“ Crime of Espousing Democracy ”

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 6

“ Crime of Espousing Democracy ”

MR. J. A. LEE ON DICTATORIAL CONTROL “The Crime of Espousing Democracy” is the title of the second article by Mr. J. A. Lee, M.P., in “Tomorrow. ’ * Making his position clear that he and his friends are fighting for the selection of Cabinet by the Parliamentary Labour Party, Mr. Lee draws the parallel with Germany to suggest the lengths into which autocracy is driven. “I have always been pleased to know,” writes Mr. Lee, “that the 14 or 15 returned soldier members in the Labour Party have all been in favour of democratic control of the Labour Party, yet Nationalist pressmen and speakers refer to these men as dangerous leftists. Democratic Control “Is every returned soldier M.P., with all the other members who believe in democratic control of the Labour Party, a dangerous leftist because he is a democrat 7 “Is such an attitude dangerous, destructive, criminal? “Must a man only fight for democracy in khaki? “I keep to the case of the returned soldier because I do not believe it honourable to risk danger for democracy in uniform and dUhonourablo when in mufti. “The term leftist used in relationship to any Labour M.P. is merely a device of unscrupulous propaganda. I know no Labour member who wants more legislation than the party pledged itself to pcoplo for.” Further stressing tho vital necessity for democratic control of the Party, Mr. Lee concludes: “I do not believe there is any man in the world big enough to dominate completely the fate of a party or country'. Big men do not try. The neurosis which makes anyone believe he is a party unto himself is the neurosis which produces Hitlers.”