Mr Calwell and the Press

Grey River Argus, 18 October 1948, Page 7

Mr Calwell and the Press

MELBOURNE, October 14. In reply to an attack made on it by the Minister of Immigration (Mr A. A. Calwell) in the House of Representatives yesterday, the Melbourne Herald says: “Mr Calwell's suggestion that no publicity would have been given to the Australian girls in the United States but for the action of this paper in cracking a cable or stealing a telegram, is typical of the Minister’s wild and irresponsible conduct. “As far back as September 16, weeks before the pi-esent incidents occurred, the Herald published a long dispatch from Washington. This said that Australian girls who had gone there from Manila were claiming that indirect pressure was being applied by the Commonwealth to force them to' return to Australia. The dispatch also said that the girls believed that Mr Calwell had requested the United States Department then to provide them with free passages to Australia. The Herald is able to obtain its news by legitimate means, in spite of the barriers which Mr Calwell seeks to raise”.