Alderman Incident of 1943

By R. W. Robson

IHAVE a lively recollection of an in cident of the winter of (I think) 1943, when half a dozen members of the executive of the Pacific Territories Association, after months of vain effort to secure some relief for “evacuees,” ob tained an interview with Mr. Alderman.

It was a cold, wet night; and the interview took place in the dreary Teachers Federation Hall, in Phillip Street, Sydney. The time fixed was 7.30 p.m. but there was no sign of Mr.

Alderman.

I had obtained permission from the executive to listen in to this discussion, on condition that I remained in the background. I had been writing savagely on the activities of this gentleman, and I was rather anxious to have a look at him.

While we were waiting I was observ ing the men from Papua and New Guinea —mostly evacuated planters, miners and businessmen, too old for war service. The strain of the events of the past two black years had taken its toll. They apparently had lost their tropical homes and every thing therein; they did not know what was before them; and they shivered in the chill of the unheated hall.

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AND then all bright and cheerful, Mr, Alderman and a companion bustled in He apologised for being late.

He had broken away from his dinner in the comfortable Hotel Australia in order to meet them “I gave up my icecream and my coffee in order to meet vou men ” he said I well ’remember how my gorge rose as I regarded his pink and well-fed appearance he did not look as if he had ever missed a dinner in his life—and contrasted it with the quiet misery of the men who had been awaiting his gracious coming.

They got to business. Mr. Alderman talked and talked. His main theme was

the generosity of the Australian Labour Government in conceding compensation at all, and the unreasonableness of the “evacuees” in insisting on such excessive values for their looted and battered property, when they were lucky to be getting anything at all The Association men had their facts lined up, but they had not a chance against this glib lawyer He dazzled them with argument, twisted their words against them.

I was supposed to stay quiet; but presently the discussion reached a point when I had either to speak, or burst.

So I challenged the gentleman on one of his more outrageous arguments against

the “evacuees.” He thought I was another “evacuee,” all ready to be danced on. and he replied with condescension and assurance.

So I let him have it, with both barrels.

I told him what decent men thought of his bosses, and his methods, and what I thought of his policy of paring down every claim to the bare bones, irrespective of is merits.

He got heated, and answered sharply; and as I had no favours to ask of him.

I was just as sharp.

Then I informed him that I had no standing there that I was merely an observer and I asked him not to hold my outburst against the Association, and departed.

Mr. Alderman, as I expected, did not appear to mend his procedure to the end, he treated those unhappy property owners as the prosecuting counsel treats the suspected delinquent in the dock.

The Canberra bureaucrats may have thought highly of Mr. Alderman, and maybe, in Adelaide, he is a good citizen and an esteemed father. But, somehow, I felt that all my choicest thoughts con cerning him were justified when, later, I heard about his bill for £6,450, and his charge of 20 guineas per day, plus 30/travelling expenses, for his precious ser vices in “operational and bombed areas.'