Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 10, No. 1. February 28, 1947

A Socialist Club — —and Why

A Socialist Club

and Why

The V.U.C. Socialist Club is now entering its second year, in which it hopes to progress still farther with the work begun last year. The need for such a club, to strive for a progressive policy in this college, and above all to work for co-operation between progressive students everywhere, has been recognised for many years, and particularly at the present when the foundations of international brotherhood and unity must be laid, if ever. This is the principle which activates the Socialist Club; and it is the principle which was recognised by the 70 students, many of them ex-servicemen, who founded it.

In an institution such as this College which has traditionally remained isolated to a large extent from the community around it, and particularly in a country like this, untouched by fascist invasion and remote from the fierce struggles which today grip Europe and Asia, it is all too easy to become heedless of the terrible seriousness of the recent war, and of the threat of recurrence which surely remains. It is not easy to remember always that half of the world is starving, that the students of the war-stricken countries are often without books, without buildings, even without food, and in many countries are still subject to savage political oppression. It is not easy to realise, but it is true. It is our duty to remember it, and to do our utmost to aid those less fortunate people—not only by material and moral assistance, but by securing democracy in our own country.

Why, then, a Socialist Club? It is because in every country of the world, both during the recent war and in the present crisis, it is socialism which has offered the most steadfast and determined resistance to fascism; because socialism, through its faith in the fundamental dignity of humanity, today forms the vanguard of political and economic democracy. The socialist students of this College do not forget the example of the socialist students of Europe and Asia; may we at Victoria not prove unworthy of it

—H.C.E.