Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 9. 1966.
No mistake
No mistake
The letter concluded: "Finally, in order that there should be no mistake, we should state that we are in no sense attempting to justify violence or lawlessness. What we do suggest is that we should be less hysterical in our search for the causes of such violence. For it would seem to us that the attempt to forcibly suppress opinions (however wrong they may be) which have no proved connection with immediate acts of violence or lawlessness is as inexpedient from the point of view of social peace as it is unjust to the individuals who are made to suffer the penalty."
It seems plain that Beaglehole and Richmond were not heretics advocating crime and Communism. They merely wished to do away with the arbitrary fixing of the troubles of the day on to a scapegoat of dubious validity. Their protest had to do with rationality and freedom—politics was not their object of evaluation.