APOLOGY FOR MISSING LAST ISSUE

THE FRASER KOW- TOW IN COMMUNIST CHINA

By Eric D. Butler
Prime Minister Fraser's visit to Communist China has been a disastrous blunder. The blunder was compounded when Mr. Fraser conducted a defensive press conference in Hong Kong, claiming that Australia was not putting itself in the anti-Soviet camp by developing relations with Communist China. "Our relations with the Soviet are solid and extensive", said Mr. Fraser. Also, "We strongly support the process of negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union."
After stating that the word "detente" "fostered a delusion", the Prime Minister said that "We applaud what the concept was originally intended to be. We want a lessening of tension and that only realistic negotiations make possible."

Like the term "peaceful co-existence," "detente" was admitted by the communists as a major tactical instrument of continuing warfare against the "decadent capitalists". Mr. Fraser's view that "realistic negotiations" with Marxist-Leninists are possible is one more depressing example of the consistently shallow approach of Western political leaders to the Communist challenge.

Both by word and deed all Communists, irrespective, of whether they are in Moscow, Peking, Prague, Havanna or Belgrade, continue to insist that Communism is "destined" to conquer the whole world. Communists conduct all negotiations with non-Communists on the basis that what they have conquered remains conquered, and that negotiations are only concerned with what further concessions the non-Communists are prepared to make. Psychological warfare has been so successful that any suggestion that the non-Communists might strive for any victories over the Communists is met with a chorus of violent condemnation. The media commentators charge that any suggestion of a hard line against Communism is "provocative" and, even worse, "a threat to world peace"!

The Chinese Communists arranged their spectacular welcome for Prime Minister Fraser as an act of Marxist warfare. They seek to use Mr. Fraser, and Australia, to advance themselves in their power struggle with their fellow Communists in Moscow. Both in Peking and Moscow this struggle is seen in the context of Marxist dialectics.

Some years back a top Moscow theoretician observed how the "decadent capitalists" believed that the Sino-Soviet "split" would be their salvation. "What they do not understand", said the Moscow Communist, "is that the controversy is only a debate concerning their funeral arrangements."

While there is no evidence that Prime Minister Fraser asked the Chinese Communists had they given up their determination to help wherever possible to promote Communist conquest, he certainly brought smiles to the faces of his Communist hosts with his strong support for the European retreat in Southern Africa. Southern Africa (Rhodesia and South Africa) is a major Communist target, and that if this target were destroyed, with the loss of the Cape route, the future of Western Europe would be extremely bleak, if not hopeless. The position of Australia and New Zealand would be even worse.

It is a chilling situation when the Australian Prime Minister, having given aid and comfort to the Marxist criminals in Mozambique just prior to leaving for Communist China, then uses China as a platform to lecture the South Africans on how they must introduce the principle of "one-man, one-vote". At the same time he was attempting to placate the Soviet by refusing to use Communist China as a base for any criticism of Soviet policies. And Mr. Fraser says he would welcome an invitation to visit the Soviet Union. But, needless to say, he will not visit South Africa or Rhodesia.

If Rhodesia is a threat to world peace, then surely this is where Mr. Fraser should be visiting to attempt to deal with the "threat". One gains the impression from Mr. Fraser' s China kow-tow, that while being swept along with the euphoria generated by the carefully planned crowd scenes, he stumbled from one blunder to the next.

What are we to make of an Australian Prime Minister who tells the Chinese Communists, of all people, of his doubts about the Government of Australia's most important near-neighbour? It was the Chinese Communists who backed the abortive coup of 1965, which very nearly swept Indonesia into the Communist orbit. Australians do not like military governments. But it is preferable to have General Suharto running Indonesia than the Communists.

There is no evidence that the military government of Indonesia has any aggressive intentions towards Australia. But there is plenty of evidence that the Communist criminals of Peking, men responsible for the murder of tens of millions, are convinced that one day Australia will also be "liberated".

It is to be hoped that those Government Members who have a more realistic grasp of Communism than Mr. Fraser, start to make their voices heard.

TO BOOM OR NOT TO BOOM

One of the greatest thinkers of this century C.H. Douglas, once observed that so many were mentally enslaved by the myths surrounding finance-economic realities, that only effective demesmerisation would avoid a major collapse of Civilisation. But Douglas warned that the process of demesmerisation might be so severe that few could survive it.

Let us briefly consider the latest major developments on the finance economic front, starting with the international conference in Puerto Rico, convened by a desperate President Ford. President Ford's critics suggest that he called this conference in an attempt to gain some political mileage in the Presidential contest. President Ford claims that he is so concerned about the growing problem of the major industrial nations that some international programs is necessary.

President Ford's central theme is that the relative reduction in the inflation rate, achieved through drastic financial restrictions, large-scale bankruptcies and high unemployment, is now "threatened" by the possibility of a new "boom". Such a "boom" will certainly send the inflation rate soaring up once again. But if there is no "boom", then industrialised nations are doomed to more economic dislocation and high unemployment - and political convulsions.

The increase in Communist support in Italy will almost certainly be repeated in the next French elections. Socialist and Communist support is growing rapidly in Japan. Has Mr. Fraser thought about this? Mr. Fraser returns to an Australia, which, after six months of Treasury financial medicine, is now moving, deeper into a finance-economic crisis of the greatest magnitude. The core of the real problem has been highlighted by business spokesmen joining with the Socialists to urge the Fraser Government to ease the curb on Government spending, as this was having a serious effect on many business organisations dependent, directly or indirectly, upon Government financed projects.

Under the heading "Business warns its boost or bust", "The Australian" of June 29th carries a report of a warning to Mr. Fraser from the businessmen who make up the Economic Consultative Group. Mr. Fraser is urged to "boost" the economy to promote "recovery". The Group says that new policies are needed in the August Budgets.

We have said this consistently ever since Mr. Fraser came to office. But how can the industrialised nations "boost" their economies without more disastrous inflation? By the simple process of getting new financial credits into circulation without, at the same time, creating new financial costs. Reduce Sales Tax, or abolish it, automatically creating a big fall in prices, and increased purchasing power, and finance Consumer Price Discounts on basic items in the economy thus removing the basic cause of further wage increases.

If Members of the Fraser Government do not adopt the principles of the "Petersen Plan", the volcano they are sitting on at present is going to erupt violently in the near future. It is much later than they think.

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