GOODWILL IN POLITICS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 436, 31 October 1947, Page 20

GOODWILL IN POLITICS

| Sir,-I found Norman Corwin’s final broadcast of his One World Flight series disappointing. The main idea seemed to be that goodwill and hard work on the part of the citizens in. all countries would usher in international harmony, or at least, avert war. This is far from true. Goodwill is politically effective only when embodied in institutions. For example, the benefits of the English judicial system-such things as trial by jury and Habeas Corpus-are the fruit of political struggles ending in a modification of the existing system. Unorganised goodwill does not redeem politics. John Wesley was not complete without Shaftesbury, who applied humanitarian principles in a sphere where they became socially effective. In the matter of international harmony, despite the atom bomb we need a long perspective. We are, consciously or unconsciously, beginning to define the nature of world government. The common man has only recently been able to speak with a political voice. Considering the limitations still existing in domestic government, it is not surprising that the world structure is far from complete. Very few ordinary men and women want war. But the point is that it will be a long time before they are equipped and duly represented in the councils of the world. Between the unharnessed energy of ordinary people who only feel the more immediate threat to security, and the lust for power and wealth in so: many who rule, goodwill floats like a ghost, while security is edged towards a horrible abyss. Nevertheless, experience has always been the teacher, and the day will come when international goodwill will assume its proper political shape.

JOHN

SUMMERS

(South Brighton).

(Abridged. Ed. )