Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1949. What Did Reds Win In Australia?

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 August 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1949. What Did Reds Win In Australia?

IT 'would be unwise to accept- at face *■ value the statements that the outcome of the coal strike in Australia was, in the final analysis, a heavy defeat for the Communist leaders. It is'quite probable that they won more than they lost. In view of the fact that the Canberra and Sydney LabouivSocialist Governments brought the full force of the State to bear as a retaliatory weapon, the strike could have had no ending but in capitulation. But every day that the dispute was dragged out represented 24 hours more of industrial terrorism, of calculated dissemination of malicious propaganda and of public uncertainty for the whole social structure. These are the psychological weapons of Communism and they were used with cunning by an unscrupulous foe. The capitulation enforced upon the militants after a long and. cruel six Weeks, during which the people were subjected to grave hardships in the middle of a cold winter, has been accepted as being in the nature of a strategic withdrawal rather than 1 defeat. In the meantime they had dealt a crippling blow at the economy of Australia from which it may take years to recover fully. They may well feel satisfied with their disruptive work. It is true that they are at the moment the subjects of public attack, pAt it is not unlikely that, with cunningly-laid plans and'a plausible twist to their propaganda, they will, as .the months go by, emerge stronger in the leadership of that class of worker who is prepared to snatch a material benefit, no matter if it is gained at the price of helping an alien and revolutionary cause. What should be more widely recognised is that the Communist employs psychological weapons far more extensively than the physical instruments of strife and riot, The Australian strike was undoubtedly part of the world-wide plan of reducing the democracies to the social and industrial chaos from which militant and disciplined Communism can emerge in command. Although the issues in the contest were crvstal clear at the outset, the Canberra and Sydney Labour-Socialist Governments did not act as if they were. They displayed all the characteristics of Mr Micawber, waiting for something good to turn up. In the finish they were forced to take the type of strike-breaking action which, they must have been well aware, offered the only hope from the first of saving the nation from disaster. As it was,-their delay doomed the country’s economy to a crippling blow and inflicted severe hardship on hundreds of thousands of innocent people. By their timidity and vacillating approach to the strike, the Chifley and McGirr Labour-Socialist Governments became, in effect, the servants of an alien and revolutionary cause, which was helped by every day’s delay in obtaining for the nation the coal required to keep in’motion the wheels of industry and the economic life of the nation. In addition, because of that delay, recovery from the severe effects of the strike lias been made, a much longer and more painful process than it would otherwise have been, with the increased likelihood of the creation of conditions in which the seeds of extremism may thrive. If the Australian strike has proved anything, it is that the defence of democracy against the inroads of alien forces cannot be trusted to men who are so contemptibly weak as to put the retention of the political support of a small section of the people above the interests of the nation as a whole. As in Australia, Now Zealand continues also to pay the price of invertebrate rule. It is no longer a question of getting just enough work or production from this section or that section to save the community from the jungle condition appropriate to the jungle' .law which has sought to create it. By fair, just,, honest, and resolute rule both Australia and New Zealand must be put in a position to remedy the inroads on their industrial and social health.. Deeper principles are involved than misguided, unreasoning loyalty to a party or union slogan.