Dalglish Attacks

[unclear: Sirs]—The absurd article entitled social Credit, Conspiracy Theory," your March 17 issue must have in a St. Patrick's Day joke Salient played on its readers. [unclear: Away], as a joke it certainly was active, down here at the Wellington Central Branch of the special Credit Political League we [unclear: ghed] and laughed.

[unclear: However], I was a little bit convened lest your contributor was fact serious, therefore I sat then and read the article again. we is evident if one does regard article in serious vein, that contributor attempts to use the "smear" technique. He spends lost half the article endeavouring to establish a connection betwixt the Socred movement and the John Birch Society, the States of South Africa and Indonesia, the Nazi Party, Canadian Puritans, NZ Welfare State Optimists, French Nationalists, and the Roman persecution of the Christians. But that is not all, your contributor states Socreds have Fascist tendencies, harbour Rightest elements, have philosophical links with the Labour movement, and last but not least there is even a reference to the League of Empire Loyalists.

By this stage in the article I was eagerly awaiting the writer establishing a connection between Social Credit and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Ghenghiz Khan, and Dr. Fu Manchu.

One intriguing tidbit proclaims "the Fascist tendencies or the Canadian parties have been well documented." What utter rubbish! In Alberta a Socred government has been in power since 1935, and last year Socreds were returned with sixty-one seats in the sixty-four seat legislature. The people of Alberta were responsible for the Social Credit victory, it may be hard fact for your contributor to grasp, but they like a Socred administration.

The majority of British Columbians like Social Credit, too. I have resided in both these provinces, and have never observed any evidence of Fascism in any facet of their governments.

Another tidbit, "It is well to remember that the Labour Party has philosophical links with Social Credit."

Now I am not too sure what your writer means by "philosophical links," if those two word mean we believe in democratic government, elected by secret ballot every three years, we evidently could claim linkage with the National Party also.

Similarly in reporting the supposed views of a Socred candidate in 1954, your writer fails to be specific, he does not name the candidate or say where he spoke or on what date. Your contributor's motives in writing the article do not appear plainly, but perhaps we obtain a glimmer of them in the last paragraph wherein he urges all Socreds to dissociate themselves from the movement, and praises the writing of one Martin Nestor. Now I have heard of a fellow called Martin Nestor, seems he is Chief Research Officer for the National Party and responsible for such deathless prose as "You never had it so good" and "Steady does it."

Might I suggest that, your contributor's motive may be the fact that almost one hundred thousand New Zealanders voted Social Credit in 1963, and that he has some sympathy for one of the other political groupings in this country.

In conclusion, may I invite any interested person who wishes to gain factual information on the Social Credit movement to call us, and we will arrange for them to attend a Branch meeting. We welcome criticism so long as it is based on fact and not ingrained bias.

W. Dalglish

(Wellington Central Branch Social Credit Political League.)