DEMOCRATIC IDEALS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 243, 14 October 1936, Page 9

DEMOCRATIC IDEALS

EXPOSITION BY MR. NASH FAREWELL BEFORE DEPARTURE STRUGGLE WITH DICTATORSHIP [Per litas Association] AUCKLAND, Oct. 12. No part of the speech delivered by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, at a civic farewell accorded to him to-night made a deeper impression than his exposition of democratic ideals, especially that of individual liberty. The world to-day, said Mr Nash, I was in the throes of a great light. He did not mean a fight between socialism and capitalism, which was inevitable, and on both sides of which some very beautiful characters were engaged. What he meant was a conflict between dictatorship and domination on one hand and democracy on the other. This conflict was intense and the solution of it was hard to find. Dictatorship—Russian, German Italian, or any other—suppressed the soul of every man who came under its power, the Minister said. It compelled him to acquiesce in that which, let free to erpress his thoughts and feelings, he would not approve. “Any person, and Government that does this is burying something which some day, sooner or later, will come . to life,” declared Mr Nash. “You cannot put the best philosophy in the world into practice by force or domination. Therefore, I say that dictatorship cannot have permanency.” Right of British Citizens. Speaking of the contrary ideal, as exemplified in the British commonwealth of nations, Mr Nash said that it was an old and basic principle that British citizens had the right of freedom to choose their rulers and to shape the laws under which they lived. However, he would go further and say that the people of a free country needed economic freedom in order that each might express himself both spiritually and materially. It was this economic freedom which offered the brightest hope for the future, especially to young people who would be the citizens of times to come. The ideal of all who would uphold democracy should be Government by persuasion, not by force. Their aim should be to grow the plant of liberty to give all right to be themselves, I which was the goal of life, but they I must see that freedom was for all, | since its full value could never be I retained unless it was the right and ! heritage of every man and woman. | This exaltation of liberty was the con- ! tribution of the English-speaking world to the progress of the world as a whole. His hope and wish for his own mission, said Mr Nash in conclusion, was that it would bind New Zealand more closely to Britain and ultimately to other countries as well. “I will try to live up to the responsibility that has been given me,” he added. “Whatever the outcome, I shah return humble in spirit, but knowing that I have done my best and that any agreements I have concluded, difficult as they may be. will help to knit more closely the British commonwealth that we all love so much.” (Loud applause).