THE INTERVENTION
Sir,-In the Lookout broadcast of Saturday, January 19, Mr. L. F. Rudd referred to what he called "the indirect lesson of the Suez affair" and "the lesson for the British Empire." When he spoke of the Anglo-French operation he called it "our combined forces." The lesson Mr. Rudd would have "us" learn from Suez js that the operations would have "succeeded" if planning, timing aad military preparations had been more skilfully carried out. To reinforce his contention, he described 200,000 Italians captured in the desert during World War II as being "better soldiers than the Egyptians are or ever will be." I listened patiently for some expression of regret or contrition-or even of doubt-at Britain’s aggression in Suez, but there was none. The speaker felt no guilt at what Britain and France had done, in spite of world-wide condemnation by the overwhelming majority of free countries; and what was worse to me as a New Zealander, he not only felt no remorse at New Zealand’s support for Britain’s act, but so identified this country’s aims with those of Britain that he could speak of . . . "our combined forces." I was immediately reminded of the Germans I had met who had said, "We would have won the war if Hitler had not attacked Russia, or, if we had invaded England in 1942." There was the same absence of any feeling of guilt for crimes committed. Speakers like Mr. Rudd (and they are only too common on Lookout) represent only a section of public opinion in this country but can do us untold harm among our Asian neighbours. It is time someone told Mr. Rudd that the British Empire has long since become the Commonwealth, and that English invasion forces are not necessarily "ours." The views of far too many clear-think-ing New Zealanders are ignored by the NZBS in its choice of Lookout speakers and far too much time is given to the editors of conservative newspapers. Let us have more trade-unionists, school teachers, and speakers from (say) the World — Federalist movement, the Rationalist Association and various ‘University groups, and less of those whose outmoded doctrines are liable to undo much of the good we have achieved by our part in the Colombo Plan.
O. E.
MIDDLETON
(Patumahoe).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 913, 8 February 1957, Page 5
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377THE INTERVENTION New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 913, 8 February 1957, Page 5
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