SYDNEY’S COMMUNISTS

Evening Star, Issue 21006, 21 January 1932, Page 15

SYDNEY’S COMMUNISTS

—. WHAT WILL BE DONE ? DEMAND FOR DEPORTATION , Sydneyites are speculating about the attitude the new Federal Government is likely to take up towards foreignborn Communists. A good many U.A.P. speakers pledged themsfelves, if returned, to work for the deportation of some of them, writes tho Melbourne ‘Herald’s’ correspondent. Mr W. A. Holman, for example, tho former Premier, who won Martin by such a large margin, said a few nights before polling day:— “ Neither tho reasonable Labour Party led by Mr Sculliu nor tho unreasonable Labour Party led by Mr Lang has the courage to lay one finger upon the Communist organisation which has white-anted their whole body through and through. The U.A.P. would rid the soil of the ill weeds which are growing apace. I am strongly in favour of returning all agitators of foreign origin and extraction to the home of their origin.” A list of active Communists was tabled in the Assembly last mouth by the Chief Secretary, from which it appeared that there was a central cofiimittee of fifty members, and a body of unattached militants, numbering ninetynine. A good many are Russians, Germans, and so on, but the vast majority are of British origin. Furthermore, quite a number are Australians, and what is to be done about them no one seems to know with any certainty. Tho issue is an important one inasmuch as there are thousands who consider the deportation of the more aggressive •Reds one of the first duties the Lyons Administration should undertake. The members of the New Guard are insistent on this point. As against such opinions there is quite a large school whose members argue that, far from being deported, Comniunists should be allowed to do all the propaganda work on behalf of Sovietism that they like. Professor John Anderson, of Sydney University, is the leading expounder of this doctrine. In an address to the Workers’ Educational League he complained; “A typo of criticism is aimed at preventing people from learning what Communism is. It is declared something to be denounced, something raising antagonism,_ particularly when a form of mud is to be thrown. The study of Communism is prevented.” And lie went on to claim that children should be taught Communism by teachers who knew the subject. There can .never bo agreement between those who think as Professor Anderson does (he is understood to have a considerable following at Hie university, as well as outside) and those who take their cue from Cc’.ouel Campbell, of the New Guard. The situation faces the Government with a problem of sonic complexity, and it is also a source'of frank concern to the Sydney police.