HOME TRUTHS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21802, 6 June 1936, Page 19

HOME TRUTHS

A CONSUL CRITICISES AUSTRALIA

A Foreigner Looks at Australia. By Paul Steal. Jonathan Cape. 237 pp. (7/6 d net.) Every politician in Australia and New Zealand, every dabbler in the science of government, should read Mr Staal’s new book and should pore over the chapter called “Real Democracy,” a chapter full of political wisdom, sound sense, and direct, simple pronouncements on the extravagances and follies of socalled democratic tendencies in the Antipodes. Mr Staal explains that universal popular acceptance of civic responsibility which is always conscious of rights and rarely conscious of duties. The populace insistent upon rights creates a legislature chiefly concerned with the immediate welfare of the individual. “The welfare of the state and the nation seems to be of secondary importance.” The politicians satisfy the greedy man of to-day, and do not contemplate the generations of to-morrow. In these tremulous days when, according to Mr Staal, Australia (and New Zealand) are tottering on the edge of the abyss, the hands that might firmly withdraw the totteref are engaging in their necessary task of seizing and throwing away largess. The recipients are less blameworthy than the distributors, although they know what is happening. As Mr Staal says in his engaging way, “Whenever an election approaches, even the communist polishes his fingernails, rouges his lips, and plucks out his eyebrows to have more voteappeal.” The continuous struggle for the favour of the masses leads to the deplorable fact that modern governments become chiefly interested in a new partition of wealth and more and more lose sight of the all-im-portant creation of wealth. They will not see that credit is the product, not the cause, of prosperity. Such reflections are inevitable to one who, like Mr Staal. has studied the political and economic history of Australia, and has observed the original gaol-like administration change to the contemporary government on the lines of a charitable institution. The danger of such a beneficent policy is now asserting itself; it is the moral danger that those who demand most and receive most have no interest in the general welfare of the country. Australia will be saved by a government which sets out resolutely on the path to unpopularity. Such a government is not likely to be elected; Australia is not likely to be saved. These probabilities may be distressing; Mr Staal cannot deny them. The Lang Period

Included in these political studies are some entertaining pieces of description. One reconstructs calmly but vividly the rise and fall of the Lang party in New South Wales. ' Set out in this logical, plain way, ’ the story becomes at once more thrilling and horrifying than contemporary newspaper reports allowed one to understand. Madness of the leader matched the madness of the follower; the courage of the leader matched the confidence of the follower, and that a happy issue was found out of all these troubles is one of the political miracles of the Antipodes. Such miracles have happened, unfortunately, more than once, and, in the last resort, the desperate Antipodean politician expects his miracle. Another piece of penetration enables Mr Staal to define ; the influence, political and idsologiI cal, of the Australian shearer. This I report is of the same quality as I the discerning relation of past and j present in Australian political hisj tory. A sample or two may be ; quoted: “Australia did not grow out of economic necessity, and this may be one of the causes why even today the Government and the economic structure of the Commonweath seem to be somewhat artificial.” “As a result of • the behaviour of the Corps [the New South Wale's Corps whose tyranny had to be put down by Governor Macquarie] nothing but a feeling of contempt for the military was impressed upon the mind of the civil population' of the colony. This may be the initial cause of the sympathy which anti-militarism and pacifism receive in Australia.” Governor Gipps, for good reason, refused to give way to the agitators, headed by Wentworth, who made such astute claims for self-government. Gipps and thd British Government which supported him were denounced as despots. “It may well be that from this time onwards many Australians began to regard Englishmen as foreigners, albeit, without the usual epithet.” Early Differences Mr Staal is as good in characterising ‘men as in perceiving the significance of events. His study of Wentworth, occasional as it is, is a revelation of .the acumen and ability of that careerist, while the story of the struggle between Mac Arthur and Macquarie is understanding and sympathetic. MacArthur, the wealthy grazier and retired military officer, established the economic structure of Australia on the back of a sheep, but he would allow no scope for the emancipated convict or the small settler. Macquarie visualised the small settler and ex-convict each on his own small plot of land. The squatter defeated the Governor, and the struggle was the more sad because both were working for the ultimate welfare of Australia, although, at the time, Macquarie’s motives seemed ttye more pure. “With him disappeared the last chance of the Australian Government being moulded according to the principles of true British democracy.” Mr Staal was recently ConsulGeneral for the Netherlands at Sydney, and his country was fortunate to be represented by a man so intelligent, so wise, and so determined to know the gast and present -of his temporary home. His reports are obviously sincere and well considered; his mind is obviously fair and not reckless; his judgment is dispassionate. His verdict is unpalatable and is likely to be ignored by those who, by a tardy recantation, might profit by his observa- ' tions. He writes cheerfully, deflnI itely, and with humour, and an occasional misuse of English idiom is not unpleasing.