Description

Extended Data

index

1013.0

para

In 1932 I sat in two meetings at which men of the northern area of New South Wales solemnly debated the question of whether they would revolt. I cast my vote and my influence against that course. In 1948 a rising tide of rage and despair was diverted to constitutional ends by the revival of the new State movement. The day may come when men such as the right honorable member for Cowper (Sir Earle Page) and I, who have fought the constitutional battle on constitutional lines, will be either discredited by our failure or have passed from the scene. Others less patient than we are may take our place and, if civil revolt breaks out, the responsibility will lie squarely on the heads of those who continually refuse to implement the Constitution which provides expressly for the creation of new States. Let me read a letter which was published in the Armidale " Express " and the " Sydney Morning Herald ". It was written recently by a highly educated man, a first cousin of Sir Winston Churchill - Mr. Hugh Frewin, Jerome Park, Dorrigo, New England. The letter reads - Mr. Ulrich Ellis, the campaign director of the New England movement, has appealed for selfgovernment as a democratic right within five years. The time is all too long. The late Jafar Pasha once said to me, " Independence is never given; it is taken ". A profound reflection! Three-quarters of a million people with an annual production of £248,000,000 are not to be put off. Their secession is the only practicable measure towards decentralisation. If it does not come soon, we shall be faced with all the strife and bad blood which attended Irish separation and Indian partition. Australia cannot afford that. Unity, in the face of external danger, is even more important. Mr. Frewin concluded his letter in this way, as he is something of a poet - You have plundered our lands For your bridges and streets, And pledged all our assets To brand us as cheats. But the soul of a people, Still honoured and great, Shall arise from the wreck Of this down-trodden State. That is a significant letter. Honorable members may have thought that I was romancing when 1 said that in 1932 I sat in two meetings at which men of the northern part of New South Wales solemnly debated whether they would actively rebel against the government in power at the time. I have stated truthfully the position which then existed. I cast my vote and used my influence against the proposal then, as I would do now. But as I have pointed out, there may, and almost certainly will, come a time when those who do not think in terms of the Constitution will take the law into their own hands if their request for a new State is not granted. Similar conditions obtain all over the world. There are countries in which on the surface everything seems to be flowing along placidly and then the day comes when the clam bursts. How can one account for these sudden outbursts? It is all very well for honorable members to laugh. But the requests of people to break away from the constant pledging and use of their assets to build little more than a tremendous atomic target on the shores of Port Jackson cannot long be refused. There is not a military man in this chamber who does not know that the military nightmare now is the atomic or nuclear bomb which will come from the bottom of the sea in the form of a Polaris or similar missile. It may be practicable to guard against a long-range missile, but one's chances are very slight when an attack comes from very close to one's own shores. I believe that the position will be unchanged for a long time.