DANGERS SEEN IN JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25902, 7 September 1949, Page 6

DANGERS SEEN IN JAPAN

PARLIAMENI

SPEECH BY MR G. H. O. WILSON RUSSIA AND THE WEST (New Zealand Press Association.) WELLINGTON. September 6. The greatest danger to New Zealand and the Pacific was not from Communsm but from a resurgent, remilitarised, Fascist Japan, said Mr G. H. O. Wilson ’Government, Pslmerston North), speaking in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives this evening. Old Fascist ideologies had not been destroyed in Japan and. in the event of her uncontrolled capitalism experiencing crises in future, Japan yrould probably again become completely totalitarian and would be a greater danger in the Pacific than a Communist China, whether the latter followed closely the pattern of Russian Communism or not. General MacArthur's recent statement on conditions in Japan was at variance with the known facts, said Mr Wilson. American policy had brought about the rebirth of old ideas in Jspan. American policy had made the old order secure, even if in a new guise. The process had already gone so far that it was difficult to see how it could be reversed. Mr Wilson said the East-West clash was clearly a clash between the United States and Russia, in which other countries, both Russia’s satellites snd the smaller Western nations, were regarded as pawns and as expendable resources in the event of war. It was not merely an ideological clash, but a clear one of power politics between the world’s two greatest States. Mr Stalin’s recent overtures to Mr Truman clearly envisaged a meeting between two world bosses. Threat to Democracy If a third world war did occur. Western Europe would suffer most and Parliamentary democracy as the British knew it would be submerged, for only the totalitarian system could survive such a devastating war. New Zealand's own Parliamentary democracy would probably be lost. Russia’s pressure on Marshal Tito was an illustration of the fact that Russia’s clash with the United States was economic rather than ideological. If the world had a generation of peace, there need be no worry about Communism, because the democratic leaders would then be able to show they had something better to offer. The Russian people had accepted Communism in spite of its totalitarian character, but there was no reason why the Western peoples should follow them, as they were still several generations ahead of Russia in political development. In many countries there remained to-day just as much danger of renewed dictatorship of the right as there was of dictatorship of the left. Democracy was securely established in only two parts of Europe. Britain and Scandinavia. which were, significantly, coun-ries wnich had in the past enjoyed progressive legislation under the Parl : amen tary system. Communism and Fascism both prospered on misery. Uncontrolled capitalism inevitably led to economic crises, in which the risk of totalitarianism emerging became very real. Mr Wilson said. These dangers might be avoided by a system of controls that eliminated the worst ills of capitalism. That was the Keynsian system, and that was the system now estabPshed in New Zealand. Labour’s Tasks in N.Z. The pressing task facing Labour in Ne v Zealand was to plan the development of a diversified, independent economy. There was a danger of New Zealand's being absorbed into the Un’ted States’ orbit. The question of a dollar loan was a very difficult one. If New Zealand could develop her trade with the United States on the same free, independent basis she enjoyed in trading with the United Kingdom, well and good, but there had been a recent trend for the United States to attach strings to any loans to other countries. Another urgent task for Socialism in New Zealand was to carry further the redistribution of the income of the community. Until that was done, there would not be substantially greater production, because workers lacked the necessary incentive. The latest statistics shoved a great improvement in that the former trend for the share of the wage and salary earners in the national income to decline had now been reversed. Mr Wilson said future development must attach more importance to income from work rather than from property. Perhaps the most important of Labour’s tasks was to carry the idea of political democracy into the economic sohere. through some form of workers’ share in the control of industry. This was more important than to worry cbout nationalisation as such. Economic democracy was an end in itself.