MALAYAN PAPER SHOWS BITTERNESS OVER-WHITE AUSTRALIA

Grey River Argus, 5 June 1948, Page 5

MALAYAN PAPER SHOWS BITTERNESS OVER-WHITE AUSTRALIA

Government Sending Chinese Back (Rec 11.0 p.m.) LONDON, June 4. Reuters correspondent at Singapore says: The Government of Malaya is sending back to Australia two Chinese, who were deported from Australia, also along with their Australian wives. They arrived in Malaya last month The correspondent continues that in a leading article in a newspaper ‘‘Straits Times” which has the largest circulation in Malaya, the terms “blundering, tactless, unreasqname, harsh, provocative, are appplied tu Hon. Mr Calwell. the Australian Minister of Immigration. The article said that Mr Calwell had united Malayans by, in tur-i, offending Malays, Chinese, ano Eurasians; and also by expulsion of some of their numbers. The paper asserted it was vital for Australia to understand . that these expulsions, which were minor incidents, in themselves, touched the deepest—most vital thing—in tne Asiatic mind, namely racial pride. It said that educated Malayans were keeping a sense of proportion, and ralised that there were social and economic reasons for the Australian barrier against the settlement of Asiatics in the Commonwealth. The paper goes on: “But when Calwell suddenly decides that a few respectable Asiatic or Euraasian individuals, who have lived in Australia for years, must be uprooted and forced to give up their jobs; breakup homes and families, and return to Asia, that is when the White Australia policy offends the racial pride of Malaya.”