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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 13, No. 17. August 3, 1950

No Man's Land

No Man's Land

Liberal?

Sir, At a recent meeting of the Students Association a certain Mr. Goddard was speaking on the Communist Dissolution Bill and in the course of his impassioned address he mentioned something about the Liberal Clubs in the Australian Universities all being opposed to the Bill. As one who holds a sort of watching brief for the Australian University Liberal Clubs in New Zealand I must ask you to publish the following extract from the minutes of the 2nd Annual Council of the A.U.L.F. "Realising the necessity for the future security of Australia that the Australian Communist Party should be dissolved and its members excluded from employment in the Public Service and from positions of responsibility and power in such industrial organisations as are of vital importance to the security and defence of Australia, and realising further the difficulties attendent upon the effective execution of the provisions of an Act by which the above mentioned purposes might be fully carried out, this Council declares.....(1) That the Australian Communist party is an anti-Australian anti-British Party, the aims of which are to overthrow by force the present Australian democratic system; (2) That it supports fully the move of the Federal Government in their introduction of a Bill to dissolve the Communist party; (3) That it endorses fully all the provisions of the Bill at present before the House of Representatives.

Hoping this will clear away any misunderstandings which Mr. Goddard has probably caused,

I remain,

Paul Cotton.

We took the liberty of showing this letter before publication to Mr. Goddard, who denies that he claimed that all Liberal Clubs in Australian Universities were opposed to the Bill. He merely quoted the instance of the Melbourne University Liberal Club, which is still, according to student paper "Farrago," of the opinion that the Bill is a bad thing. Ed.

Human Rights

Sir. Colonial Governments should extend human rights to their territories and leave Koreans to settle their own dispute.

The Crown Colonist May 1949 said ". . . . an important amendment in the Cyprus Criminal code was gazetted this week. This amendment provides for five years prison sentence for persons publishing words on documents or making visible representations with seditious intent."

In Mauritius the situation is similar. "A Bill has been published to provide that, when a person baa been convicted of sedition in any newspaper, publication of the paper may be prohibited for a period of up to three years. The proprietor, printer or publisher may be prohibited from editing, writing for, or taking part in the production of any newspaper for three years; and the printing press may be seized."

Dr. Thompson speaking at Melbourne April 3 1950, said about the aborigines: "I saw natives chained by the necks and led away under armed guard without even the formality of a trial, to which every man is entitled. I also saw their wives, mothers and children run after them, crying because they knew their men would never return from exile on Palm Island, known as the Island of Death."

The conservative Pacific Islands Monthly said, early 1949 ". . . nine head chiefs of Malaita appeared before the British District Commissioner and demanded 16 dollars a week for all natives working on the coconut plantations. This impudence was dealt with by jailing 19 of the leaders for periods up to six years hard labour." W.M.

Why WFDY?

Sir, Your report, of the walkout at the S.G.M. is, I suggest, somewhat misleading. The motion regarding W.F.D.Y. was put forward only three weeks after a decisive vote of 119-57 at the A.G.M. Previous motions for disaffiliation were repeated, I concede, but not after such a short interval, and not after such a clear vote (two I traced were 80-101 and 75-81).

There are at least 57 W.F.D.Y. supporters whose opinions we must respect but at the same time I think these people should let the subject drop unless they can both (1) assemble new matter and (2) secure an audience a lot larger than their own strength of 57 at the A.G.M. Otherwise, the interest and patience of the opposition section of the audience is lost as it was last week.

What I found a great deal more disconcerting was a report of the same meeting's Korean resolution which was front page news in the "People's Voice" published the day before the "Salient" report. I do not think the meeting was aware that it was being reported to an "outside paper, and I suggest that a clear ruling on newspaper reporting is desirable for future general meetings of the Association.

A. W. Cook.

(The report of the walkout is we suggest, not in the slightest misleading. This letter is, though; for the WFDY motion, if passed, would not have reaffiliated the Association—it merely suggested that we keep in touch. It can by no means be called a misleading report.

Was Mr. Cook aware that the AGM was also reported.—by the Southern Cross! Did he Question it at that time! Ed.)