Out Of The Mouths
p. 137 · Read in the full issue
Of Babes, Etc.
Even the Australian kids are having a go now over “the New Guinea question”. In a Parliament of Youth session in Melbourne in July, in which representatives of 50 secondary schools participated, the pro position was; “Is New Guinea ready for self-government?”
Chong Guan Chock, a Malayan student attending Coburg High School, said it was “. . . like Malaya, Indonesia, India, Ghana and the Belgian Congo”. (Yes, he did say Congo; poor bloke obviously hasn’t been catching up on his home work lately.) A Trinity Grammar lad said no—and that all the pressure today for NG self-government was external. The natives them selves didn’t want it.
Backing him up, a 16-year-old said: “We should not be bullied out of our responsibilities by other Asian powers who want to move in themselves.”
Opinion on the subject was divided, but by and large, the youngsters weighed in with more sensible arguments than most of their elders who have been spouting out of the top of their hats on the same subject.