Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 9, No. 11. August 21, 1946
Position in Spain
Position in Spain
In Spain the position of students and other youth is even worse. The number attending universities is proportionally very small; professors or students who dared to speak the truth are sent to the already overflowing concentration camps; democratic organisations such as student associations or trade unions are not permitted and there is no freedom of worship.
The situation in Germany has improved considerably. Although the youth were the section most corrupted by Nazism, there are already many fine democratic bodies such as Catholic Youth. SCM. Boy Scouts, and, largest of them all the Free German Youth Movement with a membership of 250,000. As with the other democratic organisations, it is led mainly by exiles or by former recalcitrants.
The recent British delegation to the Soviet Union, led by Platts-Mills, M.P., included Penry Jones, travelling secretary for the British SCM. He brought back a most favourable report on what goes on behind the iron curtain."—Of all the things he saw in Russia the youth of Stalingrad impressed him most with their tremendous drive to restore the city, their hard work and their tolerance of inevitably bad conditions. He visited more churches and gave more religious services than any other visitor to the land of Socialism.
The World Student Congress was held at Prague and opened on November 17, International Students' Day. It is significant that it should be held on the anniversary of the day when seventy-eight heroic Czech students were shot by the Nazis. Student representatives from fifty-one different countries discussed and planned action on many important subjects. The whole of Prague turned on a terrific demonstration for the Congress. The Czech students are held in very high regard by the rest of the community and Mr. Williams attributed it to the really heroic part they played during the war and to the fact that they have consistently supported other antifascist sections of the community. At the Bata boot factory thousands of workers welcomed the delegates and held aloft placards hailing the unity of workers of hand and brain. The student movement in Czechoslovakia numbers nearly 100,000, of which 50,000 are at the famous Charles University in Prague. A committee consisting of three professors, sixteen students and four administrators have complete control of finance and last year they handled £20,000,000 sterling. The student body handles accommodation finance, relief for repatriates, removal of collaborators with the Nazis, supply of instruments, books, etc. Czech youth is keen to learn, and students sometimes queue up at 7.30 a.m. for an afternoon lecture. There are 3,000 first-year meds., and lectures are held in cinemas with students at the back looking at the demonstrations through binoculars.