Write on: letters to the editor

May 17, 1995
Issue 

Land rights first

The ACTU has launched a campaign to take the republican issue out of the hands of the academics and the lawyers. So the unions want a say in the republican issue. That's a very good idea. They should have a say and so should the Aboriginal people (the original inhabitants of this country). But before the politicians, academics, bureaucrat lawyers and unions pass an opinion regarding Australia becoming a republic there are a few important issues that should be settled first and that's land rights and the Aboriginal people. What has not been settled yet? The Aboriginal people have not yet been given their just rights.

It seems that for the past 50 years or more, without any consultation with the Aboriginal people, the Federal Government of the day has embarked on a policy to flood this country with political and religious refugees from every trouble spot on earth with not a thought for the rights of original owners of this country.

Isn't it about time something was done for the deprived of this country (the Aboriginal people) in preference to helping outsiders? We hear all this crap about multiculturalism, but you hear very little about justice for the original owners of this country. Land rights before the Republic. What I'd like to know, when are Aboriginal people going to start receiving land under native title? What about a republic for the Aboriginal people?
W.G. Fox
Brisbane

Mateship?

Let me tell you about the so-called mateship you hear so much about in WW2. How could there be mateship when you had a divided army? The divided army consisted of militiamen and the AIF. The AIF were those who volunteered. Many of these men didn't leave Australia and many joined the AIF a month before the war ended. The militiamen were conscripted early in 1942.

The animosity began when the divisions returned home from the Middle East. They were the ones who instigated the name "chocos" [for militiamen]. They looked down on these men as second class soldiers because they were conscripted. This carried on until the war ended.

When the Vietnam veterans returned from Vietnam they too were looked upon as second class soldiers. The RSL did not accept them until 5 years after they returned. Men like Bruce Ruxton like to keep this hushed up around Anzac Day. Bruce Ruxton said that the Vietnam bikies should not be allowed to ride their bikes in the Anzac march. This is another insult to the Vietnam veterans.

Ten of us were posted to a Victorian AIF artillery regiment. Because we were militiamen we were treated as second class soldiers. I can assure you there was no mateship in this regiment.

Lest we forget.
[Edited for length.]
David Morgans
Enoggera QLD

Solidarity request

The State of Texas tried me on a Robbery Capital Murder supposed to have happened sometime in October of 1991. The State has no evidence, no fingerprints or anything that you can see or touch at all. All they had was the testimony of a woman who claimed three different stories, at three different times.

Some corrupt police broke every Law in the book to come up with absolutely nothing but lies that they instilled within the mind of a child, Craig Burks, who is my "nephew by marriage". However, the State called Security Guard Jim Powell and he testified that he was there when his employer was murdered, and that "this is not the man that robbed and killed Mr Kwan".

My conviction and death sentence is currently on Appeal, however, the State has appointed an Appellate Attorney, who has done almost nothing to help me on appeal. The attorney has never been to see me and will never respond to my letters, nor has she bothered to return phone calls to many of my family members that have tried to contact her.

Mr Collier and Ms Wilma McFarland have been working diligently to put together a defense fund for me, which involves many of things to raise the necessary amount of funds required to put together a strong defense team. It could be the only chance I have.

For all those who are interested in making contributions to this cause, contributions can be sent via money order to either one of the following addresses: Wilma McFarland, 4118 Boyd Ave, Bronx, NY 10466 or Ronnie Collier, 39 Overlook Rd, W. Haverstraw, NY 10993.
[Edited for length.]
George E. McFarland
Huntsville, Texas, USA

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