ANGRY INDIGNATION IN AUSTRALIA

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 October 1947, Page 5

ANGRY INDIGNATION IN AUSTRALIA

BANK NATIONALISATION PEOPLE AROUSED BECAUSE OF NO REFERENDUM (0.C.) Sydney. Oct. 14. “Never before have the Australian people been roused to such a state of angry indignation as .they have been by the decision of the Chifley Government to proceed with its scheme for nationalising the trading banks without holding a referendum on the question," says the Australasian Insurance and Banking Record, in an editorial. PREJUDICE EXCLUDES REASON “The first brief announcement by the Prime Minister provoked widespread protests and demands for a referendum. This opposition to the dictatorial proposal apparently had no effect on the Labour Government or its suporters, because newspaper reports state that caucus accepted the decision of the Cabinet with a unanimous vote Petitions for a referendum, with many, many thousands of signatures, were treated with contempt, and approaches to individual Labour members brought unsatisfactory answers, some of which mad e it clear that the Labour opposition to the trading banks is based purely on prejudice to the complete exclusion of reason. The Labour attitude may be summed up in these words: ‘We have the numbers in Parliament to do what we like. We believe the Constitution gives us authority to nationalise the trading banks and we are going to do thic: whether the people want it or not because it is in the party platform.’

“Mr. Chifley’s refusal to hold a referendum is most illogical. If, as he claims, the people gav e hini the green light at the last election to go ahead with wiping out the trading banks, why doe s he not a<cced e to the clamour for a poll on the question and thereby satisfy the objectors that he has a mandate ? “The answer must be that he knows that the swinging vote which put him into power place s a great value on its freedom and would not favour his proposal. His vicious attack on the banks has been exposed in the Press, :n the pulpit, and on the public platform as the initial step of a potential dictatorship, which threatens to fasten a pagan ideology on the Commonwealth and thereby secure a stranglehold over all activities of the community. No wonder freedom-conscious people are objecting in their hundreds of thousands. They do not Xvant Australia to follow the example of the totalitarian countries and becom e the first English-speaking country to adopt the Nazi system. “Everybody but a Labour fanatic knows by now that the establishment of a Government banking monopoly must inevitably lead to regimentation of th e whole community. “What the Government should and should not do was put very well in simple language by Mr. Paul McGuire in an article published recently in the Melbourne ‘Argus.’ Mr. McGuire wrote: “ ‘The State as part of its div.J - or judicial job should prevent me from killing, robbing -r exnloitng you. It should prevent the captalist from exploiting the worker, and it should prevent groups of workers from exploiti th* community. It should see I that the doctor does not poison me baoy and that the grocer does nto put sand in the sugar. But this doe s not mean that the State should be the grocer or the doctor or the trades union or the sole capitalist. The State is the umpire not the player. Parliament, is th e rules committee, the judges are the referees. “ ‘The ruleq committee and the referee should not grab the ball and monopolise it. They should not try to control all the private lives and actions and earnings and bank accounts of the players. Yet this is precisely what the Monstrous Money State is trying to do; what the Chifley Government is trying to do; and it is what is meant by totalitarianism.’ “Despite the contemptuous rejection of the public’s objections io the nationalisation scheme and the determination of the Government to proceed with the establishment of a monopoly, the campaign against it must continue until it succeeds. If sufficient apostles of God-given freedom arise to speak and write against this first step towards totalitarianism they must eventually carry the day. Every anti-Socialist must b e sure to sign a petition and continue protesting to a member of the Government, at the same time spurring on others to do the same. Thp subject is too overwhelmingly important to sit back and let others do all the objecting. The banks, their shareholders, and their employees are only a pawn in the major fight for freedom and they have all acknowledged this. “Much good work in the cause of freedom is being don P by the banks and their officials, and the public has rot failed to appreciate that, while those with axes to grind have naturally sought to protect their own interests, the keynote of their campaign has been to educate the public in lhe evils of a Government monopoly. They have most effectively answered the lies which have been

persistently told against the trading I banks (for instance, ‘they started the last depression’) and have helped to spike the guns of nationalisation adwho have tried the Goebels technique of telling really big lies and telling them often."