Challenge To Youth

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32235, 2 March 1970, Page 13

Challenge To Youth

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter—Copyright) , SAN FRANCISCO, March 1. i On his tour of the [United States, President Pompidou of France has challenged modern youth to help overcome the current “crisis of civilisation,” declaring that the answer can not be found in revolution. As National Guardsmen moved in to control youthful rioters elsewhere in California, Mr Pompidou acknowledged that young people round the world, especially ; students, were bewildered and torn between a thirst for [enjoyment and despair. But he told a packed luncheon meeting of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco that young people’s criticism of society often remained negative. “With many, it leads only to nothingness, to destructive or selfdestructive gestures,” he said. “Whoever seeks the answer to the question that modern man is asking himself will not lino it in a social, economic, or political revolution.” Mr Pompidou criticised young idealists who thought they could live without working, but could only do so because others worked on their behalf. “Whai is serious about this crisis of youth is that adults

ifeel it is a crisis of civilisa-l tion,” Mr Pompidou said. | He rejected the idea that [the crisis could be solved by intensifying the fight against drugs, keeping a | closer watch on hippies, shaving off beards or instituting [reforms at universities. “Our duty in the face of I these melees, which is reIflected—sometimes so inadequately—in the behaviour of [a part of today’s youth is [therefore above all to open our eyes to the present, to question ourselves about the future,” he said.