THE MAN FROM ALABAMA

"What has the party leaders worried are not so much the imperfections of the indirect electoral system as the intervention of Mr. Wallace from Alabama, whose popular vote in this year of dubious choice might well prevent either major party from winning a clear majority" - Douglas Brass from America in The Australian, September 10.

At long last it is being admitted by the daily press that George Wallace, former Governor of Alabama, does exist. In the opening address of his campaign, on September 9, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey charged that his Republican opponent, Mr. Richard Nixon, "had joined forces with the most reactionary elements in American society by openly competing with Mr. Wallace for the votes of people who would halt progress towards full opportunity and by ignoring the needs of minorities".
But Mr. Humphrey himself is attempting to offset the Wallace challenge.

He has suddenly discovered that the threat of widespread violence, which Mr. Wallace has been stressing, does exist. Mr. Humphrey promises that he would, if elected, propose legislation to deal with "armed terrorist groups of any color or persuasion". This is a completely new note for the Vice-President, but one, which the Wallace challenge, has forced both Mr. Humphrey and Mr. Nixon to strike. It was announced last week in New York that The Times had conducted a survey, which showed that Mr. Wallace was now leading the other two candidates in 8 states and that if he kept his lead, it would throw the ultimate selection of a President into the House of Representatives. As all the evidence indicates that Wallace is increasing his support, it is natural that both Mr. Humphrey and Mr. Nixon are feeling concerned.

TOO MANY COLOREDS IN U.K.

"Vancouver, September 9 - A former head of Scotland Yard's Criminal Investigation Division, Sir Roland Howe, said here yesterday violence was increasing in Britain because 'we are letting in too many colored people' - The Age, (Melbourne) September 10.

Sir Roland Howe speaks from hard experience, and Australians in particular should take careful note when they hear prominent politicians and other public figures attacking Australia's immigration policy, designed to ensure that Australia remains a homogeneous European community. The Sun, (Melbourne) of September 9 quotes the leader of the South Australian Labor Opposition, Mr. Don Dunstan, as having told a Wesley Pleasant Sunday Afternoon audience that "There is no reason why this country should be overwhelmingly European", and that "It would be a very good advertisement for us to be a more cosmopolitan, multi-racial society". Mr. Dunstan quoted Hawaii and some South American countries as successful examples of race mixing.
It would be instructive to hear Mr. Dunstan's definition of successful.
Mr. Dunstan said "a colored background was still a social slur in the Australian community".

We suggest that he visit Brazil, often quoted as a successful example of race mixing, and he will learn that there is a type of caste social system whereby people are judged by the shade of colour of their skin. Australia's immigration policy is one of its most priceless heritages, and politicians who advocate that it should be destroyed should be driven from office as soon as possible.
The first duty of Australians is to be true to themselves. By doing this they are then best able to assist other races in their own countries.

THE F111 SCANDAL

"If the latest F111 snag turns out to be a major design fault, delivery of the planes to the RAAF could be delayed for many months. And it is thought in Canberra that, even if Australia is not directly charged for any modifications, the latest defect could increase the cost of the 24 planes Australia is buying. This is because the cost of investigating and correcting the fault is expected to be added to the general development cost on which the bill Australia will pay will be assessed" - E.H. Cox in The Herald (Melbourne), September 9.

In a report from the U.S.A. earlier in the year Mr. Eric Butler dealt extensively with the background to the F111 affair, revealing how the contract for a fighter-bomber had been granted to General Dynamics by former Secretary for Defence Mr. Robert MacNamara in the face of opposition from top expert opinion in the U.S.A. The design offered by Boeing had been unanimously supported by the appropriate experts. And the Boeing price was substantially lower. But political considerations by the Democratic Administration led by the late President John Kennedy forced the most valuable contract to General Dynamics, thus averting threatened bankruptcy.
The Chairman of General Dynamics was a prominent official in the Democratic Party. But even more important was the fact that the manufacture of the F111 would be in Texas and New York State, both States in which the Democrats desperately needed support.

The most disturbing feature of the F111 scandal is the question of how did the Australian Government come to reject the British plane the TSR-2 in favour of a plane not yet built, and opposed by leading American experts. It would also be instructive to learn did anyone in the Australian Government take the trouble to read the evidence provided at the Congressional investigation of the F111 scandal. This investigation clearly indicated that it was the height of folly for the Australian Government to go ahead buying the F111.
Even now it might prove desirable to follow the British lead and pay the heavy compensation price to contract out.

It is certain that the Labor-Socialists will make the most political capital possible out of the F111 affair. Once again the Government has allowed itself to be placed in an embarrassing political position by uncritically following decisions made in Washington.

GROWING RED TERROR ON THE CAMPUS

"Washington, September 1. F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover warns that 'the New Left leaders plan to launch a widespread attack on educational institutions this fall' and that 'it would be foolhardy for educators, public officials, and law enforcement officers to ignore or dismiss lightly the revolutionary terrorism invading college campuses. It is a serious threat to both the academic community and a lawful and orderly society" - The Review, of the News, (U.S.A.) September 11.

In his Paper at the Annual League of Rights Seminar in Melbourne last Saturday, September 7, Mr. Eric Butler said that his studies abroad this year had convinced him that over the next few years the Universities of the world were going to be one of the major battlegrounds of the world revolution. The plans by the revolutionaries were now starting to bear fruit. Writing in the September issue of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, J. Edgar Hoover stresses that the revolutionaries have already had outstanding successes with their disruption of several American Universities this year. He warns that "the anarchists in the New Left movement are boldly spreading the word that they intend to 'create two, three, many Columbia's' in the manner of one of their 'heroes'.

Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary who cried 'create two, three, many Vietnams:" The FBI chief stresses that "it is vitally important to recognise that these militant extremists are not simply faddists or 'college kids' at play. Their cries for revolution and their advocacy of guerrilla warfare evolve out of a pathological hatred for our way of life and a determination to destroy it. The workshops they hold on sabotage... are grim forebodings of serious intent". We have been warned.

U.S.A.-SOVIET COLLABORATION ON CZECHOSLAKIA

"…there is in circulation an allegation from Prague, that Russia approached the U.S.A. before invading Czechoslovakia, to enquire whether America still adhered to the Yalta agreement. Receiving an affirmative answer, the Russians thereupon carried out their plans for dealing with the Czechs. This story is now denied by one Carl Bartch of the U.S. State Department who is the same man who subsequently denied a NATO story that the Russians had given America a secret assurance on Rumania; later Bartch summoned reporters especially to retract that denial. Whatever Bartch may say, there is widespread belief in Europe that the State Department was aware of Soviet plans for Czechoslovakia and quite deliberately did nothing" - Political Intelligence Weekly, (England), September 5.

Reports emanating from Prague should be treated with caution, as the Communists are at present vitally interested in spreading as much misunderstanding amongst NATO allies as possible. But over the years the U.S. State Department has by its policies tended to confirm the allegations of those Americans who claim that pro-Communist officials are still influential. It will be recalled that at the time of the Hungarian crisis in 1956, a message from Secretary of State John Foster to Tito virtually gave the Soviet the green light for action against the Hungarian uprising. It was in the same year that the State Department came out strongly against the British attempt to re-establish British influence in the Middle East.
No strong anti-Communist policy has been supported by the U.S. State Department for a long, long time.

Whatever the truth about the story of U.S.A.-Soviet collaboration on the Czechoslovakian issue, this affair was highly embarrassing to a State Department which had for years been persistently fostering the view that the Soviet was "mellowing" and that with sufficient understanding by the West, the process of "liberalisation" would continue. We can confidently anticipate this view being brought out again as soon as it is considered the Czechoslovakian affair has been forgotten. We regret to report that this is the same view coming out of the Australian Department of External Affairs.
We propose shortly to deal with this matter further.

TOWARDS MORE IRRESPONSIBLE VOTING

"New South Wales political observers are tipping that the Commonwealth and State Governments will lower the voting age to 15 next year. The Prime Minister and Premiers now are waiting on a special report from the N.S.W. Attorney- General, Mr. McCaw" - The Herald, (Melbourne), September 10.

Reducing the voting age can only increase the irresponsible voting already far too prevalent. Responsible government requires more responsible voting, not less. It is a fact of life that the majority of people do not take a serious interest in politics until they become married or accept other responsibilities. Reducing the voting age is part of a general movement, which tries to create the impression that there is some special virtue in being young, and that all wisdom starts with youth. It is true that there are some young people who at 18 are much more informed than some of 50. But generally speaking this is simply not true.
In a country already inflicted with compulsory voting, the reduction of the voting age is a dangerous policy and should be strongly opposed.

THE DIALECTICS OF MR. ARTHUR GOLDBERG

"The naked aggression by the Soviet Union in Czechoslovakia should intensify, rather than deter, American efforts to obtain an honourable political settlement of the war in Vietnam . . . Powerful as we are, the United States cannot be a world policeman. Therefore, we should not allow our strength to be dissipated by over-involvement in internal conflicts within or between small powers, however we may abhor their ideology and aggressiveness" - Mr. Arthur Goldberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, in The Herald, (Melbourne), September 9.

Mr. Goldberg claims that in Vietnam the U.S.A. does not "face a big power-led Communist bloc threatening our security". Mr. Goldberg overlooks the reality of Soviet global strategy, and the fact that irrespective of what Ho Chi Minh thinks, he is but the instrument of an international movement.
Mr. Goldberg's plea for a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam is support for the very policy advocated by the Communists.

Ho Chi Minh will be pleased to read that Mr. Goldberg urges that the U.S. "should make explicitly clear that we have foresworn any effort to overthrow the Hanoi government, despite our distaste for it".

Mr. Goldberg does not adopt the same attitude towards the Rhodesian Government. He is on record as being in support of the strongest measures against that anti-Communist country.