COMMUNIST DANGER

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 27, 1 August 1932, Page 9

COMMUNIST DANGER

CHARGES ROT 3IET

REPLY TO CRITICS

(By D. McLaren.)

My article on above subject has called forth several letters. I have read them all and find nothing in them ■■which challenges the contentious I made that political Communism, is a virulent disease aft'OL-ticg this country as well as "others, and has to be met by methods of moral and intellectual restraint, in addition to legal checks found necessary for the defence of the State.

Instead of examining the hard facts I presented my critics have wandered i off into discussions on "freedom of' thought," Communism, Socialism, Single Tax, and general reform, in the abstract. On political Communism, a specific issue, 1 ask, can any one of them endorse the lying travesty contained .in the quotation from "Cosmos" which I supplied? Further, does any one of them, uphold the filling of immature minds with Bolshevik ideas destructive of all the standards in personal and political freedom, religion, ethics, social and family life for which the British race stands?" That, of course, is not done all at once, but I know it is taking place by the; insidious method of gradual inculcation. ■■ ■ FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. Now, to deal with the correspondents singly. I will first take the letter of "Anxious Student." What I have to say on this will, I think,' somewhat J answer others. I, also, am a student, j and have been since childhood. When I was 18 I knew a vast deal more than I do now, or thought I did. My critic is concerned for freedom of thought. I' trust he may. be' equally concerned for the capacity to think, clearly, honestly, and justly. If he represents' "hundreds of students throughout the Dominion," I may be representing thousands who ar.e not in colleges, but are none the less students; Analysing the letter of "Anxious Student," he seems to be nervous that he and others may not be allowed to think because I-have somewhere, not specified, upheld a sj'stem, called for a censorship, and stand for all that is old, effete, and conservative against the upsurge of intellectual youth. Very fine imagination, but as thinking it is neither clear, honest, nor just. First of all, it has nothing to do with the question of whether Bolshevism is dangerous or not. Secondly, it confuses absolute freedom of thought with relative, in other words, licence and liberty. Finally, it unjustly imputes to me things 1., never thought of, let alone wrote. I. urged no system, suggested no censorship, made no "distinction between old and'young, and stood no more for conservatism than for-radicalism. His writing about; "measures" and 1 'dismissals,' ' etc., is\ all tosh! He Writes of the "elders," but is he'quite sure'"there are any who are older than he and those he. speaks for? I know some of them who were born old and havo never got over the malady. "Why should, we not.be allowed to think?" The answer is, "think by all means, but be sure i% is thought and not mere vapouring."'..

My studies have taught me that there is no such condition as individual absolute freedom of thought, never has been, or can be where human associations exist. If our colleges cannot get so much reason into "the students' minds, then we are spending; much'money in vain.

I not? that this correspondent writes ''Mr.' McLaren" is: obviously sincere.'' When a boy, writes thus of a man, over 60 years of age it.is generally recognised as impertinence. I do not take it so seriously, but regard it- as a product of the culture of conceit which some students exhibit.

The letter of "F.H." mixes up Socialism and Communism, and does not reach an estimate of either as party political creeds. In one sentence ho writes '■'liberty is responsibility." That I agree with. Another correspondent, "Citizen," argues that the Communist Farty is courageous. "It does not play at governing, it really governs. "Then h© tells us that in ten to twelve years it has executed three million people, deported one million families, conscripted labour, ete. Ho closes with the' words, "remember, we shall have to pay the price." Welly it is certainly "some price," as the Americans put it. LULLUS TO SLEEP. The letter signed '' James Taylor'' is in the main a "lull ns to sleep" epistle. His argument that there is no danger, things are not acute, is a. very, old one, and sometimes used to advance the very evil that is said not to exist. .There may be few.er than 300- avoweel Communists in New Zealand. It is advocates and supporters who make no avowal who constitute the greatest menace. When we find the Parliament of our country legislating, against manifestations of Bolshevism; heads of the Catholic Church warning their people against, the Press and publie men giving similar warning, there is good cause for such activities. If Communism was simply a sporadic outburst, due to the depression, as this writer argues, wo might assume that it will vanish as trade becomes brisker. It is,'1 however, not of that character. Its propaganda goes on in good times and bad alike, because it is. designed, subsidised, engineered, and directed from without. Even this writer, whether consciously or unconsciously, is a helper in this Red campaign in suggesting that "the treatment of the Russian Orthorox Church by the Soviets (which involved thousands of executions) errs on the side of leniency in view of the Church's terrible record under Tsardom."

In regard to this correspondent's gibe about Sir Bernard Pares, I pass it over with the contempt it merits. If "The Post" can afford the space, I shall supply to "Anxious Student" later on positive evidence of Professor Laski being an opponent rather than an advocate of Communism.