DAVID IRVING BREAKS THROUGH

With the aid of modern technology, British historian David Irving has, with his representatives Veritas Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., broken through the attempt to ensure that his message, "The Search for Truth in History", does not reach the Australian people. On Wednesday, May 19th, David Irving, via a dramatic video film, speaks to Australian audiences in every capital city. The following week, starting in Albury, NSW, on Monday, May 24th, he will address a series of regional meetings. He will speak in Shepparton on Tuesday, May 25th, and in Gippsland on Wednesday, May 26th. We will publicise details of all David Irving meetings as they come to hand from his Australian representatives.

In this issue of "On Target" we are enclosing copies of the leaflet issued by Veritas Publishing Company and recommend that readers make use of them in informing people about David Irving Meetings. Extra copies are available upon request. Having seen a copy of the Irving address, with a powerful address by his Australian representatives, we have no hesitation in saying this is the most important address we have ever seen -one destined to change the course of history. This is the controversial British historian at his best - a great historical address. Once again the League is privileged to provide a unique service for the Australian people.

A CHINK IN THE REPUBLICAN MEDIA MONOPOLY?

by David Thompson
The public face of the thrust toward a republic is that of a well-oiled machine rolling steadily forward, and carrying all before it. This appearance has been deliberately fostered by a compliant press, and given a false air of "inevitability". Neville Wran, former ALP Premier of NSW, when launching republican Thomas Keneally's new book "Our Republic" last week, said that Keneally had introduced him to a new term - "inevitabilist". The Murdoch press is openly republican, as one would expect, in view of the malicious harassment to which this publishing empire has subjected the Royal Family in Britain. It is clear that the Fairfax press is now dominated by Mr. Conrad Black, a "Canadian" since Mr. Keating was persuaded to give permission for Black to raise his stake in Fairfax stock from 15% to 25%. Mr. Black is obviously no supporter of the Constitutional Monarchy - he is a confirmed internationalist. This adds up to a republican media monopoly, which the loyalists will find hard to crack.

PACKER MAGAZINE TWISTS REPUBLICAN TAIL

It is not yet clear quite where Mr. Packer's Consolidated Press stands on the republican issue. It should be recalled that Packer's "Australian Business Monthly, under the influence of Editor Bruce Stannard, was the first major publication to "blow the whistle" on economic rationalism last year, when it was described as The Cruel Experiment. However, if the May edition is any indication, it would appear that a chink is developing in the republican media monopoly. Editor Stannard has used part of his editorial to blast the republicans. Stannard wrote: "Despite all the rhetorical hoohah we have been subjected to and despite the arrogant assumption that we are already inextricably committed to becoming a republic by 2001 (ABM) pointed out that the tide of history is running strongly against the Yes vote." The ABM also published an article researching the history of all constitutional referenda, highlighting the difficulty of achieving even minor changes.

POLITICAL CIRCUS STUNTS
Stannard continued: "During the election the Coalition made a great show of its loyalty to our traditional symbols of unity - our national flag and the constitutional monarchy which have served us well since federation almost a century ago. The Opposition pathetic, dispirited mob that it is, could do a lot worse than stick to those principles...

There may well be a cogent case for a Federal Republic of Australia, but so far we have not heard it. All we have heard is a pack of babbling blatherskites, chattering among themselves like brimming boyos in a backroom bar... With the economic future of this country in the balance this, surely is not time for political circus stunts that involve the appointment of some party hack as president and the remaking of the national flag under which so many brave Australians fought and died. Anyone with half a wit can see that behind the republican banner marches a rag tag mob of radicals whose agenda calls for the wholesale dismantling of federalism, the knackering of the Senate and the destruction of the States..."

FRIGHTENING GRAB FOR POWER

It is clear that not all those who oppose the republic are strong supporters of the Crown. Many know little of the Crown's function. The thing that has frightened many Australians is the speed and apparent power of the republican push, which is now widely perceived as being a naked grab for political power. This is a great problem for the republicans. They hate the Reserve Powers, as these can be used to curb political ambition in its extreme. But it is impossible to run a campaign on the basis that Australians should "trust a presidential system" not to be abused by politicians.

We do not always agree with Mr. Padraic McGuinness, but he summed up the position in his column in the Weekend Australian (1/5/93) when he wrote: "Many republicans, and I suspect Keating is one of them, want in substituting a president for the monarch also to remove or limit, to define into virtual non-existence, the reserve powers of the head of State - who is, after all, in principle the symbol of national unity and the final guarantor of the integrity of the democratic system."

So now Keating is the master of the Labor Party, does he wish to become the unchallengeable master of the political system? Our answer is - of course he does! It is only the Australian people - not politicians - who will stop him.

FERMENT IN THE WEST

It is obvious that there is little enthusiasm in WA (or Tasmania) for the republican cause. In fact, the longer this "debate" runs it becomes evident that there is little enthusiasm anywhere for the proposition that the reserve powers of the head of State should be scrapped. But in Western Australia the question of secession has become an issue to which Western Australians are threatening to turn if a majority of States were to vote for a republic, but WA voted strongly against it.

WA State President of the Liberal Party, former Premier Hassell, believes that under such circumstances, a vote to secede would be carried overwhelmingly - a view endorsed by the Premier, Mr. Court. The News Ltd. (Murdoch) flagship, The Australian, claimed in an editorial last weekend that this was constitutionally out of the question, given that the Constitution formally binds Australia "in one indisoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown..."

The Weekend Australian editorial writer claims that it is possible to remove the Crown from the Constitution without altering the indissolubility of the Federation. There are Constitutional authorities who do not agree with this position. Dr. David Mitchell, for example, argues that with the Crown taken out, the Federation is effectively dissolved. Far from being a smooth, straight path to republicanism, the likes of Mr. Keating may well find the path strewn with a myriad of obstacles - some of them legal.

MAJOR HOBBLED BY MAASTRICHT TREATIES

The British Conservative Government has suffered massive defeats in elections held last weekend. The Conservatives lost a by-election for a safe Conservative seat held for 70 years with a swing against the Government of a devastating 28%. The seat was won by the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives also lost control of the Shires, holding only one of 47 county councils.

Meanwhile Baroness Thatcher delivered a blistering attack upon the Conservatives over the Maastricht treaties. She released the result of telephone polls, in which 93% of the 55,000 callers who left their full names and addresses voted NO to Maastricht. For the Government to go ahead with ratification of the treaties was "equivalent to putting your head in the fire" said Mrs. Thatcher.

In Denmark, however, the Danes go to their second referendum on Maastricht on May 18th, having rejected European union once last year by the narrowest of margins. Mrs. Thatcher has called a number of times for a British referendum, commenting that the Danes are "lucky to have one". The Treaties are looking more and more like the proverbial albatross around Mr. Major's neck.

UNHAILED HEROES

from Geelong Advertiser (26/4) Slattery Around the Traps

Your columnist was privileged on Friday to enjoy lunch with some of this country's finest surviving heroes. They are the remnants of the gallant few hundred who took on the might of the Japanese army in the nation-saving Kokoda Trail battle. Had these courageous men - many from these parts - not repulsed the enemy against overwhelming odds, there is no doubt Port Moresby and then Australia would have been overrun. So why isn't the Kokoda story compulsory learning in our schools? Why aren't our politicians regularly lauding these saviours of a nation? Well, they are mainly of Anglo-Celt origin, working class, heterosexual and MALE. Cripes, we can't have heroes like that, can we?

JAPAN HAS NO SAY

from Herald-Sun (Melbourne), 6/5
I could hardly believe my eyes at the headline 'Japan welcomes push to republic' (Herald-Sun, May 1st). My criticism is not about your treatment of the story, rather that it actually happened. "Kiichi Miyazawa is the prime minister of a country which absolutely disgraced itself in the lead up to World War II, and of course, during World War II. "His countrymen were a disgrace to the human race and their treatment of servicemen and women is well documented in the history books.

"What is equally disturbing about this episode is the role of Paul Keating. If he is correctly reported, he told the Prime Minister of Japan that Australia would be a republic by 2001, and that this would help Australia in the region. "It seems strange that Mr. Keating would be telling the leader of a country which supports the world's oldest monarchy that this system is redundant. "The fact that Japan's former ruler, the deplorable Emperor Hirohito, should have been tried as a war criminal seems to have escaped our Prime Minister. But I suppose that should not surprise anyone. Mr. Keating's treatment of contemporary history speaks for itself.

"The Japanese Government must make an unconditional apology to the Australian people for their behaviour towards Australians during World War II before concessions are made. The RSL's attitude is clear on this point. The likes of Prime Minister Miyazawa are not welcome in this country and it is to be hoped that Mr. Keating has not disgraced us any further by inviting the current emperor here until the apology we seek is forthcoming." (Bruce Ruxton, State President (Vic.) RSL)

MANY BRITISH SPILT BLOOD TO SAVE THE WORLD

from The Sunday Age (Melbourne), 9/5
The path to a republic has already led us, unwittingly, through a great deal of blood, much of it spilt by the British in 1940, when alone they preserved democracy for the Commonwealth and the world. Never once has our ungracious Prime Minister acknowledged this fact of history. The Germans did. The Americans do. But Mr. Keating deliberately champions ignorance and obfuscation.

"In all his posing as the reasonable leader of a newly sensitive Australia, growing away from its parenthood, Mr. Keating has never placed any public emphasis on what we owe to the British. Instead, we get the nastiest sort of innuendo, which unfairly highlights British faults. It is unfair because he knows the British Government (much less the Queen) will not answer him, and, if they do, they will be crucified by the media of this country.

"In Mr. Keating, we apparently have a master of divisiveness. According to him, it was the Opposition which wanted to place one set of Australians 'over here' and another set 'over there'. Mr. Keating has angered and alienated those of us who will always be grateful to the British - yes, fourth-generation Australians like myself - and he must surely have incurred the displeasure of 'fair minded students of history. "Lest we forget!" (Neville Clark, Mentone, Vic.)