IMMIGRATION ISSUE WON'T GO AWAY

"Federal Cabinet this week will consider a significant cut in Australia's migrant intake for the coming financial year." The Age (Melbourne), June 25th

We have little doubt that the probable cut in Immigration into Australia for 1990-91 will be attributable to the declining condition of Australia's economy. If there really is a "recession", it is in its early days. Various sectors of trade and industry are feeling a pinch others are trading quite well. Unquestionably, the boom times have past, and we don't expect these to return in the immediate futures Indeed, they may not return at all!

We are amused to see leaders of the real estate industry assuring business leaders from other industries that "booms" run in cycles, and that the real estate industry will experience another boom in seven years, or something like that. Grown men should not talk such drivel. Booms and busts are attributable, primarily, to the policy of the banks: and the policy of the banks, now, is set by the Reserve Bank and the Commonwealth Government, not always in perfect agreement. Yes, the policies of both the Reserve and the Government can be, and very often are, dictated by overseas trading factors. This has nothing whatever to do with "cycles" in time.
Businessmen who talk of cycles, and expect another boom period in a set number of years are deceiving themselves cruelly. They are whistling in the dark": they don't really know what is going to happen in their particular industry, but won't admit it, even to themselves.

The chief proponents in the official immigration debate are sparring about the economics of it. One side claims that immigration costs the nation money, and the other side claims that immigration brings money into the nation. Obviously, the former are having the most influence, as the Government agonises over the political costs of cutting immigration: alienation of the ethnic vote/probable criticism from overseas nations who don't want any further immigration "pressures" on themselves.

If the Opposition had the will, and the courage, to make a Referendum on Immigration its main electoral plank, then it would be well supported, in our view, and it could legislate, if necessary, from a position of strength. But will it? We fear not. Only the Citizens' Initiated Referendum could bring this about, and major political parties don't want the C.I.R.

Read "Immigration - The Quiet Invasion" ($12.50 posted) and "Immigration: A Policy of Perfidy" ($7.00 posted) - both by Dr. John Dique, from all League Bookshops.

THE WITCHING HOUR ARRIVES

This is the title given to an excellent Editorial published in The Wimmera Mail-Times (Horsham, Vic.) on June 22nd last. We consider it so apt, that we reproduce it here, a rare action for us to take:

"With the Multi-Function Polis headed for S.A., the rosy hued investment possibilities for the Wimmera, midway between Adelaide and Melbourne, might dull perceptions of the real issues. "This proposed high-tech city of the 21st Century would supposedly accommodate between 150,000 and 200,000 people, about 80% of whom are likely to be Japanese. The establishment of such a city might well make the 'Asianisation' of Australia irreversible. We will have hastened the process of selling to the highest bidder.
"Our instincts against the 'polis' were fired not so much by the prospect of a Japanese elitist colony gaining a foothold on Australian soil, which was repugnant enough, as by the clandestine operation which brought the concept into being. "During three years of planning - plotting perhaps? at the highest levels of the Australian and Japanese Governments, our people were kept in ignorance of the biggest single development, and potentially the most divisive, contemplated by this nation. Our thoughts, beliefs and principles did not count.
"Even the name 'polis' suggests a shady deal between the power brokers. Perhaps the use of the Greek word for 'city' was a calculated move, aimed at sidetracking suspicious parliamentarians or probing journalists if ever they stumbled on classified information about the megabuck metropolis of the future.
"Australia's best-known historian, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, for whom we have a great deal of respect, gives us a 50% chance of keeping our independence in the next half-century. "If the 'polis' gets a footing near Adelaide or anywhere else in Australia, that period of grace will be a great deal shorter. Australians need to be thinking about what they want for their grandchildren. This is the witching hour of Australian history. (End of The Wimmera Mail-Times Editorial)

"We are pleased to note that some criticism of the M.F.P. is now coming from more or less M.F.P. sources." Denis Gaston, the former chief executive of the Multi-Function Polis Joint Secretariat, states (The Sun-Herald, Sydney, June 24th) - "There was a policy of little public explanation"…."There were a number of people in the process who wanted to see a more active program of explanation…" "But there were others who said that's dangerous because you can only partially explain things and people might get the wrong idea and head off at a tangent and then you'd lose the public support. "….there was a concern that there weren't the resources to do it and that it wasn't the right time'... and more in this vein."

QUEBEC AND CANADA

"With the collapse of a deal that many thought might be the last chance to keep Quebec in Canada, the Prime Minister, Mr. Mulroney, appealed yesterday for calm while new ways are sought to keep this bitterly divided country intact." The Acre (Melbourne), June 25th

The most obvious comment to make is that this probable break-up of the Canadian confederation exemplifies, yet again, the failure of multiculturalism. Peoples of differing languages, cultures, religions cannot, in the long run, combine in a lasting union.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER. FLOCK TOGETHER
Why do we ignore the lessons of history? Of human nature? Of nature itself? Because of fallacious (and probably quite evil) ideology. The Mulroney Government has now to abandon its plans to incorporate Quebec, constitutionally, into a special status of the confederation, and the issue of independence for Quebec is not out of the question. That there is a powerful yearning in Quebec for independence is undoubted. President de Gaulle visited Canada something like 30 years ago, and greatly annoyed English-speaking Canadians by publicly announcing - "Vive Quebec Libre". (Long live Free Quebec.) We saw him, and heard him, say it. The attitude of the U.S.A. will be crucial in any further developments: we recognise that some sections of the American Administration would welcome an Independent Quebec.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mr. Hawke may yet lose the strong political support of the Jewish community. The fly in the ointment? The Palestine Liberation Organisation (P.L.O.). The Hawke Government is continuing dialogue with the P.L.O. The Government is not pleasing Zionist leaders with its attitudes on migration of Soviet Jews. East Jerusalem is another sore point. According to Mr. Isi Liebler, one of the most influential Zionist spokesmen in the world, Australia is getting right out of line with respect to Zionist Middle East policies; more so than is the case with the U.S.A. and Western Europe. Mr. Liebler has plenty to worry about with respect to Eastern Europe, where anti-Semitism is historical. The Hungarians have not forgotten the brief "reign" of Bela Kuhn around 1919: the Russians have not forgotten the heavy presence of Jews among the early Bolsheviks. (Read The Rulers of Russia, by Rev. Father Denis Fahey. Price: $8.00 posted from League Bookshops.) Paul Keating is not too popular either. He recently addressed the Australian Zionist Federation, stating therein that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem are not in tune with international law, thus making peaceful negotiations difficult. Mr. Hawke will discover if he hasn't discovered it already, that it is most difficult to appease the Zionists, who have their religious dream to which all else must be subordinated.

The Leader of the Federal National Party, Mr. Tim Fischer, wants to lead a trade delegation of National Party members to China before the end of the year. What's it all about. Wool! The mess in the Wool Industry has dismayed, understandably enough, the woolgrowers, in general, and they want their leaders to stir up the markets for them, as the Government appears to be doing little; or nothing. Just lowering the floor-price for their wool, and increasing their costs. Senator Gareth Evans, the Foreign Minister, is irate, as he has what he feels are "delicate" negotiations going with Beijing on a whole range of issues, and he doesn't want what he possibly thinks of as a pack of bumbling Nationals fouling his "nest". Foreign Affairs is his pad; others stay out. This is understandable enough, too. Even if Mr. Fischer and his colleagues did make Beijing for discussions - and that's a mighty big "IF', all they'd get would be a few smiles, and a few handshakes, in our opinion: no orders for wool.

WHERE DO WE BELONG?
from The Sun (Melbourne), June 8th "When the Vietnam War was a burning issue, we were told we were not part of Asia and therefore it was not our war. "Now that we need an excuse to bring in thousands of Asian migrants and we are refusing migrants from Britain and Europe, the excuse is that we are part of Asia. "Our cultural and geographical position changes with the whim of political circumstances. It's no wonder Australians are left with the feeling that they come from nowhere important and that they have no roots or culture whatsoever. (.Judy Hale, Frankston, Vic.)

SCRUMPING
"Yes, A.T. Howard (Briefs, 5/6) I remember scrumping. Those were the days when, if a local Bobby caught you, you would get his big boot in your behind and no more said. If that happened today there would be screaming headlines, 'in depth' interviews, court cases and work for a good half dozen welfare workers. (John D. Terry, Wangaratta, Vic.)

DON'T LET EUROPE RULE BRITANNIA

THIS ENGLAND is an English quarterly magazine with an astonishing circulation, around the world, of two million. It has now been published for 22 year's. All too regrettably, we can, for reasons of space, select only two fairly long paragraphs of the Editorial.

It has never been the intention of THIS ENGLAND to become embroiled in politics. In the 22 years of our existence we have never meddled in such matters, respecting the divergent views that are bound to exist in any truly democratic country, and assuming that those divisions will exist across the broad spectrum of our readership - now totaling two million. But when the politicians seem to be selling our freedom, when our very identity as a separate nation is at stake, then I think the time for niceties is over. It is time for us to state our view and place the facts before our readership, before it is too late.
"With increasing assuredness, many political and business leaders, backed by an obedient press, have been talking as though the merging of Britain with Europe was not only a foregone conclusion, but also the most obvious and correct course for our country to take. This assumption has no democratic basis whatsoever. The British people have never been asked if they want to relinquish their sovereignty, their Monarchy, their Parliament and their independence, to a conglomerate powerhouse in Brussels, speaking a dozen different languages. Such a mega-state would not only be the world's most complex political and economic structure, but also the most susceptible to corruption.
The European Parliament at Strasbourg, at which our M.P's. would make up around 8% of the whole, is a debating chamber wielding next to no power at all. The main strings are pulled by European Commissioners in Brussels, who are a non-elected body of highly paid civil servants, including one from this country. All very reminiscent of 'jobs for the boys' … only this time we, the British people, will be unable to throw them out at the next election.
"Since there has been no proper debate, no direct question asked of the electorate, the feeling is growing that we are being rushed into buying the European dream before we realise just what it will mean. This time we shall have to pay the highest price in our history - because, no matter what story they may tell you to the contrary, no matter how much they may deny the content of this article, when you get down to the nitty-gritty it means giving up our national sovereignty, our Parliament, and our Queen. And all for the dubious advantage of being merged in one unwieldy state machine which will control every aspect of our lives for ever and ever…."