Just in Passing...

Both from an international and from a University point of view, the May vacation has been a period of interest and not a little anxiety to many people. We ourselves feel that the defeat of the French armies in Indo-China will have implications which this generation will have to face in the future, not withstanding the arguments to the contrary concerning a "second Korea" and "American interference." We believe that the victory was not that of a subject people asserting themselves; rather does it appear to be a further step towards world domination by the forces of Communism. And although New Zealand remains part of the "free world" at the present time, this is mainly due to the coincidence of our fortunate geographical position. There is no guarantee that such will be the case in the future, and if it be that we are attacked, to whom are we to turn, if we do not desire to become another satellite in the Communist regime? We believe that this question must be answered with some degree or urgency.

The vexing problem of the three condemned Niueans has been solved. It is clear that the reprieve was granted, not because the appealing parties had advanced good reasons for the death sentence to be commuted, but because public opinion would have revolted against a death sentence being put into execution at such a distant date from when it was passed. This may have been the motive of the appealing parties when they took the case before the Privy Council—an attempt to stay the execution for such a length of time that it would have been well-nigh impossible for the Executive Council to resist a further appeal for clemency. We are not saying that this is so, but it is well known that public opinion carries great weight when politicians are asked to make up their minds on questions such as these. We hesitate to comment on the correctness of the sentence which the three Niueans received: indeed, at this stage, no further argument is necessary.

Finally, in the sphere of University affairs, we would offer our congratulations to those who contributed to the success of both Extrav and Procesh. There may be a lot to criticise in both these functions, but we believe that there is no need to set perfection as the criterion and so we satisfy ourselves with the (mainly kind)comments printed in this issue.

—D.D.