The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1933. THE ENGLISH IDEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1933. THE ENGLISH IDEAL.

For tfu) cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs retistanct. For the future in ihe dislavce, And the good that irs can dt*.

The indignation felt in Britain against the treatment of the Jews and Socialists in Germany, and the methods of the Russian Ogpu, is due to the fact that in both eases the rights of the individual have been ignored in the supposed interests of the Government systems. Democracy stands for the rights of the individual; Fascism and Communism stand for the sinking of individuality in the State. The Nazis in Germany, the Fascists in Italy and the Soviets in Russia have for their aim the drilling of the people so that they will all march in step along well-defined political lines. All constitutional safeguards for the liberty of the subject have been abolished in these countries, and there is virtually no room for the individual to develop in his own way. The contention of those who favour this suppression of individual rights is that individualism tends towards national demoralisation and disintegration. In the Fascist or Communist State there is no room for political parties. "The people," said Mussolini, "must be organised in one State, or they will be at the mercy of the first group of adventurers from within or of any horde of invaders from without." How far the restriction of the rights of the individual has gone in Germany under Nazi influence may be seen from the steps taken after the burning of the Reichstag. The country was put under police control. The Opposition newspapers were suppressed, and they were denied all recourse to the Courts against suspension, a right which they had previously enjoyed. Letters were examined in the post and telephone conversations tapped. The Communist group within the Reichstag, consisting of a hundred members, and an assorted crowd of Socialists and pacifists were imprisoned. Members of the Opppsition could not speak or write or demonstrate. All this was done in order that the Fascist idea of the State as a complete whole, without any room, for political dissensions or schisms', might supersede the democratic ideal of government by consent. In Russia the Soviet State is founded on the same idea of the subordination of the individual to the system. The Soviet lawmakers laid it down that a person who endangered the interests of the Soviet regime was nothing more than a diseased part of the State organism, and that he must be eliminated for the sake of the whole body. There are twenty possible crimes against the State for which capital punishment may be inflicted, including careless fulfilment of duties with a special purpose of weakening the power of the Government. The Minister of Justice, M. Krylcnko, has openly declared that the "interests of the Collective are higher than the interests of individuals," and also that the Courts are organs of the State, and that their duty is not to determine guilt, but to decide whether conviction would be in the interests of the administration. This is the creed of the Nazis and the Communists alike. Against this stands the English social structure and the English view of life on which the British Empire rests. England is individualistic, and believes in individual liberty and justice. From this springs her hostility to Bolshevism, and her belief in Parliamentary government, freedom of the Press and the election by the people of their own representatives. Dictatorship, whether of the proletariat or any other class, «is the negation of everything for which England stands. It is this spirit of England which holds the Empire together. Communism knows nothing of liberty or toleration. It may sound fascinating to some people, but those who advocate it are apt to forget that it means the loss of all individual liberty and justice as British people see it. The English people have shown that they, would sooner handicap the police in their efforts to unravel a crime than tolerate anything approaching the "third degree" as practised in many other countries. They will protect the individual against any attempt on the part of the State to do him any injustice. Man cannot have it both ways. They cannot have Communism or Fascism and still enjoy individual liberty. Freedom has slowly broadened down, and has been won by many struggles. It has to be defended to-day against all undemocratic attempts to undermine it. It is worth defending because it stands for all that has made our Empire great.