THE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS
Sir-Mr P. J. Alley objects to your editorial, "The Faithful Followers" in The Listener of May 10. Only Mr Alley himself knows whether (1) he is unable to understand plain statements put in plain English, or whether (2) for some obscure reasons of his own he is deliberately distorting those statements. The main purpose of your editorial was to Tegister a protest against those people who surfender their own reason and accept as infallible the ideas of others. Such people may be those who "give their loyalty to policies formulated in a foreign country," or they may be those "who believe that their own rulers are right in all circumstances which touch national security, They are so fanatical that they confuse honest criticism with disloyalty." These people, you say, are an embarrassment to the true patriot. Mr Alley takes all this as an attack on Communism, which it is not, and as an attack on "Russia," which it is not. He claims that you said that men who give their loyalty to a foreign country are an embarrassment to "true patriots," which you did not. He then flies off in defence of various people who have criticised the actions of the British Government, and says they are not disloyal. You did not say they werequite the reverse, in fact. Having turned everything you say completely round, Mr Alley finds your article "childish." It seems to me that it is he who is childish if, as I sa before, he cannot understand plain statements in plain language.
A.
WOODHOUSE
(Napier).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570607.2.22.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 930, 7 June 1957, Page 11
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262THE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 930, 7 June 1957, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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