STUDENT REVOLT AGAINST NATIONAL SERVICE ACT

"The Melbourne University student newspaper Farrago is urging 20 year olds not to register for National Service. A signed editorial in the paper calls on them to Resist the draft. The editorial is signed by the editor, Henry Rosenbloom and the publisher, Mike Richards. Both are post-graduate students at the university." - The Sun, (Melbourne). September 22.

In his Paper on "Student Power" at the Annual National Seminar of The League of Rights last Saturday, September 20; Mr. Eric Butler drew attention to the change in tactics by those opposing the Australian involvement in Vietnam. Those masterminding the tactics had decided that the time had come when a much bolder policy could be adopted, one of refusing to register under the National Service Act instead of going into the courts to attempt to gain exemption from service on the grounds of conscientious objection.

We have predicted that the Federal Government's support for the no-win policy in Vietnam would eventually result in a growing reaction against continued Australian involvement, and would provide the Communists with a situation, which favoured their tactics. This is now happening. A recent Gallup Poll shows that a clear majority of Australians now favour the immediate withdrawal of all Australian troops from Vietnam. It is not surprising that a yearly survey of student attitudes at the University of Sydney reveals that there has been a drop of seven per cent in support for the Government in Vietnam as compared with a similar survey twelve months ago.

Symptomatic of what is happening was the burning of his National Service registration card by Robert Wilton, Robert Wilton, son of Lieutenant-General Sir John Wilton, chairman of the Australian Staffs Committee, at Canberra on September 13.
A member of the Students for a Democratic Society, Robert Wilton, said before burning his card, "Failure to register for conscription is a more effective way to combat the National Service Act than conscientious objection."

Further evidence of the development of an anti-Vietnam attitude amongst students was provided at Monash, (Victoria) University last week when 1000 students almost unanimously decided to support those refusing to register under the National Service Act. Backed by known Communists, students played a major role in the riot and clash with the police at Williamstown last Friday. Central figure in the Williamstown affair was Mr. Laurie Carmichael, son of the Communist secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. Mr. Carmichael junior was supposed to have appeared in court at Williamstown last Friday to answer a charge that he had failed to attend a National Service medical examination. He was allegedly whisked away from the court by students and trade unionists. Since then be has been given plenty of publicity by the news media, representatives of which turned up at the Melbourne Unitarian Church last Sunday when told that Mr. Carmichael was going to speak. The Rev. Moore welcomed him, which was not surprising, as it was the same Reverend Moore who helped to conduct a memorial service for Ho Chi Minh in the Monash University Chapel.
The Carmichael case has all the appearances of a "stunt" to gain further publicity for the campaign against the Nation al Service Act.

As we go to press the police are still searching for Mr. Laurie Carmichael. To thousands of Australian students he is emerging as another hero. If the Federal Government finds, as well it may, that the mounting student campaign against the National Service Act develops into uncontrollable flood proportions, it will have only itself to blame. It is now starting to pay the price of short sightedness on the Vietnam issue, of having failed to press for a win policy and of rallying the Australian people to back that policy.

HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL LEAGUE SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE

LABOR SPOKESMAN CONGRATULATES PRIME MINISTER GORTON

"A very nice compliment was paid to the Prime Minister yesterday, especially as it was made in an election speech by the Deputy-Leader of the Federal Opposition (Mr. Barnard). Mr. Barnard said the attitudes of Mr. Gorton and the Minister for External Affairs (Mr. Freeth) to issues such as the Russians in the Indian Ocean were much more realistic and progressive than those of their predecessors. He added: 'A lot of credit for this must go to the Prime Minister who, whatever his shortcomings, is a more honest and practical politician than the bulk of his supporters.' Mr. Barnard was speaking on 3KZ Labor Hour - The Age (Melbourne), September 22.

It is becoming clearer with every statement they make on foreign affairs, that neither the Prime Minister nor the Minister for External Affairs has any real understanding of the nature of the Soviet threat. Speaking to the American-Australian Association in New York on September 18, before attending the opening of the 24th Annual Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Freeth returned to the theme of the Australian Government's interest in the Soviet's proposals for security arrangements in South-East Asia. Presumably Mr. Gorton was unhappy that this matter should be raised again with the Australian election drawing near, and rang Mr. Freeth in the U.S A. to suggest that he make no reference to this matter in his address. But unfortunately, for Mr. Freeth and Gorton, copies of the speech had already been circulated.
Maintaining their diplomatic initiative, the Soviet strategists had their man, Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko take up the collective security project in his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations last Friday, September 19.

In his address to the American-Australia Association, Mr. Freeth correctly observed that increased Soviet activity was one of the most important changes taking place in the South-East Asian region. But then he went on to make the incredible statement that "Whether it would result in good or evil was not known." It would be instructive to learn when any increased Soviet activity anywhere has ever resulted in good.

Prime Minister Gorton has again revealed his shallow thinking with his claim that "nothing but good would flow to Australia if Soviet influence were used to give economic help to Asian countries."
It is chilling that the Australian Prime Minister apparently does not understand that the Soviet invariably uses economic penetration as the principal method of extending Soviet political and military influence."

Prime Minister Gorton appears to have forgotten that it was Soviet economic aid to Soekarno's Indonesia, which resulted in Australia's nearest neighbour being turned into an aggressor. If Mr. Gorton and Mr. Freeth were being adequately informed on the talks that have been taking place in Jakarta between the Soviet and Indonesian Governments concerning Indonesia's $800 million debt to Moscow, they would know how the Soviet is using the debt problem to regain a firm economic foothold.
There has been an offer of a $24 million loan to complete steel and fertilizer projects. The Soviet offer to take part payment of debts in fish from joint fishing projects, has been wisely rejected by the Indonesians, one report stating that the rejection was made for strategic and political reasons; that it was feared that if allowed to operate in Indonesian waters, the Soviet trawlers could also conduct territorial research and sea-mapping with a possible view so future use of Asian waters by their warships."

But Mr. Freeth ignores this danger, as witnessed by his admission in a radio interview in Albany, Western Australia, (vide On Target, September 10) that he was welcoming the Soviet's proposal to participate in joint fishing ventures with Australia. The ignorance of Mr. Freeth is so appalling that at the very least he must be removed from his present position. It is clear that only a major electoral "bump" for Mr. Gorton will produce this result.

THE REVOLUTIONARIES BEHIND THE IRISH RIOTS

"Northern Ireland police said today they had issued three summonses against Miss Bernadette Devlin, the Member of Parliament who fought behind Roman Catholic barricades during sectarian riots last month.... Friends of the 22 year old civil rights leader said she had left Northern Ireland and was traveling in Belgium and France." - The Australian Sept. 23.

The new Ambassador from Eire to Australia Mr. Francis Coffey, is reported by The Sun (Melbourne) of September 23, as saying that he likes Miss Devlin's mini skirts and terms her a "remarkable young woman". But on the other hand he doesn't like the Rev. Ian Paisley much at all. We hold no brief for Mr. Paisley, but as yet there is no evidence that he has been throwing petrol bombs or other missiles. But there is concrete evidence that the "remarkable" Miss Devlin is serving the purposes of revolutionaries who have as their ultimate objective the overthrow of constitutional government both in Ulster and in Eire.

The Moscow organ of the Young Communist League Komsmol Pravda in its issue of August 20 makes it clear that the Reds regard Bernadette Devlin and her work as their own. The Canadian On Target, September 15, records that Miss Devlin is quoted as follows in the May-June issue of New Left Review:
" the Protestants who voted for me could only have done so on a socialist basis; the platform was therefore socialist. The reasons that Catholics who are not socialists votes for me is that they did not want the Unionists to win."
"I found myself that I did get through to Protestants while fighting this election. I had letters of support from Protestants, who still had the mentality of apologising for the fact, starting off 'I am a Protestant but as a socialist I agree with everything you say.'
Our real difficulty is the support we get from people who are opposed to the Unionist part, not because it is capitalist, but because they associate it with having oppressed them because they are Catholics. Despite the fact that we are socialists we still get a lot of support from Catholic capitalists and bigots."
Miss Devlin went on to say that the "one way you would unite Protestants and Catholics is by trying to get rid of both churches at once."

Miss Devlin has generally been accepted as a devout Roman Catholic:
Interviewed by Canadian student "activist" Steve Langdon" Miss Devlin was quoted in the Toronto Daily Star of June 27 as saying:
"Parliament is just a platform...the letters 'MP' just an aid to organising a radical student-worker movement outside Parliament, and a base in Northern Ireland that can bring about real changes for all the working class."

One of the most sensational contributions to an understanding of the real causes of the riots in Northern Ireland" is provided by the September 4 issue of Christian Beacon, U.S.A., which recalls the existence of a document emanating from the illegal Irish Republican Army in 1966. Part of this document was read in the Eire Parliament on May 20, 1966 by the then Minister of Justice, Mr. Lemass, who ordered it to be locked away. The full report revealed a comprehensive plan for taking over Northern Ireland with the aid of an "armed stand" in the heart of Belfast, and an appeal to the United Nations. The I.R.A. document also revealed plans for the infiltration of trade unions, Irish language and cultural organisations, and even religious bodies of all persuasions. University students should be indoctrinated. Republican under-cover agents were to infiltrate Orange Lodges, Masonic Orders, Catholic and Protestant organisations. Even the Salvation Army was mentioned.

Yes, there is far more behind the riots in Northern Ireland than meets the eye.
What has happened is one more classic example of how skilled revolutionaries operate.

Before Australians of Irish background and members of the Roman Catholic communion, permit themselves to be misled by propaganda much of it emanating locally from the Connolly Association of Australia, they should seek out the source of this propaganda. We have before us Connolly Association propaganda calling for the creation of a "united" Ireland. We obtained it from the Communist bookshop in Melbourne!

The Communist weekly, The Tribune, is carrying articles by members of the Connolly Association. We suggest that Ambassador Coffey might look into some of these facts before misleading Australians by referring to Red agent Miss Devlin as a "remarkable young woman." The most remarkable thing about Miss Devlin is how she has been able so fool both Roman Catholic and non Roman Catholics.