A number of letters in this issue accuse us of being left-wing bigots who print propaganda worse than anything produced by the dailies. "Surely at least one person in the 'Salient' office has questioned the teachings of Karl Marx by now", writes one critic.

Underlying many of these criticisms is a belief that the 'truth' can be discovered by making a dispassionate and impartial survey of the 'facts' of any particular case. The rarefied atmosphere of the university classroom and library seems to enable students to kid themselves for a long time that they can be truly objective about their studies and the world outside.

It is rather ironic that some students should have such a strong belief in the importance of total objectivity. Over the last decade the most horrible acts of brutality in world history have been committed by the United States Government in Indochina. These acts were in the main dreamed up not by crazy generals but by rational, liberal academics, hiding behind their mask of academic objectivity.

Attempts to subordinate beliefs to the myth of complete impartiality can only result in complete self-deception. We believe that newspapers should state their beliefs openly and frankly. We try to do this in Salient, and it may be worth mentioning that we do print opinions we disagree with, we do try to provoke debate rather than an unquestioning acceptance of our ideas, and there are people on the Salient staff who have questioned the teachings of Karl Marx.

There is, however, at least one student paper in New Zealand which attempts to be unbiased. In their first editorial of the year the editors of Critic said their predecessors had devoted too much space to overseas features about left-wing political features. Critic must try to keep abreast of overseas news, they stated, "but let's not forget the issues facing this city and this university in particular". In the next issue one of the editors wrote a stirring editorial berating Otago students for littering their campus. People who want that sort of payer should head for Dunedin, as we don't intend to adopt such a policy.

We invite readers to disagree with us and tell us where we go wrong. But people who merely scream "you're biased" are just pulling themselves. Their cries of righteous outrage are wasted on Salient. Those students who believe in the myth of objectivity should go down to the politicians, the business leaders, the editors of the dailies, and the magistrates and tell them to be completely impartial in what they say and do. After all, they run this society; we don't.

— Peter Franks & Roger Steele

For the fourth week in succession Salient was edited by Peter Franks and Roger Steele. An eloquent tribute to their efforts to date appears in the Latest issue of 'Socialist Action'. While Peter was red smearing the entire international Trotskyite movement. Roger led the learn of artists; Gyles Beckford, Chery Dimond, Ted Sheehan and Graeme Collins, who laid out the copy typeset by Irene Kennedy and proofread by Talahatchie and Ann Usherwond. Tony Ward, Thomas Proctor and Joris de Bres were on the job writing stories. Grub and Bob Good took the photos and Don Franks drew the cartoons. We still need people for all sorts of jobs: reporting especially University news), researching, typing illegible hand written copy, proofreading, layout, photos, graphics etc. If you're interested in Salient and have sume free time, come and see us in our happy cubbyhole.

Salient office: 1st Floor. University Union Building. Phone 70-319 (ext. 75 & 81). P. O. Box 1347. Wellington. New Zealand.

Copy Deadlines:

All copy should be left in the box outside the Salient office, or handed to the editors no later than Wednesday evening. It should be typed or written in legible printing doublespaced on one side of the page only. Late contributors will be axed with the Salient ice pick.

Advertising

Roger Green, the advertising manager can be contacted at Salient, phone 70-319 (ext. 75 & 81) or at home 793-319.

Letters to the Editor

Could be a little friendlier and should be addressed as such. Stuff them into the box outside the office or post them to Box 1347.