AUSTRALIA'S REDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 290, 8 December 1925, Page 9

AUSTRALIA'S REDS.

COMMUNIST METHODS. f \ ATTEMPTS TO WRECK ; INDUSTRY. ! SIR PERCIVAL PHILLIP'S VIEWS. t 1 Writing from Sydney on September fe 26 during the visit" of the Empire Press '■> Delegation to Australia, Sir Percival - Phillips said: "People in Great Britain who look upon the Communist world- , offensive with contemptuous tolerance , will do well to examine the situation r which confronts Australia to-day. "The Red movement to capture the ' trade unions, which has only just begun 5 at Home, has made rapid progress here, 1 and the sinister influence of Moscow is ■ being felt in many ways. Five out of * six States in the Commonwealth are ' ruled by Labour Governments, and the I extremists are working to dominate them ' all. "Australia appears suddenly to have > awakened to the grim reality of this 7 menace. The epidemic of strikes which r has burdened the country and retarded 1 its development yielded a political crisis this week that may have far-reaching effects. Briefly summarised, this crisis r is due to the paralysing of British ship- , ping by Tom Walsh, president of the Seamen's Union, and Johnson, a Scandinavian. \ "Walsh is a professional trouble-maker whose chief inspiration is his wife, for--1 merly Miss Adela Pankhurst. By espousing the grievances of seamen '" affected by the recent cut in wages, lie 3 and his accomplice in agitation tied up 3 ships from Great Britain, threw their 2 crews on charity and induced them to break allegiance with their s unions. When, as a last resort, the Federal Government sought to deport B these men and others like them,' and 3 enacted a law for that purpose, the J Labour Government of New South Wales flouted Federal authority and the Reds 1 were jubilant. 0 Trying to Smash Society. s "Now Mr. Bruce has gone to the . country. A general election will be .held f on November 14, and the plain issue is 7 whether Australia is to be ruled from c Melbourne or Moscow. 7 'The outcome is awaited with anxiety. ,' If Labour takes the stage, with Moscow laughing in the wings, the effect on 3 industry and business generally will be very serious. Australia has had a good deal of experience of Labour Governments, and in the old days such a vicr tory would have been regarded, if not > with triumps, at least with no more > depressing emotion than mere resignaf tion. But Communum has changed ' everything. 7 "Bolshevik agitators have been behind •-' many of the recent strikes. They are rather more open in their tactics than their fellow conspirators in Great Britain because they have made graater headway. They say quite frankly that their'aim is to smash the present social fabric and to take over the ruins. , "They began, as they are now beginning in Great Britain, by alienating the rank and file from their elected leaders and ■ systematically sowing discontent. , I find the old methods in operation. '•Shop . nuclei" and other fighting units were 1 planted in the five important seaport 3 cities; glib' Orators harangued them on . Sunday afternoons and half-holidays into j chronic discontent; strike followed strike.

„ , ■ - ; "Bleed Industry White." -'"Kill industry by bleeding it white, and then make it Red," is the advice I heard given by one popular Communist speaker in the "Domain (the Hyde Park of Sydney). "We shall never be done striking until the bosses are smashed,' said another. "Each victory has given them additional strength. Accustomed as this strike-ridden country is to fresh demands and fresh concessions, a groan almost of despair as well as anger went up when the Queensland Government surrendered unconditionally a .few days ago to the railwaymen, on terms which proved the power of the extremists to exact whatever they required. "Now the Communists are boasting that a 'Labour' Federal Government will be returhed in November, and that the dawn of the 'social revolution' is already much nearer. Moscow watches the situation with jubilation. The Soviet is in close touch with its emissaries here. Words of cheer and advice are constantly forthcoming, and I am assured by a high official of the Federal Government that the most convincing of all Bolshevik arguments—hard cash—has not been wanting. "Labour Ministers have with equal earnestness denied to mc that there is the slightest possibility of Australia becoming 'Red.' Many of them may believe it. But the fact remains that the sinister forces of disintegration are ceaselessly at work within the fabric of trade unionism. They are working with one aim always in view—the destruction of British institutions and the British Empire."