RUSSIA AND THE WEST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26772, 15 May 1948, Page 9

RUSSIA AND THE WEST

Sir,—The report that the Soviet Government has accepted the proposal issued by the Government of the United States of America that the two countries should open discussions on the differences between them is the most hopeful piece of news that v°u have published for a very long time. Your comments thereon and the extracts from other newspapers y.ou have quoted are not so hopeful and certainly not very helpful. The assumption that our way of life as lived on the Western side of the curtain Is fairly satisfactory, and that any radical change such as will undoubtedly be proposed by the Moscow representative must be resisted, will not bear close examination. Life as it has been lived by the citizens of the Western countries of Europe and the United States of America has been very far from satisfactory. Eighty per cent, of the population of those countries have only been permitted to live there on condition that they made payment to the minority for the privilege of doing so. It is a fact that most of the citizens of the Western countries have been compelled bv law to pay either by rent or purchase for as much space as would be necessary to fepread their blankets. That my ancestors were born and worked in the same country for six generations did not exempt them from being legally compelled to make continuous payments sent to other individuals for the privilege of living there at all TTiis system has been imported to New Zealand and even the soldiers who kept the Japanese from taking possession of the country are finding that they must moke payment to someone if they want a place to sleep. Such being the case. It behoves us to keep an open mind when we are face to face with the advocates of a system that is more in accord with the laws of justice and equity. “ The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.’ I am. etc., W. G. C.