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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 5. 1964.

Anarchist Leanings? National Club

page 7

Anarchist Leanings? National Club

A very quiet gathering of National Club members met for their AGM recently. Business was conducted to the strains of anarchist inspired levity and sceptical interjections. A motion from Jonty Markham gave the National boys a chance to affiliate to the Royal Association of Anarchists; a move which no national member spoke against, but which was defeated fourteen votes to eight. Had liaison been better between the instigators of the motion and the extravites rehearsing next door, the national club may well have found its chances of affiliation with the national party, which it later resolved to do, frustrated.

During the course of the business, N. Robertson, who had been a member of the team which earlier in the year debated against the Labour club, expressed a desire that the new club would not become a typical National Club. He said that it should consider ways in which our country could be better governed."

Responsibility for the club's activities was given to the committee, under the Presidency of third year Political Science and Law student Alister Taylor. They were directed to set up policy discussion groups and organise functions.

Rowlands complained from the floor on the centralisation of power in the committee's hands, after it had had the nomination of conference delegates referred to it for consideration.

Rowlands, whose connection with the National Club was challenged by Taylor, later tilled out a form for prospective membership of the club, as did Markham.

After the AGM, the Director General of the National Party, Mr. Wilson, spoke on "The Appeal of Right Wing Politics". "People," he said, "are happier if they have a stake in the show. Affairs are better run by people if they get an extra bob or two. The Right," he continued, "tends to stress that property rights and freedom mean for a healthier and better society. The past," he claimed, "was felt by the true conservative to be the best guide to the future. The Left say, out the window with the past."

When he maintained that the Right wing was more prepared for defence, Rowlands asked, "Who are we defending ourselves ourselves against?" "The fact remains," Mr. Wilson replied, "that in this day if we don't defend ourselves someone is liable to step in."

Economics graduate Tony Ashenden inquired as to whether the National Party were going to continue their "running, jumping, standing still direction of the economy, the policy of the Yoyo." Upon clarification of the question to "Does the party intend continuing these yoyo policies?" Mr. Wilson replied, "Briefly yes—it is the pragmatism of the right." Ashenden stressed the significance of Mr. Nordmeyer's policy to provide for growth and planning of the economy, enunciated during the election.