Dear Sir,

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 90, 24 June 1946, Page 6

Dear Sir,

Letters to the Editor must bo 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, abridge amend or withhold.any letter or letters.

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

Sir, —I agree with ever so much stated by Mr Bradshaw, but his ideas are confused. In defining democracy as a form of government in which supreme power is vested in the people your correspondent is merely stating in other words that the people have the right and the power to change .government by peaceful means. It is on this latter point that attention has to be focussed for Mr Bradshaw's democracy can by the will of the people confer absolute power on some particular government "and change itself into a totalitarian state, in which there is then no method of changing government by peaceful means. This is what happened in Germany though that country was never more than quasi-democratic. The same thing can happen in a true democracy. Mr Bradshaw and I agree that once the State obtains complete control of the Banking system and has vested in it the right to decide what individuals are to obtain credit then democracy becomes impossible. My theory or definition of democracy does not thereby break down at all. What has happened is that the people in their folly or ignorance have done something which will destroy their power over government. Has Mr Bradshaw forgotten that the monetary reformers demanded that "the issue and control of money and credit should be placed into the hands of the State, where it rightly belongs?" They now demand that control be removed from the State which is indisputable evidence that their ideas were all wrong. In a free competitive banking system there can be no monopoly ?of credit and any .monopoly of credit which exists today Has resulted from new fashioned ideas of control which monetary reformers helped. .to bring about. The monetary system is merely a means to facilitate the exchange of goods and it was the planners with their new fashioned ideas who tried to make the money system pay for war guilt to the tune of thousands of millions after 1918. It was politicians who having done this then took action to prevent payment by the only way in which it could be made, by the exchange of goods. Every action governments took was contrary to orthodox principles, of banking and economics. Every action which politicians took to restrict trade, to fix rents, to establish quotas, limit production so as to try and maintain prices was the result of new fashioned ideas of control. Governments interfered with the natural laws of supply and demand and all this finally completely overbalanced the whole economic system. The crash became inveitable despite the fact that in 1928 the American Government in order to postpone the inevitable pumped in another four hundred millions of created credit.

If Mr Bradshaw would study the Maloney Report on Russia which conforms the Citrine Report of 1938 he would then understand that by 1938 Russia had moved to a standard of living far below that existing under the last Czar. He might also understand why between 1922 and 1938 over twenty million Russians died of starvation under State control. He would then have long ago foreseen that, with governments everywhere trying to plan production and distribution, it was inevitable that Europe should be faced -with famine for I presume Mr Bradshaw does know, but has forgotten, that the needs of mankind can only be provided by individuals operating under free competition and that such a system is a precondition to the existence of democracy and the enjoyment by the people of those fundamental freedoms (freedom of speech, religion, freedom from want and fear) which we cannot do without, for none of these can exist in a Socialist State or planned economy. Yours etc., "ONLOOKER!"

Story Behind the Scenes There is a story behind one of the incidents in "Duck shooting in the South," a production made by the National Film unit during its visit to Otago and Southland, which will be screened throughout the Dominion shortly. The camera crew decided to introduce a lighter touch by the inclusion of a sequence dealing with the activities of a novice in quest of ducks. The suggestion" was made that a machine-gun might be used, and strenuous efforts were made to obtain one. Eventually, at six o'clock on the evening before the opening of the season, the military area officer in the south was approached with a request for a mach-ine-gun, and after several offices had been visited the persistence of the camera crew was rewarded and the use of a Vickers gun was granted. The inexpert sportsman's efforts to obtain a limit bag in this unorthodox way should provide one of the brightest features of the film.