Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 11 July 1931, page 12


"NO POLITICAL FREEDOM."

Professor Anderson's Address.

In an address to the university Free Thought Society, Professor John Anderson stated that idols such as war memorials and the religious celebrations which take place

around them were superstitious notions. Keep-ing up these fetishes served a purpose of blocking discussion on the nature and reasons of war. Matters of public interest should not be carried on in secret by Governments.

Referring to the Great War, Professor Anderson said that the British were not at all enthusiastic about it when it broke out. The Government was confronted with the question of making the largest number support the war in the shortest time. Stories were fabricated about German atrocities in Bel-gium in order to make the British people

become enthusiastic.

The political conditions could not be de-scribed as democratic. In spite of what was called democracy, there was no responsibility on the part of the people in matters of foreign policy.

Professor Anderson added that there was no political freedom. The state of the coun-try was a dictatorship. Public servants were prevented from expressing themselves, and could not criticise their superiors. People could be arrested for vagrancy and consort-ing. It was possible to arrest anyone who did not belong to the property class. The evidence of one policeman counted more than a number of denials. All these questions should be open to discussion. If this dis-cussion was opposed to existing laws and constitutions, then these laws and constitutions must be wrong.