Criticisms of Shaw.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20281, 16 April 1934, Page 6

Criticisms of Shaw.

Dear Sir, —On reading your criticisms on Bernard Shaw I find that, just because he tells the world gratis his wisdom, he is made, in your estimation, an idiot, if this term fits. If he had put a charge on the Government for his information, like several other oversea noblemen, all I should have read in your paper would have been praise and good advice from your leading columns. Bernard does go as far as to tell us he is a Communist. Well, I have always found that in a name there is nothing, and from the knowledge I have gained during his short holiday I must confess that I shall fast become a Communist. I have always hated the name myself, and the principles. Only the other day I asked a very active and wealthy business man in this city his opinion of Shaw, and he said his personal opinion from the bottom of his heart was that Mr Shaw was a very clever man, and a man who never uttered anything that did not carry some wise advice to this world in general. Turning again to one of your columns, I find more comments on the treachery of one of the Russian prisons. This brings me right on to the treachery of our misdeeds in this country of our own Canterbury, where we have a prison, and I saw tons and tons of metal worked by the prisoners being handled by relief workers, which, I suggest, under our present system of relief schemes, is outrageous and a disgrace to humanity. We do not need to say slavery is abolished. It is principle that has been abolished, and until the fathers of this fair land regain that principle, which their forefathers, Ballance and Seadon, retained, we shall be a miserable nation to the end of time. So I request, by your leave, that the leaders in your paper contain the thrust in future to make us again citizens of God’s own country, and not, as Bernard Shaw says, “ God, what a country! *’ In conclusion, I appeal to you to do your utmost in your future columns to alleviate the misery and depression that is prevalent in the majority of the lives of the men, women and children of this country of ours. This torture of charity, sickness and empty bodies is worse than any Russian prison whilst we are in the midst of —I am, etc, ADVANCE,