MALAYAN OUTBURST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26793, 9 June 1948, Page 5

MALAYAN OUTBURST

WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICY FEDERAL MINISTERS DEFEND RIGHTS Rec. 11 p.m. CANBERRA. June 8. The Malays were attempting to deny to Australia the ' right which they claimed for themselves of determining the constitution of their own people, said the Federal Attorney-general. Dr H. V. Evatt, to-day, commenting upon the outburst against the white Australia policy which had greeted the arrival in Malaya of’ a goodwill mission from the Commonwealth. Making the same point, the Prime Minister, Mr Chifley, disclaimed thal there was a white Australia policy as such. “ Every country in the world has the sovereign right of saying who shall or who shall not be admitted to its territories,” he added. “We do nol use the term ‘ white Australia.’ It is not in any Statute. It is something that has been invented.” It was learned authoritatively that in spite of Malayan agitation, there would be no change in the %aditional immigration policy of Australia.

The subject of Dr Evatt’s and Mr Chifley’s reply was a leading article in the newspaper, the Straits Times, which has the largest circulation in Malaya. The article said that the Minister of Immigration, Mr A. A. Calwell. had united Malayans by in turn offending Malaya's Chinese and Eurasians by the expulsion of some of their numbers. It 'was vital for Australia to understand these expulsions—minor incidents in themselves which touched the deepest and most vital thing in the Asian mind—racial pride The article described the policy as “ blundering, tactless, unreasonable, harsh and provocative.”