BRAINWASHING TESTS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29222, 4 June 1960, Page 13

BRAINWASHING TESTS

Australian Army Criticised (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 3. Psychiatrists today criticised the Australian Army for a new officers’ course which is supposed to prepare them for brainwashing should they fall into Communist hands. An Army spokesman and returned servicemen’s representatives defended the course.

Psychiatric consultant to the New South Wales AttorneyGeneral’s Department, Dr. John McGeorge, said in an interview that the course was “shocking, unjustified and highly dangerous.”

He said he was astounded to find brainwashing tests of officers were being carried out in Australia after they had been severely criticised in Britain and the United States. He said trainees were caged and partly starved.

The tests simulated conditions they might expect if they became prisoners of war with the Communists.

The Victorian Government’s Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. Cunningham Dax, said the Army was “playing with fire.” The commanding officer of Army intelligence at Georges Heights, Sydney, today defended the new course. He said officers were given sub-standard food but. as much as they wanted of it He said they were locked in only for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and they were free to walk out if they felt like it. He said the camp simulated the conditions of a Communist camp but a “prisoner” could end it when he wished to.