DISCIPLINE FOR FREEDOM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1941, Page 8

DISCIPLINE FOR FREEDOM

TO MEET TOTALITARIAN THREAT. “On finding ourselves at war to the death with a highly-organised totalitarian Power of great efficiency, it became obvious early in the game that if we British were not to be blotted out, democracy and all, during the emergency, we had to organise tightly and to some extent totalitarianise ourselves, too." said Mr David Low, the cartoonist, in a talk broadcast to America. “And,so here we are, with complete unanimity (except for those persons whose natural tidiness of mind is outraged by the paradox), in process of becoming perhaps 60 to 80 per cent controlled for the war for freedom. This has not come about through the machinations of a spellbinding despot, noithe cunning propaganda of an official press, nor yet by the blackjacks of a Gestapo. It has come about by the insistence of the people often against reluctant leadership. Democracy has not been suborned by authority, rather leaders have had to run to keep up with the rank and file. Straw votes and polls show that public demand for closer control and organisation leads Mr Churchill by the nose even now. Don’t make the shallow mistake of thinking that our present mood has cost us our democracy, that our freedom has gone down the drain for ever. These temporary sacrifices of our institutions have not been made lightly. They mark not the decline of our democracy, but its growth to mature responsibility. Its passing of this crucial test should be in itself sufficient guarantee of its ability to resume its freedom when the job is finished.”