The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1947. PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14367, 17 May 1947, Page 2

The Bay of Plenty Times SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1947. PEACE AND ITS PROBLEMS

The public of Tauranga- and;particularly that growing section of it which has evinced considerable interest in the activities of the Adult Education Discussion Group—whether actually attending its evenings or not—is indebted to the Director of Adult Education for his published comments on the rejection of the lecture dealing with "The Problem of Peace." In his letter to the editor of the Bay of Plenty Times, published on Thursday, Mr Martin Smith explained something which should have been, but definitely was not, contained in the text of the first lecture issued from the Auckland University College. That it was intended to be the first lecture of a course of eight, written by a panel of four lecturers with differing viewpoints was unfortunately omitted from the text of the lecture. The first two facts could easily have been assumed, but there were no grounds for the assumption of the third. In his statement in reply to the message telegraphed from Tauranga the director makes two statements, both of which are matters for serious concern. The first is, "Each of the lectures bears the name of the author, and the author alone is responsible for the views that are expressed." This is tantamount to the directorate of a newspaper disclaiming responsibility for views expressed by its editor. A responsible organisation such.as the Auckland University College must of necessity exercise some control over expressions of opinion by members of its staff when they are published Avith its authority. The second statement gives food for even more serious reflection. Mr Martin Smith says that the course on problems of peace had been sent to five groups, but that no other complaints had been received apart from the one from Tauranga. This would indicate one of two things. Either the members of the four other discussion groups are wholly in sympathy with the views expressed by the lecturer—indicating a disturbing spread-of sympathy among intelligent people for the tenets of Communism—or the groups concerned have entirely missed the point that was apparently uppermost in the lecturer's mind when he wrote it.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The key to a nation's future is in her past. A nation that loses it has no future. For men's deepest desires—the instrument by which a continuing: society moulds its destiny—spring from their own inherited experience. We cannot recreate the past, but we cannot escape. It is in our blood and bone. To understand the temperament of a people, a statesman has first to know its history. —Arthur Bryant (Years of Victory).