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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 18. July 30, 1968

No sympathy

No sympathy

Sir—I can't sympathise with Mr P. J. Kelly in his failure to prod "some students into examining" the potential danger of Asian expansion into the countries of the Pacific for the simple reason that I doubt his sincerity. His original letter contained nothing about Asian economic problems, about the modern Malthusian fear, about the possibility of New Zealand land being used to feed the starving millions. On the contrary, Mr Kelly chose to attack "Asian and Indian" students (perhaps he meant Fijian Indians.?) for, presumably, studying here. He censured the N.Z. government for encouraging them to attend N.Z. universities in the first place; and he reprimanded the student body for putting up with all this. The only "rational" argument he gave was that these aliens, by communicating in languages other than Mr Kelly's English had thereby forfeited their rights to coexist with other human beings.

But now we are told that Mr Kelly's intentions were not at all what they seemed, that he never meant to incite racial hatred, that be is more an Enoch Powell than a George Wallace. Mr Kelly, an English honours student, either didn't know how to handle his own language, or is trying to cover up his deplorable prejudices with the cloak of economic rationale. In either case, he doesn't deserve anybody's sympathy.

I for one cannot help thinking that he is shedding crocodile tears. His choice of these two words—"arrogance" in the first letter, and 'gratitude", in the second, reflects his true position in the political spectrum. Again and again we hear these moans over African ingratitude coming from European conservatives who still regret the hay days of white imperialism. Mr Kelly obviously doesn't want to repeat their mistake, so he determines to keep the inferior races where he thinks they rightly belong—in the depth of human existence. I need not point out that there is a fundamental difference between this kind of attitude and the genuine concern over the steady flow of immigrants into England over the last 20 years, which has been causing serious social problems in that country. It is one thing to try to safeguard national social well-being, and another to maintain one's sense of racial superiority and moral self-righteousness.

Yours etc.,

Rujayo Abhakom.