Demarcation Line For Principles

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30528, 25 August 1964, Page 11

Demarcation Line For Principles

(N Z P A.-Reuter—Copyright) OTTAWA, Aug. 24. Mr Vincent Massey, a former Governor-General of Canada, said on Friday there was a line beyond which denial of the Commonwealth’s fundamental principles by member governments would not be tolerated.

He said in his prepared opening address as president of the third Commonwealth education conference that the Commonwealth’s distinguishing principles were ‘‘values of individual liberty and human respect.” He added: “Aid for education is not really aid at all—it is a form of partnership. Education opens the door of understanding, and besides showing the way to prosperity. lets in the light of peace.” Mr Massey proposed that the buildings being built in Montreal for the 1967 world’s fair might be used afterwards as a Commonwealth study centre. Mr Massey said: ‘‘Though all nations must work out their own salvation, there are certain values—civil rights as much as racial equality—that we must preserve at all costs. “There is a line beyond which we cannot go in tolerating the membership of governments which deny the few but fundamental principles which have distinguished the Commonwealth.

“These are values of individual liberty and human respect, and how fully we are committed to them is, I think, exemplified by the recent declaration of racial equality made at the prime ministers’ meeting in London.” Mr Massey said allowances

had to be made. Countries in diverse stages of development could not possibly subscribe to identical political ideas and identical practices.

He said that better than talking about the Commonwealth was the willingness to use it. No better practical link could be found than in the sphere of education.