Feb-Mar-Apr, May-June-July 1972 - Navy League of Australia

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AUSTRALIA S
DEFENCE OUTLOOK
THE CRYSTAL BALL:
What will be the final outcome of
all this? I must really appeal to the
crystal ball at this stage, for here we
are clearly entering an area of high
speculation and personal opinion,
and what I now say on this topic is
more than ever my own private view.
I believe that man is man —
regardless of his race or colour. That
basically he prefers peace to war.
love to hate, beauty to ugliness,
honesty to lies, and all the other
simple but ancient values. It is my
faith that in the end these things will
prevail. In short, that time is on our
side — if we stand for these things.
I have however taken a cynical
view of immediate international
political decision-making. I cannot
afford, as a Minister of the Crown,
charged with defence responsibilities.
to give myself the luxury of
isolation from brutal present reality.
You and I would not be talking
speculation and theory if we were in
the University of Phnom Penh today.
I have spent some hours with
student leaders there recently, and it
is a very, very sobering experience
indeed.
There cannot always be a state of
balance in unstable equilibrium
between the great and super-powers.
As an idealist, it is my hope that
human values will obtrude across
the boundaries of political division
and diminish tensions and finally
reduce the risk of war. As a realist. I
must be prepared to see the
immediate advantage increasing for
those opposing powers which
enforce a rigid cont'd over their
mass media, their economy, their
political expressions and their
military preparations.
The rate of military development,
especially :n the USSR's Naval
resources, is stupendous. Until I see
evidence to the contrary I must
believe what the Russians and
Chinese have clearly and continually
maintained — that they intend to
dominate the world, if necessary
getting there by force of arms. Only
a very few words and a few ping-pong
balls so far gainsay that threat —
while scores of millions chant every
day slogans such as "political power
grows out of the barrel of a gun".
The Hntir SkkMty HARftttft V/STOL f%titec. The Harrier can deliver a heavy load of ordinance at
«peed» of over 600 knot*.
It would seem to follow from what I
have said that the advantage must
steadily drift towards the East unlaas
some new quasi-ideological force,
some new and virile expression of
the human spirit, emerges in the
West. This movement will require
more than the motivation of fear. To
succeed, it must be able to persuade
ordinary men freely to discipline
themselves to achieve as much if not
more than their regimented
counterparts achieve in the
Communist countries. Without such
national teamwork we could well be
like stupid passengers squabbling
over the allotment of choice cabins
in a sinking ship.
It is against such a sombre
backdrop that I think of the
particular problems of future
defence.
LISTING THE FACTS:
To summarise a few military
issues; therefore:
1. It is clearly impossible for
Australia alone to consider defence
against the determined assault of a
super-power.
2. It is also highly unlikely that we
could withstand aggression-by-proxy
for very long — left to our own
resources, e.g. if a third power were
to be equipped with nuclear arms or
nuclear submarines.
3. The military role for Australia
lies within a limited sphere — we
must be able to oppose any military
incursion into our vital spheres
interest. We should expect to be able
to defeat an aggressor, other than a
super-power or major power. In a
situation short of war created by
greater powers we should be able to
make it 'not worth-while' for them to
try to bully us out of our areas of
great national interest, e.g. the
exploitation of the resources of the
North-West shelf of Australia or the
defence of Papua and New Guinea.
4. We must be able to join with
our friendly neighbours in
withstanding attacks which would
endanger Australia if they were to
succeed in penetrating our general
area of concern.
5. We must be able to protect our
shipping lanes and our mainland and
where necessary to carry the
military initiative into other parts of
our region.
NAVY AND AIR
MORE IMPORTANT:
To undertake these tasks we need
a somewhat different alignment of
military priorities from those which
have pertained in the past. In future
we must be able to exert a maximum
of effort in our own right. As soon as
we say this we realise that the
military emphasis now swings much
Pag. Fifty-two
THE NAVV
February/Hare h/AprH, 1972
Fetoruary/Marcty April. 1972
Pace Flfty-thrae