USE OF BOOKS IN WARTIME

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13269, 20 February 1941, Page 8

USE OF BOOKS IN WARTIME

VIEW OF DR. SCHOLEFIELD "In war time we have to consider from a different angle the use to which some books might be put and the possible results of a too-free circulation of views which, if accepted, would militate against the country's effort," said Dr. G. H. Scholefield in his presidential address to the New Zealand Library Association Conference at Dunedin yesterday. Dr. Scholefield added that when the State was in danger one did not insist too meticulously on certain peacetime rights of the individual which were inherent in democratic institutions, because one knew very well that if the institutions themselves should fall, all of cue's own rights would go with them.

"As a body librarians are against censorship in any shape or form," said Dr. Scholeiield. ) "We should have available everything that is worth while and reasonably argued on even such topics as totalitarianism, dictatorship and all forms of government which are at present in armed conflict with our own. As we are fighting for intellectual freedom the library has a duty to provide the fullest information to enable the reader to form his.own conclusions. . . . The librarian can hardly hope to have nothing on his shelves which in any circumstances and in any hands might encourage lawlessness, factious,criticism or defiance of authority. In normal times that is harmless. The possibility of one man, or even twelve men, feeling hostile to constituted authority does not matter. Indeed, it is almost a corollary of freedom of thought and speech that there should always be men and women holding views hostile to lawful authority, that is to say, subversive. In war time, however, we have to consider from a different angle the use to which some books might be put and the possible results of a too-free circulation of views which, if accepted, would militate against the country's effort. If you have studied the theory and practice of democracy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries —and after all that is the period in which we are living—yon will know that while democracy is based upon the individual freedom of the citizen, and while the best expression of that freedom is the right to personal liberty and to believe what one wishes to believe, yet there are times when it is essential that democracy, if it would save itself, must for the moment yield up some of its privileges arid liberties, forbear to claim all that is due to it in theory, and surrender to its rulers some of the authority that in the long run belongs to the people themselves. When a house is on fire you do not too carefully consider whether the bucket which you grab is your own property or not. You ignore such niceties and appropriate the means which are at hand to fight the fire. Similarly when the State is in danger you do not insist too meticulously on certain peacetime rights of the individual which are inherent in democratic institutions, because you know very well that if the. institutions themselves should fall all of your own rights will go with them. And so in the everyday life of the public library we all recognise, whether we say so or not —that it is not advisable, it is not commonsense, to make as freely available as in normal times literature which has a subversive tendency and which might well encourage minorities—perhaps quite well-meaning and high-minded people—to a course of action inimical to the full efficiency of the state at war. Any form of censorship is in principle bad and undemocratic. Nevertheless in the conditions of a war such as we are now engaged in, there is a definite responsibility on the individual librarian to see that books which clearly tend to wean the reader from his sense of duty and loyalty to constituted authority at a time when our whole democratic system is in danger, arc? not made too freely available in quarters where such a peril might arise. The problem of a parliament

tary librarian is probably easier than that of a public librarian. My rather limited intercourse with geneal readers shows that under stress of war conditions there is actually less demand for literature of this type than in veace time. The curiosity of most students is probably absorbed in other interests. It may be said that the librarian is taking too much on himself to judge what is subversive and what not. Well, we are only human and liable to be wrong in our judgment but we cannot surrender our responsibility for seeing that there is not a broadcast presentation of shades of opinion which might make the task of governing and of making war in any degree less effective. This may seem an inconsistency; but surely it is no more inconsistent than the doctrine which we see to be accepted in all democratic countries to-day, and nowhere more cordially than in free-dom-loving Britain, that to save freedom for ourselves and for posterity we inevitably must for the moment place some of our privileges and liberties in pawn."