NATIONAL SONG

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22784, 7 January 1944, Page 2

NATIONAL SONG

Controversy In Australia

SYDNEY, December 22. Australian music authorities fear that the Minister for Information (Mr Arthur Calwell) is attempting to foist “Advance Australia Fair” on the public as the national song. At his request the song is being played at every film performance, as well as “God Save the King” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” Theatre audiences are not co-operating, however, and start to leave after the National Anthem has been played. The Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) said that the Federal Government did not recognise “Advance Australia Fair” as Australia’s official anthem. He said he did not know any anthem, except “God Save the King,” which had been adopted as Australia’s anthem. “Advance Australia Fair” has been the subject of controversy for many years, and objection to it has flared up more strongly since it has been sung and played at official functions and played over the air as a theme tune before news sessions, during the war. It has long been sung in the schools in New South Wales, but other States have their own songs, which, they claim, are superior. Critics say that Mr Calwell’s “request” is ill-timed as the Australian Broadcasting Commission is conducting a nation-wide contest for the best national song. More than 1000 entry forms have already been applied for and most of Australia’s best-known composers will submit entries.

One of the strongest critics of “Advance Australia Fair” is the Federal Leader of the Opposition <Mr R. G. Menzies), who describes it as “quite a revolting National Anthem.” “Presumably we should all stand up and be reverent while this bowdlerised version of ’God Bless the Prince of Wales’ is being played." he said. A former director of the Sydney Conservatorium <Dr. W. Arundel Orchard) said Mr Calwell’s attitude was bureaucratic. “What qualifications has he to select something which Australians as a body have not had a chance to approve?” he asked.