NON-EUROPEANS IN AUSTRALIA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 106, 17 February 1950, Page 3

NON-EUROPEANS IN AUSTRALIA

MRS O’KEEFE ALLOWED TO REMAIN CANBERRA, Feb. 16. The Federal Government has decided to allow Mrs Annie O’Keefe, the Indonesian wife of an Australian, and her children by a former marriage to remain in Australia. A Filipino, Sergeant Lorenzo Gamboa, will be allowed to return and rejoin his Australian Avife, provided he can obtain employment. Mr Frank Jang, a Chinese farmer in North Queensland, Will also be allowed to remain in Australia.

Announcing these decisions to-day, the Minister of Immigration (Mr H. E. Holt) said the Government did not intend to enforce as a matter of course the repatriation of every non-Euro-pean who entered Australia during the war. It would deal with such cases on their individual merits. The Government has ,rejected applications for the readmission of Clarence Reeves, known as the “Alabama Kid,” and Alexander “Tiger” Parks, two American negro boxers Avho married Australian women.

A deportation order issued agains( Mrs O’Keefe by the former Minister of Immigration (Mr A. A. Calwell), and his refusal to allow Sergeant Gamboa, who was a member of the United States forces in Australia during the Secorld World War, to return aroused widespread interest. Mr Calwell’s actions were bitterly criticised by the Liberal-Country Party Opposition in the Federal Parliament, but with the backing of the Chifley Government, Mr Calwell refused to change his attitude, in spite of allegations of an “over-strict application of the White Australia policy.” As a result of the Chifley Government’s refusal to permit Sergeant Gamboa to rejoin his wife in Australia, the Philippines Congress in April, 1949, passed a bill prohibiting the admission to the Philippines of aliens whose countries did not grant reciprocal rights to Filipinos. The Gamboa case led to intense resentment against Australia in the Philippines.