COMPLACENT AUSTRALIA

Evening Star, Issue 23700, 7 October 1940, Page 4

COMPLACENT AUSTRALIA

FAMOUS MUSICIAN CRITICAL HOST BACKWARD RAGE [Pek United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, October 7. “The tragedy of Australia is thal it does not realise its true_ and refuses any kind of criticism from outside. It is sublimely self-satisfied and complacent.”In these words Sir Thomas Beeoham,-. the famous English conductor, summed up his views of Australia in ah. interview at Auckland to-day. He recently, completed a concert tour of Australia, and is proceeding to Canada for a concert tour, to be followed by a lectors tour of the United States, afterwards returning to England. “ Very few Australians realise the strange paradox of theTr present world position,” ho said. “ For a . generation, past their public men, writers, and 'newspapers, aided by British politicians and the Press, have been pro- % claiming Australia to be a land of untold possibilities, rich in every natural resource, and facing a great future. This flattering picture has been flaunted before the eyes, not only of the English, but of the Italians, Germans, Japanese, and every other powerful landhungry nation. What is the other side of the picture? In a continent almost as large as Europe is a stagnant population of hardly seven millions (the birthrate is stationary), a growing concentration of city life to the disadvantage of the country, and, strangest of all, a more or less chrome condition of unemployment.” Sir Thomas Beecham added that if the Australians had such a fruitful land, then they acknowledged themselves before the world as one of its most backward and incompetent races. Discussing the intellectual side, h* said: “ There can be no reasonabU doubt it is the most backward part of the British Empire, and contribute! nothing to the world’s fund of creative literature, philosophy, art, drama, and music. I visited five great cities, and in not one of them is there a theatr* at which a play was running.” He added that this barrenness in'relation to the dramatic art was common practically to every other department of learning and invention. “ The best proof of what I have said is Austra. lia’s preoccupation with • local politic! when its future destiny is being de. cided 12.000 miles away by the protecting .might of British arms and tin steadfast courage of the British people. Australia’s military contribution to th« war up to the present is incomparably less than, for example, Canada's and New Zealand’s.”