U.S. Radio Base In Australia

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30094, 30 March 1963, Page 10

U.S. Radio Base In Australia

Plans for building a United States Navy radio station at North-west Cape, in Western Australia, have become a major issue of Australian politics, and one that has added seriously to the domestic problems of the Australian Labour Party. On March 6 the Minister of Defence (Mr Townley) announced agreement on the building of the £4O million base, scheduled to be begun about June and to be completed in 1966. Members of the A.L.P. were immediately critical, and the Deputy-Leader of the Federal Opposition (Mr Whitlam) accused the Government of lack of frankness about the purposes for which the station would be used. But the worst effect of the controversy was upon the A.LP. itself, within which frictions were again gravely apparent The party’s difficulties resulted partly from confusion about a resolution, carried at a Federal executive meeting in October last year, which stated that “the A.LP. is “opposed to any base being “ built in Australia that “ could be used for the “ manufacture, firing, or “control of any nuclear “ missile or vehicle capable “of carrying nuclear missiles” The Leader of the Federal Oppositioh (Mr Cal well) hastily announced that at a recent meeting of the executive this resolution had been disapproved as party policy Subsequently, in spite of the diversions of the Royal tour, Mr Calwell conferred repeatedly with other A.LP. i leaden in an attempt to reconcile views on the radio station with the party's formerly unequivocal endorsement of Australian alliance with the United States.

Meanwhile, rumour succeeded rumour about the scope of American defence operations. The Minister of Defence, with American concurrence, denied that nuclear weapons would be introduced into Australia to defend the station. However, it was generally conceded that the station would provide links with United States submarines carrying Polaris missiles in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. On March 14 the 12-member Federal executive of the ALP. reviewed the party’s defence platform, with special reference to the American base. The executive had before it majority and minority reports. the former unhesitatingly approving the establishment of the base

subject to the protection of Australian sovereignty. Both reports were sent fori ward without recommendai tion to a special Federal i conference of the AL.P. in i Canberra on March 18. ■ After a protracted debate, in which Mr Calwell repeated his plea for endorsement of co-operation with the Americans, the special conference early on March 21 decided by 19 votes to 17 upon the party’s attitude to the base. Its statement—described by Sir Robert Menzies as “this miserable " compromise ” listed six conditions on which the base would be approved by the party. These included elaborate safeguards of Australian sovereignty and stipulations against bringing nuclear weapons into Australia. Should the United States become involved in war (the statement said) the Americans could not use the base except with the express concurrence of the Australian Government then in power. To achieve some sort of agreement, the conference apparently was forced to such extraordinary lengths that its pronouncement—in Sir Robert Menzies’s words—consisted of “the most dangerous ambi- “ guities ”. Because of dissatisfaction with Australian defence preparedness, especially after Indonesia’s bloodless victory in West New Guinea, the A.LP. was presented with an opportunity of capitalising upon an electoral disadvantage of the Menzies Government. That opportunity seems to have been tossed away. Tenderness for the theory that the southern hemisphere should be kept free of nuclear armaments, dislike of American alliances, and continuing bitternesses within its ranks have caused the AJLP. to jeopardise its recovery as a political force, and to awaken misgivings among many Australians over its capacity to think

constructively about the real threats against which Australia requires to be protected. Much as the average Australian may want to resist incursions upon the independence of his country. he equally desires the national security that in modern circumstances can be provided effectively only within a comprehensive

Western security system, beaded by the United States. By suggesting that American strategic designs might be frustrated from within Australia, the A.LP. may have served the Common wealth, very badly.