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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 9. July 26, 1951
. . Letters to the Editor
. . Letters to the Editor
Errors in Vital Questions
Sir,—
I will immediately send Mr. Cody's question to Cros and Pat who are going to the Festival in Berlin. It is necessary however to point out several errors of fact in Mr. Cody's letter.
| 1. | The Peace Movement does not oppose conscription anywhere, till the present at least It advocates as immediate objectives the banning of A-bomb; progressive disarmament of conventional weapons, the conclusion of a 5 Power Peace Pact. |
| 2. | The interview with Stalin published in Pravda February 17th this year is the latest of dozens of statements by Communist leaders that peaceful coexistence is possible and that war is not inevitable. Communists of course are in a very small minority in the World Peace movement. There are about 22 million party members in the world according to Washington State Department; there are 750,000,000 signatories to the Stockholm appeal. |
| 3. | Yugoslavia has banned the Stockholm Appeal, the first plank in the platform of the peace movement. Hence the expulsion of the official representatives of that country. There is a growing underground peace movement there. |
| 4. | The World Peace Movement condemns inflammatory war propaganda of any kind. |
| 5. | The Warsaw Congress of the Peace Movement calls for an immediate cease fire in Korea, the withdrawal of all foreign troops; the hearing of both sides of the dispute before a full meeting of the Security Council. Aid given by the U.S.S.R. is justifiable in view of the American seizure and blockade of Formosa as well as air attacks on the mainland. |
H. C. MacNeill.
Extrav Clerics Bad Taste?
Sir,—
It was my intention to make it quite clear in my criticism of "Siderella" that the only people I indicted of being members of "The Party" were the authors of the script. It seems, from Mr. Hutchison's confusion, I did not make that distinction clear enough, and for that I apologise. Since the cast included members of what I presume Mr. Hutchison means by "my party," I have probably offended all three parties, his, mine and The.
| (1). | I considered it in bad taste, admittedly a personal opinion—and I am not an Anglican. |
| (2). | One may impersonate a political leader and at the same time criticise the party which he represents without doing any great harm. I consider, however, that the sacredness of the Archbishop's calling is such that while criticism of him as an individual is possible, such criticism of him as spiritual head of a Christian church is undesirable and unnecessary; and that it is practically impossible in an Extravaganza to make fun of any one specific cleric without casting aspersions on the spiritual body to which he belongs. |
| (3). | It was my impression that the script aimed precisely at exploiting this duality—by impersonating the individual to ridicule his vocation. I think an examination of the script would support me in this, particularly with regard to the gratuitous and, I consider, unnecessary wisecracks about other religions. |
For these same reasons I would not agree to a caricature in Extrav of the "Red Dean," even though I would probably appreciate it.
D.E.H.
The Staff's Ivory Tower
Sir,—
Your belated report of the Staff debate did no more to me than provoke me to write and say that it was, like its predecessors, funny but fatuous. Can't the staff rise up to or come down to our level just a couple of times in each year for our mutual benefit.
What say the staff? The Debating Club? The Students?
Wodehouse only Rarely.