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| On theses & Murdock control Written by Dell Campbell, on 20-10-2007 23:11 I thought, while you're heavily into thesis avoidance, you might enjoy ... 35 years ago (any day up till 15 Nov), it was Gough v Billy McM. I'm "It's Timing" like crazy. A friend is standing for the ALP locally & Gough & Marg came to his launch party ....& I'm sweating over my Litt B dissertation - on Aust foreign policy Dec 1941- May 25th 1942 (Doc Evatt's ?Leeds Town Hall speech - the official end of the OzGov v Churchill stand-off) ... had to be at UNE by 17 Nov. I'd had a beautifully (I thought) argued 30,000w when, at the beginning of October, the OzGov abruptly changed its 50 year ban on releasing Cabinet docs to 30 years - that's Oct 42! YIKES! Very hurried perusal of cab docs - Bloody hell, S*** - every expletive I knew! I'd have to bin most of those 30K; but ... Desperate phone call to UNE (I live 10K west of Noosa). NO EXTENTION. BLOODY HELL! One of my findings had been a press "Black hole" that appeared c24 Feb 42. (I think it's the 24th) From the day the Japs sank the "Repulse" & "Prince of Wales", there had been a crescendo of anti-Brit, esp anti-Churchill letters to the editor & reporting, esp in "THe Bulletin". Churchill's gravest Crimes against Our Troops were raked up - Gallipoli. Greece & Crete, Western Desert ... As disasters multiplied, Singapore fell, Darwin was bombed, calls for an instant break from the Empire reached a screaming climax, then ... STOPPED! I'd first found it in the Courier Mail. As I read my paper way around Australian - same thing; same day! It HAD to be a press conspiracy and, given the PM was a card-carrying AJA member, it had to be Curtain. If it were Curtain, it had to be mate Keith Murdock as Enforcer. So I went back over every shred of paper I had - Cabinet documents, cartons of photocopies & Microfiche print-outs, books, journal articles, theses published & unpublished, everything Hasluck, Casey etc wrote, interview tapes ....... NOTHING Would I take out my beloved Black Hole? No way! I had enough evidence that an abrupt end to crit of Brits by every paper in the Land was not a co-incidence. (Besides, it and the first couple of chapters were all that was left of the original draft, & by this time, I was scribbling like mad & husband was driving pages up to the typist.) It took until the mid- late 1990s for proof positive That Big Keith had organised it for Curtain. (Yes, I got my degree & Yes I enjoyed the last fortnight of the campaign.) I often wonder if what drives Rupert is a deep desire to trump the control Keith was able to exert over Oz's wartime media. LOT OF EMPATHY (& SYMPATHY) FROM THIS OLD DUCK, JJ! & I hope this is a Bloody good omen JJ! |
