PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21208, 3 September 1940, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by coi respondents whose letters are welcome, but to r whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless tiffs rule is complied with, their letters will not appear. PETROL FROM SHALE? (To the Editor) Sir, —I noticed in your columns about the middle of last week that Mr E. T. Cox, of Dunedin, is endeavouring to raise the capital necessary to float a company which is to extract alcohol from, presumably, our surplus potatoes. It is a splendid effort, no doubt, which should absorb any unemployed and an industry lyhich may have great possibility, but I should like to bring before your notice on this subject of petrol that at Orepuki, Southland, Is a shale oil works, fully equipped, although machinery may be obsolete by now, and lying idle. Now, we are badly in need of this commodity for the furtherance of our war effort, keeping men employed, and for, in many instances, transport of persons and goods. Our farmers are endeavouring tc do their bit and find prices have risen whereever petrol is used, so I approach you and perhaps some more able penman, to get together on this question, as it looks as though the petrol rations existing cannot be relaxed, and this is an excellent opportunity for our Government to signify whether or not it is with us in this matter. The Emergency Powers Bill, we are told, is for the express purpose of conducting our efforts into winning the war. Here, I maintain, is the opportunity to help a very large section of the public without disturbing sterling funds. In any case, as a genuine suggestion it should be investigated, as machinery, buildings; etc., are, I understand, still in good repair and would not be the cost of the other suggested company, for shale is at present being used for the production of petrol in Australia.—l am, etc., SOLUTION. Horotiu, September 2. INTERNATIONAL APPEAL (To the Editor) Sir.—This joint letter from members of the International P.E.N. Club, London, taken from Time and Tide, should be read widely:— “ At this moment, when the future, not of our nation alone, but that of all nations, is being decided, we, the undersigned English writers, ask to be heard by the writers of other countries. “ Our country lias been blamed for actions most manifestly taken because we hoped by them to avert war. We failed. We failed to check the deliberate and carefully-prepared violence which has invaded and killed in one country after another, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France. Where the invading armies of Germany have gone, unarmed men and women and children have been mercilessly killed, and freedom of mind and spirit has been crushed out. “ It is not only life which Is threatened; it is freedom of conscience, and if it is lost, as it is lost wherever the Nazi power extends, life itself is not worth a breath. We ask all those who have still the liberty to speak, and to think, to consider what this means. “ We ask you to make It clear to people in your country that we with our Allies are not fighting only for ourselves, but for the belief we share with every man, of any race and religion, who holds that men should icspect each other and minds should be free. We are fighting for our cwn lives. We are fighting in the hope to end this war before more children, innocent if anyone is, have been slaughtered, in their homes and as they flee from their homes. But in as much as we are fighting for the consciences of our children we arc fighting for the people of every nation, without exception. “ We ask you to know this. We ask you, with the confidence that you will judge us fairly, to support us as best you can in a struggle which is not ended yet. We do not expect defeat. We expect danger and we are able to face it. We expect your belief in us. And we pledge ourselves on our part to remember that a lasting peace can be based only on justice. We do not desire and we will set our faces against revenge. We appeal to each one of you individually to pass our words on, by every means to the nations of the world.” The letter is signed by Storm Jameson (president), Hermon Ould (general secretary), H. G. Wells, J. B. Priestley, Henry W. Nevinson (former presidents), Bonamy Dobree, Walter de la Mare, E. M. Forster, Gilbert Murray, V. Sackville West, Hugh Walpole, Rebecca West (vicepresidents), Anthony Asquith, Phyllis Bentley, Vera Brittain, Gerald Bullett, George Catlin, Guy Chapman, Richard Church, G. D. H. Ede, Susan Ertz, Eleanor Farjeon, Louis Golding, G. P. Gooch, G. Rostrevor Hamilton, Nora Heald, R. E. Hutchison, Margaret Irwin, Henrietta Leslie, C. Day Lewis, F. L. Lucas, Robert Lynd, Kingsley Martin, Irene Rathbone, Ernest Raymond, Owen Rutler, Beatrice Kean Seymour, Howard Spring, Olaf Stapledon, L. A. G. Strong, Frank Swinnerton, H. M. Tomlinson, Marjorie Watts, Alec Waugh, Evelyn Wrench.—l am. etc., SYMPATHY. Hamilton, August 30.