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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 4, No. 8. July 16, 1941

[Introduction]

Friday July 4th, was American Independence Day (for the uninitiated, independence from England, not from Wall Street). It was also the day on which the Debating Society met to decide on whether. "New Zealand Should Hitch Its Wagon to the Star Spangled Banner."

Frankly it must have been one of the poorest debates the Gym has seen, or should we say, heard. Dennis Hartley opened by saying that he had always wanted to be an American citizen; the U.S.A. was the centre of culture, and had a future, whereas Europe was decadent. His speech was not bad, but was spoilt by some blabber about racial affinity, that sounded as though it came straight from Dr. Rosenberg. Lindsay Nathan led the opposition with a disjointed tirade against the American people. The only rational part of his collection of words was the point that New Zealand was on the brink of building a national culture, which would soon be assimilated if we became a 49th state. Bert Foley backed up Dennis with a good speech on a difficult subject. He took the defence view, and advocated a Pacific bloc against Japan. This brought Dave Castle to his feet with the warning that such an insult towards a friendly power was contrary to the Emergency Regulations, and made Bert liable to twelve months. Stuart Devine seconded Lindsay with a speech showing the lustful degradation of the American people by jitter bugging, drugs, necking, petting and their hypocritical attitude towards contraception.