AUSTRALIA’S FAILINGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 265, 8 October 1940, Page 8

AUSTRALIA’S FAILINGS.

SIR THOMAS BEECH AM’S VIEWS. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, pet. 7. _ “The tragedy of Australia is that it does not realise its true position and refuses any kind of criticism from outside. It is sublimely self-satisfied , and complacent.” In these words Sir Thomas Bcecham, the fanmus English conducter, summed up his views of Australia to-day. He recently completed a concert tour and is proceed-ing-to Canada. “Very few Australians realise the 6trange paradox of their present world position,” Sir Thomas said. “For a generation past their public men, writers and newspapers, aided by British politicians and the Press, have been proclaiming Australia to be a land of untold possibilities, rich in every natural resource, and facing a great future. This fiattoring picture has been flaunted before the eyes not only of the English, but the Italians, Germans Japanese, and every other powerful land-hungry nation. What is the other side of the picture? In a continent almost as large as Europe are a stagnant populatign of hardly seven millions (the birui rate is stationary), a growing concentration of city life to the disadvantage of the country, and, Strangest of all, a more or less chronic condition of unemployment.’ Sir Thomas Bcecham added that it Ausiralians have such a fruitful land, then they acknowledge themselves before the world as one of its most backward and incompetent races. Discussing the intellectual side, he said- “There can be no reasonable doubt that it is the most backward part of the British Empire and contributes, nothing to the worlds fund of creative literature, philosophy art, drama and music. 1 visited the five trreat cities, and not in one of them was there a theatre at which a play was running.” , . . . Sir Thomas added that this barrenness in relation to dramatic art was common practically to every other department of learning and invention. “The best proof of what I have 6aid is Australia's preoccupation with local politics when its future destiny is being decided 12.000 miles away by the protecting might of British arms and the steadfast courage of British people. Australia’s military contribution to the war UP to the present is incomparably less than, for example, that of Canada and New Zealand.”