RHODESIA TO FIGHT ON
WITH COURAGE, DETERMINATION AND FAITH

With the Soviet victory in Angola almost complete, it is not surprising that the Soviet is now preparing to promote a major assault on Rhodesia. Intelligence sources estimate that there are fifteen thousand African guerrillas, many Soviet-trained, in holding camps in Northern Mozambique, waiting to infiltrate Rhodesia.
"As South African Prime Minister John Vorster has charged, "the free world shirked its duty in Angola". The vital question now facing the non-Communist world is whether it can find the moral backbone to back the Rhodesians to defend a major front line in the battle for the world.

We have over the years warned that the non-Communist nations were helping to dig their own graves by uniting with the Communists in the "United Nations" against Rhodesia. Even as the Rhodesians brace themselves for their greatest test to date, western nations including Australia, still maintain economic sanctions against Rhodesia while at the same time sending further economic blood transfusions to the Soviet Union.

While all those who know the realities of Africa are not surprised that a majority of the members of the Organisation of African Unity are now moving towards accepting the Soviet-backed MPLA as the legal government of Angola, they observe that the Africans are merely reflecting the policies of the Western nations. Running true to form, the Wilson Government in the U.K. is letting it be known that it will accept the MPLA. It is argued that any Government clearly in control of a country must be accepted as the legitimate; Government, irrespective of how it came to power.

This argument does not apply to the Rhodesians, whose internal stability may be judged by the fact that large numbers of European women are running their farms while their husbands are away in the armed forces. The Africans continue to maintain their traditional loyalty to those who have done so much to help them along the road to real progress. Where is the loyalty of the European world towards a small group of fellow Europeans holding a front line for them on the Zambesi? This is a question, which Prime Minister Fraser and his colleagues might care to direct their attention.

Mr. Fraser is to be congratulated for drawing attention to the Soviet's strategy in the Indian Ocean, and to the significance of the reopening of the Suez Canal. But can his Government not give a lead to the rest of the non-Communist world on the Soviet thrust against Rhodesia and South Africa? Some of our readers will recall a stirring address some years back by Defence Minister Jim Killen, who assured his listeners that he would stand or fall on the Rhodesian issue. Now would be an opportune time for a stand.

If press reports are correct, the South Africans do not appear to feel that the West is going to back them to make a stand. They are therefore attempting to play for time by seeking to avoid a major military confrontation in Southern Angola. South African leaders may feel that the MPLA will ultimately free itself of Soviet control and that they should therefore attempt to come to some type of terms with it, but the South Africans attempted to come to terms with the Marxist Government in Mozambique. That Government has now made it clear that it is going to support the coming assault on Rhodesia.

Supplies of Soviet military equipment, some of it extremely sophisticated, are now pouring into Mozambique through the Port of Beira. How do the Rhodesians see the deepening crisis? We have no doubt that Prime Minister Ian Smith, in a public address on February 6th, summarised the mood of the overwhelming majority of Rhodesians: "It is now clear that in the coming months our determination and our experience will be put to the test... We shall need this moral courage in full measure, for in the coming months we will also be subjected to psychological warfare more intensive and more insidious than ever before. We shall be urged by some people to heed the lessons of Mozambique and Angola and to surrender now in order to avoid chaos and strife such as that which is presently occurring in Angola... You may well ask what we in Rhodesia can do in the face of the gloomy situation I have outlined. I believe that there is only one course open to us - to fight on; with courage, determination and faith in our own destiny; to demonstrate those qualities that enabled the free world to win against the heavy odds, which confronted them in the last world war. The only alternative is to surrender to the forces of evil, which, I am sure, is as unthinkable to you as it is to me. I have no doubt which course Rhodesians will choose".

The very spirit of the magnificent Rhodesian stand may yet spark into life the dormant spirit of the Free World, bringing with it an awakening in time to avoid the darkness now threatening the whole of mankind.

FORMER LIBERAL MINISTER QUESTIONS INTEGRITY OF TREASURY

"Federal Treasury officials had 'misbehaved' and 'misinformed' several governments, a former Social Services Minister, Mr. W. C. Wentworth, said today". -"The Herald" (Melbourne) February 10th.

We agree with Mr. Wentworth that the economy could be improved by reducing taxation; this is one of the points of the Petersen Plan. In calling for the control of the amount of money in circulation; he no doubt means, in some sort of way, that we must not have "too much money chasing too few goods" - as this would be inflationary. We are still mystified as to the goods that are not available, if one has the money to buy them. The stores are literally bulging with goods for sale, and there are "post- Christmas", "closing down", "pre-winter", "never- to-be-repeated" sales everywhere!

The amount of money in circulation can certainly be reduced by using consumer credits; another point of the Petersen Plan. If the amount of money now necessary to finance the new national wage increases were applied to consumer credits, there would be a marked lowering in overall prices, inflation would be slowed right down, and even reversed, with the reduction in taxation referred to above… "No way", says the Treasury.

Mr. Wentworth did raise an interesting point. He said: "In proper terms there was no Government deficit because $4,000 million in capital works were charged against the Budget. "Australia was one of the few countries in the world that adopted this practice". All this means really is that if other budgetary practices had been employed there would either have been a most drastic reduction in capital works, and hence severe unemployment, or the capital works would have been financed from taxation; the method used by most other Western countries. If so, then our taxation would have been considerably higher. It's the old story of the swings and the roundabouts!

Whilst on the unpleasant subject of unemployment, we cannot see any alleviation of this in the immediate future; rather the reverse. The Melbourne Chamber of Commerce warned, as was reported in "The Age" (Melbourne) February 16th, that unemployment will exceed 400,000 by the end of April, this year. Mr. Ian Spicer, the Secretary of the Victorian Employers' Federation, in the same report said that the new wage increases (6.4%) would add $2,000 million to the national annual wage bill; the cost to employers would be much greater after payroll tax and workers' compensation increases were adjusted.

All employers of labour, reading these lines, are fully aware of the implications of the thumping increases in workers' compensation premiums last year. All these massive increases are to be pushed forward into costs, then prices -- to be met with fresh wage demands. And so it goes on.

Labour is now a luxury to the small to medium sized business. Proprietors will be looking at every way to cut staff: and certainly to avoid replacing those not absolutely essential. We do not consider that an unemployment figure of even 7-8% by the end of this year in Australia is unrealistic. It is the implications, which are frightening. Yes, the implications are revolutionary.

The Communist-controlled unions will have the right causes for industrial warfare; short, sharp clashes as predicted by Laurie Carmichael, and confrontations with a non-Labor Government, catapulted into office by a "conspiracy", a "coup d'etat", brought about by a "wicked, deceitful" Governor-General, aided in his foul plotting by no less a person than the Chief Justice of the High Court. So "Shame, Fraser, Shame"; "restore democracy all over again; but this time with some real revolutionary spice added. The time is approaching when Australians will see revolutionary blood in the streets.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mr. H. W. Herbert, Queensland economist has been making some pithy observations of late. In his column in the "Sunday Mail" (Brisbane) February 1st, he says that Australia no longer needs overseas capital, and that "in a recession, a large Budget deficit is essential but, unlike overdrafts and business loans, it does not have to be repaid".
Mr. Herbert argues that there is not, and that there has not been an excessive growth in the money supply. Mr. Phillip Lynch, the Treasury sounding board, has been lamenting "excessive growth in liquidity", as we all know, and his bobby-dazzler bonds were tailored to soak much of this liquidity up. Mr. Herbert says that "the standard of debate on economic policy in Australia is incredibly low"; and that Mr. Lynch (the Treasury) has made no allowance for rising prices, in assessing the growth in the volume of money in circulation. Mr. Herbert observes that $1,500 million will go into Government bonds. Now for the coup de grace. Mr. Lynch will use this $1,500 million to reduce the Budget deficit, by borrowing from the public and trading banks, instead of from the Reserve Bank. Borrowing from the Reserve Bank costs the Treasury nothing in interest. Borrowing from the public and Trading Banks will cost the Government approximately 10%, or $150 million a year. Interest on $700 million of Savings Bonds will ultimately cost the taxpayer $515 million during their seven-year life! The gap between $l,500 million and $700 million (approx. $800 million) is the amount compulsorily subscribed to the bonds by the Trading Banks. Interest on this will be passed on by the Banks to their various depositors. It all sounds crazy: and it is crazy. But this is "sound finance" - Treasury style!

A report in "The Australian" (Feb. 16th) has it that high wages and a tendency to over-educate our children are two causes of the massive level of unemployment among teenagers. Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures disclose that 15.6% of teenagers in the work force were out of work. This is 4 to 5 times the percentage of their elders. Why? One short answer is that there is a back-lash against "the cult of the teenager" evident in the past 2-3 decades, when there was more spending power at the disposal of wage-earners. Employers, struggling with the wage bill, now want value for money: and teenagers, overall, aren't good value. The principal reason is that their wages are too high; and they just aren't worth it. There are all sorts of other reasons too, which are not applicable to all young people. There is no doubt that many teenagers have been spoiled by over indulgent parents in past decades, and many young people have grown up with a false notion that teenagers are something special. We have asserted many times that the universities, and institutions of higher education are full of people who should never be there. All that is happening is that many young people are being educated beyond their natural ability, and chasing "education" as a sort of ticket to a higher wage. This is a cardinal factor in the dissatisfaction of a growing number of people in the professions - the teaching profession perhaps the worst example of all.

FULL EMPLOYMENT