Free speech

I am sorry to observe that students at Victoria University are as impolite to guest speakers with whom they do not agree as students in other parts of the world. As a visitor from California who is well acquainted with aggressive student action and, in some instances, very much in tune with the student demands, I still believe in extending common courtesy to others.

While my husband was lecturing elsewhere on campus last evening on "Student Unrest" I attended a debate dealing with the sending of your All Black rugby team to South Africa. I visited South Africa several months ago and I am not at all in favor of apartheid; nevertheless, I would like to have heard what kind of a defense of the system a person from New Zealand could possibly present. I was prevented from hearing the debator's remarks because several students in the audience (one by name of Wheeler) were more interested in shouting "Fascist" than listening in order to better rebut in an intelligent manner the opposition.

How about it New Zealand students? Don't follow the senseless path of American students by letting a few rabble rousers control the group.

(Mrs) J.C. Gowan