AUSTRALIA'S HOUR OF DEEPEST SHAME

"A Federal MP, Mr. D.J. Killen (Lib. Qld.). said in Brisbane last night the decision to impose sanctions against Rhodesia was a sad illustration that the Federal Government could not find the courage to challenge the double standards in international affairs, 'The decision is an incredible mixture of futility, inconsistency and rank cowardice', he said. 'Future generations will wonder at the intellectual processes of those who determine that Rhodesia is a threat to world peace while Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia is not" - The Australian, September 3.

After a period of indecision, during which it was clear that many Federal Government Members, including Cabinet Ministers, were unhappy about complying with the latest United Nations sanctions against Rhodesia, the Australian Government has finally written to the Secretary-General of the UN. U Thant, formally stating that it will agree to the trade and travel embargoes demanded by the Security Council.
Whatever the type of pressure applied to the Australian Government to force it to agree to the UN demands, the truth is that the Government now stands condemned of capitulating to those forces which not only demand the destruction of Rhodesia, but which also seek ultimately to destroy Australia.
The decision was an act of treachery, a point, which should be made clear to every Federal Member. As Mr. Eric Butler shows in his first-hand report on African realities, (below), Communist penetration of Africa is gaining momentum, with increasing Communist aggression against Rhodesia.

Every decent British citizen has been nauseated by the spectacle of Fabian Socialist Harold Wilson siding with Communist-trained and Communist-equipped terrorists attacking Rhodesians across the Zambesi River from Zambia. But Australians who understand the significance of the Communist thrust towards Southern Africa had always hoped that their Government would refrain from the shameful act of supporting increased pressure on Rhodesia at the very time that the Rhodesians are fighting to maintain stability in an area of vital strategic importance to the defence of the Free World.
Now they are experiencing Australia's hour of deepest humiliation.

It was believed at Canberra last week that the Members of the Government parties would be given the opportunity of discussing the Rhodesian issue before a Government decision was made. There was also reason to believe that the Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Hasluck, might make a statement before Parliament adjourned. But in keeping with the despicable spirit of the war against Rhodesia, Mr. Hasluck waited until Parliament had adjourned, this time for a week, before making the Government's decision public. In this way it was no doubt hoped that opposition inside the Government parties could be minimised.
If there is any real health left amongst the Australian people, it must show itself on the Rhodesian issue.

How can any self-respecting Australian agree to a policy, which has immediately resulted in the Immigration Department announcing that leading Rhodesian Test cricketer Colin Bland cannot now come to Australia during the coming summer to play cricket. The Government which takes action to prevent a Rhodesian cricketer from coming to Australia is the same Government which, while shedding crocodile tears about Czechoslovakia, last week defeated a motion by DLP Senators that trade sanctions be imposed against the Soviet Union. It is hard to believe that Government leaders are not sickened by their own hypocrisy and double-standards.
Australian self-respect will only be regained when at the very least the latest sanctions against Rhodesia are removed.

THE COMMUNIST INVASION OF AFRICA

The following report comes from Mr. Eric Butler immediately after returning to Australia from Southern Africa:

Two weeks ago while I was in Rhodesia a group of captured terrorists were being tried in the Rhodesian courts. These terrorists made it clear that they are the spearhead of an attempted Communist invasion of Rhodesia. They are not only given guerrilla warfare training in Communist countries, including Cuba, but are also given political training. One result is that they know how to handle themselves in the courts under cross-examination. At least 100 Communist-trained and Communist-equipped terrorists have been killed in combat by Rhodesian forces since the beginning of this year. But Rhodesian intelligence officers, who have built up a detailed picture of what is happening to their North, claim that there are at least another 250 well-trained and armed terrorists in camps in Zambia ready for further attacks across the 500 mile Rhodesian border on the Zambesi River.
These African terrorists are just as much the instruments of Communist global warfare as are the Viet Cong in Vietnam.

I have little doubt that the Rhodesian forces, backed by the South Africans, are capable of meeting and defeating all possible terrorist attacks in the immediate future. However, the Communist strategists see these attacks as essential for their developing international psychological and political war against Rhodesia. Greater military pressure can be applied against Rhodesia later when there has been sufficient military build up in the North. The South Africans are fully aware that the Communist-backed campaign against Rhodesia is designed ultimately to destroy South Africa.

Speaking at a National Party rally on August 24, just after the conclusion of South Africa's first major guerrilla warfare exercise, Prime Minister Vorster warned Britain, Zambia and Tanzania to stop supporting Communist aggression in Africa. At the same time that Mr. Vorster was making his warning, Prime Minister Ian Smith in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, was accusing the United States of helping the Soviet Union by buying chrome from the Soviet Union instead of from Rhodesia. Mr. Smith said that Rhodesia found itself in a unique position: Both its friends and enemies were fighting an economic war against Rhodesia.

I was astonished upon arriving in Perth last week to read a letter by Foreign Minister Hasluck in which he attempted to "play down" statements concerning Communist-trained terrorists attacking Rhodesia from Zambia, while describing statements that the Soviet strategists were vitally interested now in the Indian Ocean as "speculative" and "hypothetical".
Perhaps Mr. Hasluck's advisers are not too well informed on Communist strategy and activities? If they were, they would know of the Soviet penetration into Sudan, while also making increased use of the modernised Port of Sudan (a Communist project) on the Red Sea, and the establishment of a modern airfield in Somali, where the Soviet has been training and arming Somali troops for some time.

Just before I left Africa the chilling news came through that the Soviet has formally presented Uganda's Air Force with a gift of MiG fighters. This gift was negotiated by President Milton Obote when he visited Moscow in 1965.
The Red Chinese build up in Tanzania is gaining momentum following the Red Chinese agreement with Tanzania and Zambia to build a railway line from Dar-es-Salaam to Lusaka. 200 Red Chinese surveyors are already at work. Even if the railway line is never completed, it will provide a wonderful cover for increasing Red Chinese influence.

Zanzibar is a strong Red Chinese base, although Communists from other Communist countries are present. Red Chinese anti-aircraft missiles have now been installed in Tanzania, a development which prompted President Kaunda of Zambia to recently request British Prime Minister Wilson for similar missiles for his country.

There is a growing build up of Communist weapons in Dar-es-Salaam for the use of Communist-trained terrorists returning to Africa. The Soviet is continuing to develop its influence in Nigeria, where it is supporting the Federal Government with military equipment and economic aid against the unfortunate Biafrans. Soviet MiG fighters are being flown by Egyptian pilots. I was able to confirm the report that Soviet Illusyhin bombers have also been sent to Nigeria, but there is doubt as to who is piloting these bombers.

Coming through Angola I learned that the Portuguese are still engaged in large-scale operations against Communist-backed terrorists from the Congo. Conditions in the Congo have become progressively more chaotic, with both Red China and the Soviet attempting to exploit the situation. There is still considerable conflict.

If, Mr. Hasluck does not believe that the Soviet strategists are giving Africa a great amount of attention, while at the same time building up their presence in the Indian Ocean, he might care to explain to the Australian people why both the Soviet and Red China are now showing such interest in Mauritius, "independent" since March. As I came through Mauritius on my way to Perth I confirmed reports that British troops are still stationed on the island to prevent racial riots, and that Soviet ships are arriving at Port Louis. Soviet propaganda has charged that the British and American "imperialists" are proposing to establish major air and naval bases on Mauritius. Those with a knowledge of Communist dialectics know that this is just what the Soviet proposes to do.
A look at the map quickly indicates the importance of Mauritius to the Soviet for both its African and Indian Ocean strategy.

The explanation for the Indian failure to join even the mere verbal condemnation of the Soviet Union at the United Nations, following the Soviet military invasion of Czechoslovakia, is quite simple: India has been seeking Soviet assistance to establish itself as a naval power in the Indian Ocean. Naturally, the Soviet requires bases and other assistance in exchange: The Soviet naval squadron now operating in the Indian Ocean has made a visit to the Persian Gulf, another vacuum created by Mr. Harold Wilson's retreat from East of Suez.

To complete the picture we should not overlook the fact that Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaya invited the Soviet Union to establish an Embassy in Kuala Lumpur because he believed the story that the Soviet leaders really believed in "peaceful co-existence". The Soviet has also established itself in Singapore, where Soviet students are now studying at the all-Chinese University.

I have returned to Australia satisfied that this nation's future will be decided by what happens in Africa and the Indian Ocean. It is at this critical moment that Foreign Minister Hasluck and his colleagues demonstrate their outstanding and far-sighted statesmanship - by stopping Rhodesian cricketer Colin Bland from visiting Australia: I can well imagine Rhodesians holding a front line on the Zambesi fighting the same Communist enemy that Australian troops are fighting in Vietnam, shaking their heads in disbelief at the news and asking what form of madness has possessed Australians.

BUSINESS AS USUAL WITH COMMUNISTS

"London - While the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia may damp temporarily enthusiasm in the West for broader trade with communist-bloc countries, it probably will not affect materially the long-established trend toward increased East-West business dealings. This may seem cynical, but it is a basic fact of economic life. Indeed, experts in London believe the sheer momentum of trade expansion already under way will keep this trade high" - Rand Daily Mail, (South Africa) August 26.

One of the most significant developments when the Soviet armed forces invaded Czechoslovakia, was the stability of the world's stock markets. This provided concrete evidence that the Communists correctly assessed that the West would make no real effort to confront the exponents of "peaceful co-existence" in the Kremlin. It is business as usual with the Communist criminals. No sanctions, please: Keep these for the Rhodesians.

Trade with Rhodesia has been comparatively small, so it is not so important as exporting to Red China and the Soviet Union: The most disturbing feature of the Czechoslovakian episode irrespective of how it is interpreted is that in the face of the Soviet leaders' ruthless use of naked power, the moral rot in the West was shown to be deep. Unless this rot can be removed, the West has little chance of surviving against the increasing pressure of the Soviet global strategists.