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Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 19, No. 8. July 1, 1955

[Letter from M. J. O'Brien to Salient Vol. 19, No. 8. July 1, 1955]

The Editor, "Salient."

Dear Sir.—I do not suggest that I have the last word in the controversy between "C.B." and myself, as I did not start the controversy. His letter in your May 5 issue adds little that is new. Let me just comment on some of his facts:
1.Somebody must have established a "reasonable case" against the IUS attitude towards Yugoslavia, because IUS has in the last year or so, been making desperate efforts to get the Yugoslavs back into the fold. Perhaps it was just another case of everyone jumping automatically when the party line is changed.
2.I leave your readers to judge the origins of the Korean war.
3."C.B.'s" recital of events in Czechoslovakia reflects little more than a vivid imagination.
4.There is no national union "Cosec affiliate" in Slam or Pakistan. The Philippines national union is fully representative. As secretary of the Istanbul Credentials Committee, I can claim some knowledge of this, and also refute "C.B.'s" sneer about "pet organisations of corrupt despotisms in Latin America and South-East Asia." The leaders of two Latin American delegations had been violently opposed by their Governments which had sponsored opposition candidates against them. One was gaoled for the duration of an election. The leaders of yet another had Co go into exile last year. Hardly the treatment for pots!
5.If the Ford Foundation had paid my fare. I would have been duly grateful, but it did not contribute a cent.
6."C.B." has either not studied political science or cannot count. His figure of "15 democracies" is noiselessly inaccurate. As for countries where full politically democratic rights may not exist, the important question is the extent of the democracy in the student unions. All Istanbul participants passed on this count.

In conclusion, I did not speak to the motion at Curious Cove, having departed at least four days earlier. This was no doubt convenient for some people who, I am told, misquoted me to support their arguments in support of the motion. As a matter of interest, the British National Union has now withdrawn from its short-lived experiment of associate membership in IUS.

M. J. O'Brien.