THE CHAMELEON

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 664, 17 October 1933, Page 4

THE CHAMELEON

It is hardly surprising that the. press of Australia has receivecl Mr. Randolph Hearst's overtures for an American-Australian alliance in the Pacific with scepticism. Mr. Hearst in the guise of the hear'ty American extending the hand of fellowship to his Australian cousin, is a little unconvincing. Australians, after all, are still "Britishers" and | Britishers and their imperialistic habits have been for so long one of the choicest subjects for invective in the Hearst yellow press, that this new ally may well Tbe regarded with suspicion. Mr. Hearst, it- seems, with that acute perception that should rightly characterise a newspaper magnate on a large scale, has suddenly become acutely anxious concerning developments in the Pacifie. The rising sun of Nippon is apparently irritating his sensitivity and he has discovered that it may be better to ask help from the devils he knowsthan from the devils he doesn't.' As a "friendly gesture" Mr. Hearst suggests, in the large manner for which he has become justly famous:

(1) A co-operative defensive alliance between the United States and 'the British Empire. (2) The orientation of United States foreign policy towards that aim, and, particularly, towards encouraging friendship with Australia. . (3) As a first step towards that ohjective that the United States cruiser squadron in the Pacific should he sent on a friendly visit to Australian ports. It is immaterial, of course, that even Mr. Hearst has not yet acquired the direction of the American fleet and the "orientation of the United States foreign policy." Misunderstood Britishers, may take Mr. Hearst's good intentions as sufficient for the deed and as proof of that brotherly affecti-on between the English speaking nations which he.is now so energetically espousing. Why should not the mighty influenee of the English-speaking nations, in support of liberty and deimocraey, be inereased through cooperative alliance, rather than be weakened by division and distrust? he asks. Echo may well answer, "why?" If Mr. Hearst does not know, who does?

Coming from Mr. Hearst this is really delightful. There is no j doubt that his sentiments, j though hardly original, do him j infmite credit. In the face of this, it should not be difficult for slow-witted Britishers to forget that it was Mr. Hearst's papers primarily which fostered the ridieulous "Keep King George out of Chicago" movement and eultivated Anglophobia to an extent which was not only ridieulous, but extremely irritating. Nearly 20 years have also elapsed since the war and in that time it is quite possible that Britishers (it is Mr. Hearst's term) have forgotten the shameless rail-sitting in which the Hearst papers indulged before America entered the war and the antiBritish propaganda in which they engaged in any quarters where anti-British news was a "line of talk." At that time, Mr. Hearst did pot attempt to disguise his wholehearted American contempt for the effete and

jingoistic British nation. His | papers fostered ridieulous scare articles alleging the most sinister motives against the British, even to the desire of His Majesty, King Georve V., to regain monarchistic dominion over the millions of the freed which his royal namesake lost in 1-776. It is heartening therefore to tind Mr. Hearst espousing such lofty sentiments of Anglo- American brotherhood ; the only catch, possibly, is the small amount of 1 space which his organs are able to find for such "junk stories." ifr. Hearst's papers have other

jmatters infinitely more of the moment to oecupy their columns. People are still' being divorced in large numbers in the United States and even though ■ Mr. Capone is temporarily out of business some of his distinguished lieutenants are carrying on with creditable zeal. This is what a New Zealapder, Mr. Frank i Milner, had to say ahout Mr. ! Hearst's papers on his return from a tour of the United States: "I wonder how a great country like J ' the United States can be satisfied with the vulgarised form of press that I ■ it has," he said. "With the excepition of the New York Times, the New York Herald-Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Baltimore Sun, the St. Lonis Post-Dispateh, and a f ew other papers, one finds the press •bereft of international news and of leading articles as we understand them. The leaders are not educative or even informative.

"One sees the country's magnifi- . cent developments in science and in- ' dustry, and then one finds the press , full of vulgar personal gossip, with disproportionate attention given to i criminality. This gives us "an utterly wrong idea of the country." It is possible, of course, though not probable, that Mr. Hearst has discovered that pro-British sentiment is better feature news than the latest divorce triangle or prison quadrangle. Mr. Hearst has always enjoyed a chameleon like ability to change his colours and the transformation from yellow to red, white and blue with a background of stars and stripes, should not daunt him.