LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
I know that you are all very concerned, in one way or another, with what has been happening in our country in the past few weeks. So I think I ought to begin by trying to clarify for you the background to these developments. There are three main points to remember.
The first is that in the last decade we have witnessed a world-wide revolt against authority and traditional institutions and values. This has been particularly noticeable in the ferment in the Roman Catholic Church, with particular reference to the pill, divorce, and celibacy of the clergy, in the questioning of Parliament and Congress, in the obsession with sex, and in the growing addiction to drugs. On top of that has come the revolt of the youth and the ferment among university students in countries as far apart as the United States of America, France and Japan. The university students have been particularly critical of antiquated university structures and procedures as well as of the content of the university curriculum. They have violently opposed the war in Vietnam and the attempt by a large white country to dominate a small non-white country.

Ministry of Planning and Development, Library Services Division.

1970

9 pages