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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 13, No. 7. April 20th, 1950

Contra Partia . .

Contra Partia . . .

Sir,

Your leader in the 23rd's issue. Successful world government would mean the ear-marking of the word for the historian's leisured disposal and perhaps the birth of a neolithic age in world morals.

But when will the global government be born. We must be frank, realistic, about this. Idealism is only one answer; the insurmountable barrier is what the average man is thinking in Mexico, Germany, Liberia. We wouldn't like it in this country if they made the English of a bilingual New Zealand the companion to Afrikaans nor if we had to give our employers the deified respect that still lingers in England. How would San Francisco react if the phlegmaticism of our welfare state were suddenly enforced—ideal living standards carried to absurdity by excessive legislation; or instead of healthy high-pressure competitiveness, there existed an apathy for politeness and fast service owing to the fear of servility.

This is admittedly rather far fetched. A world government would make certain allowance for different modes of living and a nation's geographical adaptation etc. Despite this however, people would still be apprehensive of losing cherished national customs. The world is still a mass of planets separated by many light years, and the saturated nationalism of some inhabitants practically immovable. No global constitution has any possibility of being effected under these conditions and none will until people realise the futility of highly respected patriotism.

—Non-Partisan.