To Polynesians

Australian Insult

NZ Takes Up Defence Of the Maoris

IN the Canberra Parliament, at the end of April, Mr. Gullett, Liberal, asked the Australian Government for some information on the way in which the White Australia Policy was being en forced.

He said that recently a Tongan woman mail led to an Englisnman was orde ed to leave Australia. An Australian woman married to a Maori soldier wanted to bring him to Australia from New Zea land, and he asked whether the Maori was a prohibited immigrant.

The Australian Minister for Immigra tion, Mr. Calwell, said the Maori would not be allowed to settle in Australia. The rule generally was the same for Tongans as for all other Polynesians, This was immediately cabled to New Zealand, and it brought a very angry and indignant comment from the NZ Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, who said that Maoris were equal in all respects with New Zealanders of European des cent. He added, “Any discrimination against our Maori fellow citizens will be indignantly and bitterly resented as an unforgivable insult to our country and to every one of us.”

The matter was again raised in the Australian Parliament on May 5. The same Minister (Calwell) said that the NZ High Commissioner in Aus tralia had taken up the matter with him; and a long explana tory letter had now been written by his Department for the Prime Minister of New Zealand. He did not indicate that the Australian attitude had been relaxed in any way.

It was later disclosed, however, that the Australian ban on Maoris has been completely removed.

The “Sydney Morning Herald,” on May 6, condemned Mr. Calwell’s attempt to apply his regulations to Maoris.

Editorial Note

What the newspaper properly says about Maoris necessarily applies to all Polynesians and near Polynesians— Maoris, Samoans, Tongans, Tahitians, Hawanans, Fijians, Gilbertese, Nauruans.

It is indeed unthinkable that these people, with whom we have lived in terms of friendship and mutual trust for 100 years, and with whom we are racially akin (there is a lot of Aryan in the Polynesian) should be debarred from the shores where, hitherto, they always have been welcome.

The fault does not lie with the White Australia Policy, which was designed and implemented to keep out of empty Aus tralia the countless millions of over crowded Asia. It lies entirely with the interpretation of that policy by the Minister (Mr. Calwell).

There are thousands of part-Polyne sians married to Europeans, and living ir ?,. Australia, as honoured and respected citizens. Australia’s doors always have been open to Islands natives, generally, and that hospitality has never been abused; and they will be open in the future, long after the Australian Socialist Government, with its quaint eruption of Wards and Calwells and what-not, has been wiped out and buried by the indig nant electorate.

It is to be hoped that the NZ Prime Minister will become the champion of the Polynesians in this matter. The Samoans and the Cook Islanders, who are the direct responsibility of NZ, are just as much entitled to consideration as are their cousins, the Maoris.