FREEDOM OF SPEECH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21830, 19 June 1934, Page 10

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE STAFF COUNCIL MEMBER'S INTENTION A notice of motion reintroducing the matter of academic freedom of speech was submitted by Mr. AV. H. Cocker at a meeting of the Auckland Univer-' sity College Council yesterday. Mr. Cocker said he intended to move at the next meeting of the council that a memorandum circulated among members of the college staff last June should be withdrawn. Mr. H. Horton asked whether the memorandum referred to was in connection with some remarks made by a member of the staff which were not considered to be as loyal as might have been desired. The position taken up then was that the college was a Government institution. It received its support from the Crown and, therefore, statements which were disloyal to the Crown should not be made by members of the staff. Mr. Cocker said he did not wish to discuss the question fully at the present stage. The memorandum referred to was prepared by Sir George Fowlds, then president of the council. It stated, inter alia, that the university had two definite duties to perform—that of exercising its old-established right of academic freedom of thought, and that of maintaining its right thereto. Abuse of the first inevitably made the second very difficult of attainment. The memorandum added that it was Sir George's personal opinion that any statement by a member of the college staff, either under the address of the college or in his capacity as a private citizen, should bo a reasoned statement giving both sides to the question. The authorities were entitled to demand that members of the staff should not by their utterances place the college authorities in an untenable position when defending to the uttermost the rights and privileges of universities.