The Beg of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 13th. NOVEMBER, 1940 TOLERANCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 237, 13 November 1940, Page 4

The Beg of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 13th. NOVEMBER, 1940 TOLERANCE

WAR fever is a malady against which even the most respectable citizens of normal times appear to have little or no defence. The spirit of blind prejudice and hate grows with the intensity of hostilities, fanned naturally enough by the ■loss of loved ones. But there is a certain type of blind, senseless intolerance, that even the most inflamed minds find difficult to explain. This is the type of mentality which regards with deep suspicion any poor innocent alien who happens to have an accent, be he Greek,, Italian, French, Chinese, Indian or Arab. It is the type of brain which is unable to grasp the fact that there are other peoples on the globe, not members of the: British race. Many of the British-born even are made the victims of this ridiculous intolerance which of course is bred from the crass ignorance of the person concerned. The progress of the Great War was marked by a similar demonstration of vulgar and unthinking hostility a,gainst the most harmless visitors from other lands. The present war, though we pride ourselves we have advanced appears to be no exception. Whakatane has its own section of self-imposed members of the spy corps of intolerance. Whispered conversations at street corners., anent possible Fifth Colum'n activities in our own town; shadowed and guarded statements regarding parentage and extract of the selected victim of persecution lead to active measures, and thus the innocent is made to suffer, while the miserable individuals who started the avalanche preen themselves on their shallow patriotism and misdirected loya.lty. Surely we can keep our heads in the midst of our trials without allowing our balance and sense-of reason to desert us. Doubtless there are. subversive organisations; doubtless there are spies and fifth columnists even in this far-distant-Dominion, but does their existence give us the right to brand every person of a complexion differing from our own as criminal plotters and wreckers.. Such stupidity savours of the middle ages when poor helpless old women were burnt as witches, merely because they looked old. It is difficult enough for those well-meaning Germans and Italians (a.nd they are many) who caught by the tide of war are left stranded in the country of their enemies, without carrying the game, further and suspecting every foreigner naturalised or not. No, let us not waste our time and energies plotting the downfall of harmless people who have not been within thousands of miles of either Germany or .Italy. Let us get on with the real work which will assist to win the war in the British way, cleanly and decently.