STEPPING UP THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST DAVID IRVING

by Eric D. Butler
On the eve of British historian David Irving's appeal to the full bench against his banning from entering Australia, and at a time when Irving has lodged a new application for an Australian visa, Robert Manne, editor of Australia's most prestigious cultural journal, Quadrant, has written a shallow and basically dishonest article, featured in The Age of July 7th. Initially Manne was quoted as one of the academics in favour of allowing Irving to visit Australia, thus creating the impression that he was at least a genuine libertarian. But it now emerges that Manne was only prepared to support an Irving visit because he felt it would be an obscure affair.

In a masterly display of dialectics, Manne now writes: "For the record I must point out that I have become a supporter of the ban on David Irving. An obscure visit is now inconceivable. To lift the ban would present Irving with a heaven sent opportunity for media driven mischief and propaganda. The initial ban on Irving was probably, on balance, a mistake. To lift it now would be a far greater one. In politics, circumstances matter."

In essence, Robert Manne is saying that David Irving should not be allowed to come to Australia because the media would publicise his "propaganda". One would have thought that Robert Manne and his fellow academics would welcome the opportunity to show that Irving was in error concerning his view on the "Holocaust" or any other related subjects. But clearly Robert Manne is afraid that in a genuine debate, Irving might demonstrate a mastery of incontrovertible facts.

The Manne article in The Age reads more like a propaganda smear than an article worthy of an academic of Manne's standing. No student of Australian affairs doubts Manne's ability, or his courage as witnessed by his opposition to war crime trials. The objectiveness of the League of Rights, which Manne fears may in some way benefit from an Irving visit, may be judged by the fact that it has vigorously promoted the valuable book he edited, Shut Down, containing a number of articles on the follies of removing protection from Australian industries. Manne was used by sections of the media, including B.A. Santamaria's News Weekly, to "review" Irving's controversial work Churchill's War. It was a most misleading piece, as is Manne's Age article.

As Manne says he has seen the David Irving videotape, he knows that Irving did not recommend psychiatric investigation of Jews who in some miraculous manner managed to escape the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz. Irving considers how eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable concerning events of the past. What about those eyewitnesses who were in Auschwitz and state that they did not see any gas chambers? It is blatantly untrue to say that Irving denies that large numbers of Jews, along with others, were murdered in various ways during the Second World War. Manne writes that Irving "comes up with a figure, virtually plucked from the air, of 25,000 Jewish murders".

The truth is, as all who have seen the Irving tape know, that Irving pointed out that British Intelligence, as a result of breaking the German code system, were receiving the daily reports by the German commander of Auschwitz, Hoess, to Berlin of what was taking place in the camp. There were no references to mass gassing. But the figures being provided did indicate the number of deaths in what was, as Irving points out, a "brutal slave camp". Irving suggested that over a period 25,000 may have been murdered, although the great majority of deaths were from disease. But if thousands had been murdered, this was a shocking crime.

Irving refers to the official casualty list provided by the Russians, who took over the camp. The list showed 74,000 casualties. If Manne wishes to present himself as a genuine academic, he should be prepared to challenge the hard evidence, which Irving presents to justify his conclusions. Are, for example, the British Intelligence reports factual or not? What about the forensic evidence showing that the alleged gas chambers could not have been used for consistent mass gassing? And why not come clean, Robert Manne, and admit that Irving frankly says that if at long last a document is discovered, signed by Hitler, ordering the mass extermination of Jews by gassing, he will admit that he has been in error, as he admits he has been in error on several other matters.

The reality is that Irving is threatening one of the greatest hoaxes in modern history. The alarm bells are ringing right around the world. The German Government has now resorted to denying Irving access to German archives to complete his work on the Goebbels Diaries. At the end of the day, Robert Manne will be seen to have besmirched his own academic reputation by lending his support to the emerging theme that Irving's real threat is that he is supporting some "neo-fascist fringe in Germany, France, Britain and the United States..."

It is true that there is a worldwide totalitarian threat, as witnessed by the orchestrated international campaign against David Irving. Robert Manne has revealed his own totalitarianism claiming that his fellow Australians are not capable in assessing a man like David Irving for themselves.

THE CONTINUING MABO STRUGGLE

If the Liberal Party can ever be revived as a viable political force, the regeneration may have to begin in Western Australia. Premier Court shows moral backbone in sticking to his guns on the Mabo decision of the High Court, although the A.L.P. is making it clear that his position is certainly not "politically correct". Court's call for a referendum last week, to give Australians some say on policy that has been handed down from the High Court as though it were Holy Writ, has struck a nerve.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tickner has cited Court's statements on this matter as a case for the Race Relations Discrimination Commissioner; Court is a "racist" for daring to suggest that Australians should have some say on their system of land tenure! His is "divisive" for proposing that Western Australia might hold its own referendum on the issue. Richard Court points out that the High Court has ruled on a matter of policy that has not been sanctioned by the people's representatives in any parliament in the land. He is threatened with action under the Racial Discrimination Act for "racism", and further points out that this particular Act has been sneaked in by the Commonwealth from a United Nations Treaty through Section 51 xxix of the Constitution -also without our approval.

What has developed is not a debate about now disadvantaged Australians of Aboriginal descent being assisted in a way that will not disadvantage other Australians, but a power struggle between States and the Commonwealth. It appears that the High Court can be expected to favour further centralisation of power into Commonwealth hands, of the States' struggle to find ways of protecting themselves. In the end, Richard Court's referendum proposal is the only hope the States have. If the Australian people could initiate their own referendum on such matters, the States' position becomes much stronger.

REPUBLICANS MISS A BEAT

Last week must be recorded as a bad week for the republican cause. The theft of a genuine Australian cultural symbol (although obscure) like Dorothy Wall's classical figure of Blinky Bill, as a republican mascot, has appalled even genuine idealistic republicans. It serves to trivialise a debate about the future of the nation, and simply reflects the blatant dishonesty of those powering the republican bandwagon. One republican, Mr. Padraic McGuinness, a columnist for The Australian, points out that Blinky Bill has been stolen before - by the Australian Communist Party in the 70s. It is the influence of the ageing exMaoists, which has revived the theft of what was previously a loyal, patriotic figure. McGuinness notes that in the original edition of "The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill", he is shown proudly carrying the Australian flag, with Union Jack prominently displayed!

A further setback for the increasingly strident republicans was the recommendation of the Liberal Party Federal Executive to endorse the monarchy. This could be a fatal blow to the republican cause, as it may mean that any referendum or the republic will be a keenly contested affair, rather than a "bi-partisan" agreement to surrender. The Liberals go further and warn of the "hidden agenda" of the A.L.P., "including its long-term plans to undermine the power of the States to abolish the Senate, change the flag and eliminate the reserve powers of the Governor General". If the Liberals can be held to this course, and their spines stiffened by public demands, the republic becomes much more difficult to achieve.

COLE VIDEO RATED 'G'

UNBELIEVABLE

from The Advertiser (Adelaide), July 2nd
It is unbelievable that the so-called Labor Government in South Australia intends to sell the State Bank. The enormous potential of this institution has never been fully utilised. All loans granted by the banking system are issues of the national credit, which belongs to the community. "When a trading bank grants a loan, it increases the amount of money in existence and the new money ranks as buying power with existing money. The bank does not lend its deposits; it creates money and thus uses the nation's credit.
"If there were nothing to buy, money would be valueless. Consequently, it is time to say that the community, which provides these things, is the creditor to the bank loan; and the ownership of the credit issued is resident in the community, not the bank. "The bank merely creates and issues the money and registers the debt.

"Each State has the undisputed power to have its own trading bank, thus by prevailing bank credit principles to monetise its own resources. "If, instead of doing this, the Government insists on selling the bank while a private monopoly swindles the community of the credit of its own efforts, then the members responsible surely ought to be liable for impeachment. It is the supreme prerogative of the Government to issue the community's money. (D. Beaven, Enfield, S.A.)

FEMALE LIBERATION

BRAINWASHING