Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1949. A Communist J.P.

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 September 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1949. A Communist J.P.

A SIGNIFICANT feature of the discussion in the House of' Representatives yesterday on the appointment of a Com’munist as a Justice of the Peace was the ’tardiness with which the Government gave ’an assurance that the matter would be investigated. Indeed, Labour-Socialist Ministers and members seemed to resent the 'fact that the issue was even raised, as if the principle involved was of no importance at all. It was only after the Opposition had pressed the Government to some length that an undertaking was given by the Prime Minister that an inquiry would be instituted. What will have struck the average person as strange is that the Opposition should have had to bring any pressure to bear at all in order to secure action that any Government, conscious of its responsibility to the people, would have taken at the first opportunity. There can be no doubt that the principle involved is of high importance. Justices of the Peace are honorary magistrates, and it is manifestly not right, not to say dangerous, that persons whose philosophy holds that the State is omnipotent and must always be right, should be placed in judicial positions. And yet, despite the fact that the man concerned in yesterday’s discussion was announced some time ago as a Communist Party candidate at the General Election, the Government took no action to cancel the Commission of the P'eace that he holds and which he was granted at the remarkably early age of 26. Election Unity

The explanation of the Government’s reluctance to act would seem to lie in its desire to do nothing at the present juncture to widen the breach in the ranks of the Labour-Socialist movement. The man concerned, it should be noted, was recommended for appointment as a J.P. by a powerful body of railway servants. Naturally, the Government would not like to cross this organisation at a time when unity must be preserved at all costs. Anybody who reads the newspapers, even with no access to information concerning the private councils of the Labour-Socialists to supplement the reports, must realise that the Government’s ranks are seriously split. By frenetic endeavours, however, it ■has maintained at least the semblance of. control, as it must if it hopes to retain office. No greater mistake could be made than to assume that because Communists are standing as candidates against a few of the Government nominees at the General Election, or because they are accorded an almost insignificant number of votes, then the chances of a Communist regime being established in this country are extremely remote. The real test of. Communist strength and the sympathy that that brand of philosophy commands in the community are unlikely ever to be correctly gauged while the Labour-Socialists remain in power. The policy of the Communists at the moment is plainly to act as a prod for the Government.' Usually they put forward candidates only in those electorates where the Government’s majority is considered secure. More than one country has been thrown into industrial and political chaos by the gradual and unostentatious capture by Communists of the political machine. Indeed, it is certainly not too far-fetched to say that a Communist regime could be installed in New Zealand without one declared Communist having succeeded in gaining election to Parliament. Whence The Danger? The Prime Minister’s recent litany of denunciation regarding' the activities of Communists and their many sympathisers provided adequate evidence of his realisation of the growing danger from the ranks of the Government’s own supporters. Why else was it necessary? lie knows that with the National Party so obviously gaining in strength lie can afford at this juncture to denounce the extremists, because they dare not repudiate him on the eve of a vital test. Although it is unlikely that the split will develop further to the public gaze jn the next few months, sufficient evidence is accumulating to show that the next ‘ ‘ advances” in Socialism must be in the hands of the Labour-Socialist radicals and Com-munist-line leaders —if the Government is returned to power. For the power is surely slipping from the ageing fingers‘of the present leaders, and behind them are younger, eager exponents of revolutionary “reform” of democracy who will not always be held in cheek by the bludgeoning, brow-beating tactics of the present Prime Minister. Those people who gauge the power of Communism only by counting party membership would do well to reflect that the Labour-Socialist radical of today is the Communist of tomorrow. For these extremists know well enough what should be obvious to all, that only increasing control and progressive loss of freedom will make Socialism work. And that is the path to the totalitarian Communist State.