DEMOCRACY IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 118, 12 February 1940, Page 11

DEMOCRACY IN NEW ZEALAND

Address By Mr. Savage

ENFORCING THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

War Effort And Saboteurs The spirit of democracy was disCUSSed last night by the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, in another of his Sunday night talks on current New Zealand problems. After referring to the enemies of democracy, Mr. Savage said that democracythrived only in an atmosphere of responsibility. The Government of this country would use, and it was now in the act of using, every means which it had at its disposal and which it regarded as most effectual to carry out the will of the people, which was to make war with all its heart and strength till a just victory was won. It was not only going to employ, it was now actually employing, the machinery of justice according to law in order to defeat all would-be saboteurs, with what thoroughness the public would soon be able to judge for itself.

After 'repenting his previous statement that the immediate need was for soldiers, men who would light ou land, sea and in the air, Mr, Savage said that that need would remain the first and the greatest as long as the war continued. It would be met only by young men pressing forward for service in their hundreds—their thousands—all the time, without any let-up, pause or stop. That need could certainly not be met if young meu capable of bearing arms declined to take them up because they would not separate themselves even for a time from high wages, safety and pleasure. “But that will never be the picture of young New Zealand,” said the Prime Minister. “I feel confident of that. "I have said that it is my earnest wish and hope that, every New Zealand soldier will be a volunteer, compelled to serve only by his own conscience. I say that again, and without misgiving, for I believe in the young manhood of this country. New Zealanders will never let New Zealanders down; and those who go forth to war can know that behind them all the time reserves are forming, ready to relieve them when relief is needed.

“Sacrifice will not be restricted to service in the field. It will extend to the whole of our civil life. It will affect the work, the leisure, the forms of recreation, the luxuries and even the necessaries of us all —and so it ought. There will be need also to draw’ without reserve on moral and spiritual reources—our courage, our resolution, our faith: shall we be able to stand the strain? Yes, I believe we shal 1, but only by the sternest exercise of self-dis-cipline. Discipline In Crisis. “It is that word self-discipline that brings me to the heart of my subject. In the opinion of the dictators, democracies are incapable of imposing on themselves the discipline that a 111 e-and-death straggle demands. In their view democracies arc incurably sell.indulgent, lazy and cowardly. They believe that the people, left to themselves, are incapable of continuous an'd sustained sacrifice and that without the heavy hand of the master, national achievement on any great or heroic scale is impossible. “Remembering our past, I know this point of view to be utterly wrong. Yet I am compelled to remember that it is widely held; and that it is one of the reasons that explain why, in certain countries of the world, liberal and representative constitutions have been thrown away by peoples who once struggled for them and with high hopes set them up. Democracy collapsed in these countries because people lost faith in it. Why had they lost faith? Largely because of the aimlessness and weakness in the conduct of public affairs, the slackness and selfishness in the discharge of public duties which their 'democracy did little or nothing to correct.

“I have no love for methods of repression or coercion in Government. -But I have still less love for anarchy. If any person or -body of persons defies the law, either directly by openly breaking it, or indirectly by refusing to | carry out bargains made under it, a self-respecting Government has only one course open to it —to enforce the law. Enemies of Democracy. “To render the law Inoperative or ineffectual by the employment of methods that are tricky and underhand is to stab democracy in the back, because It brings the law, and with it the process of law-making, into disrepute. The workman who deliberately 'goes slow,’ the person who in any way whatever holds up production, the , trader who contrives the faking of invoices in order to beat, the law that is designed to stabilize prices, the num whatever his occupation, trade, or calling. who says in the hour of bis country's peril. 'War is a fool’s business and 3 wash my bands of it'—each of those is an enemy of democracy. If the people are not loyal Io themselves, how cun government of the people by the people be anything but a farce.'

“Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government to work successfully. It. doesn't function automatically, and it isn’t foolproof. It cannot be successfully worked by a people of low mentality. It thrives only in an atmosphere of responsibility. Apathy and indifference, if widespread, are fatal to it. If the mass of the people have grown soft and self-indul-gent with easy living; if they have lost the capacity to see. and the nerve to face, external dangers, they are no longer a democracy; but have become a mob, ripe for the retribution that awaits incompetence, selfishness and cowa rd ice. “In a democracy, the supremacy of a Parliament freely chosen by the people is Ihe keystone of the arch. The laws made and the resolutions passed by such a Parliament are the will of the people, and when these are either overridden or undermined by disaffection the authority of the people itself as maker of the law is threatened. Let that happen a few times only, and the sovereignty of the people is gone. The stage is set for the dictator. Dictatorship is a product of society—it is not peculiar to any particular country or race. Prosecution of the War. "It is the duty of Government to give effect to the policy which Parliament has approved as it has, for example, iu

New Zealand approved participation with Britain and her Allies in the prosecution of this war. If it cannot or will not do that, it is not worthy of the name of Government; and has only itself <to 'blame if power passes into stronger and more resolute hands. Because it is tolerant, and believes in the farthest extensions of freedom consistent with national safety; because it draws its vitality from the springs of understanding and consent and abhors the use of force, the government of a democracy is not for that reason condemned to impotence in the face of resistance; whether active or passive, to the people’s will. There is nothing in the nature of democracy that obliges it to be timid or weak in its pursuit of the common good. Democracy and decision go well —not ill —together.

“But government in a democracy can. not do everything. The people must of themselves, without recourse to government, be prepared to help themselves. A people that looks to Government for everything is not a democracy at all. In fact, it could live very happily under a dictator if the dictator preserved appearances, indeed, -whether or not. Let me suggest one form of self-help that we, the people, as private citizens, can usefully practise. We can make it our business to defend our institutions against detractors, and see that no disparagement of them goes unchallenged. Clamour for Barabbas. "Among the reasons why democracy has failed to work elsewhere is the fact that its friends have been too difiident and apologetic in their support of it. They have too often let Its loud-voiced opponents have it all their own way. Let us not make the same mistake here. If more and more people clamour for Barabbas, Barabbas they will get. “We have in this country an economic system which is capable (as has been shown) of bringing within the reach of every man and women who is willing and able to work the highest standards of living in the world. That system lias been created under democracy. Without democracy, iti would disappear overnight. .Surely I here can lie no lack of telling arguments to defend it. as against systems tibat we have never tried or proved and, from what we can learn of them, have no wish to try or prove. .Surely, when our economy is threatened by an enemy whose triumph would mean its destruction, it is worth our while to* refute and destroy, by timely and vigorous argument, the pernicious doctrine of the disaffected, whoever and wherever they are. “Freedom, such as we enjoy, breeds the truest patriots; but its genial climate itermils also the growth of cranks, and ingrates'; of dreamers of fantastic dreams: of ideological freaks, oddities ami ne'er-do-wells; a diversity of creatures, having this at least iu common, the urge Io propagate error. It is all very absurd, but let us not lake, false doctrine too lightly; it may sipread and cause mischief. Let every well-intentioned man and woman rebut it wherever it shows itself, It is the task of sense to counter nonsense. One resolute- man of goodwill can keep sweet for democracy a whole Shop, office, factory, street or district; and in doing so render high service to the morale of the people. “Without resolution the noblest aspirations of a people will languish. Without faith in itself, its destiny and its strength, a democracy will perish. I am confident that the people of this country will not suffer that to happen here; hut joining together in an effort worthy of them, none shirking but all shouldering the burdens which only the backs of a free people can bear, will demonstrate once more that democracy can indeed 'take it.’ ”