A THINKING PEOPLE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 460, 30 June 1937, Page 5

A THINKING PEOPLE

BULWARK AGAINST MILITARISM Safeguard For Democracy a Whangarei, June 29. “Since 1914 we have never been closer to a world war than last Thursday,” said the Hon. P. Fraser, act-ing-Prime Minister, at a reception at Whangarei. . He attributed the present crisis to the rise of dictatorships and militarism, and said that democracy was in danger of being scrapper as in Germany, Italy and other countries unless it adjusted itself to the present ever-changir.?; complexities. New Zealand must play its part in contributing to the maintenance and safeguarding of the British Commonwealth, the greatest force in uphol'd'ing democracy. The Minister emphasised the necessity of giving children free access to fountains of knowledge £o that they could judge the facts and think for themselves. Intelligent, welKnformed people were the only real safeguard for democracy in the Dominion, the most democratic country in the world in which an attempt was being made to apply democratic id’eals in relation to economic production.