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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 7, No. 10 October 4, 1944

[Introduction]

Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, in a symposium on "Salient" conducted in 1939 remarked that the noise of battle which surrounds "Salient" is a healthy sign. The noise of the same battle still surrounds "Salient" of 1944. In fact this same-battle seems to be carried on in almost every University in the World. It is therefore no surprise, on looking through student papers from other countries, which no one normally troubles to read, that students everywhere are thinking in terms of civil liberties, freer and more liberal education, while many are concerning themselves with the wider problems of society. The partisan students of Yugoslavia, who had to fight through German lines to hold a student Congress recently, and the University Labour Federation in England, whose members are active citizens in the community, not holding themselves above it in Ivory Towers as we do, are excellent examples. Movements such as these promise well fort the rebirth of an International Student Federation after the war on the lines of the now defunct C. I. E.—The Cercle Internationale des Etudiants.

The vociferous protest made throughout New Zealand during this year has brought us into the public eye in a Tairly favourable light. Three Australian Universities have been in the public eye also—not so favourably.

The stories of the riots caused by students in Sydney on two occasions have been fairly well covered by the daily newspapers. We do not wish to associate ourselves with either of these so-called "causes." One concerned wartime censorship and the students championed the right of industrial magnates to criticize the War Cabinet. The other was an exhibition of extremely bad taste during the presentations to American servicemen.

At Melbourne and in Western Australia, however, students have been acting in a manner which will benefit not only themselves but their fellows everywhere. Let us examine their actions in more detail.