AUSTRALIA FIRST.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16876, 25 October 1920, Page 3

AUSTRALIA FIRST.

“AN INSIDIOUS DOCTRINE.”

.DEPENDENCE ON BRITAIN.

“An insidious, a desperately dangerous, doctrine is being disseminated in this country—the doctrine of ‘Australia first,’ ” sard Major-General Sir Charles Rosenthal, in a vigorous address ou the importance of maintaining the British Empire at a large public meeting at the Sydney Town Hall in connection with the Australasian Christian Endeavour Convention. “Only yesterday at a meeting in this city,” proceeded Sir - Charles, “the statement was made that the Union Jock was not Australia’s flag. Ladies and gentlemen, the Union Jack is Australia’s flag. (Loud and continued applause.), I tell you, we cannot, we dare not, disassociate Australia from the Union Jack, and any doctrine standing for ‘Australia first,’ meaning that Australia is not to be part of the British Empire, is a delusion and a snare. Let us work to make Australia great —‘Australia first’ if you like, as long as it remains and is proud to remain a part of the great British Empire. Do that and you will have something to be proud of.. “Two things we have learnt during the war. The first is that in this country we have wonderful resources in every department—food, textiles, metals. We must in the pear future put our backs to the wheel sjnd make ourselves aelf-contaiiied, We must develop our resources. Then if dark days come again—and - ' dark days may come again—we shall bo able to carry on without assistance from outsido. The other thing that have leamt is that Australia’s frontiers, are not Australia’s shores. They are »n the other side of the world. If we wait till the enemy is here on these shores we shall learn those same bitter lessons of war that were leamt by Belgium. “There are two kinds of reasons which bind us to the Empire. There are sentimental reasons and there are sound business reasons. ... Groat Britain could do without us very much better than wo could get on without the Homeland. Compare it to your own body; cut off the left arm. What is the arm when severed You can do something with the body, but not with the arm. That arm has goife for ever. And so it is with Australia. With our small population and enormous territory we shall for many years have to look to that grtjat old land for a protection which ensures to us these wonderful privileges that we enjoy. (Applause.) “Amongst the five million people of Australia there are too few who think seriously of what the Empire means. There is one group who realise what a great deal Australia has at stake in the preservation of the Empire. And there is another group who are opposed to ■ the Empire. They voiced their insidious opinions even during the cur, rency of the war, when one might have thought all would stand by the great cause for which we fought. Is it surprising, then, now that the war » over, they should do the same? Then there is a groat central section of the community who are apathetic, and do not think seriously what the future of this great Empire really means to us in Australia. What I want to say is this; We who do realise what the Empire means to us must galvanise that large central section out of their apathy. We must sec to it that the dust is taken from their eyes. Wo must show thorn that the bonds are not sentimental alone, though sentiment should he strong in us, but are bonds of solid interest, too.”