AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Grey River Argus, 7 March 1946, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

SYDNEY, Feb. 2

Following discussions which have reached the highest plane possible in Australia, the waterside workers still dominate the situation in their venture into the realm of international politics.

An agreement has been concluded between the Federal AttorneyGeneral (Dr. H. V. Evatt) and the Dutch Minister to Australia (Baron van Aarsen) that the stores carried by a Dutch ship to the Netherlands East Indies shall be distributed under British control.

The vessel, which is one of those immobilised in Australian ports since the waterside workers refused to load them, will now be permitted by the watersiders to leave for Java with relief supplies. Distribution will be closely watched, and after the distribution of the cargo, a report will go forward to the unions and the Australian Council of Trades Unions. If the report is favourable, four other ships with similar cargoes will be manned.

Spokesman of the unions have made it very plain that they favour Dr. Soekarno’s Government and that they have nothing but distrust and suspicion for the Dutch, who were their country’s allies. Last September, with over 40,000 tons of' vital supplies waiting to reach the starving population of the East Indies, the Australian waterside workers refused to load the ships. Among the allegations that were then made' was the statement that the cargoes contained arms and ammunition for the Dutch troops then endeavouring to hold the rebels in check and thus save the atrocities attendant on mob rule. The main objection of these men was that any equipment might be used by the Dutch in the suppression of the Indonesian revolt.

If this action clashed with the international policy of the Australian Government, surely now was the time for the Commonwealth to step in. Australia waited for decisive action on the part of the Federal Government.

That was nearly five months ago and Australia is still waiting. Dr. Evatt’s recent action was apparently no more than to put before Baron van Aarsen the conditions in which the watersiders would be pleased to work the ship. While the watersiders’ most recent dictum was being made known, the liner Tjibadak was berthing at Sydney with a pitiful cargo of women and children evacuees from Indonesian prison camps. Hot food had to be rushed to the wharf in lorries. Many passengers were unable to walk because of beriberi and other deficiency diseases. Australian food in Java might at least have provided these people with palatable meals during the three weeks’ voyage. But they are not Indonesians. They are merely members of a race which did what it could for Australia and its allies when the Yellow tide flowed southward.

Following their success in dealing with the Dutch problem in the East Indies, it will be interesting to follow the course of the next international intrusion of Australia’s watersiders.