THREE HUNDRED NAMED AS SPIES

"An Italian parachutist arrested on espionage charges today gave a magistrates court in Turin the names of 300 NATO officers he claimed were involved in the biggest Soviet spy ring in the West..." The Herald March 23.

A Soviet diplomat Mr. Yuri Pavlenko has been expelled from Italy after police caught him accepting a package from the arrested man. The police also said they had seized a list of Soviet agents in the spy network which covered Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Cyprus, Greece and Scandinavia. This type of news item no longer shocks, it has become almost tedious. Not many take that much notice, and thereby hangs the tale of the degeneration of the West.

Lenin said, "The soundest strategy in war is to postpone operations until the moral disintegration of the enemy renders the mortal blow both possible and easy."

The process of bringing about the moral disintegration has proceeded apace by the infiltration of key institutions in the West, education, news media, the Church etc. The philosophic base has been soundly established where not only the three hundred mentioned in this report, but thousands throughout the Western world will gladly sell their countries into slavery. If there is any health left in the West moves should immediately start to reverse the present policy of "building bridges to the east" recently announced by Mr. Johnson.

Tough policies of expelling not only the odd diplomat caught spying, but all embassies, missions, cultural exchange groups (these are always one way, coming from Russia) all of which are a part of the espionage apparatus. Such a "sealing off" from the victim would deny the parasite the body essential to it as a breeding ground, and hasten the collapse of Communism as a virus threatening the safety of the whole world.

THE AUSTRALIAN BANKERS' DEVELOPMENT REFINANCE CORPORATION

"The most important contribution which the proposed investment corporation could potentially make to the Australian economy is to provide a breeding ground for skilled investment analysts who are experienced in taking genuine risk decisions without the mortgage mentality which has frustrated genuine indigenous entrepreneurial skills for so long". From an editorial, The Australian. March 22.

We trust that the pearls of wisdom contained herein are apparent to all. We include it not because it is any sillier than any other paragraph in the same editorial but as illustrating the descent into jargon and obscurantism, which invariably occurs whenever matters of financial policy come under discussion. It is astonishing that after some three centuries experience of the workings of debt-finance, overseas lending and export mania, (the pillars on which our society is still supported) it remains the case that hardly anybody except the financiers who profit by it, understand how it works.

Thousands of words have and will be written about the Holt government's recent proposals for setting up the above corporation. But what will any of it avail so long as these commentators continue to believe that any country can enrich itself by exporting as much of its wealth as possible, or that economists will ever accept any reform designed to reduce the scarcity of money?
While these delusions persist, nothing will be changed but names.

PRODUCTIVITY AND STABILITY

"In Tennessee, New Jersey, and in the State of New York, they are dumping milk by thousands of gallons on fields and empty lots… In New York City, publishers and unions of five of New York's six daily papers are meeting round the clock to try to avoid a newspaper strike called for midnight on Thursday...The haulage industry is faced with a national strike of 450, 000 workers on Friday...More than 100 railways are arguing with six railway unions against a strike deadline set for April 12… Four main tyre producers - Goodrich, Firestone, Goodyear and Uniroyal - are battling with the delegates of 73, 000 workers to prevent an industrial shutdown on April 20. The Australian, March 28.

Appropriate to our previous item, few would fail to see that this American scene is similar to our own in many respects. It is clear then that productivity and stability do not go hand in hand, even though they should. We can harness natural forces, manufacture the most intricate and refined tools and equipment, complex electronic computers, shoot rockets at the moon etc, but the one thing which could bring harmony in the economic world we fail to do. That is, the economists fail completely to solve the problem of relating production to consumption with an adequate banking and accounting system, which removes the causes of friction.

The economists continue to parrot advice, which time and again proves to be wrong.
"Industry must become more efficient and step up production if prices are to be stabilised etc".
If such advisers were employed in private industry and continued to come up with such nonsense they would be quickly removed from the payroll.

There is a strong moral responsibility entailed in this problem and the Christian group, which published The Christian Doctrine of Wealth, gave a strong lead. Retaining the basic principles of free choice and free enterprise essential to the growth of a Christian Social order it examined the creation and distribution of credit and the faults in our present system, which are responsible for the disorders outlined in the above news item. Such books should be compulsory reading for students of commerce and economics who at the moment are dominated by the views of key socialist economist, John Maynard Keynes.

CONSERVATIVE UPSURGE GROWS IN U.S.A.

"It is now clear that following the defeat of Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Presidential Elections, the growth of the conservative anti-Communist movement at the grass-roots has continued. President Johnson's statements and policies clearly indicate that he realises that he is now in deep trouble, and that he could be defeated at the Presidential Elections next year. President Johnson desperately requires some solution to the Vietnam issue before next year.
Those familiar with the record of the new American representative for South Vietnam, Mr. Ellsworth Bunker, fear another compromise peace.

There is a growing demand that America takes the necessary steps, including the blockading of the Port of Haiphong in North Vietnam, either to win the war quickly or to get out of Vietnam completely. While there is, unfortunately, a great amount of fragmentation and lack of cohesion amongst the numerous anti-Communist groups in the U.S.A., there is also a continuing flood of educational literature. The major factor in next year's Presidential contest could be the entry of former Governor George Wallace of Alabama. His wife is the present Governor of Alabama. If Wallace, a Southern Democrat, leads a new third Party, there is no doubt that he will provide a major upset.
The question of whether Wallace runs or not will be determined by what type of candidate the Republicans nominate.

The conservative anti-Communists are not exclusively concerned about the Presidential contest, but are much more interested in electing in 1968 a much more conservative Congress. All indications are that this will be accomplished". - Eric D. Butler reporting from the U.S.A.

SOUTH WEST AFRICA

"South Africa's New Deal Premier John Vorster today offered self-rule to half the population of South-West Africa - the Ovambos, who occupy a massive tract in the northern part of territory bordering on Portuguese Angola. And they're to have the kind of self rule of their own choosing". The Herald, March 22.

"The powerful Afro-Asian group of nations last night rejected South Africa's proposal for granting self-government to much of South West Africa, and called it a flagrant defiance of UN authority". The Australian. March 25.

If speed of reaction bears any relationship to sensitivity, then Mr. Vorster's offer must have touched the "powerful" Afro-Asian bloc in unmentionable parts. The above two news items are but three days apart. The bit about "of their own choosing" must have been hardest to bear, as Mr. Vorster doubtless well knew. After all, living in Africa he has seen a good deal of self-government, U.N.O. style, "emerge" in recent years, and if he didn't understand how little relation this has to people (let alone peoples) governing themselves, who would?

SIERRA LEONE: ANOTHER COUP

"Sixteen Years of Power Comes to An End" The Australian. March 22.

The above headline covered the news that Sir Albert Margai had been replaced as Premier by Mr. Siaka Stevens.
The Melbourne Age next day reported the ensuing military coup placed Mr. Stevens and the Governor Sir Henry Lightfoot under armed arrest, observes, "Until the Army acted - only minutes after Mr. Stevens was sworn in - Sierra Leone looked like making African political history. It would have been the first African nation in modern times to change its government by contested election".

The above observation is a complete vindication of those who have pleaded against the abortive attempts to graft sophisticated politics on to primitive cultures. Therefore we await amplification of Mr. Vorster's suggestion in regard to South West Africa with interest.

As the wise and experienced servant of native Africans, Dr. Albert Schweitzer has pointed out; to highly educate a minority before the remaining populace has erected an artisan and primary structure is rendering no service to a people.

Those urging haste in withdrawing from New Guinea and leaving the bewildered majority to the mercy of a small group of educated natives, lacking the experience and the prestige of the present administration should closely examine their conscience.

TWENTIETH CENTURY CHRISTIANITY

"Communism and old-style Christianity still have much in common". From a review by Eugene Kamenka of a book Lenin and the Bolsheviks by Adam B. Ulan. The Australian. March 25.

This is the present Communist line with the parallel perversions "God is dead" and "Christ was a nice social reformer". The success of the repetitive technique where one has a monopolistic access to the organs of "public opinion" is undoubted.
It seems to operate by deadening the critical faculty and penetrating to the subconscious.

Christ said that the individual was above all institutions. All Socialists including Communists say that man exists to serve the state. (See definition of Socialism, Chambers dictionary) Christ said he was the truth and that good did not arise from evil means. Communists operate on a different plane of morality if we are to judge by the works of Lenin and the testimony of numerous defectors from Communism. Lies, deception, injustice and murder are all acceptable means.
Christ preached uprightness and the Kingdom of God, whereas Communism enforces materialism, atheism and relative morality.

Either Mr. Kamenka's "old style Christianity" contained nothing of Christ, or Mr. Kamenka is deliberately pushing the Communist perversion.