“Firm Line” By Australia

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30971, 29 January 1966, Page 1

“Firm Line” By Australia

fN.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, Jan. 28. Australia will take a firm line when negotiations begin in Canberra next week on the second phase of Britain’s campaign for a redistribution of defence responsibilities east of Suez.

Australian Ministers will argue that defence is only one of three factors essential to the nation’s security.

The other two factors interlocked with defence are de-

velopment of the country’s natural resources and a steadily increasing immigration programme. This argument is based on the thesis that Australia cannot be a strong nation without more population, and that migrants cannot be attracted here unless conditions are better for them than in their homelands. Ministers will argue that for a nation of this size any foreseeable increase in its contribution to Asian defence could be no more than a fraction of that provided by Britain and the United States. Thus, to make a meaningful contribution Australia would have to put such an effort into defence that its national development and immigration programmes would wither away. The talks will be the first test for the new Ministry, which will be less than a week old when they begin. Government sources in Canberra do not expect any firm decision to emerge from the meetings. They regard the talks as basically an interchange of ideas to set the pattern for further consideration later.