AUSTRALIA’S GOOD NAME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26177, 13 June 1946, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S GOOD NAME

BESMIRCHED BY INCIDENT (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 12. The inaction by the Labour Government on the Piet Hein incident had besmirched Australia’s reputation and had imperilled the relations between Australia and Holland, declared Mr A. W Fadden, the Federal leader of the Country Party, to-day. He alleged that, instead of coming out into the open against Communist-controlled unions, the Minister for the Navy, Mr N. J. Makin. had run for cover, and the Prime Minister, Mr J. B. Chifley, had taken refuge in silence. Not one member of the Cabinet had had the courage to risk incurring the displeasure of “ the Australian adherents to the hammer and sickle ” to save the country’s good name. "We have the disgraceful spectacle of Dutch schoolboys helping to load the Tasman—a mercy ship carrying Dutch women and children evacuated from Japanese prison camps—and of women volunteering to work while hefty Australian waterside workers loaf around. Until Mr Chifley and Mr Makin take positive action they are aiding and abetting the Communist disruptives who prearrange maritime hold-ups,” said Mr Fadden.