Hypocrisy in Parliament
The Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, with especially a section of Government supporters on the Labour side of the House of Commons, made a professed moral issue of refusing to supply the South African Government with naval ships for the defence of their country from an external enemy. The basis of this supposed moral stand was said to be the continued policy of apartheid respecting the native African population. Let us here state that we are opposed to apartheid. Then again our readers are familiar with the attitude of Mr Harold Wilson and his Government to Mr Ian Smith and his Independent Government in Rhodesia. Sanctions have been imposed against Rhodesia. Again, we do not agree with the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence. But Mr Harold Wilson and his out and out supporters on the Rhodesian issue have revealed a very self-righteous spirit in their every attitude against the Rhodesian regime.
Let us now take a look at Mr Wilson’s friendly relationship with the Russian Government. At the time of writing he has visited the Russian leaders again at Moscow. These Communistic leaders are Atheists who have a planned system of teaching Atheism to the children of their country. They seek to banish any belief in the one living and true God throughout every area of the population of Soviet Russia. The Christians in Russia and the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in that benighted land are kept within very severe limits. Recently a trial in the Criminal Courts in Moscow proceeded against writers who dared to venture to express themselves somewhat freely. There have been previous criminal trials of a like character. On the 11th of January, 1968, a young Russian poet arrived in London, having escaped from Russia, his native land, via Israel. He had a difficult task over a period of years in planning his escape. When he spoke in London, he addressed himself to all freedom-loving peoples; and he asked all the British people to protest against the oppression of freedom of expression in his own land, Russia.
And what about the Russian conduct with regard to the Baltic States? These States are well-nigh forgotten by the rest of the world. They have been for years now kept under the strong hand of Russian military power. And what about the slaughter of Hungarians by the Russians in Hungary, not so very long ago? And the brutal rule of Stalin was a period of Russian modern history, which even recent rulers in Russia have endeavoured to forget.
We do not hear a word of all this evil, godless, and immoral form of government by Russians over Russians from Mr Harold Wilson or Mr George Brown, Foreign Secretary, when they once and again fly over to Moscow to confer with avowed, professed enemies of God and of democracy.
This hollow, hypocritical, ethical stand by Mr Wilson and his friends against Rhodesia and South Africa is nauseating in the extreme. For we hear not a whisper even of criticism of the suppression of non-Christian and Christian Russians in their own land.
And it was amazing to us to read that Mr George Brown, while on a recent visit to Japan, was said to have urged the Japanese Government to be enthusiastic in supporting sanctions against Rhodesia. The Japanese, until recently, worshipped their Emperor as a deity and as a divine person: and perpetrated, during the last war, most inhuman atrocities upon British prisoners under their hands.
This rather lengthy Note, is not written in defence of what is morally wrong in the Governments of Rhodesia and South Africa. But it is an expression of our disgust at the hypocrisy of members
of our present Parliament arguing on moral grounds for their decisions anent South Africa and Rhodesia; when these same men court the closest political friendship with men of other nations, men who would banish the name of God from the face of the earth and withhold true liberty from their own people.
Complaints by the Police
The Scottish Police Federation are “perturbed and frustrated” at the inadequate sentences passed on people who appear in some courts on assault charges. The Secretary of the Federation referred to a recent fine at Edinburgh Burgh Court of £10 on a youth who attacked Mrs G. Whitley, wife of the minister of St. Giles’ Cathedral. A man was fined £10 for failing to stop when his car ran over and killed a dog. The Secretary stated: “Scottish Police are beginning to feel that the judiciary is becoming quite farcical.” We think this reference is to the Burgh Courts. The complaint is fully justified, and young, violent thugs should, of course, in our view, have the birch re-introduced as a most suitable means of punishing their unprovoked violence on defenceless women and others. It seems that those presently in authority — Government officials — have absolutely no proper views on such matters. The inadequacy of fines for assault cases has been raised several times with the Secretary of State for Scotland but without any effective result so it is reported. This is a disgraceful lack of support for the police and a dereliction of duty toward the public. It is also hinted that the cuts in expenditure by the Government may apply to the police also. This would be quite wrong.
New Divorce Bill
The Divorce Law Reform Bill being sponsored by Mr William Wilson, Labour M.P. for Coventry South, is proposed legislation which, if it becomes Law, will be an added contribution to the present day pressure to make it easier still for husbands and wives to break the marriage union into which they have entered. This Bill will allow divorce by consent after a period of two years separation. It provides for the release of wives whose husbands are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and for the marriage to be dissolved if either spouse is incurably insane. One purpose in all this is to make it easier for either party in a marriage to marry someone else and much sooner and easier than the Law formerly permitted. Undoubtedly much moral laxity, of which there is much already, will follow this Bill. And if the Bill is to avoid continued unhappiness in married life: what about the distress to more and more children and relatives involved? A Report to be submitted by Churchmen to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in May, recommends and supports similar new provisions anent
divorce as contained in aforesaid Bill. The Church and the World agree upon many issues today, the issues frequently involve departures from truth and righteousness.
An Endeavour to make evil less evil
The evil and curse of gambling have been steadily on the increase all over Britain. Gambling casinos are being run in all the cities where all forms of gambling are engaged in. These have become notorious dens of fraud and criminal elements. Of course the gambler himself is a willing victim to this destructive form of activity, spending and losing his own and other people’s money. Well, the Government have appreciated, for once at any rate, the wicked elements which can operate in this evil realm. A Gaming Bill has been brought into Parliament imposing a strict system of controls, aimed at purging gaming of its criminal elements, cutting out excessive profits and ensuring that it is honestly conducted in decent surroundings. Now we know from the police and the Government, the bare truth regarding the whole evil atmosphere of the gambling world. Of course, this has been our opinion of this evil and the opinion of many others, long before this Bill was thought of. What of all the millions of money spent in gambling of all kinds in this economically distressed nation of ours? How much money received from the Labour Exchanges and Public Assistance is thrown away on gambling, on football pools, horse-racing and in gaming dens? The answer is well-nigh impossible to discover. But there certainly is an answer in terms of probably much more money than we may conjecture. We know the Government are receiving taxes from gambling. There can be no blessing to our nation from such unclean revenue.
Murder in Scotland
During the year 1967, there were more murders in Scotland than in any previous year this century. Fifty-four people were killed. A life-sentence in prison is the extreme punishment for this diabolical crime, in Britain at the present time. May wisdom, according to the Word of God, prevail when the time comes in Parliament to reconsider whether the death penalty should be brought back. Brought back it should be.