LOSS OF LIBERTY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17436, 7 April 1931, Page 8

LOSS OF LIBERTY

MODERN LEGISLATION ' 'GRANDMOTHER GOVERNMENT" LONDON, Feb. 20. A spirited plea for the right of the average Briton to take care of himself, at any rate, so far as his private life is concerned, was made yesterday by Mr. A. P. Herbert. The. occasion was a, luncheon at tho Hotel Victoria of the. Individualist Bookshop, with Sir Hugh Bell in the chair. In promising a. long speech on home affairs, which, however, proved all too brief, Mr. Herbert said that talking, which was one of the most dangerous activities of the British race, and perhaps tho only flourishing industry we retained, was probably the only form of activity which was not controlled by the Home Secretary.

Our political liberties were large, but our social liberties were very small. Much was heard now of oar desire to spread liberty among other races, and to give our darker-skinned brothers the benefits of democracy and representative institutions,

Of course, we had democracy and liberty. ft was, however, riot that liberty defined by Lincoln as "government of the people by the people and for the people." We had a government full of prejudices and crank ideas —a. Government with n bee. in its iKiriuet. It was capable of passing even ;i law forbidding a man to g*et shaded on Sundays. It had tried to crush (he only surviving export from .Scotland to the,'United (States. Some time ago Cardiff declined to allow a Frenchman to sing songs which were not intelligible to the Chief Constable. Just before that a man had been summoned for not going to church on Sunday. The streets teemed with unarrested murderers, but what was really troubling the police was the presence in this country of a large number of 10s sweepstake tickets. Hundreds of committees and commissions had been appointed about all kinds of things. "If someone told Mr. Ramsay Mdcßona'd that the last trump had begun to sound, he would refer the matter to a commission.

The Government had not done, its principal job because it had done nothing to increase the liberty of the people. "The Mother of Parliaments has become a Parliament of grandmothers." It was too cowardly to amend our antiquated laws and too weak to enforce them. But if we ever got rid of this "chickenhearted, yellow-livered, cock-eyed Government." should we fcfe any better off?

It was obvious that, however much might be talked about liberty and the rights of the people, those whom the people had placed in authority did not trust the individual. Wo heard much at election times about trusting the common-sense of the average Briton. But he was not trusted to manage even matters of personal taste.

When next a, Home .Secretary was appointed, his first instruction should bo to go through the Statute Book and clear away all those antiquated laws which make us a laughing-stock among our neighbors. 'Die stupidities and hypocrisies of our existing legislation, if they were not swept away/ would undoubtedly affect the character of our race.