Duke Criticised By Newspaper

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31680, 16 May 1968, Page 13

Duke Criticised By Newspaper

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MELBOURNE, May 15. The Melbourne “Herald” said in an editorial today: “Some one back home, preferably the Queen should tell the Prince (Philip) it is time he grew up.

“Certainly all Australians will,” the newspapers said. The editorial said: "Prince Philip dropped an outstanding Royal clanger yesterday. “His comments about Australia to his Third Commonwealth study Conference showed neither the discretion that his position requires nor the regard for accuracy that might be expected from the man who claims to be fathering a movement for research into modern human problems. “Some of his comments were offensive to Australians. Some of his statements were plainly wrong. “The Chief Justice of Australia, Sir Garfield Barwick, had given the conference a broad outline of what he saw as the chief characteristics of our nation.

“One of his points was that in this country ‘we have no sharp divisions based on religion.’ “But Prince Phillip, It seems, knows more than the Chief Justice about Australia,” the editorial said. “He told 300 delegates from 24 countries that Sir Garfield must have been carried away by national pride, and the Prince then provided his own notions of our attitudes. “These included a ridiculous assertion that of Australia’s ‘two main political parties one is predominanly Roman Catholic and the other is predominantly Protestant.’ “In other words we practise democracy through the narrow eyes of sectarianism. “Fifty years ago such a comment would have been one of the moth-eaten exaggerations of a waning religious bitterness. Responsible Australians and discerning visitors would have had no use for it then.

“Today nobody has any use for it.”