"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
Edmund Burke
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June 2 1978. Thought for the Week: "True Conservatism,
as our forefathers conceived it, stands for much more than economic
measures or political theories. It stands for all the great traditions
on which our country and Empire have been built up. It stands for honour,
patriotism, loyalty to the King, and the maintenance of the Christian
faith. It stands for everything that has made England great. In so far
as recent Conservative Governments have failed, they have failed because,
largely through fear, they departed from these principles and yielded
to pressure from forces bent on their destruction."
Mrs. Nesta Webster, foremost historian of Occult and Subversive political forces, in her "Surrender of An Empire" (1931). |
WHAT'S GOING ON BETWEEN PEKING AND HANOI?In castigating the Communist Government in Hanoi for allegedly mistreating people of Chinese descent in Vietnam, Peking is in fact serving notice that it has a hefty interest in maintaining an ultra-nationalistic, anti-Vietnamese regime in power in Cambodia." Michael Richardson in The Age (Melbourne) May 29th. It is often overlooked that Vietnam is one of
the most powerful nations, in military terms, in the world today. It
was built up into a formidable military power by the Soviet Union, and
it has accumulated an enormous stockpile of captured American weapons.
We recently reported that whole industries in Vietnam have now grown
up around the servicing and maintenance of captured American military
hardware. If one were a Peking powerman, one could readily comprehend
the fear that a formidable military foe on one side could engender,
being at the same time all too conscious of the military might of the
Soviet Union on the other side. The ruling regime in Phnom Penh is Peking oriented, and as such is something of a buffer to discourage a Vietnamese expansion into Thailand and southwards. Peking would almost certainly wish for a maintenance of the present balance of power in South East Asia at the present time. Again, it can be understood that Vietnam did not crush Cambodia, in the recent fighting, as could easily have been the case. Cambodia is not strong, militarily, and has a population of only 6 million to Vietnam's 50 million. Of course, Vietnam didn't wish to be weakened by a full confrontation with China, as probably would have been the case if Vietnam had occupied Cambodia. And so the sparring goes on! In the meantime the traditional dislike of the Chinese by the Vietnamese has led to expulsions of those people who are known as Sino-Vietnamese, and these expulsions are keeping the anti-Peking pot boiling in Vietnam. And what about the West? Where does it fit into the scheme of things? We can only conclude that, because of America's "sweetening" of diplomatic activity with Peking, America is conniving in the Peking "line" in Indo-China, whilst at the same time carrying on the farce of "detente" with the Kremlin. |
THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION"The percentage of Australia's population in the work force will fall by almost half within the next 22 years, a careers counsellor has claimed." The Age (Melbourne) May 8th. We were telling the "experts" some twenty-five
years ago, through our journals, that this "second industrial revolution"
was on the way. The reason is incorporated in one word - "automation".
This means the replacement of human labour to varying extents by technologically
sophisticated machinery. There was an enormous volume of claptrap spoken
about automation at the time. The industrial entrepreneurs and their
allies were all saying that automation would make work: each automatic
machine would need more men to make it than the number of men it would
replace. And similar idiocies! Philosophically there is nothing wrong with automation. Realistically, it should be welcomed. There is nothing in Christian scripture to enforce the belief that man must work for his living. "Work for Work's Sake is Not a Christian Maxim". The League printed and distributed tens of thousands of a little brochure with this title back around 1953-54: perhaps it should be reprinted and distributed, the climate is right. Naturally, the panic sets in when the realisation of all this throws into heavy relief the issue of MONEY. No work, no MONEY. Were it not for MONEY, then everybody, with the possible exception of a few masochistic puritans, would be cheering for more and more automation. The encroachment of automation has been happening in technologically advanced nations for at least two decades. What has been happening to the human labour rendered thus redundant? By and large the human labour "slack" has been taken up by the bureaucracy, as more and more socialist legislation has been rammed through by Governments of the West, carrying whatever label. A "Conservative" label doesn't mean that the policies of such a government are conservative. The Menzies Government enacted Banking legislation, which took the Australian Banking System quite a long way towards Socialisation of Banking. Older supporters will remember that the post-war Australian Socialist Government did attempt to socialise the private Trading Banks with direct legislation, which was invalidated by the High Court of Australia. The socialist bureaucrats "came again" in 1957 when the "S.R.C." (Statutory Reserve Deposit) technique was implemented to rigidly control the lending operations of the Trading Banks. This gave the Government control via the back door. It does seem that even the more advanced "orthodox" thinkers are now beginning to get their minds around this "money problem", and are thinking in terms "national superannuation guaranteed income schemes"; "job sharing, shorter working hours"; "a 'different' view of leisure", etc., etc. None of these are really satisfactory in the sense of being at all effective. Sure, we should have a "different" view of leisure: it is not "bludging", but something to be welcomed, so that we may all lead a fuller life, and develop our individual talents, in our own way, at our own pace. But national superannuation schemes, shorter working hours, these sorts of schemes will be useless because of such factors as inflation, and costs. But at least the spotlight is being thrown, at last, onto the key issue of money, and this will give our Movement the opportunity to advance as never before; unless our social systems collapse into International Communism first. Our long term strategy should be, and is, to hold off International Communism until the inevitable collapse does occur; then, enough people "who know what to do, and how to do it" may provide that leaven to bring about a regeneration. If not all our readers grasp the implications of the fore-going, we can assure those who don't that the powermen in the Kremlin do. They know what we are about. |
THE SHADOW-BOXING GOES ON: CUBA"Cuba has become a military power in Africa at little or no cost to its Soviet subsidised economy, and U.S. officials believe Havana can follow an interventionist course indefinitely." The Australian, May 29th. Cuba has some 42,000 troops, with Russian equipment, in 14 nations; some 20,000 of these troops are in Angola. These 42,000 troops comprise almost 25% of Cuba's defence forces. One would surmise that if Cuba were to be invaded, this would be the time. Supporters may recall that the U.S.A., even now, maintains its great naval base at Guatanamo on the eastern extremity of Cuba. As far as we are aware, the water for this base is supplied by Cuba, if not some of the victuals. Now who's fooling whom? We find it difficult to accept that there are not blind eyes turned here and there by all parties: a wink this way; a nod that way. Is it all some grim game? Like a game of chess played for outrageous odds? We think so. |
BRIEF COMMENTSCanada has gone non-nuclear. Having possessed nuclear weapons, Canada is now throwing them away in the interests of disarmament. Russia and China are not throwing away their nuclear weapons, but are strengthening it continually. It's a mad, mad world! "Ziggy" Brzezinski is in the news again. The U.S. National Security Adviser (successor to Kissinger) has been hobnobbing with the Peking power men. He stated in an interview with the New York Times that his trip was ... "to underline the long-term strategic nature of the United States relationship to China." U.S. officials have been saying that the U.S. and China have common interests in opposing Soviet influence everywhere. This reinforces our statement above that the U.S. is conniving in the Peking "line" in Indo-China. As a result of the successful coup by the new Marxist regime in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister, Mohammad Taraki, has announced a 30-point programme for his regime. He will support the United Nations (surprise, surprise!). He will support the Arab cause against Israel. He condemns Apartheid, and says his Government will support national liberation movements in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. From the "Bulletin Notes" of the April (1978)
issue of the Reserve Bank of Australia Statistical Bulletin |