ENEMIES WITHIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 64, 15 March 1940, Page 6

ENEMIES WITHIN

"HAND OF MOSCOW AND BERLIN"

MAGISTRATE .WARNS

"A FOOL'S PARADISE"

+ "The hand of Bloscow and Berlin is in our midst, and anyone '' who does not know or believe it is living in a fool's paradise," dell clared Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., last ~ evening, when issuing a solemn a' warning to the people of New I Zealand against subversive propa- " ganda which he said was being L , actively prosecuted throughout the ; Dominion. ; Mr. Luxford was speaking to the I Royal Society of St. George, and he ) urged upon members their serious responsibility to combat energetically the destructive propaganda from overseas. \ "There is no such thing in civic or 3 national life as a privilege or a right, 1 which does not carry a corresponding ' responsibility," said Mr. Luxford. "If [ this were thoroughly understood and ; appreciated there would be no fertile - beds in this country in which emis- ; saries of Nazism and Communism ' could sow seeds of subversive and de- ', structive propaganda. "These enemies, like poisonous 1 bacilli, are ever seeking a host on ! which they may propagate. They know no better host than that section of the people which, after accepting all the privileges of citizenship, refuses to discharge its civic responsibilities, none of which is greater than that of protecting the State from its enemies, whether within or without the realm. MENACE FROM WITHIN. "The insidious attack from within may he just as dangerous as that from without. It may be launched under the guise of pacifism, freedom of conscience or of speech, or any other of those simple devices an unscrupulous and cunning enemy uses or causes to be used by unsuspecting cranks or dupes, to disrupt order and good government and render the country less able to defend itself from without." Never in the history of our country had it been more imperative there should be complete subordination of sectional interests, he continued. Grievances, genuine grievances, there might be; but any attempt to redress a grievance by direct action or the threat of direct action at present was tantamount to treason. Better a grievance go unredressed while our national existence was threatened than that the ground be prepared for harvest by the Red sickle. If he were asked what was the biggest fraud ever perpetrated upon .he world he would say without hesitation that it was the Marxist doctrine that all men were equal, and the consequent demand for world revolution to bring about government by the proletariat. No sane person denied that all men have equal rights to social and legal justice, but it was a monstrous fallacy to think all men equal. The proletariat never had and never could rule in accoi'dance with the Marxist theory. This fraudulent bait was dangled before the masses, and they were told world revolution would be the panacea of all their economic and social ills. What did history teach? After every successful revolution the masses found themselves bound hand j and foot in an iron dictatorship. I POISONOUS PROPAGANDA. We had to face the fact that poisonous germs of Marxism had been disseminated in this as in other British countries. It was now the bounden duty of every ■ citizen to sterilise them as quickly and effectively as possible. "A form of propaganda has made its appearance several times since the outbreak of war," said Mr. Luxford. "I refer to the demand that the Allies state then- war aims. I firmly believe this demand has been fostered by the enemy. It is an attempt to embroil us in internal controversy, and weaken our war effort by making people ask, 'What are we fighting for, anyway?' "Let me say as forcibly as I can, if we start public discussions on war aims before we have won the war we will be doing one of the things the enemy wants us to do." THREATS TO LIBERTY. Mr. Luxford said the war had already involved, in England and to a lesser degree in this country, a temporary suspension of civic and personal liberty, indeed the submission to a degree of that totalitarian regime we so heartily detested. The emergency justified substantial encroachments on personal liberty, which were willingly accepted by most people as unavoidable and necessary. Yet there was a fear in some minds that these encroachments might continue after the necessity for them had ended. But so long as we maintained a free Parliament there need be no fear that personal liberty would not be restored to the fullest extent at the earliest possible moment. One of the greatest privileges of citizenship in democratic countries was the right of free speech. This privilege carried a responsibility to see that nothing was said likely to inculcate treason or immorality, unjustly attack an individual, or involve danger to the public peace or the security of the State. There was no such thing as absolute liberty: a man's right to liberty must always be limited by the duty he owed to the State in general and his neighbour in particular.