THE NEWTON AFFAIR

"Publisher Maxwell Newton said last night that documents seized from his home and office by Commonwealth Police had included papers given him by a member of the Prime Minister's personal staff and a senior Minister in the Holt Government" - The Age May 29.

Much argument has raged backward and forward about the propriety of Maxwell Newton obtaining inside information from Government departments and making journalistic capital from material, which he is able to claim gives him an edge over the orthodox news media. There are those who no doubt value this type of information especially when it comes to trade policy, tariffs and such matters which affect the business of "making money". However the essence of what has been revealed in this matter is that Government departments are easily penetrated, and vital information easily obtained.

Another example was afforded us when radical students invaded the office of Mr. Bury last week and helped themselves to whatever was available. In these events, the breakdown of big government is witnessed. With its large and irresponsible organization, it is easily cracked open by any individual determined to penetrate it and obtain the information desired. This minor incident in Canberra is in magnification of the story of Communist subversion in the American government, which took place from the early thirties onwards. (Read None Dare Call It Treason, 84 c -Posted).
There were other nasty and typical undertones to big government revealed in the process. This does not include the fact that it has been revealed that Mr. John McEwen the Deputy Prime Minister has supplied Mr. Newton with information in the past. Nor the Fact that Sir Phillip Phillips, noted Melbourne barrister saw fit to defend Mr. Newton on the basis that the raid on Mr. Newton's offices constituted a " ... threat to every source of information in Australia."

In matters such as defence and foreign policy the Government while taking the people into its confidence on matter of broad policy, has every right to maintain secrecy over private cables between itself and its overseas embassies. Mr. Newton invaded that right and was justly censured for doing so. During wartime it could be called treason. However when the lid came off over the Newton affair it revealed other activities of the Commonwealth police. Activities, which are part and parcel of the growth of the bureaucratic state leading to National Socialism or Communism.

Senator Millener asked questions in Parliament about other activities of the Commonwealth Police. While there is not much doubt this was used as a method of diverting attention from the central issue at the time, what it revealed was the use of police in activities outside their province in a free society. The Commonwealth Police have been used to investigate farmers growing a strain of wheat banned by the Australian Wheat Board. This is an example of bureaucratic dictatorship at its worst. The right to say what cannot be grown implies a right to say what can be grown, and with the introduction of quota restrictions that is what is happening.

A Mr. D. A. Hall, a poultry farmer in Queensland who is preparing a case to challenge Commonwealth Government legislation requiring a poultry farmer to count his flock every two weeks, and pay hen tax every two weeks, was visited by members of the Commonwealth police and other departmental officers armed with search warrants. They went through every room in the house, and departed with loads of private and confidential papers Mr. Hall was using to prepare his case. It is only the growth of a highly centralised bureaucracy, which has made it necessary to establish a Commonwealth Police Force. Previously there was adequate co-operation between the various State forces to deal with genuine criminal activity. The use of police to invade the liberty of the individual and to uphold bureaucratic regulations increasingly brings the police of all forces into disrepute, a necessary preliminary to attack by revolutionary forces on law and order.

The Government's policy of centralism is the fundamental factor preparing the ground for the revolutionaries.

THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

"The Communist Party… totaled a surprising 21.4 percent of the vote. " - The Age, May 3.

The French presidential election was a classical example of the electors being disfranchised in that they were given the choice between three candidates offering policies, which fundamentally arrive at a socialist society. The Communists were more honest in voting for their candidate, M.Duclos, but are assured of very real fringe benefits irrespective of who eventually wins between. M. Poher and M. Pomidou. The former is a socialist who openly proclaims centralism as his policy, which the Rothschild banker, M. Pomidou worked with de Gaulle to establish the rigid central control already existing. No doubt like Dr. Cisco Mansholt he looks to the day, past the European Common Market, when world government is achieved, the final goal of political centralists.

THE DEFICIENCY FUND REPORT

RED'S HUMAN RIGHTS PLEA

"About 55 Moscow intellectuals have signed a letter addressed to the Human Rights commission of the United Nations. The letter calls for an investigation into the repression of basic civil rights in the Soviet Union. - Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 24.5.69.

Little comment is necessary on the pathos of such an appeal. The Soviet Union, collaborating with satellite puppets and the Afro-Asian bloc, exerts enough power in the U.N. to ensure the speedy suppression of appeals of this nature. Investigations of this sort are only encouraged in Western countries where it suits the political objectives of the Communists. A typical example of this is that the United Nations report after a visiting mission to New Guinea has hardly received any comment or attention in the News Media. This document, entitled "Report of the United Nations Mission to the Trust Territory of New Guinea l968" effectively silences all the popular clamour for immediate independence for New Guinea. The Mission, which was composed of representatives from France, New Zealand, Liberia and the United Stares made a thorough investigation of New Guinea, and interviewed all sections of the indigenous population. They received the almost unanimous verdict that New Guinea was nowhere near ready for independence, and that Australian help and guidance was needed for many years to come.

Although this report carries far more weight than the ill conceived and emotional appeals of a few agitators, many Australians, are being persuaded by emotional and specious argument that the New Guineans resent Australian assistance, and are agitating for independence. This report is worth reading. It is obtainable from the Minister for Territories.

SANCTIONS AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA

The Episcopal Church has delivered an ultimatum to three major New York banks to stop doing business with the Republic of South Africa or the 3.5million-member church would withdraw its deposits, which amounts to millions of dollars. - Daily Telegraph 26.5.69.

It would be interesting to learn how many Episcopalians were consulted about a sanction against a country which is dealing with the difficult problem of different racial groups within the same political framework - a problem for which no one has yet been able to demonstrate a fully workable answer. Many native peoples are anxious to preserve and develop their own culture. The system in South Africa allows them to do this, and a growing number of African people have expressed their agreement with apartheid. Who is to judge?
Certainly the people of all races have more freedom than in many other countries in Africa; where chaos and bloodshed are so prevalent.

We can only hope that the Episcopal Church will consider the suppressed people in Russia, whose appeal we printed earlier in this issue, - what about some sanction to help them too?

COUP OUSTS SUDAN GOVERNMENT

"The Sudanese government was overthrown in a coup d'etat today, the Middle East News Agency reported." - Daily Telegraph. 26.5. 69.

People might well be excused for losing count of the number of coups that have taken place in Africa north of the Zambesi. Ever since independence came in 1956, the people of the Sudan have been subjected to increasing economic privation, violent dissension, war and authoritarianism. This is the third coup since independence. There has been heavy fighting and an enormous death toll in the war between Arab and Negro. Over 40,000 refugees from the Sudan are in Uganda. A type of apartheid might well have saved many lives in this situation. No doubt the Church will be ex-tending sanctions to the Sudan as well as South Africa.

LIBERALS IN CLASH OVER STUDENTS

Liberal backbencher, Mr. John. Jess, yesterday asked for a Government report on continued violence and apparent disregard for law by certain student organisations." The Age, May 28.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph had earlier reported on May15, " a fiery clash in the Government in which Mr. Jess achieved the rare feat of registering a win against Mr. McEwen." The latter had tried to restrict debate over the action needed to curb student violence and revolution.

Mr. McEwens action is indeed incredible when Mr. Jess' demands are considered. There was no claim that " special treatment" should be instigated for violent students but as the Telegraph reported: "Mr. Jess" supporters were insistent that, whatever the technical and legal situation, they as Commonwealth Parliamentarians had the responsibility to insist upon the law being upheld and applied impartially to all sections of the community. Mr. McEwen, by his attitude, evidently subscribes to the idea that membership of a University carries with it immunity from the law.

It is from this sort of liberal permissiveness that revolution is fashioned. The American writer, Ayn Rand writing in The Objectivist in March 1969 gives a lead our political leaders should be looking for from University Administrators. 'She writes, "To my Knowledge, the first example of a properly moral stand taken by a university administrator in regard to the current spread of student violence, was the statement of the Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh president of the University of Notre-Dame. In a letter to faculty and students, he said: "Anyone or any group that substitutes force for rational persuasion, be it violent or nonviolent, will be given 15 minutes of meditation to cease and desist. " Those who do not comply, he said, will be immediately suspended and given five minutes more to cease demonstrating, after which they will be expelled." (The New York Times, February 18, 1969)

The manner in which politicians can help was demonstrated by the response of President Nixon, he wrote to Rev. Hesburgh, "I want to applaud the forthright stand you have taken . . . If the integrity of our universities is to be preserved, then certain principles must be re-established and certain basic rules enforced."

TAXATION - THE GREAT LEVELLER

Despite clear evidence that the middle income group in Australia is carrying a greater burden that its counterpart in either England or the United States, Mr. McMahon was reported in The Daily Telegraph of May 14th, as saying that there was no great hope of tax reduction. He conceded that Taxation now consumed over 33% of the Gross National Income, and that this percentage was rising.

While the Government limit itself to Loan Programmes, Capital inflow and Taxation, inflation must continue. Both Debt and Taxation must grow larger. But this is a man-made system, rather than a natural law, and if the results are unsatisfactory, men can change them. There is nothing inevitable about inflation or rising costs. The Sydney Bulletin of September 28th last year, in an article on Taxation, pointed out that even economists like Lord Keynes (a Fabian Socialist) warned that when taxation exceeded more than 25% of the Gross National Income it led to instability. Australia's 33% places us in an explosive position.