NEW ZEALAND LEGION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND LEGION.

If "Member of tlie Legion" had given my' query a little thought he would have seen that it was not unnecessary. He says "the ideal (of the legion) isVa thorough education of the people so that they themselves will order the necessary constitutional action for' their national welfare." But what is the legion's particular conception of the national' welfare? As the editor of the "Star" pointed out, the legion is in danger of being misunderstood because it speaks in vague generalities like 'the above. Hitler is taking action which he conceives to be for the national So is Stalin and the Russian Soviet. So is! Mussolini. But do we want either of these forms of tyranny in New Zealand? For the legion is actually accused of having Fascist aims—in other words it is said to be for a dictatorship. Supposing this is true; the legion's "education of the people" may consist of subtle propaganda-designed to per-, suade a disgruntled electorate to vote thelegion's nominees (in the guise of "a better type of man") into power. And these nominees might be pledged to reduce Parliament to a' cypher and set up a dictatorship, just as Hit--ler's followers have done in Germany, by constitutional action. Thus the legion would achieve a dictatorship by' "educating the people to take the necessary constitutional* action for (the legion's conception of) the national welfare." It is high time the legion came into the open and placed the cards of its policy on the table. Until it does it will, be suspect. E. SATCHELL..