ENEMY PROPAGANDA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1942, Page 4

ENEMY PROPAGANDA

THE ALLEGED WEAKNESS OF DEMOCRACY GENERAL HURLEY’S VIGOROUS REPUDIATION. WILL OF FREE PEOPLES UNBREAKABLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “We have been hearing a lot of enemy propaganda about the inefficiency of the democracies and the efficiency of dictators,” said Bri-gadier-General Hurley (American Minister) replying to a welcome by the Mayor (Mr T. C. A. Hislop) at a civic reception. “This propaganda is usually based on the assumption that people cannot be free and at the same time efficient. “This assumption, of course,' is not correct,” General Hurley continued. “It is true that free governments are geared for liberty and peace, while dictatorial governments are geared for war and oppression. In war, free people delegate power to their leaders, but the people remain the custodians of power. Dictators usurp all power and make their people slaves to their systems. When the people decline to follow, or the dictator cracks under strain, the cause is lost. In free nations it is the will of the people that is carried into effect by the leader. The leader may be given all the powers of a dictator, but he can be broken or removed if he fails to carry the will of the people into effect. Free peoples are slower to get into action, but their will, once formed, is unbreakable. Only the intelligent and efficient can attain or maintain liberty. Today free people are becoming a voluntary unit, in which all military and economic strength, every industry and every individual is endeavouring intelligently and efficiently to contribute a proper part to the accomplishment of the chief objective—the defeat of the enemy.”