THE DOLLAR CRlSIS

"The European Common Market, after a marathon session lasting almost 20 hours, yesterday formally authorised West Germany to float the Mark". - The Age, May 10

The confusion of polemic now convulsing the world over the Dollar-Mark money crisis is another reflection of the decadence of our civilisation. Money, and the manufacturing of the supply of money has been elevated into an end in itself. It is more important to buy and sell money, than to maintain it as the servant, a mere mechanical servant, of civilization. Those who control and manipulate the money market can promote crises affecting the lives and welfare of individuals and the future of nations. Such a situation could never come within reach of the forces controlling finance without the continued use of terminology and argument, which confutes rational discussion.

People cannot grasp the intent behind discussion which tells them that the American Dollar, formerly the King of monetary units is now "weak and sickening rapidly". Or that the German Mark has become "strong and vigorous", and the more Marks you can buy the more prosperous you will be.

The political student who understands that 'Finance is Government and Government is Finance' should not be so easily confused. It is beyond dispute that national governments do not control their own financial systems. It is also beyond dispute that those controlling the issuance, the flow and the volume of money, and the terms on which it is obtainable, see ultimate control in the form of a world hegemony, quite supreme and above challenge by national forces.

Political centralism is indispensable to the final objective. Therefore we have the European Common Market, promoted in Europe and Britain by bankers, financiers and the merchant class, supported by the suppliant mass media and political parties dependent upon those controlling the money supply.

It is also increasingly clear that the "nations" i.e. the national peoples instinctively reject the drive to submerge them in political and financial centralism. Last Gallup Poll figures from Britain show 65 per cent opposed to entry into E.E.C. and 25 per cent in favour. Those forces which now say that the dollar which previously bought two bananas (if you were lucky!) in comparison to 4,060 marks will now only buy 11/2 bananas to the same number of marks, are not interested in feeding people, they are interested in controlling people.

We have no doubt that an immediate objective is by discrediting different national currencies in Europe and Britain, that marks, francs, sterling etc. are in the process of being replaced by the Euro-dollar, as another move towards financial centralism along with the political centralism of the E.E.C. Manipulation of the American dollar is part of the process.

IMPORTANT MEETINGS IN PERTH AND ADELAIDE

GAGGING PARLIAMENT

"Yesterday afternoon . . . the Government applied the gag to get through 12 Bills before 10.30 p.m.". - The Herald May

Some 20 Bills were pushed through the House of Parliament in one and a half day's sitting time. One Bill was allotted 5 minutes! The Rural Reconstruction Bill, possibly the most important piece of legislation to come before parliament was allotted four and a half hours and was described by Mr. H. Turner, Liberal N.S.W. "as leaky as a colander".

Mr. McMahon stubbornly refused to extend parliament so that due consideration could be given to the legislation before the house. A great deal of hot air has been engendered over the curtailing of parliamentary debate, as if it was the first time and not a continuous process. The reality is quite the opposite. Legislation is manufactured at an increasing rate outside parliament.

The myth that parliament is responsible for the legislation which is debated there has surely been exploded in the minds of the most gullible. The amendments, which may be made during the debate, do nothing to stop the tremendous stream flowing in continuously from the factory manufacturing the material. That factory is the entrenched and ever on-going bureaucracy. The amount of material they put before the parliament makes it a physical impossibility for parliament to responsibly debate what is put before the members. In fact they are only puppets, no matter how glorified. Last week's shenanigans only emphasised the farce.

A great deal of hypocritical talk has come from the Prime Minister and the Government benches about Mr. Hawke and Dr. Cairns and the A.C.T.U. on how they are seeking to take away the authority of parliament and transfer Government into the hands of people who are not elected, thereby bypassing parliament. There is one complete and short answer to that assertion, the bureaucracy has already done this and is the real government of the county.
Only the restitution of genuine decentralised Government will bring any real change.

THE ULSTER POWDER KEG

Mr. Butler sends the following report from Belfast

The general picture of the Northern Ireland situation as presented by the mass media, is about as accurate as the media's presentation of the Rhodesian situation. However, there is no doubt about the violence and terror. On my first night in Belfast two special branch police chiefs and their families miraculously escaped death in separate and cold-blooded murder attempts by terrorists. In the first horror bomb, one house was almost completely demolished, the occupants having fled only seconds earlier, throwing themselves flat on the back lawn.
In the second incident the whole of the front of the house was blown in, the occupants escaping serious damage by a miracle. In both explosions dozens of nearby houses were seriously damaged.

On my second night two barmen had to be rushed to hospital following an explosion which ripped through a well-known public bar, first attacked eight months ago. Half an hour earlier a blast damaged a radio relay station on the Hightown Road near where the three Scottish soldiers were murdered in February.
My last interview before leaving Belfast was in the drawing room of a clergyman which had been bombed some time previously.

The official view of the new Government of Mr. Brian Falkner is that with the aid of the massive British military support, they are slowly getting on top of the terrorist threat, and that there is now more confidence about the future. But this is definitely not the view of a number of people whose views cannot be brushed aside as alarmist. There is no doubt whatever that there is a deep-seated public mistrust of the Ulster Government, which is seen as having progressively capitulated to the pressure from London, originally applied by the Wilson Government and now by the Heath Government.
There is no doubt that Chichester-Clark resigned as Ulster Prime Minister because he felt that he had been let down by London.

It was revealed at the time of Clark's resignation that Wilson had never informed him of the conditions under which the British troops were being provided.
There is no doubt that Mr. Faulkner is a much abler politician than either of his two predecessors. But he must be well aware that he is on trial and living on borrowed time.

A cross section of observers informed me any Ulster election within the near future world see a massive swing against the unionist Government Party and the election of sufficient supporters of the controversial Rev. Ian Paisley to ensure that the Protestant Unionists at least held the balance of power. This could see the development of a highly explosive situation with an Ulster Government determined to force a showdown with London on the basic issue of how best to provide law and order.

I had a long and pleasant interview with Dr. Paisley in his magnificent new Church, where he draws huge congregations, and found in private conversation that he is most balanced in his approach. But I can well imagine, as some of his admirers readily admit, that on the public platform he often permits himself to be carried away. He is a big man, and a most dominating personality. My own tentative view is that he does not at present have the type of political maturity required to handle the explosive situation, which would develop if he became a political leader.

A senior and very well informed Rector of the Church of Ireland expressed the view that "while many of us admire Ian for some of the stands he takes, we fear that often he is like the proverbial bull in the china shop, says most untactful things, and could play into the hands of our enemies". Another fear expressed is that Paisley could become such a captive of his own image, which is one of being the constant figure of controversy and that he could unconsciously act unwisely in order no maintain his image.

Needless no say, I strongly disagree with Dr. Paisley's theological attitude towards the Roman Catholics, but without exploring the religious question here, it is essential to point out that while there is generally a much more rigid attitude towards theological differences than in countries like Australia, personal relations between Roman Catholics and Protestants were undoubtedly improving before the outburst in 1969 of the reign of violence still continuing.
A senior member of the Orange Lodge frankly told me, "I would much sooner trust some of my Roman Catholic friends than I would my so-called Protestant friends". Other strong Orange Lodge supporters readily admitted that there were far too many hooligans amongst the Protestants.

But with the weakening of law and order, the criminal element, irrespective of background, has never had in so good. The increase in the crime rate, quite apart from politically motivated violence, has increased enormously. The major question is, of course, how much of the present unrest has been masterminded by the International Marxists.

Although Miss Bernadette Devlin is now regarded as a political lightweight, some of her frank statements have clearly revealed the thinking of her Marxist backers, who want to turn the whole of Ireland into another Cuba. Ulster Security is, naturally enough, extremely cautious about saying too much, although I must confess that I gained the firm impression that there was little understanding of Marxist dialectics. But former Cabinet Minister Bill Craig, who has from the beginning provided irrefutable evidence of Marxist direction and influence in Ulster, is satisfied that the Irish Republican Army, the main instrument through which the International Marxists obviously hope to produce a general revolutionary situation in the whole of Ireland, now has up to 7,500 trained troops, and that adequate military equipment from Communist sources is now being held in readiness.

While it is true that historic religious and other differences have been carefully exploited in order to produce the present situation, the exploiters are not interested in any type of Christianity. One of the tragedies of the situation is that many Roman Catholics, who wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, are being terrorised by the exponents of violence and terror.

The Welfare State, which is a destructive and demoralising influence, is not helping the Ulster situation. And on top of all this is the continuing inflation and economic crisis resulting from the policies of the Heath Government.
My general conclusion, therefore, is that unfortunately all the signs indicate that the situation in Ulster is going to get worse before there is any improvement. In support of this view, I record that 1971 has seen a massive increase in the rate of bombing outrages.