THE PATH TO LIBERTY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 2, 18 January 1937, Page 4

THE PATH TO LIBERTY

Russia?s new Constitution, recently adopted, piaces on paper the most lofty aspirations • of democratic government. Free speech, free assembly, the right of all classes to vote secretly fdr their reprCsentatives, the right of persons to be free from seizure without warrant, their right to worship as they choose, their right to own personal properfy, their right to appeal fro.m arbitrary imprisonment— all' these basic precepts of democracies are commtted to paper and" there are new rights evolved. Men shall have the right to leisure, free education of all kinds, and security cliims eeonomic winds that blow, this Constitution proc • T-e! RuS!ffn dictatorshiP has not abdicated; the so-called Socialist Magna Charta does not permit the Russian people to challenge the Commnnist party by the intrusion of a single new faction into the politics! field; phrases like free speech and free assembly are mterpreted in ways foreign to established democracies. When one has duly recognised the unshrunken form of the dictatorship, and when one has applied all necessary qualifications, it is obvious that Russia's advance towards democracy is largely Hkeltar0 t' t, 4 therC may te S°me profit on paPer- For rulerS hke Stalin to have committed to paper these great democratic as!Zt°nrl5 a Tan tr^Ute„to the res^ance and strength of these i eals. The actually free Russian may be a distant person. But it is importaut that after nineteen years of rigid regimentation, ruthless liquidation" of the classes and suppressive espionage, the very men who have presided over such policies have deemed it wise to put into words the great ideals of free men. But if these ideals can struggle through such cynical soil as eommumsm to flower even in words, there may be, there must be, greater triumphs for these ideals. The thoUghtful man may see ra the Russian Constitution largely a gesture, but he will not underestimate the great implieations in the fact tha f the gesture was made* If great precepts can animate a gesture, they can win the full Victory of freedom in fact, democracy, triumphant in spirit as weU as in letter.