Some hope yet …

By Tony Jaques

"While the immediate future is not very bright, as I would be forced to concede, I believe that the longer run prospect is by no means so grim," said Professor J. K. Galbraith (below) speaking to a capacity crowd in the Victoria University Memorial Theatre.

"There has been a disappearance of the old consensus on the containment of communism—what we have come to call the cold war priesthood," he said. "This is expressed most notably in the appearance of opposition to the Vietnam war."

He said that as disunity had appeared in the communist world, disputes had arisen in the attitude of Americans to foreign policy.

A reflection of this was that America could express support for the passionate nationalism of the Czechs, but not for the equally passionate nationalism of the South Vietnamese.

Prof. Galbraith instanced as other major changes in American thinking a new approach to civil rights—"President Johnson will be known in modern times as the civil rights present"—and the growing interest in politics of young people.

"There is a great demand for a conversational and candid style among politicians. The appeal of this is to young people who don't mind so much what the politicians say, so long as they look as though they believe it."