40-day ‘Hunger Strike’ Ends

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32382, 22 August 1970, Page 1

40-day ‘Hunger Strike’ Ends

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 21.

An hour after ending a forty-day public fast in Albert Park in protest against the Vietnam war, Dr Stephen Taylor was still vertical, vital and opening the door of his Mount Roskill home to friends and well* wishers.

“I’m like a car in over-drive,” he said. “I could have fasted on for much longer. I feel a bit light-headed and detached, but my mind is as clear as crystal.”

The 43-year-old doctor broke his fast at 2 p.m. today. Dr Taylor said that he felt that his “hunger strike” (his own words) had been a significant protest against New Zealand’s military involvement in Vietnam. About half the people who had called to see him at his Albert Park rotunda encampment had been abusive and the remainder had been “kindness and understanding itself.” “Many called me a lunatic and worse, but they were the ones who would not stop for reasoned argument,” he said. “Then there were those who, although they didn’t entirely share my views, wanted to discuss things with me." Dr Taylor said that he felt no resentment or bitterness about those who had abused him. “I feel only regret that they couldn’t or wouldn’t stop to talk." Choice Of Length Asked if his chosen period of forty days fasting had any particular significance, Dr Taylor thought for a while. “I didn’t start out with 40 days in mind,” he said. “But when I got past the thirtieth day, various people began to persuade me to hold on for forty days. “Yes, it did have something to do with the period that Christ fasted in the wilderness. But here I want to make It quite clear that the last thing I wish to do is to of-

I fend those with Christian be liefs. . . .

' Some Against “Some of those who fav--1 oured a forty-day fast were, - in fact, practising Christians. ; They seemed to think it . would give'added meaning to what I was doing. Others, Christians and free-thinkers, were against it j “Anyway, 1 finally decided ’ to make it forty days.” ' He himself had no ortho--1 dox religious opinions, Dr TayJ lor said. ‘Would Fight’ ’ Nor, despite his views on ' Vietnam, was he a pacifist in , the strict sense of the word. ; “That means someone who ' would never hit back under i any .circumstances, or take up . arms in any cause. But if New Zealand were invaded I would ; fight to defend it” ’ Dr Taylor’s first real 1 “meal” came tonight in the 1 form of some vegetable soup ' and boiled spinnach. That he said, is about as much as his shrunken stomach can take at present “And, anyway, I'm a vegetarian.”

Dr Taylor said that he hoped eventually to return to practising medicine. Meanwhile, he hay two books to write. One would be a straight account of his “hunger strike," the other a statement of his philosophy of life.