7.
regulate the arrival, the peaceful arrival, of Asian refugees or wanderers. We should
continue to welcome a variety of Asian immigrants, but they should come on our terms,
through our choosing, and in numbers with which our society can cope.
•
I am not saying we are in danger. We are not, in my view. I am not saying we need very heavy defence expenditure, though experts tend to say we need more
intelligent defence expenditure. But if large sections of Australians continue to see
surveillance and defence as irrelevant or immoral, then the day might well come when
our society - a relatively prosperous and free society - ceases to exist.
Nor am I saying that China in the near or medium future is in any way a danger to our independence. We cried 'wolf' about China in the 1960s; we enormously exaggerated
her military power and we probably misread her leaders' intentions in Vietnam. And that
is another reason why, amongst youngish Australians, the whole military world, defensive
as well as offensive, has become unsavoury.
I myself have difficulty in accepting the following ideas which are at present
widely held in Australia and which limit our ability, in the long term, to maintain our
independence as a nation.
I do not accept the widespread idea that we need only token defence forces if we
resolve that henceforth we will be neutral in any war. Countries which successfully have proclaimed their neutrality have always been capable,, in a crisis, of defending them- selves to some degree. Moreover a nation can only be neutral by consent. Sweden and Switzerland were neutral in World War Two because Germany permitted them to be
neutral.
It is equally difficult to accept the widespread idea that if we have a strong ally
we do not reasonable defence forces. Sometimes the strong ally cannot help quickly·
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