ACTION AGAINST COMMUNISTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 8

ACTION AGAINST COMMUNISTS

STRICTER MEASURES IN N.Z. URGED ADDRESS BY SHI CARL BERENDSEN (New Zealand Press Astociation) WELLINGTON, September 17. “The hunt after Communists in the United States may have gone too far, but I wish we had more of it in New Zealand,” “said Sir Carl Berendsen, the former New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, in a luncheon address today to the Wellington branch of the Royal Empire Society. “I see Communists and their fellow travellers welcomed in the columns of our press, at the microphones of our radio system, in the training colleges for our teachers, and in many other important spheres of our life,” Sir Carl Berendsen said.

He thought there was a feeling in New Zealand that Communists- were not a serious factor. It was a misconception to apply the principles of fair play and British liberty to the Communist menace, he said.

“Communism is an attempt, and we must admit that it has been a very successful attempt so far, to destroy evefry piece of liberty won for us by cur forefathers throughout the ages,” he said. There were limits to free speech in any society. “We do not allow a person to get up and preach treason, yet communism is treason. Every Communist is a traitor. Never give a traitor a break.”

Referring to communism as “a galloping consumption,” Sir Carl Berendsen said that “the gangsters” had achieved control in more than a third of the world. They supported armed forces much more powerful than those of the free world, and had a large fleet of submarines of new and improved design. “They are evil people,” Sir Carl Berendsen said.

The United States, he said, had taken the lead in the fight against communism internally and externally with a generosity unparalleled in the world’s history. He did not endorse nor condone in any way McCarthyism, but the fact remained that Communists had infiltrated to the very centre of American government. Alger Hiss was an example. Vital secrets had gone to Russia.