G. B. SHAW’S ARRIVAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1934, Page 7

G. B. SHAW’S ARRIVAL

CHARACTERISTIC INTERVIEW

NEW ZEALAND INSTRUCTED

[special to “star.”]

AUCKLAND, March 14. The popular idea that G. Bernard Shaw, the distinguished English playwright, novelist and philosopher repulsed interviewers, cameramen and Shavian enthusiasts, and turned a sharp answer to every inquiry was dispelled on board the Rangitane this morning, when he devoted over an hour and a-half of his time to interviews and picture making. He had a smile for everybody and every question received his answer. Mr Shaw went out of his way to pose for a motion picture, and to speak into the microphone. Taking the world as his field and speaking in part seriously and in part humorously he voiced his views on many subjects, trenchantly condemning the-par-liamentary machine as being a barrier to progress, and offering some candid advice of preliminary nature to New Zealand. “New Zealand is an interesting place in many ways,” said Mr Shaw. “I j want to know what the future of New Zealand is going to be. Apparently you have not experienced completely the smash we have had. Nowadays, everything is changing and New Zealand in many respects is the last place that is likely to change. Probably all the people of New Zealand should be exterminated to make place for a more advanced people. You are an advanced people. You are ahead of the world apparently in your vital statistics. You are multiplying quickly in spite of your birth control.”Mr Shaw said that New Zealand would have new problems to face. The idea on which New Zealand had been operating for'some time was that it had become a dairy for the rest of the universe. That was not sufficient. In the first place, the rest of the universe could now milk its own cows. That was the sort of thing he was interested in New Zealand. He was actually one of the makers of New Zealand because in.the eighties he and some of his associates in England took socialism off the barricades and made it entirely a respectable thing. In order to accomplish that, they had had to reduce socialism to parliamentary programme. His friend, the late Premier Reeves, took it up, but no one in England took the slightest notice of the group. However, the project was pushed on. Suddenly it was found that New Zealand had taken it up, and was actually going through with it. Then it happened that Conservative people in England decided that they could lunch with members of the Fabian Society. The promoters had believed that democracy would carry the scheme through, but democracy did not push anything through, but off.

HITLER AND UNIONS. “In Europe, to-day, people are utterly sick of parliaments,” said Mr Shaw, who declared that Hitler would have received even a greater majority had he suspended Parliament for seven years, instead of seven months. Mussolini had spoken of putrefying the corpse of Liberalism, but the fact remained that the parliamentary machine prevented anything from being done. ' One of Hitler’s first actions was to nationalise trade unions. No trade

union, to his knoweldge, had ever passed a resolution in favour of such course. Always they were in favour of nationalisation of everything else. Hitler walked into the offices, took their funds and said “Get out. The State is going to run this.” That was one of the surprises of the time. Mr Shaw commented that the present leader of the National Government in Britain was formerly so extreme in his views on Socialism that he never thought Mr MacDonald would be elected to Parliament. Now he was the actual Conservative leader. “Why is it?” he asked, “that immediately a Labour man gets into parliament he becomes no use whatever.”

Mr P. Fraser, M.P., for Wellington Central, a member of the audience, said: As a Labour M.P. I cannot accept that statement. “That is not fair,” replied Mr Shaw.

“As a Labour member of Parliament, you must know it is true. As long as you have the Parliamentary party system you cannot get ahead.” In reply to an interjection, Mr Shaw referred to his visit to Russia and said that Russian workers were only “slaves” for eight hours a day, whereas Englishmen were slaves for 12 and 14 hours' a day. The eight hours work of the Russians was for themselves.

In the factory system of England and America, the workers endeavoured to do as little as possible for as much pay as they could extract from the bosses, while the bosses endeavoured to extract as much work as possible from the workers for as little pay as they would accept. That made for continual friction, which was entirely absent under the Russian system. He saw the Lenin gold medal presented to a Russian factory worker, and had asked what had this young hero done to desire this. He was informed that the employee had done 61 per cent, more work for the five year plan than any other workers. Nothing was lost by that man’s work because everyone was working for the State. If a man showed such interest in England, he might have a brick dropped on him the next time he went down a dark lane.

Mr Fraser commented that New Zealand was more or less under a dictatorship at present time. “That is a great advance,” retorted Mr Shaw, who added that the parliamentary machine had failed in the crisis.

“What about Major Douglas?” queried a spectator. Mr Shaw said that .those who thought New Zealand could live on credit were mistaken. The world was living on cash and from hand to mouth at that.

Mr Fraser: What about the interdevelopment of New Zealand?

“That is your business,” replied Mr Shaw. “The tendency of the world to-day is to become self-sufficient. The idea has been for New Zealand to produce nothing but butter, and for the rest of the world to eat it. At present, other people are saying, “we will not have you shoving your butter down our throats.”