Dear Sir:
In a summary of the "truths and aims" upon which President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Eden agreed in their joint "Declaration of Washington", the first aim (as published in the Globe and Mail of Feb. 3rd) reads:
"(1) The state should exist for the individual, not vice versa. Therefore, people have a basic right to choose their own government."
That is a good statement, and I think most people feel instinctively that what has been said should be. But, unfortunately, at least in the case of Mr. Eden, what it amounts to is saying that he supports one thing with his lips whilst actually he is supporting, or being made to support, something entirely different with his hands. It may or may not be entirely Mr. Eden's fault, but Britain is a welfare State being modelled more and more every day along Communist lines.
For example, as you have pointed out repeatedly, under a National Health Plan (which by the way, unhealthy as it is, has never been frowned upon by our Minister of Health, M. Martin, and is recommended in Ontario by M. Frost, with Compulsory Insurance thrown in), the individual loses his freedom of choice in regard to what kind of medical services he desires, and both practitioners and patients are subject to the State instead of, as it should be, the State being their servant.
The same may be said of all socialistic plans, for where there are collectivist planners, the only thing left for the individual is to fit himself into the Plan. Witness Russia.
lf, however, Mr. Eden can persuade his electorate to insist that their representatives cancel out all socialistic legislation that robs Peter to pay Paul and so enable him to implement this Number One aim, it will be an important step in the right direction for the first time since the war ended.
Yours truly,
K. L. McCUAIG,
Toronto