Wikileaks founder Julian Assange likened himself to reporter Sir Keith Murdoch, father of Rupert Murdoch, whose exposure of the true state of the Gallipoli bloodbath influenced the withdrawal . Rupert Murdoch , it was recently pointed out in a radio discussion about Assange’s incarceration , had exposed much of what had been hidden from the public in Britain and was reviled as the Dirty Digger as a result.
During an interstate trip , Little Darwin recently bought Steadfast A Commentary , a collection of essays by another member of the Murdoch clan , Professor Walter Murdoch , of Western Australia , written during WW11 and syndicated through the Melbourne Herald , run by a nephew, Sir Keith Murdoch. Professor Murdoch, one of 14 children, was renowned for supporting so called lost causes, debunking the pompous , the ultra conservatives and strongly opposed the Menzies government’s attempt to abolish the Australian Communist Party.
Sentiments expressed in these essays are relevant to modern times , especially the debate over Wikileaks, democracy and a hot Australian political issue, refugees. In discussing the competing propaganda wars being conducted by the Germans and the Allies in America , which was isolationist at the time, Professor Murdoch defended democracy, with its faults, in which there was a right and expectation to be told the truth. He also made the point that there was good and bad propaganda .
After discussing the horrors of Dachau , the smashing of Poland and the invasion of Czechoslovakia , the professor , who said he was growing old, ended the book with a pledge he would like Australians, especially the young, to adopt for a nation which would become an example to the rest of the world. These ideals included the welfare of women and children, availability of work , fairer distribution of wealth , justice,and working for the removal of war.
One pleadge paragraph reads : We promise that to the utmost of our powers we shall make Australia a home for the homeless , a refuge for the innocent victims of cruelty and injustice elsewhere. We promise that Australia shall win a fair fame in the world for hospitality to exiles from foreign lands who are willing to obey our laws and to live and work honestly in our midst. To such exiles we shall extend the same justice ,the same generosity and the same friendly treatment as to men and women of our own race .
The rousing call to the nation ended with an urge for each person to examine their mind “to see what lurks there of the old greeds and spites, the old selfishness that has deformed society and frustrated the hopes of the world.” Professor Murdoch said every one of the essays,run throughout the nation and NZ, attracted letters of "more or less violent disagreement ".
Here in Darwin, it is little known that Rupert Murdoch allowed the crusading editor of the NT News ,the late Jim Bowditch, to draw on the office kitty in the form of a loan to pay legal bills and other expenses in the case of two celebrated Darwin news events , the Stayput Malays and the Stayput Portuguese , which challenged Australia’s immigration laws , the White Australia Policy, the Portuguese dictator, Dr Salazar, and the Menzies government.
In a leaflet which circulated after the Federal government buckled in both cases, the North Australian Workers’ Union secretary, Paddy Carroll, was quoted as saying that Bowditch had led the Australian battles and arranged for a loan of 800 pound ( $1600) , without interest, with the approval of Murdoch. In addition, Bowditch had personally spent 600 pound ($1200 ) which he had written off as a good cause and experience . The loan, however, had to be paid back , and Carroll made an appeal for a voluntary levy of ten shillings each to take the financial burden from Bowditch .
During an interstate trip , Little Darwin recently bought Steadfast A Commentary , a collection of essays by another member of the Murdoch clan , Professor Walter Murdoch , of Western Australia , written during WW11 and syndicated through the Melbourne Herald , run by a nephew, Sir Keith Murdoch. Professor Murdoch, one of 14 children, was renowned for supporting so called lost causes, debunking the pompous , the ultra conservatives and strongly opposed the Menzies government’s attempt to abolish the Australian Communist Party.
Sentiments expressed in these essays are relevant to modern times , especially the debate over Wikileaks, democracy and a hot Australian political issue, refugees. In discussing the competing propaganda wars being conducted by the Germans and the Allies in America , which was isolationist at the time, Professor Murdoch defended democracy, with its faults, in which there was a right and expectation to be told the truth. He also made the point that there was good and bad propaganda .
After discussing the horrors of Dachau , the smashing of Poland and the invasion of Czechoslovakia , the professor , who said he was growing old, ended the book with a pledge he would like Australians, especially the young, to adopt for a nation which would become an example to the rest of the world. These ideals included the welfare of women and children, availability of work , fairer distribution of wealth , justice,and working for the removal of war.
One pleadge paragraph reads : We promise that to the utmost of our powers we shall make Australia a home for the homeless , a refuge for the innocent victims of cruelty and injustice elsewhere. We promise that Australia shall win a fair fame in the world for hospitality to exiles from foreign lands who are willing to obey our laws and to live and work honestly in our midst. To such exiles we shall extend the same justice ,the same generosity and the same friendly treatment as to men and women of our own race .
The rousing call to the nation ended with an urge for each person to examine their mind “to see what lurks there of the old greeds and spites, the old selfishness that has deformed society and frustrated the hopes of the world.” Professor Murdoch said every one of the essays,run throughout the nation and NZ, attracted letters of "more or less violent disagreement ".
Here in Darwin, it is little known that Rupert Murdoch allowed the crusading editor of the NT News ,the late Jim Bowditch, to draw on the office kitty in the form of a loan to pay legal bills and other expenses in the case of two celebrated Darwin news events , the Stayput Malays and the Stayput Portuguese , which challenged Australia’s immigration laws , the White Australia Policy, the Portuguese dictator, Dr Salazar, and the Menzies government.
In a leaflet which circulated after the Federal government buckled in both cases, the North Australian Workers’ Union secretary, Paddy Carroll, was quoted as saying that Bowditch had led the Australian battles and arranged for a loan of 800 pound ( $1600) , without interest, with the approval of Murdoch. In addition, Bowditch had personally spent 600 pound ($1200 ) which he had written off as a good cause and experience . The loan, however, had to be paid back , and Carroll made an appeal for a voluntary levy of ten shillings each to take the financial burden from Bowditch .
> Steadfast published by Oxford University Press , Melbourne, 1941
