What Our Readers Are Thinking

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 11, 13 July 1949, Page 4

What Our Readers Are Thinking

Though their views on all subjects are freely published here because we believe it our duty to uphold the public’s right to freedom of opinion, our correspondents’ opinions are not necessarily shared by this news, aper. POWER CUTS Sir, —May I be allowed to congratulate the Whakatane County Council on its decision to call a meeting of all public bodies in Whakatane and Opotiki to discuss the present disgusting power situation. It is the first intelligent move any body has yet made to have the position improved. Apparently the people of Whakatane are content to have the present cuts and it has been left to a body of country gentlemen to do something about it. I wish them success. Yours etc.', POWER SAVER. POWER FOR RUGBY WANTED Sir, —May we be permitted the use of your valuable columns to express the following sentiments:— 1. We wish the All Blacks the best of luck in the Test with the Springboks next Saturday night. 2. We trust that if defeated,' they will accept it as a spur to greater effort and not in the same spirit of resignation as the Whakatane people have accepted, their .inadequate power ration.

3. We wish listeners in the rest of the North Island good listening, and trust that at half time they will give a kindly thought to Whakatane residents whose inadequate power ration helps to make-'pos-sible the-listening of others. 4. We trust that the extra power which will be used on Saturday night will not embarrass the power authorities any more than did the extra 10,000 units consumed during the' first night of the Cricket Test, Yours etc.,

■lB WHAKATANE RESIDENTS

P.S. If anyone proposes to hold a party round a battery set kindly let us know—addresses available at Beacon Office.

BONER BEEF AND DOLLARS Sir, —Mr Kearns hon. member for Waimarino said during the debate at Wellington on July 7, that unless the breeding of beef cattle was increased New Zealand would only" be exporting boner beef and the surplus of dairy herds. Which explains why we seldom have ox beef on our tables. Grandmama mutton, or what the freezing works butchers call “Chinese lanterns,” are supposed to be good enough for New Zealand consumption. The best must answer the call of the dollar king. Vesty Bros, alone have 2000 retail shops in London and control the Farrendon Meat Market where New Zealand meat is sold, they are also up to their necks in U.S.A. finance.

At the moment the dollar deciples have the key men of the world’s politics at their feet begging for relief from the burden of debt their constituents have to bear. Why, because the U.S.A. sold dear and bought cheap. “Good business” for self yes, but for others! Today’s news is the answer. A tidal wave of genuine public opinion would have the dollarmen on their knees in 24 hours if public opinion had the courage to tell them where to get off. To begin with, the Church should concentrate on covetousness in-

stead of Communism. I have no time for it but its root cause is the pressure of the topper dog and the knowledge of the masses that they have been had, which Communist leaders use to stir up trouble—or an atomic social bomb, which the dollarines mean to touch off when their “time” is ripe for another big coup, and the devil take the rest of humanity. A devastating slump or war is staring the whole world in the face. In either case the dollar owners will make good but how about the rest? The only alternative is to tell them to do the same as the Almighty did with their gold, bury it and as for the millions of debts the rest of the world has paid over and over again, if it impoverishes them they will be no worse off than the millions they have exploited. Finally why should a comparative teaspoonful of humanity dominate the rest? If for good, certainly, but if for extortion, war, famine and pestilence decidedly no.

Yours etc., HARRY SERGANT. PEACETIME CONSCRIPTION Sir, —I do not belong to any organisation whatever concerned with this question. I am not, and never have been, a Communist. As an individual, I oppose Peacetime Conscription because I believe it is: Bad in principle, bad in practice, bad in motive. It is bad in principle, because it

is the deadliest of all attacks on individual liberty, our proud tradition. Surely the increasing number of controls and restrictions which

have been imposed on us have not crushed our morals so low that we will offer no resistance to this'Y final assault on all we have fought L for and cherished. Peacetime con-y scription will create a destructive military spirit in our youth; it will undermine initiative, independence and social standards; it will debase our national outlook to that of the totalitarian countries we despise; it will inevitably bring about greater centralised control of industry, employment and leisure; it will destroy the last yestiges of freedom. It is bad in practice, because it will not achieve any of the objectives which are claimed for it, even if we accept all those objectives as necessary and desirable. It will not improve the defence of New Zealand; it will not increase New Zealand’s ability to contribute to Britnsh Commonwealth defence; -it will not improve the standards of our youth. It will, disrupt industry' and production, further discourage enterprise, raise taxation, inhibit national development. Many of the world’s leading military authorities • -- agree that this method of is the worst, most expensive and unproductive.

Totalitarian Conscription has led to war and to the defeat of the conscript countries twice this century. What terrible insanity afflicts those who wish us to follow that, disastrous* road.

It is bad in motive, becau~: " can be no doubt whatever in the light of the known facts that (a) ! the High Brass want Conscription i to maintain and increase their own ! power in peacetime, and to justify their 3,500 officers and N.C.O/s, (b) i the Government wants it as an ; economic safeguard against threatened depression and unemployment, a means of perpetuating all other i wartime controls, and possibly a I means of dealing with industrial unrest—God help us! (c) the Opposition wants it because it fears the prospect of taking over the Treasury benches at a time when Wall Street foreshadows another slump without drastic means at its disposal to deal with a problem on which it is still abysmally ignorant or frightened to depart from orthodoxy. The only alternative to increasing controls and taxation is a major reform of our financial system which would finally destroy the power of the money machine, after barely surviving two self-created. World Wars and a Depression. Can the truth penetrate the Iron Curtain of Radio Monopoly—for the Government is refusing to allow any statement of the case against conscription to be heard over the State-owned radio? Will not the very fact that such strenuous efforts are being made to suppress opposition and' prevent ■it being heard arouse the’ suspicion of the most credulous, the spirit of fair play in the most indifferent, the curiosity of the most apathetic, the righteous wrath of every democrat, every lover of freedom? Yours etc., JOHN HOGAN. Wellington, July 7, 1949.