FREE ELECTIONS
SIR,—Nowadays all entertainment is on ice, including your political commentary. Mr. Fairlie seldom just takes one step in an argu- ment at a time but, like an enthusiastic beginner, constantly slithers and slides beyond his objective. Since he skates—even on thin ice —so dashingly, it is easy enough to trip him up but more difficult actually to pin him down. But might I at least be allowed to reply to his allegation that in my recent article in Encounter I advocated the suspension of free elections in countries where the result was likely to favour the Communists.
Believe me, Sir, this is a gross and damaging over-simplification of my views. It is because free elections play so crucial a part in the Anglo-American liberal tradition, and have done so much to preserve our liberties, that tried to analyse why, in other countries, they sometimes act as the midwife of tyranny. I came to the conclusion that, if we are loyal to our political principles, free elections should properly be regarded as an instrument for achieving freedom, valuable only so long as effective. But free elections have proved so successful in our own experience that we are in danger of confusing the instrument with its result, of regarding free elections as synony- mous with freedom itself. This is an innocent enough conclusion here at home. It only becomes dangerous when free elections fail in their purpose, producing tyranny instead of freedom, as. for example, they threaten to do in Indo-China. Then, surely, it is vital to be prepared to discard the broken instrument rather than forgo the great purpose for which it was designed. In saying that if the West begin to question free elections they will be left 'with- out a leg to stand on,' Mr. Fairlie is falling into the very error that my article was designed to correct. Rather than discard the instrument, he would give up its objective. The leg on which the West must stand is individual freedom, not just some mechanical leg called free elections. This was the point of my article. I was attempt- ing to sort out ideas rather than cold war tactics. Whether my views are diplomatically expedient is, of course, another matter.— Yours faithfully,
PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE
41 Scarsdale Villas, W8
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