Let There Be Light.

I notice that your report of lecture on "The Human Mind Under Communism and Capitalism" bears the heading "Margaret Macpherson Answers Mr. Falla." This tends to give a false impression. My lecture enlarged on Mr. Falla' article, but was not in any way an answer. Your report says: "Referring to Mr. Falla's statement about the exclusive secondary schools for the children of the elite, the speaker said this was a misstatement of the actual conditions." Sir I did not say Mr. Falla had made a mis-statement. In answer to a question about his statement, I said that it was correct so far as it went but was liable to misconstruction. The fact is that Russian children who desire secondary education and have an aptitude for it may obtain it. When the places in a school are limited, however, preference is given to children of proletarian origin, and it is the exbourgeois whose children have to wait. When it is understood that the proletariat are the elite, then Mr. Falla's statement is perfectly correct. As I pointed out, one of our worst faults, one of the worst sins of the genus homo, is this of seeing things through the spectacles of our social, political, and national prejudices. Mr. Falla looked at Russia through the glasses of a cultured young gentleman of the wealthier class. Your reporter heard me through the ears of one who is prejudiced against Mr. Falla's sort of prejudice. Both gentlemen give an interesting illustration of the colour that is lent to phenomena by the background of prejudice. When we are capable of divesting ourselves of such prejudice we shall see and hear things clearly and fairly in the white light of truth.

Margaret Macpherson.