Published annually by University of Queensland students , the above weather battered 1945 edition of Galmahra , Aboriginal for "spokesman of a tribe ", recently hit the desk and led to a follow up of interest . Historian Sally Percival Wood , in Dissent The Student Press in 1960s Australia , pointed out that Brisbane, rather surprisingly , took the lead in acknowledging Aboriginal people when in 1921 the university publication was named Galmahra .
She went on to write that its first editor, Percy Reginald "Inky" Stephensen , covered previously in this blog in connection with Gandhi, D. H. Lawrence and Australian author Xavier Herbert who wrote the award winning novels Capricornia and Poor Fellow My Country , had challenged censorship and the university's authority by publishing two pages of erotic poems by Jack Lindsay in Galmahra , the magazine withdrawn .
Galmahra, she added , had eventually been replaced by Semper Floreat ,on which author David Malouf and Zell Rabin had been co-editors . Rabin moved to Sydney , worked as a reporter on The Sun, went to New York for Rupert Murdoch, with whom he had a close association .
She went on to write that its first editor, Percy Reginald "Inky" Stephensen , covered previously in this blog in connection with Gandhi, D. H. Lawrence and Australian author Xavier Herbert who wrote the award winning novels Capricornia and Poor Fellow My Country , had challenged censorship and the university's authority by publishing two pages of erotic poems by Jack Lindsay in Galmahra , the magazine withdrawn .
Galmahra, she added , had eventually been replaced by Semper Floreat ,on which author David Malouf and Zell Rabin had been co-editors . Rabin moved to Sydney , worked as a reporter on The Sun, went to New York for Rupert Murdoch, with whom he had a close association .
The editor of the above 1945 production of Galmahra , A. M. Hertzberg, member of a prominent Queensland Hebrew family , wrote that all editors are inveterate preachers. Readers must decide if Galmahra was provocative and original ..."There is poetry and prose , some factual and imaginative; much about the sombre sweetness of death, the dark agonies of love, and the ugliness of life. "
As a central theme for the publication, tolerance would be perfect , the magazine standing for the whole student body , the nucleus of educated youth . The magazine would be the student body's "spokesman" if it be coherent and representative only when all had " ungummed our minds . "
As a central theme for the publication, tolerance would be perfect , the magazine standing for the whole student body , the nucleus of educated youth . The magazine would be the student body's "spokesman" if it be coherent and representative only when all had " ungummed our minds . "
In the past , he said , the magazine had been criticised for a lack of humour; it was easy to see why in the last few years that serious topics had largely exceeded the frivolous in number. ..." We are living in one of those periods when a multitude of problems , shelved for years, cry out for solution. Men start to think earnestly . Humour in wartime-the kind that people in Britain displayed and men in the field everywhere -is usually what Leacock called 'brave defiance in adverse fate '. Humour is an essential quality ; it should be at hand to ward off stolidity , but it functions best in less urgent times."
The magazine included three poems by Thea Astley, who became a prominent author , a review of the recently published 100 poems of Kenneth Slessor and a short poem , Redfern Reminiscences , in which the poet , identified as Moss , looked at the slum area of Sydney , a sight enough to make one shudder and flee , yet ...
Fascism-What it Means
This is the title on a two page contribution by George Watson, later a prominent linguist , writer and scholar , who graduated in English at the University of Queensland in 1948 , went to Cambridge , where he became a lecturer in English in 1959. His piece in Galmahra ended thus :
Fascism is a political disease , most Australians are agreed , because under its rule unpopular ideas are imposed upon the masses without their approval . The disease is moreover highly infectious; in thirty years it spread to Germany,Italy, Austria, Spain, Russia (to name only the leading victims ), and it found a foothold in France and England .
And what of Australia? Are there minority groups striving to gain unconstitutional power, academicians who deny the "one man one vote "principle, or any who agitate for strong rule to "make miners and other disruptive elements toe the line "? That is for you to judge .
Watson contributed to the Cold War intellectual publication, Encounter,which was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency and MI6. Wikipedia states he argued that Hitler was a Marxist, and that socialism promoted genocide .
Also, he featured in the conservative documentary The Soviet Story in 2008 in which he claimed Karl Marx was responsible for coming up with the idea of genocide. He was criticised for this . It was claimed Watson's views were based on mistranslation and distortion reflecting his ideological bias.
According to Wikipedia, the translation of Völkerabfälle as "racial trash" lay at the centre of this , with defenders of Marx and Engels saying that a proper translation would be "residual fragments of peoples".
Active in the British Liberal Party , Watson stood for election and was treasurer of the Cambridge University Liberal Party from 1978 to 1992 ; he died in 2013 , aged 85 , and left nearly one million pounds to the Liberal Democrats .
The magazine included three poems by Thea Astley, who became a prominent author , a review of the recently published 100 poems of Kenneth Slessor and a short poem , Redfern Reminiscences , in which the poet , identified as Moss , looked at the slum area of Sydney , a sight enough to make one shudder and flee , yet ...
This is the title on a two page contribution by George Watson, later a prominent linguist , writer and scholar , who graduated in English at the University of Queensland in 1948 , went to Cambridge , where he became a lecturer in English in 1959. His piece in Galmahra ended thus :
Fascism is a political disease , most Australians are agreed , because under its rule unpopular ideas are imposed upon the masses without their approval . The disease is moreover highly infectious; in thirty years it spread to Germany,Italy, Austria, Spain, Russia (to name only the leading victims ), and it found a foothold in France and England .
And what of Australia? Are there minority groups striving to gain unconstitutional power, academicians who deny the "one man one vote "principle, or any who agitate for strong rule to "make miners and other disruptive elements toe the line "? That is for you to judge .
Watson contributed to the Cold War intellectual publication, Encounter,which was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency and MI6. Wikipedia states he argued that Hitler was a Marxist, and that socialism promoted genocide .
Also, he featured in the conservative documentary The Soviet Story in 2008 in which he claimed Karl Marx was responsible for coming up with the idea of genocide. He was criticised for this . It was claimed Watson's views were based on mistranslation and distortion reflecting his ideological bias.
According to Wikipedia, the translation of Völkerabfälle as "racial trash" lay at the centre of this , with defenders of Marx and Engels saying that a proper translation would be "residual fragments of peoples".
Active in the British Liberal Party , Watson stood for election and was treasurer of the Cambridge University Liberal Party from 1978 to 1992 ; he died in 2013 , aged 85 , and left nearly one million pounds to the Liberal Democrats .
