Political Colour
pp. 61-63 · Read in the full issue
and Rev. and Dr. Burton
THE row in Australia because the Australian Government allowed a delegation of five persons to go from Australia to the Communist sponsored “Peace- Conference” in Peking has a special as well as a general interest for Pacific Islanders.
The leader of the party, youthful Dr.
John Burton, is the son of the Rev.
J. W. Burton, who was a well-known missionary in Fiji for years, and later was even better known as General Secretary of the Methodist Mission ary Society. When he retired, he was appointed by the Australian Socialist Government to be Aus tralia’s Second Commissioner on the South Pacific Commission, and he held that position until 18 months ago.
The “Peace” delegates loudly denied that they were Communists or in sympathy with Communists; but
“Free People,” a Sydney monthly
journal, published a lot of details to show how they were connected with Communists. This is what it said about the Burtons, father and son: In “The Red Leader” (4 Oct., 1933), official organ of the Red In ternational of Labour Unions, the name of the Rev. J. W. Burton (ex- Chairman of the Methodist Confer ence) appears among the list of prominent delegates at the National Anti-War Congress, organised by the Communists through an auxil iary known as the League Against Imperialism. In 1938, the Commu nist Auxiliary, the Friends of the Soviet Union, organised a National Congress of Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union, in the Rail way Institute, Sydney. Among the speakers were two clergymen who spoke in high praise of the Soviet Union. One was the Rev. E. E. V.
Collocott, who is at present behind the Iron Curtain; and the Rev. J.
W. Burton, who is the father of Dr. John Burton, delegate to the Peking Conference.
Dr. John Burton’s pedigree cer tainly suggests that he is bred for the role he is now playing. At a very early age Dr. Evatt appointed him his private secretary. Later he elevated him over the heads of older and more experienced members of the diplomatic staff, to the position of head of the External Affairs Department. Massey Stanley in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” (29/3/51) referred to Dr. John Burton as “the brash intellectual who cruelled his pitch as an ecclesiastical student when he insulted a congregation
(which had had many relations at the First World War) with a bellig erent pacifist sermon.” Dr. Bur ton was, and still may be. Presi dent of the Fabian Society in Can berra. Still a very young man, he became a pastoralist when he bought a property near Canberra at a cost of £16,000.
At the beginning of 1951 he was appointed Australian High Commis sioner in Ceylon. Shortly after, he deserted his post in a most irre sponsible fashion and flew to Aus tralia in order to contest the Federal seat of Lowe. It is generally con sidered that he returned from Cey lon in response to an urgent call from a very important personage.
This same powerful force influenced his endorsement as candidate for Lowe by the Australian Labour Party. Some of his more recent
artivities have been reported in ‘‘Tribune,” official organ of the Com munist party. A report in that paper (Bth Oct., 1951) informs us that Dr.
John Burton and his co-delegate the Rev. Mr. Van Eerde, in com pany with prominent Communists, spoke at the “Don t Re-arm Japan” meeting held in the Sydney Town Hall in July, 1951.