Justice Must Be Slow

We reprint, without comment, the following extracta from an address delivered to the Executive of the Students' Association, at its meeting on 3 April, by senior member Tony Ellis.

— The duty of the executive is to implement the policy they feel will further the well-being of the student body us a whole with an honesty and a lack of personal motive or interest regarding office and exercise of power, that is so essential to the function of a democratic (and I use this word advisedly for its emotional appeal) executive body.

This duty will not at any time involve the personalities of, and personal invective against, any other member of the executive and is one devoted to the well being of the electorate and to that alone. This duty may be laid down by a constitution or accepted as a basic concept, but it is always to be treated as fundamental. As such it receives often too little attention. It must be held constantly in mind when innovations of policy, and administration are in progress.

— The executive is the elected administrative body of the University students and has certain limited disciplinary power which are not inconsiderable considering that the executive may be, as it is now, a young and in many ways immature one. Especial care must be taken, therefore, in the imposition of penalties in exercise of these powers.

— The working of justice is a slow moving process, and it is so of necessity. One would not wish to empower the Supreme Court to grab a man off the street today and after a precursory trial, hang him tomorrow. Such a process for the benefit of just must take a long period to ensure that all the facts are fully realised.

We have thus protected our interests in the best and cleanest way.

— "Salient" derives its being and measure of independence from us and we have absolute control over it. We can control the staff and the contents of the paper if we feel so justified. There has been betrayed an immature and unpleasantly subversive element on the part of the editors which I think we all feel should not find a place in any college newspaper. I feel that the supplement concerning the rise in fares issued last Thursday or Friday may be held to a largo extent responsible for leading some gullible young students into the ridiculous exhibition of Monday morning. We may be faced with the reviewing of the position of editorship and perhaps call for new applications for this onerous and responsible position—the responsibility and seriousness of which is not—I feel—at present realised.

— The machinery by which this executive functions is designed to enable the business in hand to be carried out in the most expeditious, fair and convenient way. The abuse of this machinery destroys the virtue of a democracy meeting and clouds the issues at stake. The chairman is responsible to see that such abuse is not given a chance to manifest itself and that the meeting is as short and effective as possible. It sometimes happens that the machinery of "motion" and "objection" is abused by members of this executive and anyone that does so for his own and therefore illegitimate purposes is in breach of his duty to his electorate.