W.E.A. AND BOLSHEVISM.

Shannon News, 20 December 1921, Page 4

W.E.A. AND BOLSHEVISM.

(To the Editor.)

Dear Sir,—During the past winter you were hind enough to extend the hospitality of your pages to reports of the W.E.A. meetings; The account given recently in the Wellington press Qf my trial for assault on, a late organiser of the W.E.A. has probably made you regret your hospitality u:d feel that it has been abused.

By the time you receive this letter I shall have Jelt God’s Own Country, a sadder and a wiser man, but more than ever determined to assault ignorance and humbug wherever I find it. 'I am sure you will show greater courtesy than the magistrate who refused me an opportunity to reply to the charges of “Bolshevism, sedition and disloyalty”—irrelevant charges listened to without reproof from the bench. Is it not clap-trap to talk of British loyalty when the first element of the British character, i.e., a love of fairplay, is thrown overboard, as is the case when a defendant is not permitted to answer 'the chargs brought against him ' To accuse a person of Bolshevism in the present state of this country’s nerves, is to condemn him outright, and to prejudice the public against any movement with which he may have been connected. The opponents of the W.E.A. have not'hesitated to make political capital out of this case, and in their eager-" ness to suppress adult education, pretend to see in the: W.E.A. a training ground for Bolsheviks. If to criticise a country’s laws, customs, institutions and governmental policy . is Bolshevism, then all those reformers and liberators who have given the British Commonwealth what good qualities she possesses were Bolsheviks; they 1 were disloyal to the law and order of their day. They had faith in progress, which the conservative mind holds to be high treason. A few years ago it was the fashion to pour 'scorn on Prussianism, and to ridicule the servile spirit of the Prussian school and university teachers: to-day, zeal for Prussianism has become a recommendation for promotion in the New Zt aland educational service. History, literature, economics, and I suppose even- arithmetic must he coloured to suit the taste of the political party in power. To expose war profiteers and graft is “slander”; to express sympathy for the starving people of Russia is “Bolshevism”; to suggest That the futile reparation clauses ol' the Treaty of Versailles are amongst the, causes of unemployment in Great Britain, and that self-interest as well a& humanity tells us to help both Russia and Germany to their feet—-this is “disloyalty.” Do Mr , Lloyd George, Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Grey, and Mr Asquith come under the ban of -the Minister of Education, now that they have openly declared themselves in favour of a revision of the Versailles Treaty, and of the economic restoration of Germany and Russia? In to-day’s paper I see Mr Ivrassin has addressed the Oxford Union: what a pity the New Zealand Minister of Education cannot restrain the authorities of the Home university from permitting a Bolshevik emissary to tamper with the morals and intelligence, of English students. Is not his inquisitorial ability wasted in .this country, when such scope for his activities awaits him in England? It is a farce to pretend that intellectual liberty exists if the minds of teachers are to be regulated by The politicians of the hour. The party politicians. with their spies and informers may flourish for the. moment, hut they are in danger of overreaching themselves. A reputation for patriotism may be darned cheaply by those who care to prostitute themselves and the truth at the bidding of such transient authorities. To raise the catch-call of “antiBritish” against those who object to such prostitution is both dishonourable and contemptible. So long as the attitude of the would-be leaders of the State to social and political questions is characterised by fear of new ideas, hatred of the free expression of unpalatable truths, and a desire to retain political power by the votes of an ignorant electorate, no progress in education can be made. A blow struck in the heat of passion may be forgotten. The countless kicks at the W.E.A. will be neither forgiven nor forgotten. In conclusion may I express my thanks to those friends in Shannon who have sent me their sympathy and congratulations—l remain, yours faithfully,

C. ff. MARSH-ROBERTS 22 Hill Street, Wellington.