White Australia Policy Questioned By Opposition Press

Grey River Argus, 8 May 1948, Page 8

White Australia Policy Questioned By Opposition Press

SYDNEY, May 7. It was announced last night that no restrictions 'of any kind will be placed by the Australian Government upon the entry of Maoris into Australia. An anonymous writer in the Sydney “Morning Herald,” under the name “Granny,” is quoted as saying: “No wonder the Australian Minister of Immigration, Mr. Calwell, had to back-pedal on his Maori decision. He started more trouble than he wanted. The New Zealand Government has only four more members than the Opposition, and has that majority only because the four Maori constituencies all returned Labour men. Maoris bitterly resent any suggestion of a colour bar. There is no doubt that had Mr. Fraser failed to make Mr. C'alwell change his mind, the New Zealand Government might have been out on its ear. Mr. Calwell’s narrow, interpretation of the ‘White Australia* policy will have further repercussions when the South-west Pacific conference meets in Sydney next September.”

The Sydney “Daily Telegraph”, in an editorial, asserted: Mr. Calwell has produced a compromise which is illogical. By informing New Zealand i that the rights of the Maori will be respected and that Maoris can enter Australia with the same freedom enjoyed by other New Zealanders, he has admitted an exception and a compromise with the strict interpretation (of the. Australia” policy. There is no logical answer to pleas from Australian gii'ls married to Negroes, Indonesians and Malays, or Australian men married” to Chinese girls, or from any Polynesians in the Pacific who might ask for admission' on grounds that Australia has already extended hosoitality to their . racial brothers. If we justify discrimination against them by pointing out that Maoris are full citizens of a sister Dominion, what are we to say to full citizens of our sister Dominions, India and Pakistan ?”