A most interesting read , the above well illustrated book was found in a Darwin op shop by Number 2 daughter . It consists of letters between "half crazy ex-Goon " Spike Milligan and the classical scholar and writer Robert Graves .
It contains pertinent comment at a time when various visions for Australia's future are being outlined on the election trail ; there is strong opposition to the Adani coal mine ; climate change is a major issue and businessman Dick Smith is campaigning against the Big Australia population concept.
While writing on a trip from Woy Woy , New South Wales , where his parents lived, Milligan said that in his spare time in Australia he continued to battle for conservation , outlined a radical future for Oz :
The Japs, and other fuel hungry nations who have out-populated the self sufficiency of their lands , are pressing and eager for young Australia to sell her almost intact minerals and fossil fuels ; we are trying- along with most University Conservation groups-to stop it .
Alas, Australian politicians are slavishly following the old world with the 'More is better-we must now go for growth' Lunacy , and here they have the God-given chance to avoid past Western mistakes.
With a country as big as the U.S.A. and a population of a mere 14,000,000 they could stabilise birth rate and go for a self-supporting society-and show the way to eliminate all the evils of 'Overpop' and international dependency -a nation loses its strength and individuality when somewhere in Aberdan , an Arab can throw a switch that stops oil supplies to country X and country X is brought to a dead halt !
The way is now open to International Blackmail , the Japanese become 'favoured nation' because they agree to terminate business deals with any banks run-or part run-by Jews! Self supporting systems can be free of this threat , yet Australia is tying itself up in international deals that give employment to Australia but enslave her independence .
There are other points of interest , including Milligan , touring Australia in the play The Bedsitting Room , staying with artist Russell Drysdale in Sydney in a glass walled house overlooking the Pacific . A wild storm blew up , Drysdale opened the curtains and put on a Sibelius Symphony, the effect incredible . (There is a Drysdale collection in the Special Collections section at the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library , James Cook University ,Townsville .)
Milligan , supported by the managing director of the ABC, Sir Charles Moses,was instrumental in saving the neglected cottage of Australian poet Henry Kendall, made from convict cut sandstone , boarded up and empty .
On tour in New Zealand he intended staying with a wartime friend ,Harry Edgington, to drink lots of wine and relive the Blitz, North Africa -Sicily and Salerno .
Pauline Scudamore was closely associated with both the correspondents and wrote a critical biography of Milligan. Could this inscription on the front endpaper be by her? Some of the photographs in the book were supplied by Spike's brother who was living in Australia .
Robert Graves told Spike he could almost imagine him speaking Strineland due to his time in Australia, adding he liked Strines . He went on to recall he (Graves) had attended an official cocktail party in Canberra and after a while sat down on the floor and made everybody else do the same . It had ended with songs and "outrageous stories ". This couldn't be done , he wrote , in Washington and Buckingham Palace. Makes a good Australia Day yarn whatever day it is held on .
Robert Graves told Spike he could almost imagine him speaking Strineland due to his time in Australia, adding he liked Strines . He went on to recall he (Graves) had attended an official cocktail party in Canberra and after a while sat down on the floor and made everybody else do the same . It had ended with songs and "outrageous stories ". This couldn't be done , he wrote , in Washington and Buckingham Palace. Makes a good Australia Day yarn whatever day it is held on .
