Dear Sir,

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 24, 16 November 1945, Page 4

Dear Sir,

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a nom-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the right to amend or withhold any leftter or letters. WHITHER BOUND HUMANITY ? Sir —Your correspondent Mr Mayow docs not answer Mr Dannan s argument because there is no answer to his argument. Mr Mayow's reply is merely that il' you do not agree with 'the Socialist idea then you are an enemy of humanity. Socialists put forward their new idea but dare not allow investigation as to how the idea works out in practice and if people would only turn their attention to understanding how a Socialist state functions then it would be clearly understood that all the evils of Fascism are inherent in any Socialist state or planned economy. We read with horror of the 61 000 dying in Burma under Japanese control, but what of the 3,000,000 Poles deported to Siberia by Russia ii> 1939 when Russia was not at war. We know that all except a lew thousand died of starvation and exposure, for we had 700 Polish children in New Zealand. These were .some of the escaped survivorship | ing witnesses to the terrible cxime. ; This is only one of numerous such acts perpetrated upon not only the Russian people but now upon the ! people of the States of Eastern Europe under 'Russian domination. This, of course, ife Mr Mayow's idea of the. new order—the new civilisation. We have got to face up to the facts about Russia and Socialism, and our failure to do so has created a problem more difficult than the war. By concealing the truth, by pretending that Russia is a demo-» cracy or, if you like it, by prattling'about the high ideals of Russia we have undermined our own deu/oeratic system and have bolshevised Europe.

The end and aim of all human association is the freeing of this mind and freedom of thought and speech can only exist uAder democracy which in turn can exist only in a system of free enterprise. As Roosevelt has. put it ? "There can be no political freedom without economic freedom." In other words no laws or written constitutions can give us freedom of thought speech and the right and power to change government by peaceful means. All these rights and powers arise wholly and solely out of an economic system based on the private or individual ownership, of the means of producdistribution and exchange plus the right of the individual to plan what lie does with what he owns. Destroy free enterprise and all our fundamental freedoms vanish and it is because we have forgotten this that world chaos is. being created.

Yours etc. P. ARDATH.