BRITAIN'S COURSE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 107, 22 May 1937, Page 4

BRITAIN'S COURSE

"Betvrsen Conssrvatism on the one hand, and Fascism and Gommiinism on the other, quite as wide a gulf is flxed as between these two rival creeds themselves. Beneath their superfloial differences Fascism and Communism are alike in their deihcation of the State, in their permeation of every detail of public and private life with 'the imperious influence of an irresponsible despotism, in their ruthless use of the secret police to crush every manifestation of opposition. Beside such a ccmmunion as this what does it matter that the one worships a tribe, the other a class? They are, in faet, a pair of political religions whose fanticisms and cruelties and mutual conflicts are as outnumbered as the wars of religion themselves. "Because several countries on the Continent have seen flt to put the clock back to the Thirty Years' War, is that any reason why Great Britain should suddenly abjure the accumulated experience of . centuries in the art of government? Uttder the institutions she is now clamorously invited to abandon she has built up an Empire greater in extent and more splendid in its spontaneous association of freemen than any Empire in the records of history. Is the present generation of Engliahmen indeed so decadent that it cannot preserve its heritage without a refresher eourse in the political kindergarWn of | om -"^Moming Bost, London.