Democracy and Discipline
As was suggested in nicely turned phrases at yesterday's ceremony in the looted Great Hall of the University, the con- ferring of degrees amid the gaunt surroundings was sym- bolic. The speaker drew his own association between the in- anima and the spiritual and suggested to his listeners many other similar lines: almost as many as the interpretations that could be put on the address of the Commander-in-Chief that followed. To the close ob- server scrutinising official utter- ances for a clue to the future of the Colony, the Commander- in-Chief's words were capable of varying inferences, and while consisting of generalities, at times seemed so pointed as to provoke careful analysis as to interpretation. To some it may convey hope; others may read into it a definite political gilding of the pill that it has been de- cided has to be swallowed.
In the construction of his ad- dress the Commander-in-Chief handled the transition of the discipline theme to democracy and on to government with orthodox competency and con- tinuity. His words on the sense of spiritual values-honesty. justice and merey-forming the basis of an ordered society are copybook and primer; yet per- haps, alas, there is need for re- minding us of the things we wrote in childish hands. This history, too. of democracy and self-government was standard and, 'delivered in the same place and on the same occasion in the pre-war years would have ex- cited little but well-mannered applause. To-day, however, with Hongkong's future defined no longer than a few weeks, the Commander-in-Chief's allusions to self-government are capable of vital significance. If so, they are another reminder to what we have pointed out frequently in the past; that the locally ap- pointed key and senior officials in the present emergency ad- ministration are on their met- tle to-day. The Admiral's ap- peal was not only to the new graduates; it was addressed to all in his words: "I draw your attention to those things be- cause it is most essential here! to understand what self-govern- ment is, so that it can be built up here in Hongkong. Acknow- ledgment of the rights of the individual is an essential key- stone to democratic government and these rights must be well established before any large measure of franchise can be given." The Admiral's words are at once a call and a warn- ing to those who claim the right to manage their Own house.
The pessimist, too, can read into the Commander-in-Chief's words the knell of all hopes and his reference to the centuries between Magna Charta and franchise can be construed as a declaration that already we have been weighed and found wanting; that
we are not yet jo aaquinu parinti e de anəql sufficiently self-disciplined. It
can be argued that the address |pointment. The first argument was merely a succession of well- is uncharitable, at best; the rounded cliches, divorced en-second a matter of still doubtful tirely from political significance, opinion which no general rule of or, even if the local appoint-thumb can cover.
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