FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1938, Page 12

FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY

IDEAL OF FREEDOM.

Mr Joseph P. ‘ Kennedy, United

States Ambassador in London, recently dedicated the American Room of Fydell House, headquarters' of the Boston branch of the English Speaking Union at Boston, Lincolnshire. He said: “It is a greater pleasure and privilege for me to take part in this pilgrimage than it would be for most ambassadors, for I was born and brought up in the New World Boston.

“In these days of hard-boiled international relationships, it is refreshing to find sentimental attachments such as bind the citizens of Boston in Lincolnshire to the citizens of Boston in Massachusetts.

“Sentimental ties are divorced from political considerations. This was borne in on me afresh, the very day I returned from my recent trip to the United States. I landed on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, and reached London just in time to attend the dinner of the American Society. , “The Society had for its guests a member of the Cabinet and several other men prominent in the public and private life of Great Britain. One of them commented to me on the strange spectacle, at least it would appear strange in any other country of the world, of leading British subjects joining with Americans to celebrate the separation of the two nations.

“This frame of mind has existed for so many years now that we have come to take it for granted, but I think that we can still congratulate ourselves on the level-headed course our two countries have long pursued in relation to each other.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

“Let us join together to keep alive not merely the historical fact that many of the founders of Massachusetts came from this old town, but also the ideals for which they stood. “The Puritans who left this country for the wilderness that was to be; come the United States possessed the courage, the urge for liberty, and the appreciation of individual rights which are the corner-stones of democracy as we know it.

“The fact that they did not always live up to their own precepts need not blind us to the very real contribution they made in civilising the Continent where, as here, respect for freedom of worship, freedom of peaceable assembly, freedom of speech and of thought still prevails. “There, is danger that, through complacency, we may forget to treasure these things enough. We have taken them for granted for so long that many of us believe our civic rights are beyond assault. It is my wish to remind you that, unhappily, this is not the case, and we have only to look about us to realise that the eternal verities, as we conceive them, are never above challenge. “There are those who declare that democracy cannot work and that it is doomed shortly to disappear from the face of the earth. Wo do not agree with them, and we must make a determined demonstration of our faith as an inspiration to our own people and perhaps, in time, to other peoples. "It is not sufficient merely to talk about freedom, civil liberties, rights of individuals, and so forth. To preserve democracy, we must make those things actualities; in other words, we| must make the system work. “Our .critics assert, and with some reason, that the scheme has become too cumbersome and inefficient to survive in a modern world. It is up to use to disprove this thesis, if we are 1 to justify ourselves and our theories,! and if we are to demonstrate to less] fortunately situated peoples that ourj example is worth following. < “Our critics fail to appreciate the enormous advance in social outlook and in humanitarian legislation which has been accomplished within a relatively short period of time. We are destined to undergo still further evolution of a scope we cannot now imagine. I am confident that our two countries, as well as most others, can meet the challenge, successfully, and adapt themselves to tlie demands of an advancing world.

“I believe that the thinking people of our two nations will never be lulled into a feeling of false security by the promises of those who claim they can solve our prolilems for us. No despotism, however benevolent in intent or achievement, can ever flourish in our countries."