THE LATEST ANTI-LEAGUE ASSAULT

Our first reaction to Andrew Campbell's book, "The Australian League of Rights", was that it is unfortunate that the hard back edition retails for $15 and the paper back for $9.50: good sales of this book would, like all previous attacks on the League, stimulate greater interest. Lavishly publicised in last week's porno-political journal, "Nation Review", the purpose of Mr. Campbell's book is clear: to smear the League under the guise of objective research and scholarship. The publishers make the claim that this is "the first full length study of The Australian League of Rights" "Based primarily on previously unpublished documents.:."

Mr. Campbell is presented as an authority on the "Social Sciences", having taken first class honours at the La Trobe University. He is currently employed in the Commonwealth Civil Service. We hope that Mr. Campbell will not be upset, but his book must be described as sloppy. A competent researcher would not, for example, have Mr. Edward Rock listed as Assistant National Director. Although still closely associated with the League, health reasons forced Mr. Rock five years ago to relinquish his executive position with the League.
Mr. Phillip Butler, Field Director for the Canadian League of Rights in British Columbia, will be astonished to learn that he is National Director of The Canadian League of Rights! Canadian Director Ron Gostick will also be astonished at the standard of "scholarship" of Australian "social scientists". Mr. Campbell writes, "I am indebted to several ex-members and associates of the League of Rights who provided valuable insights into the organisational motivations of the League." Mr. Campbell merely repeats what Mr. Mike Richards claimed in his "Age" articles.

If Mr. Campbell has in fact met any ex-members of the League, he would not make the silly suggestion that the League is financed by foreign funds. Equally silly is reference to "an anonymous donor member of the League who provided League confidential documents (now publicly available)...." No such documents are quoted. All the quotations in the book are taken from League journals, to which anyone may subscribe. There is nothing original in the book, unless it is the attempt to equate the "political extremism" of the League with the "New Left". All the old smears are churned out like a cracked record.

Those responsible for the book indicate that they fear the League primarily because of the type of political activity it is fostering, activity designed to make the will of the electors prevail over their institutions. The fact that such a book is felt necessary is an indirect tribute to the effectiveness of the League. It should provide all League supporters with an increased incentive to go forward in a battle, which must intensify with every day that passes. It is probable that a full-scale review of the Campbell book will be published in "The New Times".

THE INFLATION MADNESS

One of the most distressing features of the inflation question is the capacity for grown men, apparently quite sane, to go on and on repeating the most absurd nonsense. Events continue to dispute claims and predictions, whether made by politicians or economic "experts", but the flood of nonsense is like Tennyson's brook, threatening to go on for ever. The latest, December, Consumer Price Index figures, showing an increased rate of 2.3%, make it certain that Prime Minister Fraser's talk about the inflation rate being reduced to 5% within twelve months is as unrealistic as his famous prediction about unemployment decreasing. Asked about his suggestion that the inflation rate could be reduced to 5%, Mr. Fraser said that he had been using Treasury figures. The press of February 1st, reports Mr. Fraser as saying in India that "In New York they advised me to use under 6%..."
It was in New York that Mr. Fraser was telling potential investors in Australia of how his anti-inflation strategy was succeeding.

As we have constantly stressed, all inflation, irrespective of the rate, is subversive in its impact on the free society. Even when faced with the latest evidence that their financial policies offer nothing but long term disaster for Australia as a stable, independent nation, Federal Treasurer Howard, Deputy Prime Minister Anthony and Finance Minister Eric Robinson, all insist that the Government's policies were succeeding and that "the fight against inflation was being won."

Some Government apologists have made the incredible comment that if the price increases resulting from the last Budget were put aside, the inflation rate would have been much lower. All taxation must ultimately be reflected in higher prices. Every producer or trader knows that tax costs must be recovered if he is to stay solvent. Higher prices mean an effective reduction in purchasing power. The wage earner believes that his only answer to these higher prices is to demand higher wages. Higher wages further increase costs. And so the vicious, destructive, inflation cycle continues.
There is NO solution to inflation under present financial policies of escalating debt, high taxation and high interest rates.

Even more incredible than the comments on the inflation rate by Federal Treasurer Howard and Prime Minister Fraser, were their remarks when clutching at the straw of increased December retail sales as evidence that at long last the economy was, to quote Mr. Howard, "further impressive evidence of a sustained pick up in sales." The facts are that there was a DOWNTURN in retail sales in November, with the larger retailers reacting with a move without precedent since the end of the Second World War: they ran pre-Christmas sales to avoid being caught with excessive stocks. Sales, which might otherwise have been made in January, were made in December.

Coming developments are going to prove that the Government's economic strategy has been a disastrous failure. It is now 60 years since the British engineer C.H. Douglas, analysed the basic flaw in the finance economic system, warned that attempts to overcome it by the type of policies associated with Keynesian economics must inevitably produce monetary inflation and social disorder. The test of true science is correct prophecy. As one observer said, "Events appear to be in the pay of Douglas."

1979 is the centenary of the birth of a genius typical of the type of cultured, genuinely conservative gentlemen which Great Britain once produced in large numbers, before the First World War. The answer to inflation has been known for 60 years and was partially adopted with success during the Second World War with the financing of a system of consumer discounts.

With events continuing to make nonsense of the Fraser Government's claims, and reduced electoral support, this is the year in which to exert maximum pressure upon Federal Government Members to press for a change of financial policy. The abolition of Sales Tax and the use of new credits to finance consumer price discounts would be a major step in the right direction.
Recommended basic reading on inflation, and suitable for giving to others: "Natural Cost and the Ownership of Money", J.D. Malan 75c. "A Programme for Reversing Inflation", 75c; "Freedom and Inflation", Bryan W. Monahan, 75c; "Dictatorship by Taxation", C.H. Douglas, 75c, (Prices include postage).

BRIEF COMMENTS

The joint statement by the U.S.A. and Britain on the referendum vote in Rhodesia, showing that a majority of whites, rightly or wrongly, are prepared to try to live under a black majority government, provides further evidence of the determination of the policy makers of both countries to impose a Marxist type regime on the Rhodesians. It is not surprising that the continuing pro-Communist stance of Washington and London is now causing even some Saudi-Arabian leaders to change their strong pro-Western stance. Unless there is a resurgence of strong anti-Communism in the West, we predict that after Iran, Saudi Arabia is going to be isolated from the West.

"Central Australia is facing racial conflict on a scale unprecedented this century as blacks and whites approach a frightening confrontation." That sentence summarises the conclusions of Melbourne journalist Bruce Wilson, who recently re-visited Alice Springs. His articles in Southern papers have shaken (at least temporarily) the Federal Government. Coming violence will be exploited to have Australia branded at the U.N. as a "racist" nation. Events confirm the correctness of the policies of the Queensland Government.