TEACHERS AND POLITICS
The opinion that the community was depriving itself of a valuable source of help by refusing to teachers the right to voice political views was expressed by Dr. West-Watson (Bishop of Christchurch), in his address at the Commemoration Day ceremony at Canterbury College. "I confess," said the. bishop, "that I regard with dismay the desire to inhibit our teachers from political expression. If there is on& problom which faces us squarely, and the shrinking of which threatens utter disaster, it is the problem of living together socially and internationally. If ouj: leaders of thought are to be forbidden to express opinions on these matters, we are depriving ourselves deliberately of one of our most hopeful springs of help. I should myself be sorry to see our university leaders enter the arena of party politics, for I should fxal that they had sacrificed something of their independence of judgment, but if we look on them as men who are devoted to the search for truth, and as on their honour to speak as men who are responsible to truth, surely it- ":s unwise to try to prevent them from speaking what they feel. I hope we shall not emulate the Athenians, who, when Socrates refused to be muzzled and be false to the call of truth, pit - sented him with a cup of hemlo-"k. History has decided the case iu fuvour of Socrates."
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Bibliographic details
Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 212, 2 May 1932, Page 6
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235TEACHERS AND POLITICS Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 212, 2 May 1932, Page 6
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