THE DOOM OF DEMOCRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 8

THE DOOM OF DEMOCRACY.

The preliminary stages of the Resene Bank Bill has revealed a.deplorabie aspect and condition of party uovernment. With many of the Coalition members the issue at stake is not whether the Reserve Bank shall be beneficial to the Dominion or otherwise. To them the support of the bill is merely a blind policy on which hangs the fate of their party. .Members have openly stated that the weight of adverse petitions from their electors means nothing; they must support the Government, which, if defeated on the issue, would mean an election with little or no hope of retaining their seats. It is little wonder that the death knell of democracy is being sounded throughout the world. Recently a leading statesman of England when speaking to the youth of London at the Albert Hall, said: "Unless the English Parliament reforms itself and eliminates party Government the people themselves will reform Parliament and eliminate party." He further showed how in the Victorian period and the early part of the twentieth century European nations looked upon the British Government as an ideal, something to emulate to their advantage. To-day, however, no European nation has any desire" for the British form of party Parliament. It is despised by European potentates. Europe is a believer of a firm dictator in the national interest, and youth is willing to submit to the new regime. While the English "die-hard" Conservative or muddling Liberal marches to his grave and is ho longer a voting power, British Fascisti daily grows in strength, supported solely by youth, the greatest driving force in any nation. The destiny of every nation depends upon youth, and everywhere youth to-day demands a national leader, a man in whom they are prepared to place confidence and power, though it may mean a partial elimination of freedom. Democracy to-day is quivering in the balance, and the next few years will reveal whether it shall be a driving force in the future or a grim , relic of the past. L. A. TOZER.