Mr. W. M. Hughes Makes Caustic Comment

Northern Advocate, 21 July 1938, Page 7

Mr. W. M. Hughes Makes Caustic Comment

(Received 8.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 20. The Federal Minister of External Af fairs, Mr W. M. Hughes, commenting on Lord Somers’ statement, declared that it would be unwise . to admit natives to assist the whites in Northern Australia. Mr Hughes added that it would be difficult to maintain the present Australian standard of living, and would hardly be compatible with the Australian ideal of a virile white race. “There has been a lot of this sort of talk lately,” said Mr Hughes. The first suggestion was that Australia should give away its mandate over New Guinea. Then came a suggestion that Northern Australia should be handed over to the Japanese. “Now comes this further suggestion from a man from whom Australia might have expected something better, that natives should be admitted to assist the whites in the North, This W’ould inevitably lead tb the position in which America has found herself.” The Assistant Minister of the Interior, Mr V. C. Thompson, said there was no evidence to support Lord Somers’ contention that Northern Australia was not suitable for white settlement without coloured labour. He empha sised that the Federal Government’s policy against the admission of coloured labour to assist the primary industries was settled 30 years ago, and there was no intention of changing it in order to admit races of no value racially or economically.