WHOSE DUTY?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21952, 13 May 1933, Page 20

WHOSE DUTY?

■ix) Tim i;unon. Sir, —The commissioner of police in Melbourne has reported that the Communist movement is working towards the point of being a serious menace. ‘ Three years ago,” be says, “ it was a joke. Today it is a strongly-organised movement. - ’ ..A prominent man in England recently said, “It is our duty to throttle it.” We wonder whose duty this is? Is it the duty of tiic National Government, of the churches, or of loyal people? The teaching of Communism in Britain and the Empire, including New Zealand, is already bearing its fruit. Yet the average man, the Government, the educational and religious bodies, are generally disposed to leave such an unpleasant subject severely alone. It will be all right: the people are sound” “We must provide a safety valve and let people say what they please.” These arc two usual expressions when the subject is mentioned. But meantime, for want of action, wc see Communist anti-religious and disloyal

movements steadily at work, trying to bring Soviet methods into this Dominion. The friends of Soviet Russia —the New Zealand section of the Third International, the Young Communist League, the United Front, Unemployed Workers’ Movement, and several others—are at work all the time with this objective, and there are sevetal propagandist publications. We ask whether it is quite true to say, “All these bodies cut no ice,” etc.? It is not true. The poison is noticeably spreading in every section of the community, and will spread unless the huge majority of sane people definitely decide to call on Parliament to stamp it out. The latest evidence of this is the fact that over 3000 votes were polled by a Communist at the Wellington city elections, and polled on the slogan “Vote Class Against Class.”—We arm etc.. May 11. N.Z. Welfare League.