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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol.12., No. 11. 29th September 1949

The Clear Case

The Clear Case

The beat, and the clearest, statement of the evening came from the person who was best qualified to He made it clear from the beginning that he was in support of the motion. His speech was quiet and forceful throughout; he was not interrupted; apeak on the subject—Mr. Jenkins, he was applauded when he finished.

This is not a high school, he said. Maybe at the Tech. a paper can be banned and almost publicly burned; but this is not the Tech. Mature people come here willingly, and acquiesce to restrictions on their freedom to do so. But when they arrive, they expect to find what has been regarded as not a privilege but a right—the exercise of one's mind on controversial matters. They do not expect to be held up to public distaste because the views they hold may not be those of the majority. They expect to be—as he had emphasised to the Board in his meeting with them—us free, if not freer, than anyone to publish their views within the restraints of the law.

On the Board, there were some whom he could only describe as vindictive. He objected to the statement in the "Message" on his admission that the article might be in bad taste. He had referred the article back to the author because he thought that the that the author might wish to make alterations. When this was not so, be published it and he stood by his original view that the article came within the bounds of fair comment. Dr. Beaglehole, in his book, had taken up a very fair attitude to "Salient" and to the expression of views by students.

Should an editor have to dig in his pocket before he publishes to see if he could afford to comment? Be noted a facet of college history in passing: during the war, the exercise of freedom of speech was curtailed so much that the debating club was not even allowed, as 1940, to debate whether the war was an [unclear: imperialist] ramp", and the Prinpal [unclear: had suggested] the [unclear: substitution] of the [unclear: on the "communication of sport" (Interjection: "Indoor or outdoor?")]

He periterated his view that this article? was within the bounds of fair comment, and that it was in the spirit of the tradition of necessary inquiry. The motion was an effective product the amendment was going back on the spirit which had been established by past issues of "Salient" and by past students of the college.