INTER-RACIAL MARRIAGES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28800, 22 January 1959, Page 11

INTER-RACIAL MARRIAGES

Recommendation To Australia (Rec. 8 p.m.) CANBERRA, January 21. Inter-racial marriage, should be fostered as a means of boosting Australia, according to an Australian scientist, Sir Macfarlane Burnet. J ~ In a paper he presented to the Australian Citizenship Convention Sir Macfarlane Burnet, who is director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, said: “Australia should be willing to accept into the gene pool ol our community a contribution from any section of the, human species that has a worthwhile inheritance to offer.” He added: “However, experience everywhere indicates that it would be disastrous to open the doors to a large, dissimilar minority introduced to provide cheap, lower-grade labour. "Experience, too, equally points to the acceptability of upperclass, cross-racial marriage. "Where this is accepted, clearly no general contempt for the halfbreed can develop.” Sir Macfarlane Burnet said small groups of half-breeds as a rule provided no social problem. “Taking ail these points into view, it might in the long run be wise to foster, or at least not dissuade, marriage of non-Euro-pean students working in Australia to Australians of European stock,” he continued. The prominent scientist urged that Australia should make the most of the genetic diversity that had come from Europe and the British Isles. Complete assimilation Would be a gradual process, he said. “The practical approach is perhaps to establish the rule that the spouse of any Australian citizeh of European blood is automatically admissible to citizenship, irrespective of race or nationality,” he said.

SPANISH SHIP’S TREASURE Duke’s Plans For Salvage SYDNEY, January 21. The Duke of Argyll will try again to salvage a legendary Spanish cargo ship with a cargo believed to be worth almost £3O million sterling. His three previous attempts to find the ship—sunk oH the coart of Scotland 371 years ago—have failed. The Duke and Dtichess of Argyll arrived here by air yesterday from Bangkok, to visit members of the Campbell clan in Australia. When asked about the Spanish treasure he was trying to salvage, the Duke of Argyll said: “I have tried to salvage the treasure from a Spanish galleon three times in the last 10 years. “1 plan to try again, with new, more robust and efficient mag* neto-meter equipment"