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Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1928, Page 2

Earn. Bai.i-ouk may he regarded as the Grand Old Wan of British politics today. He was horn in .1819 and elite r- •. I politics at the age of 2(i in 1875. !!.• was private secretary In Lord Salisbury, the contemporary of Gladstone. so that his interest in British and world politics has been very intimate over a long neried, for no le-s than oti years in fact a truly notable record. Lord Balfoin is a man of letters wh > is always interesting to listen to. lie gave the British nation the other day (according to the cables) a new watchword or slogan. When the war broke out in 1914, Karl Balfour was (54, but be was not to i old t i bcalled to the counsels of the Slate and lie was one of the most useful Ministers during that stressful time. The war was intended to make the world safe for democracy hut after the period of peace Earl Balfour would now have the slogan revised, and make democracy safe for the world. As the world jogs along now there is a world of difference in the turning round of the slogan. Many tilings have happened since the upheaval of the war period. Democracy rules nowadays blit the license is used with varying degrees of freedom. Bolshevism, communism, fascism, and other isms, have grown tip and democracy rule through those channels is very one-sided. The World is very unsafe under such governments. and the aptness of Earl Balfour’s corrective is apparent at once. In our waters, we are where cooks and stewards and firemen are ready at all times on very slight provocation lo set the surrounding world at. defiance. The spirit of revolt is but thinly veiled bv such tactics, and the ultimate effect, is to penalise the whole rather than the few immediately struck at by such tactics. The world is very unsafe where democratic ambitions run riot tsvaiwe of the license enjoyed under democratic labour laws. The position is being abused all ton frequently. and there is (he need to make democracy safe for the world. It is stupidly wrong for the holds up- which occur on inlcr-colnnial steamers lo go on with the world looking on indifferently. 'l’he people have to take cognisance of the drift in national freedom ami lilierty. which is resulting from loose, democratic laws, q’lie laws need revising so that the many may he protected from the few, and that democratic license under progressive laws will not he abused hut respected. Earl Balfour has 'lived long and learned mucli. "With his genius he perceives something of what is wrong with the world at present, and why the peace which should have followed the war is not the pence which the warriors sought. The public in each and every country must revise their ideas of democratic rule and seek to legislate in such a way that unrestricted license will Iso given the few that the many who give the law, suffer the most.