New Guinea?

Will Deported Enemy Aliens Return To

Commonwealth Government Has Not Yet Made Up Its Mind

NINE months after the surrender of Germany to the Allies the “PIM” wrote to Security Services in Sydney, asking; TD what was the policy of the Australian Government with regard to interned enemy nationals; (2) how many New Guinea German residents had been interned: (3) were they being released from internment camp; (4) would they be permitted to return to the Territory of New Guinea, remain in Australia or be repatriated to Germany; or would each case be considered on its merits?

Many German residents of New Guinea, missionary and layman, are or have been interned at Tatura internment camp, Victoria, during the war. Their fate is naturally of interest to “PIM” readers.

The officer in charge, Sydney office of Security Services, replied that he was un able to make a statement and that he had referred the matter to Canberra.

In due course we received the follow

ing letter from the Commonwealth Inves

tigation Branch, Canberra; —

Dear Sirs, — I refer to your letter of February 5, addressed to the Officer-in-Charge, Security Service, Sydney, asking for particulars of persons who have been interned from New Guinea for pub lication in the “Pacific Islands Monthly.”

It is not the practice to furnish information of this nature except for official purposes, and accordingly this Service is unable to accede to your request.

Yours faithfully,

W. Mcgregor,

(For Longfield Lloyd, Director-General).

So speaks Australian bureaucracy!

WE hold no brief for those New Guinea Germans with Nazi sympathies— and the fact that they were in terned by the Australian authorities should be sufficient proof that they were dangerous to the Allied cause.

New Guinea residents are agreed that generally the authorities were right in taking the action which they did, and that in many cases this. action was be lated. A few rabid Nazis were sent to Australia from New Guinea in the first months of World War 11, but the majority of the members of the German community were permitted to remain in the Territory.

This was satisfactory enough until the Nazis over-ran France, Belgium, Holland and began their blitz on London.

Then many of those New Guinea Ger mans were misguided enough to abuse British leniency by exulting in public and displaying Nazi emblems. Protests were heard from all sections of the New Guinea public, and particularly from the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League. Finally, most of New Guinea’s German nationals were sent to Australia for internment.

But the enemy is now vanquished; the internees obviously cannot remain in Tatura for ever; and the general public, including Territorians, should be per mitted to know what is to become of them.

The only conclusion to be drawn from the letter sent us from Canberra, is that the Australian Government has, in this, as many other things, no policy at all.

However, concurrently with our inquiry in Sydney, a “civilian internee inquiry” began at Tatura camp; proceedings were occasionally reported in the Melbourne newspapers, but were almost entirely ig nored by the Sydney press.

With this clue we tried again, having in the meantime found out the name of one of the officials in Security Services in Sydney.

This official admitted that there had been an inquiry at Tatura; that the press had been admitted; that the Minister had made a statement to that effect when the inquirv began. But, no—he could not say what the inquiry was for, or when it began, or when the Minister’s statement was issued to the press. In fact, as an officer of a Government Department, he was not permitted to make any statements at all. The Minister did all that.

(Continued on page 53)

“Well, who is your Minister?’’ we asked.

He had a sufficiently large sense of humour to chuckle. “Mr. Calwell,’’ he said.

We saw it all, then!

FOR the uninitiated, Mr. Calwell is the Minister for Information and Immi gration. Since the Australian news papers defied his political censorship back in 1944, he has run a one-man war against what he calls “the capitalistic press.”

Mr Calwell also issues passports. He personally scrutinises every application to leave Australia, and has absolute power to grant or refuse passports and permits—an authority he exercises to the full. His particular delight is refusing to allow Australian women to leave the country to take up important work over seas. He says tney are all needed in Australia to work in the canneries and the textile mills.

For this he has frequently been attacked by the daily newspapers and, in retaliation, some months ago, he and his various Departmental officers went into seclusion. The officers are not permitted to give press interviews; and he will not.

Consequently, Mr. Calwell goes his way ward wav and gives no explanation of his actions to the public whom he has sworn to serve. , , , . , The fact that he was somewhere behind the scenes in Security Services was news to us; but it explained much, if not all.

And at this stage the Sydney official broke down sufficiently to explain the] Mr. Justice Simpson had been appomred by the Commonwealth Government to hear the depositions of aliens still in

terned at Tatura and their reasons, if any why thev should be permitted to return to the work they were engaged in at the time of their internment, as an alternative to deportation to Germany.

Mr. Justice Simpson made a report of his findings and this will be submitted to the Commonwealth Government. Pre sumably an internee policy will be based on this.

AS this broadly answers our most im portant querv it might be asked why it was necessary to indulge in official hush-hush, humbug and buck-passing.

It does, however, serve as an example of bureaucracy in full blast. Instead of one man answering a simple and legiti mate question in two sentences, we have the spectacle of half a dozen public ser vants hiding coyly behind the skirts of the Minister; and the Minister retiring behind a thick wall of political preroga tive, or something he imagines is preroga tive.

And, although we know that some ex residents have released from Tatura. we still do not know how many, or what is to become of them. As the Naxi sym pathisers are still in Tatura, presumably those who are out have been given com plete freedom. Will they now be per mitted to return to the Territory?

It was alleged by some members of the Pacific Territories Association last year that Germans who had been brought down from New Guinea under guard in 1940 were permitted to return in 1945.

A concise, comprehensive statement on the whole enemv alien position, as it applies to New Guinea, is overdue.