“Unrepentant In Disagreement”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29487, 13 April 1961, Page 7

“Unrepentant In Disagreement”

(N.Z. Press Association— CowngM) MELBOURNE, April 12. The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, was unrepentant in his disagreement with the British Prime Minister, Mr Macmillan, over South Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth, the Melbourne “Age” said in an editorial today.

The “Age” said: “In his explanation to Parliament of his public statements on South Africa’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth, Mr Menzies has opened fire in all directions, but he has not retreated from the position he selected two weeks ago. “He is unrepentant in his disagreement with Mr Macmillan: he still believes that ‘the Commonwealth has been injured and not strengthened’ by the departure of South Africa, and he still believes that in reaffirming the view that apartheid should have been left as domestic to South Africa he was defending the interests of his own country. “Those who agree with Mr Macmillan—and with Mr Caiwell (the Leader of the Opposition)—that the Prime Minister’s public statements since the conference have not furthered Australia’s interests, may take some consolation from his assertion that he was expressing his own personal opinions. “But in the present world situation can Prime Ministers afford this luxury?” asked the “Age.” “Mr Menzies has been at some pains to argue that Aus-

tralia has not switched its policy by voting in the United Nations to condemn apartheid, but he clearly does not accept the proposition that the charter of human rights is basic to the Commonwealth.

“In spite of the instruction sent to Mr Plimsoll by himself and his senior colleagues he still feels that ‘the policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of another country is at the very root of Commonwealth relations.’ United Nations affairs, he believes, lack the ‘intimacy’ of Commonwealth relations. “In the world parliament it is necessary to take a stand on principles: in the Commonwealth club this is embarrassing. “This curiously old-world view of the Commonwealth is clearly not accepted by most of its members, any more than it is by Mr Macmillan or the vocal section of the Australian people. “Mr Menzies’ innuendo that Australia’s immigration policy may in turn come up for condemnation is wide of the mark, and it was left to an Asian statesman to destroy the Australian Prime Minister’s parallel,” the newspaper said.