THE PIET HEIN CAUSING EMBARRASSMENT

Chronicle (Levin), 26 June 1946, Page 2

THE PIET HEIN CAUSING EMBARRASSMENT

♦ . (Spccial Australiau Correspouclent.) SYDNEY,' June 25. The affair of the Duteh destroyer Piet Hein, which Australian unionists have refused to repair, is causiiig the /whiifloy i Go vBiuttniontiu i almost i a as; •» rmuch embarrassment as the eoal crisis. It provides a new point of ontry • for Opposition speak'ers, who have already demonstratod the weakness of tlie Government armour in the matter of the attitude of the unions to Dutcli shipping in general. So far the Government 's only reaction has been a strong rebuke to be administerod by Mr. Chifley to the Dutcli Minister to Australia (Baron Vau • Aerssen). Baron Van Aerssen merely put into werds what must be obvious to all Australians — tluit "the Dutcliiiien fail to understand this treatment, which they are inclincd to consider an insult to ihe comradeship in arms between the two countrieslv It is now believed that his recall to llolland is imminent. A recall order fj-oiu The Hague would be a scrious matter between the two wartime Allies, particularly as it would be hard to regard it otherwiso tinui as a protest by llolland against the Australian Government 's attitude. Australian Labour propagandists hint that Baron \'an Aerssen made a diplomatic bluuder by engaging in the controversy, and that in doing so played into the Australian Government 's hands. Despite the fact that the minority of the Australian workers are violently anti-Dutch, the Chifley Government maintaius as a matter of poliey that it is. strictly neutral on the Dutch-lndo-uesian question. The Government '■» re fusal to intervene has. given the water sid.e unions full rein in disrupting all trade ■between Australia and the- Duteh East Jndies. Government spokesmen claiiu tluit when in Canberra Lord Louis Mountlnitlen told the Ministers that he thought the Indonesians "had a casc. " The situatiou hcrc is producing a strong reaetion in Ilolland as is evideuced by a leading article in the Duteh Liberal nevvspaper Algemeen HandeJsblad. "The Australian Government scems powerlcss, " conuuents the paper. "A smail group of 'Australian railicals, especially the Coniniuuist dockers, after the Japanese capitulation sidetl witli Ihe fevolulionaries who believed. that they could break lavvful Dutcli s.oyer eignty by force. The Australian Goy crnnient is apparently capitulating to a very small minority. We do not ask that the Australiau Government should approve of the Dutcli Government 's. conduct of the affairs in the Nethcrlands East Lndies, but it is certainly not an adair that can be arbitrarily cut. aeross by radical labour groups. A Government which permits that falls shurt in its eleiuentary jJutlcs "toward a friendly Gtate, and 111 this eiise toward an ally wliich also sacriflced possessiyns and blood for Australia 's f reedom. ' ' Mr. Ghifley's rebuke has been follow ed by speeclies by the Leaders of the Opposition. parties, Mr. Menzies and Mr. Faddcn. Both speeclies must have touched the Prime Minister on the raw. Firstly, because they followed closely and' answered effectively his rebuke to the Dutcli Minister, and secondly, because they drew attention to the waste and extravagance in the Treasury. Continued Criticism along these lines is proving to the Opposition to be a, bet-J ter weapon than a censure motion,

Australian public opinion 011 such a matter as the liandting of the Piet I-Iein incident could toppie the Government in t'lie coiuing election.