THE NUMBING AMERICAN DEFEAT IN VIETNAM

Mr. Butler wrote the following report after a short visit to the United States.
"Watching U.S. President Ford at his California press conference was a painful experience which convinced me that the Head of State of the biggest Western power was attempting to explain a development of momentous historic significance. President Ford was being questioned about, what is in fact a numbing American defeat in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese and the Cambodians are the direct victims of the Communist military victories. But these victories have only been made possible by policies made in the United States; policies made by powerful men whom I am currently describing in a series of lectures as "The Traitors of Western Civilisation". "Under criminal law an individual may be charged with being an accessory before a crime. This was the charge made by Professor Antony Sutton in his National Suicide that even whilst American troops were involved in the Vietnam War, the Rockefellers and others were financing American technological and industrial assistance to the real enemy, the Soviet Union. Professor Sutton's outstanding academic qualifications have not saved him from being turned into a non-person. He is currently seeking employment outside the United States.

"During the California press conference the unhappy President Ford was telling the whole world that the best he could offer was a large-scale humanitarian effort. He attempted, even if indirectly, to blame President Thieu for the disaster of Thieu's attempted strategic withdrawal, in the face of mounting Communist offensive from the North. What he did not spell out was the fact that the Saigon Government was at the mercy of decisions made in Washington.

When the American Congress refused to sanction the type of military aid necessary to meet the Communist challenge, this was the signal that the end of the road was in sight in Vietnam. And Congress refused the aid because the American people had become completely disillusioned with the Vietnam disaster. Young Americans were dying in the thousands in what was a no-win struggle, while American society was pulverised by revolutionary urban warfare. Vietnam was used to orchestrate an international campaign of such revolutionary intensity that the result was a climate in the United States of 'peace at any price'?

Over a number of years I have warned of what was happening, and where it must end; that is, without major policy changes. "America today is a numbed and anguished nation. Unemployment has now reached the highest level since 1941. Nearly eight million Americans are now unemployed, with an estimated further five million 'hidden unemployed'. High inflation continues. The Ford Administration's desperate attempt to 'restimulate' the economy with Keynesian tactics could result in an astronomical $935 million deficit. One financial 'expert' says that he is 'terrified' by the attempt to reduce unemployment. This will result in an inflation rate that will destroy American society completely, predicts the 'expert'.

"The American crisis is the same crisis afflicting the whole non-Communist world. And while the internal collapse in the West accelerates, the international Communist barbarians press forward on all fronts. Dr. Henry Kissinger's policy of 'detente' a policy of treachery which has enabled the increased flow of Western technological and industrial assistance to the Communist barbarians - and which encouraged the Communists - has resulted in another major retreat in Asia. And there will be further retreats elsewhere; in the Middle East, Southern Africa, and Western Europe; unless the traitors inside the West are exposed; driven from positions of power, and their treacherous policies, like inflation, reversed.

"Many Americans are now asking; 'Will we be celebrating next year our Nation's 200 years of independence with a major internal collapse, and a complete surrender to totalitarianism?.'"

Mr. Jeremy Lee reports from Queensland

"Australian Housewives will be interested in details provided by the Leader of the National Party, Mr. Anthony on the sale of 40,000 tonnes of beef to the Soviet Union. The Beef Industry, Australia's biggest import earner until recently, with sales worth $636 million in 1973-74, is in a state of collapse. Huge debts - the result of diversion from wool to meat during the wool slump - have forced cattlemen into dependence, not only on continued exports, but the maintenance of' the high prices that prevailed until the middle of last year. All their hopes are dashed, and the industry faces complete ruin. In parts of Australian cattlemen have been shooting their stock on their farms and properties to avoid the expense of carting them to almost non-existent markets. One result of the drop in retail meat prices is that the Australian housewife has been able to afford more meat. By December, domestic consumption of beef in Australia had increased by 25% and this is now almost 50%.

IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN PRICES FALL, PEOPLE BUY MORE

However, Australian butchers have shown that, even if they were given the meat for nothing, it costs approximately 22 cents per pound to pass beef from producer to consumer. Australian beef producers have been paid 9 cents per pound for the 40,000 tonnes of beef sold to the Soviet Union.

In a letter dated February 25th, 1975, Mr. Anthony wrote: "... My Party is very concerned at the prospect of the Australian Government's subsidising this sale. I believe that the Government may offer to bear some of the cost of stevedoring and freight. What disturbs me is whether a similar deal was offered to our traditional trading partners, especially the United Kingdom. Furthermore...there are many groups within Australia such as pensioners and even the general public who would benefit immensely from some sort of Government subsidised sale of meat. I do not think the return to the producer is sufficient to justify such sales without first attempting to give the people of Australia the benefits of meat at a similar price."

IN OTHER WORDS, MR. ANTHONY IS NOW FIRMLY SUPPORTING THE BASIC PRINCIPLES ANNOUNCED IN THE PETERSEN PLAN, AS FAR AS THE BEEF INDUSTRY IS CONCERNED

All that remains is for the A.B.C. and Union of Australian Women to join forces in asking why the Comrades in Russia should buy Australian beef cheaper than housewives in Australia! We expect the usual silence, but it should not stop a surge of support for the most realistic suggestions made by Mr. Anthony.

(The Institute of Economic Democracy has produced a pamphlet "How to Save the Beef Industry" giving further details on the true position, and the Soviet sale… This should interest consumers as well as cattlemen. Available from I.O.E.D., P.O. Kingstown, via Armidale, 2350, N.S.W. Price: 5 for 30 cents posted).

LOCAL GOVERNMENT BETRAYAL

The New South Wales Government seems even more enthusiastic about the Fabian programme of "Regionalism" than the Commonwealth. Although the infamous Barnett Report, recommending amalgamation of Local Authorities throughout the State received widespread opposition, the N.S.W. Boundaries Commission has been working to produce the same result through negotiation with hard-pressed Councils. Several have been persuaded to adopt the programme without consulting ratepayers.

However, the plan has met an unexpected stumbling block in northern New South Wales, where ratepayers in three Shires - Walcha, Uralla and Dumaresq - have expressed solid opposition to amalgamation. In two shires, Councillors have succumbed to the pressure from the Boundaries Commission, no doubt hoping that ratepayers would accept the "inevitable". To his credit, Shire President of Dumaresq, Councillor David Trestrail, has resigned from the presidency rather than be a party to what he described in the Armidale Express as "an attack on our whole political system."

Ratepayers are incensed, and the New England Electors' Association has provided the means for a poll of ratepayers throughout the three Shires to be taken as part of the campaign for ratepayers' rights. Petitions to the State Government, asking them to fight for justice in Canberra, rather than against ratepayers in their own State are also being organised. (Sample pamphlets are available from The New England Electors' Association, P.O. Box 122, Uralla, 2358 N.S.W. A donation to cover postage would assist the association).

FAMOUS LAST WORDS?

'The Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, yesterday dismissed the theory of Communist expansion as old hash, and said his country had nothing to worry about from communist activity in Indo-China". - The Australian, April 3rd.

We feel that the clever Prime Minister is whistling in the dark to some extent. We don't suppose he is going to tell the communists that he is apprehensive that his turn, to be a domino, will come. That is if the Communist assault in South-East Asia continues, and we can see no reason why it should not. Communist leaders, themselves, have propounded the domino "theory" themselves, "The shortest way to London and Paris is through Peking"... That was Lenin's observation. The Communist grand strategy is to take the whole of Asia (after Eastern Europe already done!), then Western Europe, then America will fall into their hands "like a rotten apple" - they have said so themselves. Our pedantic politicians, and the full-throated oracles of the mass media may declaim until they are blue in the face that the domino "theory" is old hash, old this, and old that: but the International Communist strategists don't think so.

THE APPROACHING HYPERINFLATION

Many of the economists are now "speaking in tongues", without intending any disrespect with this metaphor to the adherents of the Pentecostal Movement. Few of them are agreeing with each other, and some just don't make any sense at all. All this does add up to uncertainty and instability. Professor Milton Friedman is warning of the results of massive Government spending (so do we, in this case). Now Mr. Rowse (The Sun, Melbourne April 15th) warns of another credit squeeze. He said that the Federal Government's massive deficit financing of the Australian economy would trigger off inflation rates not yet known in Australia. We agree with this, and have expounded upon it in the April issue of the League's monthly journal of political economy - "The New Times" (subscription $6.00 yearly).

Mr. Rowse is Assistant General-Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, and he forecasts an inflation rate of 25% in the near future, and predicted that a credit squeeze will follow on from that. We certainly agree with his forecast of the coming inflation rate, and we think that a rate of 25% by this time next year could be quite conservative.

Dr. Jim Cairns, Deputy Prime Minister, and Federal Treasurer believes that his massive deficits will reduce unemployment without resulting in a rising price level. Whether he believes this himself or not, we don't know. It's hard to imagine that he does. Dr. Cairns is skilled in the Marxist dialectic, and he knows how many beans make five! He doesn't care about inflation. The Socialists have no ideological opposition to inflation; which is itself the basis of an academic thesis. But Professor Milton Friedman says that this is an illusion. The huge deficits are like alcohol; one feels just fine for a time, but then, the hangover cometh. And the hangover takes the form of inflation. Hyperinflation is the name of the Whitlam-Cairns game: and it will be disastrous for Australians.

BRIEF COMMENTS

The new leader of the Opposition, Mr. Malcolm Fraser is unfortunately the victim of his "reading" of economics during his Oxford University days. As reported in The Sun (Melbourne) April 9th, he says that the Federal Government would have to increase taxation, or cut Government spending. The point we are making is that he cannot see outside the "straight-jacket" of modern economic theory. He sees no merit at all in the Petersen Plan: it won't work, he says. The time is more than likely to come when Mr. Fraser will have to take a second look at the proposals of the Petersen Plan, or go under (politically) for good.

It is really astonishing to observe men who have held administrative power, and who faithfully carried out the orders of their masters, suddenly denigrate the policies which they administered once they are free from direct reprimand and retaliation. General William Westmoreland was commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam at the height of the Vietnam war. He is now retired. As reported in The Age (Melbourne) April 2nd, he says:- "If we commit ourselves to a war in future, let's win it as quickly as we can. He also said that the U.S. over-extended itself in Vietnam and around the world. It had placed too much reliance on a strategy of containing international Communism. We have been saying that for close on thirty years!

The "Multiplier Myth" (or Velocity of Circulation Saga - contd.)
The first and most obvious refutation of this theory is that, if it were valid, no one would be short of money. We would have all realised long ago that the faster we whipped the money around, the better off everyone was; and by now it would be travelling at the speed of light and we would all be living like millionaires! That this has not happened is by itself sufficient to show that the "velocity" theory is nonsense, but to let the argument rest there is to take the easy way out. Those who are prepared to do a little serious thinking can discover why it is nonsense. Discussion of this question is made complex and seemingly difficult because of the varying interchangeable forms which money takes. Just as two atoms of hydrogen combined with one atom of oxygen can take the form of steam, water, or ice, so can money take the forms of figures in books, cheques, notes, or coins. Confusion is even worse confounded because the figures and cheques are used once and then cancelled; whereas notes and coins are used again and again. (to be continued.)