BE BRITISH.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18926, 21 April 1933, Page 7

BE BRITISH.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—During the ruinous oourse of the present economic depression many palliatives have been brought forward as a solution of our country’s economic difficulties. Unfortunately for the sufferers, most of the' palliatives are either injurious by their application or like broken breakfast cups. Another strange coincidence is that the majority of the alleged cures have been imported from other countries, or, stranger still, from other nationalities. We have a thousand palliatives of the breakfast-cup type which claim New Zealand as their birth-place. We have cure claims from Australia; for instance, the Patterson plan, which could not he applicable in New Zealand, and, even If It could, would only apply a limit to Industry. Coming from further afield we hear advocates expounding the possibilities of a local Mussolini to manage our affairs and sack ■ the members of Parliament. The Marxian doctrines dedloated to the world by the German Jew Karl Marx have a particularly strong following, especially amongst gentlemen of the unemployed, who, through no fault of their own, but largely by the invention and application of machinery for production, have been permanently replaced in their calling by the machine, and In a great many cases are the very men or the sons of the inventors of the machine which displaced them In their occupation. The latest American craze, technocracy, has found favour of late. At most it has shown the danger of production without consumption, but has not shown a solution for consuming our production. Surely we haye not degenerated so as to make a solution of British difficulties possible only by foreign intervention. Do we temporarily forget we are “British,” and are part and parcel of the great British Empire? Has the Empire not, even in the most severe strains of trial, been able to turn defeat into victory by the application of the mental capacity and dominating courage and determination of its own members? Historians will verify this contention. . The writer can visualise numerous great achievements of our nation. To mention a few: The famous retreat from Mons; the landing and evaouation of Gallipoli; the ladder of Jncompetancy, efficiency and the Anal superiority of our aircraft during the war; Scott’s fatal exploration to the Pole; the discovery of gravitation, mechanical locomotion, and thousands of things both natural and scientific, including splitting the atom. These can be accredited to the British Empire. What would be the dimensions of our nation if wo relied on other nations to colonise our territory? What chances of success against our enemies if we had not the loyal support of our Scots’ Greys, Connaught Rangers, Seaforth Highlanders, colonial regiments, and our Nelsons, Beatties, Gladstones, etc.? Such palliatives as import duties and high exchange rates only tend to embitter us in the eyes of our Mother Country and to increase the cost of j living against our own people. It would he an act of loyalty and common sense if we were to offer free trade to countries of our Empire; and the extra goods assisted here in this way would mean a corresponding increase in our national wealth. But whether the wealth be imported or produced within our country, it is imperative that the amount of money available to the would-be consumer must equate or equal the goods which are available for consumption. Hero, Sir, is where the Empire again responds in time of dreadful peril. The hero this time, no less a personage than a descendant of the anolent Scot, Douglas; and the discoveries of Major Douglas can be placed on a muoh higher plane than those of other great scientists, because he gives to the world the key whereby the disooveries of science are practically made available to the world. The scientific inventor discovers the way, but not the means. Of what value is a worldfamous surgeon to a man dying for need of an operation, even if both are in one residence, if the stipulation Is strictly adhered to that a sum of money unprocurable by the man must he first procured by him before the operation will be performed? It is significant to appreciate the eagerness of New Zealanders to interpret the discoveries of Douglas being of national origin and Irrefutable status, the whole of its composition being thrown open to scrutiny and criticism. Yet it is difficult to understand- why New Zealanders give their support or toleration to a movement —for instance, as the New Zealand Legion—which is veiled in misunderstanding and suspicion, and could possibly be proved to be a Fascist movement which would later plunge New Zealand into the throes of civil war. Such movements, with their possibly disturbing elements, should not be'tolerated for one minute. In conclusion, 1 would like to impress upon the reader the necessity for our national and private budget to be regulated by the “just price” and the. dislnrhers of our economic and social well-being to be regulated by the “just court.’’ —1 am, etc., B. MAG NEIL To Kowhai, April IS, 1933.