James Munro Bertram - Political Views

Political Views

For some years Bertram remained active in left-wing groups such as the Society for Closer Relations with Russia and was the first president of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand China Friendship Society. After his 1956 China visit as part of a New Zealand cultural delegation, he wrote "All of us, I have no doubt, were trying to tell the truth as we saw it. And my own liking for China and the Chinese gives me a bias from the start, which I readily admit. But I have certainly no bias in favour of Communist theory and a very considerable bias against Communist practice. Liberal humanism is an un-fashionable and perhaps an ineffectual creed; it is the only one I can profess.". While Bertram was an admirer of Rewi Alley, who he described as a 'remarkable New Zealander' he also wrote "I didn't like the tone of Rewi's books about the New China; everything was black and white, all the key issues seemed over-simmplified".