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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 6. June 7, 1951

The Letter from the Socialist Club — Next Bus, Mr. Piper!

page 7

The Letter from the Socialist Club

Next Bus, Mr. Piper!

Mr. piper's letter criticising my article on the Socialist Club's difference with the Executive is remarkable for one thing; Its similarity to the Socialist Club's explanation to the Executive—like that explanation it entirely misses the point.

I did not "attack" either Messrs. Bollinger or Piper as his letter sets out by saying, but I did criticise the situation which arose from faults on both sides. The two officers concerned I presumed had their instruction from their Committee. I showed the article to Mr. MacNeill before publication and his approval, although qualified was not as qualified or as irrelevant as Mr. Piper's would have been.

Writing would have clarified the matter. If the Socialist Club had put their undertaking that they intended to request addresses on the Emergency Regulations, their background and the events leading up their being brought down, then the Executive would not have been able to state that they undertook to discuss the Emergency Regulations in vacuo.

Messrs. O'Brien had power from the Executive to stop the meeting If, in their opinion, it Went-outside the conditions laid down by the Association's legal advisers. That they chose not to exercise this power does not prove that the meeting did not trespass.

To accuse the Executive of lacking backbone is to ignore the whole point of my article and the Executive's request for an explanation. The Executive were no longer concerned about the Regulations when they requested an explanation, but they were concerned that an undertaking on an important matter, whether it concerned 'the Emergency Regulations or any other subject, appeared to have been broken. Such an action could under many circumstances have serious consequences for the whole student body, and the Executive are entitled to expect that undertaking by responsible club officers will be kept.

M. T. McIntyre.