VIGOROUS ATTACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26621, 18 November 1947, Page 5

VIGOROUS ATTACK

MIGRATION POLICY MALAYS’ ENFORCED REMOVAL PRESERVATION OF “ WHITE ” AUSTRALIA From C. R. Mentiplay, N.Z.P.A. . Special Correspondent Rec. 8 p.m. SYDNEY, Nov. 17. The Commonwealth migration policy aimed at preserving a “white” Australia is under vigorous attack by all shades of political opinion because of the recent order that 14 Malay seamen who married Australian women must be in readiness to leave the Commonwealth by next month. The men are British subjects who served as merchant seamen during the war. They have been permitted to live in Australia long enough to marry and have children, but now must return to Malaya alone. Typical Australian opinion is that, irrespective of colour, the men, because of their British nationality and war service, are better citizens than the southern and central Europeans nowarriving in large numbers in sponsored immigration schemes. It is pointed out that their forced departure will leave 20 half-caste children fatherless.

“ This is an example of the operation of the colour bar in Australia,” said Professor A. P. Elkin, head of the Department of Anthropology, Sydney University. “The ‘white’ Australia policy resulted mainly from the fear of a rapid increase of the Chinese population on the goldfields during the second half of the nineteenth century, together with envy at their success as hard-working people. The dictation, originally designed to keep out Orientals, soon departed from its original purpose and was used to bar migrants for political, moral, or other reasons.” He suggested that the free admission of from 50 to 100 Indians, Malays, Indonesians, and Chinese a year would not upset Australian economy or constitute a threat to the future.

Reports from Singapore indicate that the order has provoked a storm of criticism in the Malay newspapers, and that a high Malay official has commented: “ Ifi Australia does not 'want Asians, then Malaya certainly does not want Australians.” Australian business interests recall that last financial year Australia’s credit balance with Malaya was nearly £12.000,000. The Australian Minister for Immigration. Mr A. A. Calwell. did not help matters when he said* in Canberra that “since Federation it has been the principle of the Commonwealth immigration policy that persons of non-European origin and birth cannot be permitted to remain in this country for permanent residence.” Many people who favour the general principle of a “ white ” Australia policy are in agreement with the Sydney Herald when it says: “ This case is one in which official rules and regulations might well be tempered with commonsense and common humanity. It cannot be seriously maintained that the continued presence of these men in the country, or for that matter the presence of a few score of other nonEuropeans who have married and settled down here, would be prejudicial to the ‘ white ’ Australia policy. This policy is discredited when it is enforced so undiscerningly and unfeelingly.”