The Prime Minister, 15th March, 1971.
The Hon. W, McMahon,
Parliament House, Canberra, A.C.T.

Dear Mr. McMahon,
On behalf of the Australian League of Rights and our supporters throughout Australia and the British Commonwealth of Nations, I congratulate you on your elevation to the highest political office in our land. We are deeply conscious of the critical responsibility which is yours and that you have assumed leadership of the Government at a time of growing uneasiness throughout the whole nation. We therefore all join in praying that your service to our country will result in the review of policies which have brought friction and distress between Government and people, where had there been wise administration on the basis of the fundamental principles of your party there would have been co-operation, stability and harmony.

In this regard I refer to your stated promise made in your first interview after election to the Prime Ministership that you would be "anti-communist and anti-socialist". You prefixed this statement with the word "very" to indicate your determination to oppose communist-socialist policies. However, without offense, may I point out that the Government has for the last twenty years increasingly accepted the fundamental principle on which the growth of Socialist policies rest, i.e. the concentration of central control over political and economic policies. Therefore on behalf of our members, subscribers and supporters all over Australia, may I have a clear definition of what you mean when you promise to be "very anti-communist and anti-socialist".

My letter to you will be published in our journal and your reply will be awaited with great interest by thousands of people throughout Australia. To further clarify the situation for the benefit of our readers would you indicate your attitude towards the following important questions:
1. The growing concentration of political power at Canberra through control of national fiscal policy by the central Treasury to the detriment of State Treasuries. Will this policy continue under your leadership?
2. Will you take steps to discontinue the growing duplication of departments, formerly the sole responsibility of the States, with similar Commonwealth departments?
3. To ensure the States are able to administer their responsibilities on a basis of political and financial sovereignty will you take steps to have the Commonwealth Government vacate the appropriate taxation fields, which would enable the States to raise their own revenue?
4. As inflation and erosion of the value of the dollar is making the individual Australian increasingly dependent upon welfare services and thus bringing further impetus to growing control by the State at Canberra: Will you initiate a fundamental change in financial policy to bring about a cessation of the present inflationary policies of The Treasury and The Reserve Bank?
I refer to the policy of expanding the credit structure of the community through the banking system to continually finance expanding costs to the detriment of the value of purchasing power and the savings of the community.
I point to the yearly charade enacted when the Arbitration Commission acknowledges the growth of increased costs by recommending an increase in the standard wage, which results in the expansion of central bank credit to defeat the intended purpose of wage and salary increases, which is to grant an increase in the purchasing power of the individual.
Will you initiate means of payments to individuals outside the existing cost structure to ensure, such payments do not become another addition to costs and prices?
5. Will you consider as an anti-inflationary measure, the lowering of interest rates, and to progressively bring them back to a just charge for the cost of administering loans?
6. To alleviate the financial problems of Local Government, would you consider abolishing the iniquitous payroll tax? Would you further give consideration to a direct grant to Local Government on the basis of a ration of population to area, or some agreed and equitable formula, which would ensure the financial sovereignty of Local Government without increasing the unmanageable debts as does exist at this present time?

In these matters there is sufficient to indicate the growing centralisation of financial and political power at Canberra. The problems and dissatisfaction within the Australian community have, we believe, paralleled this growth. Its reversal would ensure the return to stability and satisfaction. Your reply is awaited with interest.
Yours sincerely, Edward Rock. Asst. National Director.

THE LIBERAL PARTY FUMBLES AGAIN

"But why had he stood for the position of deputy leader? Mr. Gorton was frank, Fraser and Fairbairn jumped to their feet as soon as it was suggested who would be deputy leader', he said. 'They both made charges against me. I felt I would like the party to express an opinion as to me and those two individuals. I felt I would like to know how the party felt". - Allan Barnes interviews Mr. Gorton, The Age, March 12.

In electing Mr. Gorton to the Deputy Prime Ministership Liberal Parliamentarians indicated they had little understanding of the underlying reasons behind the friction, which had brought Mr. Gorton down. To elect him as deputy leader indicated these basic problems will remain. To Mr. McMahon's credit it can be said he has learnt something of a political lesson. His suggestion that the Government would look into the granting of a growth tax to the states is a distinct victory for the work of those who for so long have concentrated upon the real deficiency of the Liberal Party, its adherence to centralist policies as against its platform of decentralisation. Mr. McMahon's belated recognition of this reality is a tribute to organisations such as The Australian League of Rights, which has pursued the matter unrelentingly.

However, from the vote given to Mr. Cotton, there remains a great gulf of misunderstanding and the matter must be pursued relentlessly, especially now the Party is starting to think again. It is evident that Mr. Whitlam has no illusions as to the value of Mr. Gorton to the Labor-Socialist party. In the no-confidence debate in parliament, Mr. Whitlam had defended Mr. Gorton and made it clear that he considered Mr. Gorton a fellow socialist who had been unjustly treated. Mr. Whitlam said of Mr. Gorton, "To give him his due, he raised expectations among the public. I acknowledge that it will be easier for us to tackle some of the overdue problems in Australia because he was one Liberal who acknowledged their existence".

Mr. Clyde Cameron one of the most radical frontbenchers in the Labor Party, joined in the praise for Mr. Gorton. "He was a great, strong, tough and courageous man if ever there was one". Dr. Cairns at different times during the last parliament heaped extravagant praise upon Mr. Gorton for various socialist measures he enacted. Had the Liberal members realised they had a unique opportunity to reverse these disastrous policies, their rejection of Mr. Gorton would have been complete. As it is a nasty taste is left in the mouth, and a feeling that the same old mistakes will be made all over again until the Government totters towards its final eclipse.
However, Mr. McMahon has made a refreshing start. If there is sufficient pressure generated from the electorate it may continue. It will not take more than a few weeks to tell one way or the other.

TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT FIRMLY IN CONTROL OF CANADA

Mr. Eric Butler reports from Vancouver

I flew into British Columbia, Canada, reading the front-page stories of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's secret marriage the night before. The marriage of the 51 year-old "swinging" Prime Minister to the attractive 22 year-old daughter of a well-known West Coast Liberal Party family can only help ensure that if Trudeau decides to hold a general election this year, he will be re-elected for a second term. There is at present considerable speculation that Mr. Trudeau will go to the electors long before it is necessary for him to do so. It is true that the economic situation is bad, and that the financial policies imposed to curb inflation have neither cured the inflation problem nor have they produced any economic results which can be termed other than disastrous. But in spite of the fact that the "soft" policies of the Trudeau Government clearly helped to allow the Quebec situation to develop to the political kidnappings and murder of last year, there is no doubt that the strong action taken by Mr. Trudeau convinced a large number of Canadians that he was the only Canadian political leader capable of dealing with the Quebec situation at the present time.
Competent political observers to whom I have spoken are agreed that the tide starting to run against Trudeau before the political kidnappings has subsequently been at least halted, if not reversed.

One of the Trudeau Government's greatest assets continues to be the almost pathetic Conservative Opposition. Those who were responsible for the present inept leadership of Mr. Robert Stanfield, are determined that there shall be no effective challenge to that leadership. It is difficult at present to visualise any of the present Conservative Members being able to emerge as national political leaders. And no real alternatives are offered to the present finance-economic policies. Prime Minister Trudeau can argue that those complaining about the mushrooming unemployment his deflationary financial policies are producing, are therefore in favour of destructive inflation.

Until the Conservatives can advance a financial policy designed to eliminate both inflation and deflation, one that is subservient to economic realities, they are in a hopeless situation as the Prime Minister treats them with growing scorn in the House of Commons at Ottawa.

It is true that the Prime Minister's parliamentary behaviour is earning him some biting press criticism. Mr. Lubor Zink, writing in The Telegram, Toronto, comments, "As his difficulties mount, he is compounding them by losing his cool and behaving like a spoiled brat who goes into a tantrum whenever he does not get at once, everything he wants. His contemptuous, derisive treatment of the Opposition MPs as a bunch of hopeless idiots has now reached such a disgusting low that the very essence of the parliamentary system is in jeopardy".

This type of comment will be applauded by Mr. Trudeau's enemies, but it can have no real impact on the Canadian political situation while the Conservatives lack real leadership and a genuine alternative financial policy. At one time it did appear that there might be a growing revolt against Mr. Trudeau inside the Liberal Party, but as in Australia, the desire to retain substantial parliamentary salaries, plus the "perks", the possibility of a Ministerial post, and of course the substantial pensions paid when the requisite number of terms have been served, all help to ensure that there is no revolt against the man who appears most likely on current indications to lead.
Members are satisfied that Mr. Trudeau is their "best bet'. I must agree with them.