"DISGRACEFUL BUSINESS"

Evening Star, Issue 25634, 7 November 1945, Page 5

"DISGRACEFUL BUSINESS"

THE ESPERANCE BAY EPISODE GOVERNMENT SEVERELY TAKEN TO TASK (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent.) j SYDNITf, November 6. The Federal Government is being sternly taken to task by the Opposition leaders and newspapers for its part in the Esperance Bay episode. The leader of the Country Party, Mr A. W. Fadden, has demanded an immediate investigation into the allegations that 1,400 Indonesians repatriated from Australia in the Esperanco Bay were allowed! to carry away arms and take control of the ship, The papers are demanding that the Government should clarify: (1) Whether the report that the Indonesians on board the liner were armed is true; (2) how they got arms; and (3). what kind of precautions were taken to prevent them carrying arms from this country. " Canberra's responsibility for the whole disgraceful busines is incontestable," says the Sydney Morning, Herald ' in an editorial, adding that if the striking Indonesian seamen did not commit piracy against the ship en route to Batavia it was no, fault or the Ministers in Canberra. " The story of the Esperance Bay's voyage can hardly fail to lower Australian prestige among the coloured races everywhere beyond our northern waters.

"It is now iplain," adds the ' Herald,' " that the captain of the Esperance Bay, fearing trouble before he. left Australian waters, demanded! and later received an escorting warship. In spite of this he was either ordered or felt obliged to abandon his original instructions to land certain natives at ports of call, and proceeded direct to a safe Allied) port at Batavia. Mr Makin admits that the' Indonesians were not searched for arms, nor was an armed guard put on the ship, ' because any action might have provoked the Indonesians into a refusal to sail.' Australian wharf labourers in an earlier furtherance of pro-Indonesian sentiments had held up the Dutch and other shipping for three weeks, refusing to allow any arms or troops or even food to be carried' in her to Batavia. The Prime Minister in Canberra consented to this dictation of the Government policy. His Cabinet did not mind provoking the Dutch Government, but it would not dare to provoke Indonesian law-hreakers by. examining their luggage for arms. "Mr Chifley's long tolerance of union lawlessness has landed him in a humiliating dilemma," adds the ' Herald.' " Under Trades Hall pressure his. Government has intervened gratuitously in an insurgent movement which is not an affair of Australia's. As an attempt to run in foreign politics while we /are still learning to walkf the episode is lamentable. It is little calculated to make either the Dutch or the Indonesians henceforth trust us. The revelation that Australian troops placed on an Australian ship were unequal to coping with the defiance of a mob of native passengers being repatriated as undesirable immigrants can hardly fail to provoke derision everywhere from Timor to Suez."