‘INSATIABLE LUST FOR LIMELIGHT’: CALWELL ATTACKED

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1949, Page 7

‘INSATIABLE LUST FOR LIMELIGHT’: CALWELL ATTACKED

CANBERRA, May 19.—An adjournment motion was moved in the Federal House of Representatives today by Mr J. T. Lang, leader of the Lang Labour Party. The motion said: “That this House request the gov-ernor-General to convey to the President of the Philippines firm assurances of our friendship and goodwill, and an affirmation that Australia’s immigration policy in relation to nationals of that country is based solely on economic considerations, and not on any policy of racial discrimination.” Mr Lang said the case of Sergeant L. Gamboa, a Filipino who came to Australia during the war and married an Australian girl, revealed no plot to undermine the White Australia policy. Parliament could not afford to ignore the very serious position which had arisen in relations with the Philippines. Because of the “strange, insatiable lust for the limelight” shown by the Minister of Immigration (Mi* A. A. Calwell), countries which had never questioned Australia’s right to apply the Immigration Act had become Australia’s enemies. In reply, Mr Calwell described Mr Lang’s motion as “a clumsy piece of hypocrisy, unrelieved by any genuine interest in the welfare of the Philippines race.” Mr Calwell added that, true to his Ministerial oath, he was upholding the immigration policy of Australia. Mr Lang’s adjournment motion lapsed when the time allowed for its discussion expired ’without the motion being put to the House. • A conference of the New South Wales Country Party today carried unanimously a motion supporting the maintenance of the White Australia policy on economic grounds. The motion added that Australia’s relations with neighbouring Asiatic peoples should, be based on friendship and cooperation, and that Australia should refrain from any action calculated to disturb harmonious relations. Another motion carried by the conference laid, down that Australia’s foreign policy should be decided by the Commonwealth Parliament, ana not by any single Minister or his subordinates.