BRITISH WAY OF LIFE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1939, Page 2

BRITISH WAY OF LIFE

THREE PRIMARY ESSENTIALS. The essentials of the British way of life are threefold, says the "Round Table.” The first is the rule of law: freedom from arbitrary arrest and punishment, from privileged castes and uniforms that are above the ordinary laws, from concentration camps and firing squads, and from all the other sneaking, cruel machinery of the secret police system. With this essential of freedom based on law may be associated the fair and equitable treatment of minorities, the recognition that men of all creeds, races and colours have their rights as fellow-men and fellowcitizens. The second essential is freedom of conscience and of utterance. Within the wide limits set by public morals, the law of defamation and the prevention of incitement to violence, we uphold in the British Commonwealth freedom of religion, freedom of organisation, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. Attacks upon these, however earnestly excused, are attacks upon one of the things that make the British Commonwealth worth while. The third essential is economic freedom, within the scope of man’s present mastery of nature. Here, as elsewhere, freedom is founded on a balance of rights and duties, and it is not always certain, especially in international economic affairs and in the relations between classes, when the balance is fairly poised. There are indeed many differences of opinion over the best way to secure economic freedom, some praising individual liberty of choice in labour or business, others praising trade-union solidarity and social control.