Dear Sir

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 59, 5 April 1946, Page 4

Dear Sir

Letters to the Editor must bo clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a nom-de-pluine is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the right to amend or withhold any letter or letters.

WANTED A REFERENDUM Sir, —There are few things more repugnant than to sign away ones liberty. To sign the Bretton Woods Pact—an act of treachery to humanity and to the British people—means bondage. We in this country are approaching the crucial point; we must decide whether we (our members) are to sign the Bretton Woods Pact. Now Sir ; as I have said before, we, the Dominion must help Britain out, but it can not be done without the help of the people. It is only by the people’s voice that we can get things done. Now is the time to voice our policy (and by the way we have left our policy to our respective members too long, the member for Remuera being the only one to speak his mind on this point). Let us ask our Member for his delays are dangerous. It is quite safe to say that when the Bretton Woods Pact "is signed Great Britain will be sold into bondage, and the American people will be cursed from one end of the globe to the other. This will be the starting of World War No. 111. I believe that the great privileges and safeguards of democracy are not to be enjoyed by a people prepared on every occasion to sit back and “let George do it.” That the benefits of Democracy must be paid for in coin more sterling than a willingness to mark a ballot paper once in three years. That unless direction re policy, on issues as they arise is expressed by a sufficient number of thoughtful and responsible citizens, and impressed upon their representatives the direction of policy will tend to gravitate into fewer and fewer hands, thus reducing our boasted Democracy into a degenerate constitution indistinguishable from a dictatorship. New Zealanders: This is our country. The responsibility for the purposes to which its forces are applied is our responsibility. It is up to us! Get busy! Neglect spells disaster. • Yours etc., W. BRADSHAW.