"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
Edmund Burke
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2 September 1977. Thought for the Week: "… nations
are, at bottom, merely associations for the good of those composing
them ... Association is at once the direct cause of our progress and
of our threatened destruction. The general principles, which govern
association for the common good, are as capable of exact statement as
the principles of bridge building, and departure from them is just as
disastrous. The modern theory, if it can be called modern, is a departure
from those principles ... It is a theory involving complete inversion
of fact, and is, incidentally, fundamentally anti-Christian, in that
it exalts the mechanism of government into an end rather than a means,
and leads to the assumption that individuals exist for the purpose of
allowing officials to exercise power over them. It is in the perversion
and exaltation of means into ends in themselves, that we shall find
the root of our tragedy. Once it is conceded that sovereignty resides
anywhere but in the collection of individuals we call the public, the
way of dictatorship is certain."
C. H. Douglas in The Tragedy of Human Effort. |
THE URANIUM-NUCLEAR MISHMASH"The South African Prime Minister, Mr. Vorster, last night described charges that the country was about to test an atom bomb as false." The Age, (Melbourne) August 26th. We suspect that what the South African Government is doing, and let us state quite boldly that we agree with what we think it is doing; is to give the anti-Southern Africa Western Powers ''the message" that it has the potential to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and that it will do this to preserve its life. Mr. Vorster, rightly, raised the issue of Western double standards. Even The Age (Melbourne) August 25th, certainly not a right wing metropolitan daily, featured a telling cartoon (a picture tells more than a thousand words!) depicting a Frenchman, complete with beret, holding up a placard on which is written - "lea Atom Tests: Naughty, Naughty, etc., etc. Vive La France." On the Frenchman' singlet are written the words "French Pacific Tests", and a black kettle on the ground has "South Africa" written on it. The caption to the cartoon is - "la Pot et le kettle." All this adds up to a telling and humorous saying, viz. "the pot calling the kettle black." America, Russia, Britain, are all nuclear powers, and will use their "crackers" to protect themselves from military obliteration. It is no secret that Israel has nuclear weapons to keep the Arab world in check. Egypt knows that the great Aswan dam could be destroyed if the next Middle East "war" got out of control. India almost certainly has the A-Bomb; but not a word in condemnation of any of these nations; only South Africa. It must not commit the "crime" of using nuclear weapons for self-preservation; every other nation mentioned would, including Red China, another nuclear power. Russia and Red China have nuclear missiles trained on each other right now! Slowly, the truth about the Southern Africa situation is becoming better known. We are heartened by an Editorial from the Ballarat Courier (August 23rd) that commented in part: "The gruesome murders (16 black farm workers recently cut down by armed terrorists) also bring into focus Australian Prime Minister Fraser's intention to close down the Rhodesian Government's Information Centre in Sydney by the end of the year… It is accepted that the Australian Government is acting in response to a recent unanimous resolution of the United Nations Security Council urging closure of information centres in Washington, London, Paris, and Sydney. But how can Mr. Fraser morally wish to close the centre at the same time permitting other nations to have centres pouring out propaganda on their behalf? While not defending the stance of the Smith Regime in Rhodesia, it is difficult to justify denial of free speech to them. Their country is at least a bastion - however small and fragile -against a wave of communistic conquest, subtle and otherwise, throughout Africa…Small Rhodesia stands in the way of Soviet conquest down the African Continent to the vast mineral resources of the area, and domination of the vital Cape sea route...." The Editor of the Ballarat Courier knows the score! For the benefit of our supporters in remote areas of Queensland and Western Australia, Ballarat is a provincial city in Victoria with a population of around 60,000. It is an educational centre, with many schools and colleges; a teachers' college, and a very large mental hospital. It is a big centre. The Ballarat Courier is published daily. Now we have some grim intelligence from Intelligence
Digest (U.K.)- August 24th, concerning Jimmy Carter and Southern
Africa. There is not space available for a large quote, so we pick out
the more relevant lines: Long time readers of On Target will recall that we stated in these pages as long as twelve years ago that U.N. troops would be employed against Southern Africa in years to come. The time has arrived! On the Uranium "debate", there is really no "debate" at all. The decision by the Government to mine and export uranium was taken some time ago. As one political journalist pointed out, the delay in the announcement was the only puzzle. As far as the Left is concerned, the issue is a little more complicated, but only a little. The complications arise from so many factions jumping on the uranium bandwagon. There are, of course, the Communists, who will throw spokes in all wheels to wreck an Australian uranium industry, again, for many reasons. At bottom, to stop or delay Australia's nuclear capacity; to prevent the means for this capacity from being exported from Australia to other nations; to prevent thousands, or tens of thousands of jobs from "growing" in the uranium industry; to "divide" the populace on ideological grounds, as the Vietnam issue did a few years ago. Then there are the "greenies", Friends of the Earth, and other factions of the whole environmental movement. Most of whom are sincere people, we feel, but who are being manipulated to varying extents by the hard line Comrades who have penetrated their organisations. The Communists will attempt to "Vietnamese" the anti-uranium movement if at all possible; and it's quite possible. The Government 's attitude is quite simple: cash! We do not condemn these sincere people, as their attitude is one of hostility to an environment, which they see as being ripped to pieces for mere financial profits for the multi-nationals. This appeals most strongly to the idealistic young. Our view is that we do have to be realistic on the issue and generally go along with the development of the uranium industry with all possible safeguards. At the same time, we don't regard the situation as ideal, by any means. We know, for example, that the bulk of energy that is used in the world today is wasted on needless production; think of the world's munitions industries alone! Imagine if the world was at peace, and not a tank, nor a plane, nor a machine gun needed. Imagine if our cars were machined to last 50 years, as they could be! The man in the street is well aware now that obsolescence is built into much modern production. It is manufactured to wear out quickly so that you'll need more, and so keep the wheels of industry turning! Yes, it's all cockeyed. And there is still no safe and positive method known of disposing of atomic wastes. We feel that Mr. Fraser glossed over this in his Address to the Nation on Uranium on the evening of the 28th August. So it's not all a perfectly clear picture at all, but one in which the Government must pick its way. Overall, the Government is probably doing the best it can, but, as we have pointed out in the On Target Bulletin this week, any dangers do not end there. Why not? Because the international gentlemen, including the Rockefeller interests, are already setting up the machinery to gain control of our uranium, along with other sources from the West. We can in no terms be certain that such control will be in Australia's interests; we suspect the reverse. |
SOME PLAIN TALKING FROM AN ENGLISH MIGRANT TO MR. GRASSBYThe following signed letter appeared in The Herald (Melbourne) August 19th. It is important enough to bring to the attention of supporters, without comment."It is to be hoped that Australians will not be deterred by the predictable howl of 'racist' from voicing whatever justifiable suspicions they may entertain as to the activities of British trade unionists in their country. The voice of the true British people in the U.K. has long been deliberately suppressed by this means, and it is no surprise to find a representative of the unrepresentative U.K. Government making use of the same ploy here. Britons here are capable of demonstrating by their actions whether or not they are acceptable settlers. As one of them, I would say that we are content to let Australians form their own judgments. We would ask only one thing - please do not insult us by inviting the propagandistic attentions of the Commissioner for so-called Community Relations. We feel a strong affinity with our Australian kith and kin - but the colourful gentleman can hardly be numbered among them. Mr. Al Grassby's attempts to persuade us, and them, that we are an 'ethnic minority' (in a country which, at the time of my coming to Australia, was advertised in England as 'a British land short of people') are peculiarly and offensively un-Australian. We can do without his interference." |
Self-Development : A Natural ProcessIt is of the very nature of things that man must cut the links which impede his self-development; he must break away from his mother's apron strings, break away from his school, and then from his father's home to build his own home; he may have to break away from the trade at which he was apprenticed. To arrest that process at any point, if it could be arrested, would be to destroy the growth of a human being. And what else can we offer a human being but the growth of personality and character? Take that away and all you are left with is a community of dumb animals - the society of the ant heap.The centrally planned State may look attractive on paper, especially to some types of mind, but the accumulating mass of information from centrally organised States puts the matter beyond discussion. The totalitarian State, the bureaucratic Socialist State, is admirably designed for dull conformity, and will not easily adapt to changing conditions. It is a brittle structure, which will eventually fragment because it does not provide the individual with basic emotional needs, such as freedom within a common sense rule of law (not a tyranny) and the capacity for self-development. |