His eyes grow big: he sees that the very bricks are red.

Half-afraid, he will listen to a lecture on the uses of the partitive genitive or the reproductive systems of earthworms; a little dazed, he will wander into the main hall, or the caf. or a meeting of the Students' Association or the Debating Club; and maybe a copy of Salient may even come his way.

And gradually he will realise what the university is all about.

In the first issue of Salient—thirteen years ago—freshers were advised to: "Be enthuiastic about something. If you have any ideas and are prepared to back them against anyone's cynicism, you will have a chance eventually to put them into effect; and Victoria needs people with ideas . . ."

Tradition

That is the sort of spirit that has made V.U.C. what it is. From her earliest days—and she is only just 52—Our Lady of Salamanca has nurtured all manner of vipers, heresies, and independent thoughts. During her halfcentennial Jubilee, one graduate wrote:

"Watersiders and students have long shared a common pillory. The watersider is a mischievous animal. The student reads books, and is popularly believed to question not only the Scriptures but the "Evening Post."

In the course of passing exams, students try to search the heart of things. And this requires a long sight which gets things in perspective. The laws of thermo-dynamics. Old English syntax, and everything else. In consequence, an active minority of the student body has always gone astray from the straight and narrow path of orthodoxy, has turned the questioning beam of objective study onto society and the world at large. And study has bred criticism; and criticism, action.

Salient was founded as the trustee of this tradition. Said its first editorial: "Any suggestion of Olympian grandeur or academic isolation from the affairs of the world should be dropped and replaced by a policy which aims to link the University more closely to the realities of the world." That was the year of the Munich sell-out. Through Salient, Victoria was scathing in her criticism: "The effect of this in Germany will no doubt be to strengthen Hitler's prestige, and to encourage further aggression."

From 1899 on, there had always been voices raised at Victoria against oppression, inequality, war—every form of injustice and stupidity When the Defence Leaguers raved about the Officers' Training Corps (the old Tom Cat) and Conscription, there were sideline jeers on Salamanca, and there were willing audiences for such anti-militarists as Harry Holland and Peter Fraser. The Debating Club had even opposed the drum banging of the Boer War; In 1924, they rejected a motion which aimed to prevent the club from defending "Bolshevism" against a debating team from Oxford.

The Whole College defended Prof von Zedlitz when the bull-ring Blimps went berserk over his German name; and there was the same solidarity when the authorities gunned for [unclear: Heddi] Weitzel because she had been caught selling socialist literature.

The First World War, the Russian Revolution, the 1929 Crash, the rise of Fascism . . . these things forced themselves on the minds of young thinkers. One College Club waited on the Nazi Consul to protest at the Reichstag Fire Trial; groups argued over the right of a student to "scab" on starving workers by joining the "Specials." Some did join, and some lived to regret it. Such a one was Salient's first editor. Radical ideas were nearly always the fruit of experience, not absract thought. And their effects were far from abstract.

In 1921 the Minister of Education and the "Welfare League" had demanded an investigation into the activities of numerous College clubs, and the teaching of the College itself, as being "permeated with undesirable influences." N.Z. Truth had excelled [unclear: iself] in an article headed "N.Z. Universities Hotbeds of Revolution" in 1933. Attacks had been constant. But by 1941 Britain had accepted Russia's alliance to crush Fascism. Victoria was vindicated. She was feeling old enough to look after herself, and the Students' Association carried the famous "Red Manifesto." It opens with a masterly piece of sarcasm:

Manifesto

"A spectre is haunting New Zealand—the spectre of the University Red.

He is unpatriotic and addicted to foreign philosophies; his attitude to political and social problems is irresponsible and immature; he is defeatist and unwilling to defend his country against aggression.

"Prague University, even under Czech democratic government, gained a certain notoriety for the 'subversive' leftwing opinions of some of its students and lecturers. But when, shortly after the outbreak of war, the students drove the Nazi agents from the college and built barricades in the grounds, the Gestapo could not force its way into the College and had to call on the regular army. Eventually they shot a hundred students, sent many more to concentration camps, and closed the University. Perhaps this all goes to confirm the general opinion that university students are apt to advocate action when more mature minds would rather wait, and that they are inclined to forget that these actions may have prejudicial effects on their future lives. All this is very true, and it was, no doubt, pointed out at the time by the Czech fascist organisations who had advocated the disciplining of Prague University for many years, and who were now sensibly and loyally collaborating with the Nazis . . ."

It closes by reminding readers that there were warnings sounded at Victoria College against Fascism—not only Hitler's, but also Chamberlain's. Mannerheim's and Daladier's—long before they were fashionable. Victoria's answer: the war cry of her best traditions:

"For all these things we were attacked, and for none of them we apologise. For on these matters the 'University Reds' were right and their enemies were wrong.

"Therefore we, the students of Victoria College, deplore the slanders which have from time to time been brought against us, and pledge ourselves to maintain those principles of freedom for which British, Soviet and Allied youth are giving their lives."

It was because Victoria believed these things, because she had given her sons to fight, many to die, in two world wars; because she had seen, heard, and considered, that she remained quite unrepentent of a scarlet past. Annual Spike of 1947 pictured her in new disgrace:

"Our heroine Victoria is in trouble again. The villain still pursues her. It is all the more distressing that this should happen a a time when she had prospects of a respectable marriage, at a time when the family thought their beautiful tomboy might at last follow the example of her quieter sisters. Her box was ready, she had kept out of scapes for a long time, she had been quite civil to the eligible young men of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Then suddenly, swoop! with a flourish of his red-lined cloak, the villain whisked her away. Her distracted aunts found her Walking the Streets. Curtain. It looked as if that mortgage will never be paid . . ."

Peace

Yes, it was the 300-strong demonstration against Dutch imperialism's piracies in Indonesia. Shouts of "sacrilege." "discredit to the college,"—and a motion to "disaffiliate" the offending Socialist Club from the Students' Association was defeated at a packed meeting Next year it was the idea of sending a telegram to Czech Premier Gottwald that upset Victoria.—this time a fever of propriety momentarily gained control of her. But opposition to conscription had soon disgraced her again,—Freedom complimenting her with a full page attack on the Socialist Club under the heading "Bobbysoxers and Teenagers Kowtow to Ikons of Czar Stalin I." It is certain that if there had not been such opposition to Conscription from Victoria, there would have been no postponement of student training. There has always been a wide antagonism among students to war, especially now to the idea of a bloody crusade against Asia. The Debating Club has successively rejected the Marshall Plan and the Atlantic Pact. Victoria has given her support to the World Peace Congress, and herself declared (June 1949):

"We, students of V.U.C, conscious of the danger of a new world war which threatens the people of New Zealand and of the whole world, consider it to be our duty as scholars and as citizens to express our entire opposition to such a war, and our determination to work for a lasting peace . . . We are opposed to talk of war with the Soviet Union. The Soviet people who fought together with us in the recent war against fascism and who Buffered persecution. devastation and death far more terrible than we ever faced, are worthy of our friendship, whatever political or economic system they choose to live under . . ."

From the same source comes Victoria's international outlook. A visiting Australian student wrote last year that "Enthusiasm for the International Union of Students in N.Z. has been centred mainly in one college—Victoria College in Wellington . . ." (Australaise, June, '50). We can be proud of that.

It has been in movements springing from Victoria that all the main activities for student welfare in New Zealand have their roots: N.Z.U.S.A., Congress, Student Health Schemes (still not operating her), the Student Labour Federation and its campaigns for better bursaries and hostel facilities. And Victoria has done her bit for overseas student relief.

The University Red is not the Antichrist. He is not a red-eyed monster. He is a human being very much like yourself. He is a thinking student with courage and a conscience. He is part of Victoria's heritage.

Salient has often been his megaphone. Salient's aim is often identical with his own Our editor of 1939 wrote:

"Send out, Salient, the swift satiric point,
To smart the sluggard mind awake,
While Freedom anywhere in bonds is pent
No compromise with falseness make.
Those freed to-day, to-morrow forth may leap
Some further outpost there to take and keep."

May she succeed. And may there be plenty of fresh blood to help her.

—C.B.