CHIFLEY DEFENDS AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN POLICY

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1947, Page 7

CHIFLEY DEFENDS AUSTRALIA’S FOREIGN POLICY

(Recd. 12.50 p.m.) CANBERRA, This Day. “I have a suspicion that the name that the Minister of External Affairs, Dr Evatt, has made for himself in the councils of the world has caused a great deal of jealousy,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Chifley, in the House of Representatives, replying to the attacks which some members of the Opposition had made on Australia’s policy during the debate on foreign affairs.

“Members,” he said, “are entitled to disagree with conclusions arrived at by Dr Evatt, but I believe that not many would be prepared to say that Australia’s representation on the councils of the world is not the ablest At least, that is not the opinion of the world.” He said that Opposition speakers had accused Britain and America of appeasing Russia. It was a fact, however, that the greatest territorial concessions made to Russia by the Conservative war leaders, Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt. He described the sepeches by. Mr Menzies, Mr Spender and Mr Abbott as being calculated tp provoke war. ■ Attitude To Russia “The attitude of Russia—her reluctance to co-operate, her unreasonable exercise of the veto, the antagonistic spirit she shows to the nations with whom she fought—-these are inexcusable,” eh said. “I do not propose' to excuse the behaviour of Mr Molotov

and Mr Vyshinsky. But it is the duty of every public man to play his part in trying to bring understanding between the nations.’’ He pledged that the Government would do all in its power to avert another war. The future peace of the world depended on complete co-op-eration between the British Commonwealth and the United States. The Australian Government had never attempted to take sides in the Indonesian dispute and he believed that -80 per cent of Australians approved the Government’s request for intervention. Mr Lang’s Attack Mr J. L. Lang charged that Australia’s foreign policy of “meddling and muddling” had lost her friends all over the world, that the United Nations was a hotbed of power diplomacy and a costly futility and that Australian should base her future policy solely on her own security.