23 April 1971. Thought for the Week:
Mental illness is the new phrase to dismiss those with differences
of opinion from the majority. Thus the majority is preserved
in smugness. But the pendulum seems to be swinging the other
way
and those who have spent their lives advocating the supremacy
of the state are now bemoaning that the individual is losing
his dignity. If I understand them correctly, this is the message
of the New Left.
Angus MacDonald, Editor, Religion and Society. |
THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINESE "TRADE""They will furnish credits, which will serve as a means of supporting the Communist parties in their countries, and, by supplying us with material and techniques which are not available to us, will rebuild our war industry, which is essential for our future attacks on our suppliers. In other words, they will be labouring to prepare their own suicide ". - Lenin. Newspapers throughout the world are reporting
the great "thaw " in relations between China and the outside
world, particularly the United States. The pressure is mounting
on Australia, with the maximum being extracted over the failure
of Australia to sell wheat to Red China. History appears to
be about to repeat itself again. Lenin will be vindicated
again in his assessment of the "decadent West" and once again
the technical and industrial superiority of the western nations
is to be made available to prop up the economy of another
communist economy. If the history of the Soviet is examined it will be seen that at various times it was massive injections of aid and trade from the West that stopped certain collapse taking place. Mr. Nixon is about to "recognise" Red China. President Roosevelt nearly 40 years ago was persuaded to recognise the Soviet Union as a means of solving economic problems caused by the great depression in America and at the same time, rescuing the ineffectual Soviet economy. The Soviet at that time badly needed economic blood transfusions just as the Chinese do today. No Communist system of slavery can deliver the goods to compete with a free enterprise system. Additionally Mr. Nixon is committed to winding up the Vietnam War. A major outlet for the American economy, already in a desperate situation, will be closed off. Another must be found. With other Western nations already scrambling for the Chinese market and Mr. Nixon committed in his own words to "Keynesian economics", Red China offers the greatest potential market for America to continue dissipating, along with other Western nations, their natural and real wealth. It is wonderful what modern education can do. |
RECONSTRUCTION : THE TECHNIQUE TO SOCIALISE THE LAND"Farmers assisted under the rural reconstruction scheme will have their property management and financial affairs closely supervised." The Queensland Graingrower, March 10, 1971. There is no doubt that the design of the Queensland Government's Rural Reconstruction Board mirrors the pattern which will be pursued all over Australia. It is obvious from the report in the Queensland Graingrower that this will constitute the first direct full-scale attack by Government bureaucracy to control farming management on the farm. The Queensland Graingrower report makes this clear. Following are verbatim passages. "Every
advance made will be related to a plan of operation and budget
for the property concerned, and the farmer will be obliged
to work within these". Queensland farmers would be well advised to obtain a copy of the report through their parliamentary representative and renew the attack on financial policies instigated through Parliament, which now place the lives of farmers and the control of their properties in the hands of an irresponsible and arrogant bureaucracy. |
REVOLUTION IN CEYLON"Ceylon yesterday set aside its professed neutralism and accepted foreign military assistance to help put down the armed rebellion against the Government". - The Australian April 15. The present Government of Ceylon under
the Prime ministership of Mrs. Bandaranaike was elected in
May last year. Four Communists were appointed to key sensitive
portfolios and the remainder of the Government was socialist.
One of its first actions was to recognise North Korea and
North Vietnam. Newspaper reports would have us believe that
the influence behind the bloody civil war which has broken
out was instigated by North Koreans, and the Ceylon Government
has expelled the North Korea Ambassador and his staff. It
was said that the North Koreans had encouraged revolution
by bands of Che Guevarists, followers of the Cuban guerrilla
leader who lost his life in the South American republic of
Colombia. Such is too simple an explanation. War begets war, and the imposition of
a Communist-Socialist Government on a people is a form of
warfare. Disillusionment and reaction inevitably sets in.
Our Thought for the Week is appropriate to the argument.
Those who embrace socialism voluntarily react against the
reality. The reality was the inability of the newly elected
government to deliver the promised socialist Utopia - because
there is no such thing. The reaction has been violent and
the counter-reaction will undoubtedly result in the application
of increased force and rigid control. |
THE TRAGEDY OF EAST PAKISTAN"By resorting to pre-planned genocide President Yaha Khan must have known that he himself was digging Pakistan's grave": - Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed of the newly declared republic of East Bengal. The Sun, April 19. The mass slaughter which has been going
on in East Pakistan is another pitiful repetition of unrestrained
barbarism which has become a familiar pattern in Africa and
Asia since so-called Colonial powers responding to the appeal
of "brotherly love" withdrew stable government from those
areas in post world-war-two days. The weak liberal-socialist
thinking operating on the false premise that it is "racism"
when Europeans give the lead in establishing government, have
been responsible for the harvest of slaughter. There is a
perverted morality which justifies brown men killing brown
men, or black killing black, but rejects civilised government
and law and order if it is the work of white men. It can be predicted with certainty that there are greater eruptions to come from the "liberated" nations, and there are probably many we never hear of. The injunction "go ye into all the world" was more than an injunction to carry a message without tangible works attacked to the words. In the moral vacuum created in the power structures of what was called Western "Christian" civilisation, an even greater devastation is taking place, a spiritual devastation. |
SIR COLIN SYME AND MR. HAWKE CLASH"Inflation in Australia was reaching
a dangerous level, the chairman of BHP, Sir Colin Syme, said
in Melbourne yesterday.... One necessary measure seems to
be to reduce our over-full employment". - The Australian,
April 15. 1971. Mr. Hawke went into bat with Mr. McMahon keeping up an end. Mr. Hawke accused Sir Colin of wanting unemployment, which undoubtedly did him a grave injustice. Mr. McMahon said that a government, which created or permitted unemployment had failed. While saying that Sir Colin Syme was misrepresented by Mr. Hawke, as Sir Colin used the phrase "to reduce our over-full employment" which is quite different to talk about creating unemployment. Sir Colin wants the range of available jobs lessened to cut down on the competition for jobs, which results in a higher level of wages when employers have to compete for available labour. Sir Colin and his fellow industrialism however, do want less employment in another sense, which never came into the argument with Mr. Hawke and Mr. McMahon. They bend their major efforts towards employing less labour in the interests of efficiency, and this is a truly progressive and desirable objective. If it is not, Sir Colin should be getting together with his fellow industrialists and work to stop all research and the application of new techniques, which lead to the displacement of labour in industry. If Sir Colin Syme and other leaders of industry and commerce would start from the basic premise that their job is to deliver goods and services with the least human effort possible, and every displacement of human labour constitutes progress, they may then start to look at genuine alternatives to financial inflation and deflation as a means of regulating the financial side of the economy. As the ratio of human labour to output is lowered, humanity has in fact received a dividend in the form of less work. If such displacement of human labour were accompanied by a financial dividend available to the general populace through a financial agency independent from employment, then employment and unemployment would assume their correct perspective. As unemployment increased due to displacement of labour, the financial dividend would increase. If available labour did not produce a sufficient quantity of goods and services to meet the needs of the community the financial dividend would decrease, thus creating the necessity for employment. Sir Colin and his associates cannot have a free enterprise economy without a free enterprise financial policy. It is rime they started to look again at the role of the financial advisers and the economists on whom the Government relies for advice. |
DESPAIR IN NEW ZEALAND ON E.E.C."There is an edge of desperation to New Zealand's latest campaign to mobilise British public opinion in its Common Market status fight". - The Australian April 15. It is now so obvious it is beyond dispute that the forces pushing for Britain's entry into the European Economic Community are alien to the general populace of Britain and the British Commonwealth. The tragedy would never have got to this point if it were not for the control, which can be exerted in politics through the party system. This is now becoming widely recognised throughout Britain and as a consequence a Voters Veto campaign is in full swing with the British League of Rights in the van. Politicians are being notified that this issue is the issue above all issues, and those who place loyalty to the Party first, above loyalty to Britain, will become political casualties. The mood of the British people is such that effective organisation will make a reality of this campaign. It could well bring about the regeneration of the British people. |