Evening Post FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939 NATIONAL SUICIDE BY STRIKING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 8

Evening Post FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1939 NATIONAL SUICIDE BY STRIKING

"Australia will soon boast a military organisation unequalled by any Dominion of the Empire," was the proud boast of Mr. Lyons on March 23. He pointed to three accomplishments: (1) A new force organised "to provide immediate defence where it is most needed"; (2) formation of a reserve which A.I.F. veterans and

ex-servicemen are invited to Join; (3) the militia has "all but reached the total we set out to recruit and train." But, it may be interjected, the new force (No. 1) cannot be ready, for some time. Admittedly, there is a time factor, but the Australian Defence Department has seen things coming, and the time factor is reduced because "our preparations are at an advanced stage." Indeed, this force will be ready to go "where it is most needed" for defence far sooner than might be thought, and "within a few months" the force will amount to two rifle battalions, a field artillery brigade, and the requisite ancillaries. Australia, indeed, is arming like Achilles, but has also an Achilles heel—the suspicion of certain labour unions represented by opposition to compulsory registration. "Union leaders," it is cabled, "have already decided that if any attempt is made to compel employees to register, they will not hesitate to order strikes in the hope of paralysing the defence programme."

Now, what would those strikes be against? They would not be against compulsory military, service, or against "conscription," because compulsory registration is not compulsory military service. Compulsory registration would supply information to the authorities concerning each individual's qualifications and circumstances, from which might be deduced the position he could best occupy in the defence service of the State. But registration in itself creates no measure of compulsion to serve. Already voluntary registration is in force in Australia, and the offices of National Emergency Services in Sydney are besieged with volunteers, very largely women. Besides first aid, home nursing, and air-raid precautions, many volunteers are being taught how to drive an ambulance or bus,, and women who can drive motor-cars are entering largely into this service. Apparently there are some Australians who would "leave it to the volunteers," and who would strike against a compulsory registration that compels them to do nothing but reveal on paper their capacity (or incapacity) to serve. Such a strike would not be a strike against compulsory service. It would be a strike against classification of man power, and against democracy's effort to ascertain its strength. Against democracy, and against Australia, these strikers would fight. A strike against compulsory registration would be not only a blow against democracy; it would be a blow for Nazi-Fascism. For the Nazis and the Fascists have always said that just this would happen. They have predicted the collapse of democracy because the. democratic type of freedom will be abused and misused by persons who will refuse to accept defence burdens. People who talk about strikes against compulsory registration are running true to the form attributed to them by the despising Nazi-Fascists—or, rather, they are running rather above form, for even against a census of information concerning defence values they would invoke their sacred freedom to strike. To them, it would be far more important to strike against their own Government's essential defence policy than to strike for their country. This is the kind of democratic "liberty" that gives NaziFascist aggressors the utmost confidence. There is probably no stronger weapon in tha mental armoury of the anti-Comintern Powers than their conviction that I democratic freedom will destroy itself from within. National suicide by striking is, in the view of these critics, democratic destiny. And how could such critics be answered if the spirit of those who advise antiregistration strikes were indeed the spirit of democratic States? Probably the thing that most people seek, more than anything else in the world, is security. And that is natural. People would like to build fdaiax: House upon rock, and the man

who built his hou§e upon the sands has never been hel/d in high repute. No one pursues security more zealously than do Australians and New Zealanders. But their vision of security is sometimes strangely distorted. They feel secure in their right to vote and in their right to strike, because they feel that no one in their own community is strong enough to take these rights away from them. But, to the world at large, they leave both front door and back door unbolted. Many of them cannot see, or simply refuse to see, that a force from outside is in a position (given some military luck) to make raids upon their personal security and liberties that no Government democratically conceivable would dream of making. And yet, when asked to prepare to strike a blow for democracy in their own sphere, they invoke the right to strike. They demand security of employment, of medical treatment, of age benefit, and sum these all up in the phrase Social Security, as though no other security were needed, or could be borrowed by sponging on the Mother Country. Surely such a distorted vision must be corrected if it is* not to invite a calamity in which all securities will disappear.