THE CZECHOSLOVAKIAN PANTOMINE

"Back in his self -made East German 'prison' State from his talks with the Czech leaders, Communist boss Walter Ulbricht must now be assailed with terrible doubts about the future. Ulbricht is now fully aware of the significance of recent events in Czechoslovakia and of their possible effects on East Germany" - Norman Fraser writing from Bonn, West Germany in The Herald, Melbourne, August 17.

With all due respect to Norman Fraser, the picture he paints of a worried, frightened, and perhaps disillusioned Communist leader in Walter Ulbricht is so much balderdash. For years the Communists have been using the picture of the dissident mellowing Communist, who challenges the leadership of the Soviet, to delude the West. In recent weeks the West has been treated to the whole cast of play actors fulfilling their role to maintain the fiction that there is rebellion a foot in Czechoslovakia. Visits have been made by other leaders of "rebellious" states. Tito from Yugoslavia, Ceaucescu from Romania have played their part in the charade of deception.

Portrayed as the dissidents against Ulbricht's role of the puppet of the Soviet, the performance has brought conjectures and editorials from the Western commentators, which infer that the Communist Empire is "falling apart. The same forecasts were made six years ago when we were treated to the verbal fisticuffs of the Soviet and China - yet co-operation between the two in Africa and Vietnam has gone on without any disagreement.

President Tito recently visited Hanoi, and prior to that Egypt. His purpose in both cases to bolster the real policies of extending the control of International Communism. But then Tito is an old hand at the game of deceiving the West and making fools of us. Not that he has ever really tried to hide his real intentions - as in 1949 when famous author John Gunther asked him "if in the event of war would Yugoslavia fight against the U.S.?" Tito - "certainly......because we are real Communists".

No doubt Dubcek, who frequently in recent weeks has made it clear that he is a Communist first and last, agrees with Tito who twelve years after his initial "rebellion" said, "Yugoslavia, in time of war, as in time of peace, marches shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet people towards the same goal - the goal of the victory of communism".
Tito's advice to Dubcek during his recent visit would have been on the finer arts of arranging the appropriate stage props for the grand delusion. Mr. Ceaucescu no less than Tito.

Review of the News August 8, quotes former top Romanian diplomat, Dr. Brutus Coste who testified, "The Romanian regime is and remains a Stalinist type - harsh, brutal - a regime not bent upon reform but upon full internal control..."
The same report goes on to quote Paul Scott the widely syndicated American journalist who recently outlined how Major General Jan Sejna, the Czechoslovakian Army Officer who defected a few months ago, explained to American officials what is happening in Czechoslovakia.
Scott summarised as follows: "The tightly controlled 'liberalization program' is being staged by Prague, with Moscow's secret guidance and support, to head off what happened in 1956 in Poland and Hungary when people at large rose against the Communist Party...At several high level meetings in the Kremlin late in 1967, Moscow and Prague Communist leaders determined that massive dollar credits and trade from the West, especially the U.S., were needed to bolster the sagging economy and stem unrest in Czechoslovakia.
As part of their covert program to obtain this massive Western aid, Moscow and Prague decided that the Czechoslovakian government would need a new image, especially for the American taxpayer who will foot most of the bill.

"Under the personal guidance of Soviet Party boss Brezhnev, one of his closest comrades, Alexander Dubcek, was elevated in a bloodless coup to first secretary of the Czechoslovakia Communist Party and the real position of power in that country. According to General Sejna the mission of Dubcrek is to give the new Communist regime the 'appearance' of being independent from Moscow and a government supporting 'business like reforms'. Immediate objective of the Prague-Moscow plan was to gain support at home for Dubcek's Red Regime and then financial help from the U.S. and other Western European countries".

Tito has been successfully exploiting his "rebellion" in this way for twenty years. No doubt the Kremlin bosses see no reason why the same gimmick will nor work with Czechoslovakia.
(As we go to press, news of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Russians, Poles and East Germans have come to hand. In the absence of any other news we see no reason to believe that this action is no more than an extension of the above propaganda hoax.)

THE BUDGET

SOCIALISM MARCHES ON

"Manufacturers yesterday said it was impossible to assess how the Budget sales tax increase was to be offset without putting up prices of low-cost items beyond all proportion, The minimum increase on items costing less than 10 cents would be 10 per cent, despite a sales tax increase of only 21/2 per cent" - The Australian, August 15.

Irrespective of what the pundits say the economy has been given a vigorous inflationary lift by the budget announced by Mr. McMahon. Increased charges mean increased costs, which in turn mean increased prices leading to increased demands for higher wages, No doubt a first form pupil in simple arithmetic could point out this reality to Mr. McMahon and his staff of high salaried economists.

Just taking a few figures at random, Sales Tax, Company Tax and additional P.M.G. (Radio, T.V, and Postal) charges will immediately load the economy with another 117 million dollars worth of costs, which will have to be recovered. The Commonwealth banking authority will make that sum available in some form or another, overdrafts to meet increased wages and costs of material etc. It will enter the financial life-stream (a stream becoming increasingly muddied by the sludge of rising costs) as employers and government authorities are forced to go to the banking system to obtain the required credits to meet these increased demands. This $117 million could just as easily be used to offset rising costs by being paid into the financial life-stream outside the cost structure, against the productive capacity of the nation, entering the financial life-stream in e.g. a payment to all elderly citizens nor subjected to a means test, it would be neither discriminatory or inflationary.

Wage earners and pensioners, and all those on fixed incomes who are being robbed by inflation caused by the budget rises, would find their purchasing power genuinely increased, and not diluted as is the case now.

VIOLENCE AS A CHRISTIAN CREED

"Many Christian churches were now prepared to condone violence as a last resort in obtaining civil rights, the chairman of the Victorian Council of Churches, the Reverend S.I. Weeks, said in Melbourne yesterday. Mr. Weeks is one of more than 1000 churchmen who attended the World Council of Churches assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, last month. There he heard speakers including the American Negro novelist, James Baldwin, the President of Zambia, Dr. Kaunda, and the American folk singer, Pete Seeger discuss Church and world issues" - The Australian, August 15.

Mr. Weeks was accompanied by the Rev. J.R. Westerman a leading Methodist clergyman in Victoria who expressed agreement with Mr. Weeks. He said "the discrepancy between legislation on civil rights and the actual social, economic, and political rights of many seriously under-privileged groups was so great that violence, perhaps, was their only way out".

Some Church leaders - as distinct from Christian leaders - are becoming blatant sounding boards for Communist theories and policies. In endorsing violence the Rev's Weeks and Westerman are only promoting the Communist doctrine that progress results out of the violent clash of opposing forces, as against the Christian doctrine that all genuine progress is moral and results from the reconciliation of the baser instincts in man which these non-leaders seek to inflame.

Thirty or Forty years ago it was assumed without question that Christian leaders would be in the forefront, opposing the policies of materialistic Communism. Not so today. The organisations and persons representing the views of Messrs. Weeks and Westerman welcome Communist victory and decry the role of Christians involved in a war of resistance against the forces of anti-Christ. In condoning violence within societies, which normally accepted the Christian concept of the rule of law, they join with Lenin in welcoming the collapse of Society as is described in his words: "Marxists have never forgotten that violence will be an inevitable accompaniment of the collapse of capitalism on its full scale and of the birth of a Socialist Society".

Messrs. Weeks and Westerman no doubt endorsed the leadership of the W.C.C. at Uppsala calling for dialogue with the Communists. So weak are they on the principles of Christian faith that they must go to the forces of anti-Christ for learning and instruction. With such leadership, is it not to be wondered that the fruits we see in our Society are enmities, strife, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies etc, as against the love, joy and peace which flows from true Christian leadership.

PATRICK WALSH TOUR - QUEENSLAND GENERAL MEETINGS

MR. BUTLER TO SPEAK IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

NOT EVERYONE CAN ATTEND THESE STIMULATING ANNUAL EVENTS

Yes, we know that it is a physical impossibility for all supporters, including many overseas, to attend three of the year's most stimulating events for League of Rights supporters and sympathisers. A key function for League supporters, the Annual New Times Dinner on Friday, September 6,
the Annual League of Rights Seminar on Saturday. Sept 7; and
the Annual Conference of League V.P.A. members on Sunday, September 8.
But arrangements can be made for those who wish to attend, and can do so.

Guest of Honour at the Annual Dinner is Canadian, Pat Walsh. The Donation $4.50, Place: The Victoria, Lt, Collins Street, Melbourne, Time: 6,15 p.m. The Seminar, dealing with the conspiratorial features of International Communism, has three outstanding speakers, Mr. Pat Walsh, Mr. Eric Butler and Mr. Tony McGillick, and starts at 2.15 p.m. at the Federal Hotel on Saturday 7th September.