WARNING ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 95, 22 April 1940, Page 6

WARNING ACTION

The reserved judgment given by Mr. McKean, S.M., in Auckland in the "subversive reports" case* will serve to focus public attention upon the danger of this form of offence. The penalties imposed should prove a sharp deterrent of repetition. The Government has been extremely patient—many people think too patient —in dealing with subversive propaganda. For a long time it allowed great latitude, and when it decided that action must b& taken it gave ample warning of what was not permissible. Several weeks ago the Attorney-General explained clearly the necessity for limiting freedom of expression Avhich was harmful to the country's war effort, and illustrated his warning with examples of the kind of propaganda that could not be allowed. None, therefore, can plead ignorance of the law or misunderstanding of its meaning. An important point was made by the Magistrate in referring to the articles and leaflets which were the subject of the proceedings. "I am unable, after reading them," he said, "to think that they represent the honest views of the section of the community opposed to war and anxious only by lawful means to persuade others to accept their , views, for I gather it is this war that is the unjust one, but that other wars may be justified." In other words the propaganda is not against all war, on conscientious pacifist principles, but against the war in which the Allies are engaged. Unfortunately some well-meaning people have failed to perceive this distinction and have been drawn, by conscientious pacifism, into support of a cause which is far from being pacifist—a cause which can represent such flagrant aggression as Russia's invasion of Finland as a "march of liberation." Whatever may be pleaded regarding the sincerity of the people who put forward these views, the average plainrminded man will be unable to discover much honesty in a campaign which tries.to win simple people by misusing a cloak of pacifism. That" is not to say that even sincere and simple-minded pacifism can be permitted at this time to engage in propaganda. A realistic view of the position proves the impossibility of such latitude. Pacifism at the present time cannot lead to a peaceful examination of differences. It can lead only to abject surrender to i Nazi aggression. Nazism knows nothing of toleration, charity, or justice. It understands brute force, and the only peace-making to which, it will give attention is that which speaks in terms of force. There has been no greater friend of peace than Mr. Neville Chamberlain, but he and millions of peaceable- people in the British Empire have been compelled to see that peace can never be real until the falsity of the Nazi creed is proved. -.