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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 9, No. 3. April 13, 1946

[subsection]

The gymnasium rocked and bulged on a recent Friday evening when over two hundred students and visitors packed in to hear the first debate of the year: "That the present foreign policy of the Soviet Union is a menace to world peace." Nigel Taylor, newly elected chairman, appealed to the interjectors to be witty and apposite. Professor Lipson, the club's new president, judged the speakers. It was soon evident that the audience was getting far more fun than the debaters, who were subjected to torrents of wisecracks, inevitably followed by loud, raucous laughter.

Kevin O'Brien

Kevin O'Brien

Mr. O'Brien, vigorous and confident, opened with concise definitions and then proceeded to divide his subject into three rather arbitrary sections—military, economic and co-operative of which his seconder was to take the second. His main criticism centred round the suspicion that is aroused by the Soviet policy of creating a circle of buffer states, of refusing to pool vital Information, and adopting an obstructive policy in UNO. Since he reduced his speed Mr. O'Brien has become a plausible and interesting speaker.

Mr. Orr showed that the foreign policy of any country is connected with its economic policy, and inferred from this that Russia's protectorates are being exploited to provide for the domestic policy of expansion of industry. His manner of presentation was too restrained for such a boisterous audience.