found the ACF. With his personal ties to the Crown, Australian Conservation Foundation and having been official secretary to five successive Governors-General, Tyrrell was the permanent power behind the throne in Australia. In 1968, Queen Eliza- beth knighted him for “personal service to the The British Crown Queen.” In February 1963, the Queen and Prince Philip ar- Created Green Fascism rived in Australia for a royal tour. Philip directed Tyrrell to arrange a meeting between British WWF founding by Robert Barwick member and its first paid employee, Ian MacPhail, and Australian conservationists, to discuss the possibility of October 2011—The Green fascist movement ruling establishing an Australian branch of the WWF. At the Australia today is the creation of the Duke of Edin- time, the WWF was keen to raise funds in Australia for burgh, Prince Philip, Consort to the Queen. The Duke the drive led by the International Union for the Con- wielded the power of his title, and that of the Crown servation of Nature (IUCN) to sequester large tracts itself, to deploy the offices of the Governor-General of sub-Saharan Africa, taking them out of control by the and Chief Justice of the High Court, and the finances of governments of newly independent nations, under the the Commonwealth gov- pretext of establishing “na- ernment, to establish the tional parks.” Australian Conservation Tyrrell later recalled Foundation (ACF) as Aus- that he knew the “obvi- tralia’s first and most im- ous” person to recruit to portant environmentalist assist him—Francis organization. He exercised Noble Ratcliffe, an expa- fingertip control over its triate British zoologist establishment and organi- who drove the early pro- zation, and even person- Green quackery inside the ally headed it in 1971-76 Commonwealth Scientific as president. and Industrial Research The Duke created the Organization (CSIRO) ACF in 1964 as a de facto and the Australian Acad- subsidiary of the World emy of Science. Ratcliffe Wildlife Fund (WWF), was a former student of which he had co-founded Sir Julian Huxley, co- in 1961 with former Nazi founder of the WWF with Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and British Eugen- Prince Philip; Huxley had deployed him to Australia ics Society President Sir Julian Huxley. He founded in 1929. Ratcliffe coordinated his conservation ef- both the WWF and the ACF with the intention of lock- forts in Australia with Huxley, the world’s leading ing away huge swathes of the globe from economic de- early Green fascist “scientist.” Huxley wrote the fore- velopment or even civilization, and killing billions of word to Ratcliffe’s 1938 conservation “classic,” human beings. Flying Fox and Drifting Sand. Prince Philip directed every stage of the estab- Like the eugenicist Huxley, Ratcliffe was a racist. lishment of the ACF through Australia’s Governor- In letters to his family after first arriving in Australia, General, the Crown’s representative. In 1962, only he denounced Australians as of a “low type,” “incorri- months after forming the WWF, he summoned gibly lazy,” and “useless rotters” who would find a way Murray Tyrrell, the official secretary to the Governor- to ruin nature. Like Australia’s own fascists of the era, General, from Canberra to serve in the Royal House- mobilized into the paramilitary Old and New Guards, hold at Buckingham Palace for four months. The Ratcliffe despised the working-class Australian Labor next year he allocated to Tyrrell the logistics to Party, which was fighting to wrest control of Austra- March 1, 2013 EIR Economics 9 Julian Huxley’s protégé Francis Noble Ratcliffe Heil to the Chief! The ACF’s inaugural President, Sir Garfield Barwick, flanked by the ACF Executive Committee, greets ACF founder, overseer, and future President Prince Philip. lia’s finances from the City of London and its local of Commonwealth Banking Corporation chairman Sir stooges. The problem with Australia, Ratcliffe sniffed, Warren McDonald, with Murray Tyrrell as Honorary was that it had too much democracy, but “the sooner Secretary. Members included Imperial Chemical In- the day of reckoning comes the better.” “Unfortunately dustries (ICI) executive Donald Malcolmson (scion of the independent, arrogant spirit of the people precludes Melbourne’s wealthy Myer and Baillieu families), the possibility of a Mussolini,” he penned on Oct. 4, Sidney Baillieu Myer, Ratcliffe, Max Day and Harry 1929. “If one did appear, I may say, I should be one of Frith from the CSIRO, Australian National University the first to put on a black shirt.” professors A.H. Ennor and L.D. Pryor, and Depart- ment of Prime Minister Secretary Yeend. The Provi- All the Queen’s Men . sional Committee decided that, rather than establishing In her 1964 Christmas Broadcast, the Queen left no an Australian branch of the WWF to fund work in doubt that Philip’s Green crusade was a Royal Family Africa, Australia should “get its own house in order” by affair, ranking “overpopulation” as first on her list of establishing a national environmental organization for the world’s problems. Tyrrell and Ratcliffe had indeed Australia. met with Ian MacPhail during the month of Philip’s The inaugural meeting of the Australian Conserva- visit, February 1963. Also present were two of Rat- tion Foundation was held in Canberra on Aug. 21, 1964. cliffe’s CSIRO co-workers, Harry Frith and Max Tyrrell, from Government House in Canberra, sent out Day, as well as the Secretary of the Department of invitations to selected individuals. More than 80 dele- Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Yeend, whose presence gates attended, including scientists from the CSIRO indicated that Philip’s message had cut through to the and the Australian Academy of Science, business lead- Australian government: “Conservation” was now Brit- ers, and at least one federal Member of Parliament, ish strategic policy, and the various governments of the future Prime Minister and future Privy Councillor Mal- Empire were expected to support it. colm Fraser. Francis Ratcliffe was named Honorary A few weeks later, Philip met with business leaders Secretary, newly appointed Chief Justice of the High to conscript them to the cause. These contacts resulted Court and Privy Councillor Sir Garfield Barwick was in the formation of a Provisional National Committee announced as President, and, to get the ACF rolling, for Conservation in July 1963, under the chairmanship Tyrrell arranged for Prime Minister Robert Menzies to 10 Economics EIR March 1, 2013 grant the ACF an initial £1,000. off limits for development. Their The Governor-General’s office, target was the Snowy Mountains in the person of Tyrrell, who contin- Scheme, Australia’s great post-war ued to work closely with Ratcliffe, hydroelectric project. handled all logistics for the ACF. Despite his conflict of interest as Tyrrell signed off on every decision, a park trustee, Barwick then used his right down to vetting prospective position as Attorney-General to halt typists. In 1966, Tyrrell arranged for the plans of Sir William Hudson and Governor-General Richard Casey the Snowy Mountains Authority for to be named as Patron of the ACF, completion of the part of the Snowy and did the same for Casey’s succes- Mountains Scheme overlapping the sor, Sir Paul Hasluck, in 1969. park’s “primitive area.” Later, as Tyrrell did the legwork, but ACF President, Barwick would use Prince Philip was the boss: Despite his reputation as Chief Justice in an Sir Garfield Barwick, royal family the Duke’s having no official posi- intimate attempt to stop Tasmania’s own ver- tion with the ACF until 1971, Presi- sion of the Snowy, namely, hydro- dent Barwick sent him regular re- electric development in its South- ports on its progress, signing off, “I remain, your west. obedient servant, Sir Garfield Barwick.” Barwick’s power was also key to securing govern- ment funding for the ACF. In 1965, he approached his ‘Gar’ Barwick and Government Funding former Cabinet colleague Harold Holt to request fund- The ACF’s first order of business was funding. It ing for the ACF’s office expenses. At the same time, promoted itself as a “private foundation,” but could Murray Tyrrell spoke to Treasury Secretary Sir Roland exist only with heavy government funding. If large Wilson about funding, as well as tax deductibility for government funding had not been forthcoming at this donations to the ACF. In 1966 Holt, now Prime Minis- stage, the Green movement as we know it would not ter, informed Barwick that his government would cough exist. up a $60,000 grant-in-aid, spread over three years, and Enter Sir Garfield Barwick. The enormously influ- the desired tax deductions. The grant amounted to over ential Barwick was a member of the Privy Council, the 45% of the ACF’s funding in its first three years. In ruling body of the British Empire, and a Knight Grand 1968, when the initial three-year grant was about to Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Thus expire, and the federal government, now led by John he was at the top of the totem pole of British imperial Gorton, delayed new funding; questions had arisen as power in Australia. For a record 17 years, he was also to exactly what the ACF was doing with its money. Chief Justice of the High Court, with power to dictate to Again, Barwick stepped in: He arranged an urgent other levels of government. He was personally close to meeting with Gorton, who then granted the ACF the Royals. $150,000, spread over three years. Barwick’s power as Chief Justice was essential to In 1972-73, federal government funding of the dictating Green policies, especially to the states. As ACF jumped to $150,000 annually.
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