more or less agreed on the fundamentals of political theory. These conditions, alas! are totally lacking in the United Nations, as they were, for instance, in India and Palestine before the partitions. Democracy works in England partly because of custom and tradition, but largely because even now Conservatives and Socialists are agreed on the main principles of parliamentary government and free speech. Conservatives obey the Labour Government because they trust it not to destroy these principles, and also because they hope, not without reason, that at the next election, or the one after, their turn will come and they will be in power. None of these things applies to the United Nations. Not only does the Rusisan bloc hold totally different views on every point of principel but they are in a permanent minority. No argument, no election, can alter this. The Soviet Government clings obstinately to its right of veto because it knows that, when a question is put to the vote, it will always be defeated by the Western Powers and their small allies, — John Douglas Pringle. Agreements With Soviet To try to get the Soviet Union not to fish in troubled waters is like trying to argue against the forces of Nature —it is impossible. Agreements with the Soviet Union are useful when they record an. existing situation or fact. Otherwise they are not very useful—Mr Dean Acheson.