Wild motion?

Sir,—It Is a great pity that; NZUSA moved a motion to urge the Government to support full-scale economic sanctions against Rhodesia, without consulting the students they supposedly represent. The wild and impractical nature of the motion is not worthy of a university organisation. At least some universities saw fit to abstain or tried, unsuccessfully, to amend the motion. Such an issue as this is not for the NZUSA to decide alone.

In this country there is a trend for a group, once it is a position of seeming responsibility, to forget those who put it there. It appears that NZUSA wants the public to think that students desire the anarchical state that exists in the majority of black-run African countries. to take over in Rhodesia. I do not want to see perpetuated the solelywhite government. but it is certainly less a "threat to peace and a betrayal of human rights" than an abortive black government would be. To last against the present sanctions proves the strength of the Rhodesian administration, a strength not shared by any black-run African country at present. There is great foolishness in replacing a strong, self-supporting state, which has something to contribute to the world, with yet another of the "independent" black-controlled states. whose economy can only exist when bolstered with loans from overseas white countries, whose fellow countrymen they had so ardently expelled.

A coalition of black and white is the ideal for Rhodesia. but as long as there is a suggestion of a solely-black government in Rhodesia, Mr. Smith's policy is the only practical one. Why should the whites give up all they have done for the country? It would not be as strong as it is if it were not for them. There is a principle of right and stability at stake, a principle we have no right. whatsoever. to decry. If, however, we are going to decry it, let it be as the result of a poll of student opinion and not the action of those who represent us, on their own account.