Filial British-Australian Links Believed Cut

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31540, 30 November 1967, Page 8

Filial British-Australian Links Believed Cut

(From

DAVID BARBER,

special

correspondent N.Z.P A.)

SYDNEY, Nov. 28. If there remained any tattered threads in the filial apron strings linking Australia with Britain, the devaluation o f sterling while a 21-year-old Australian was in custody for wearing out his welcome in the Mother Country completely slashed them.

Devaluation knocking more than $9O million off Australia’s sterling reserves at a mere 24 hours notice —and the threatened deportation of John Lockhard Brownlie made up the last straw. There is no doubt here that they marked the final, irrevocable end of any remaining special relationship between Britain and Australia. And while there is some anger and bitterness about the manner of the parting, few Australians really seem to care. Most of . them are indifferent. There is little sympathy for Britain's plight, and, saddest of all, even less respect for the former hub of the Empire. “It is not our fault, but the fault of bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and general trendsetters in London that the British are in their present economic plight, and their

fate, though regrettable, is no special business of ours. “It is their business, not ours, if they want to go on mooning about the past, trooping their colours, pretending they have a Commonwealth, maintaining shabby pseudoaristocratic values, perpetuating snobberies and heirarchies, acting as if history ended with Dunkirk, or alternately luxuriating in those daydreams of pseudo-change that go under the name of “swinging Britain.” Those two paragraphs, although far from being typical of what little comment there has been on “the end of the affair," are significant if only for the fact that they appeared not in some “way-out” journal, but in the highly-respected weekly, the “Bulletin.” They are indicative of the bitterness, indifference, lack of sympathy and respect for “the Brits” that exists in Australia today, even, one suspects, up to Government level. Devaluation and the Brownlie case came towards the end of an eventful year in which old ties were shrinking at a furious rate.

Britain announced its east-of-Suez withdrawal after nearly two years of firm assurances in public and at diplomatic level that it would retain a military presence in the area. Australians came to believe that Britain would disregard her problems, in her bid to get into the Common Markpf There is still no sign of “temporary” restrictions on the investment of British capital in Australia being lifted. Japan replaced Britain as Australia’s best customer, and Britain steadfastly refused to consider new trading agreements with Australia. The Australian Government felt it was deceived and betrayed over Britain’s east-of-Suez plans, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John McEwan, said publicly: “It is clear that the British Government in its anxiety to ease the way for entry to the E.E.C. intends to interpret essential Commonwealth interests very narrowly indeed.” Sir Alan Westerman, secretary of the Department of Trade, returned from fruitless talks in London and said: “The door is being shut on almost all hopes of future expansion of trade between Britain and Australia.” Now, the Government is said to have been angry that categorical assurances that sterling would be maintained —which led it to retain 60 per cent of its foreign reserves in London—prove worthless There are more doubts, and the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt, is now showing signs that he will not take British words at face value. The British Defence Secretary, Mr Denis Healey, has ruled out any speed-up of troop withdrawals from Asia before the mid-19705. But Mr Holt said last week: “I think it would be optimistic to believe they would be there as long as that”

Defence and external affairs officials are said to doubt whether they will get much help from Britain in the defence of Malaysia and Singa-

pore. Many doubt Britain’s promise that it will continue to meet all its obligations under the South-East Asian Treaty Organisation. Young Australians, who, like New Zealanders, aim at a trip to Britain before they settle down, have been particularly needled by the Brownlie case.

A 20-year-old girl teacher told me: “We allow Poms to come here for a two-year working holiday for £lO. We

pay the full fare and they kick out out after six months. It makes you sick.” The "Bulletin’s” “Observer” had the last word: “Perhaps we should be pleased every time an Australian is gaoled in Britain for overstaying his welcome. Such treatment might force our young people into countries where they can learn something about humanity rather than try to pick up the rules of a game that is lost.”