Canberra

Commentary

rom our Canberra Correspondent.

The Wearing of the Green”

ndonesian Army jungle

>n —by Australia’s Defence

lister, Mr. Townley, was

dy the classic political boob

the year.

the purpose of Mr. Townley’s dsit to Indonesia in June —reing one made to Australia last by his opposite number, the mesian Minister for National irity. General A. H. Nasution— to improve relations with Indo a, Mr. Townley’s trousers possibly that effect. ut the Minister’s action certainly dated the Dutch, who were al ly incensed at the timing of the On two separate occasions 'he Hague the Netherlands Gov nent lodged high-level protests nst the visit, nd when news that Mr. Townley appeared in Indonesian Army form” reached Australia there a bitter comment from the ch Embassy. his pointed out that Mr. Town ; action had occurred at the very ; when Indonesia was committing ;d aggression against NNG. lr. Townley himself dismissed report of a “uniform” as “arrant sense,” and claimed that to save clothing from jungle mud and an Indonesian Army tailor had him up a pair of trousers and aim Beach shirt.

However, pictures which reached tralia later showed that the “Palm ch” shirt was adorned not only i Mr. Townley’s honourably led war service ribbons, but also i Indonesian Air Force “wings” a tiger’s head colour patch on sleeve. i conjunction with jungle-green isers and army boots, it was in- J a colourable imitation of a ; orm in any man’s language, he photographs showed Mr. /nley hatless. Perhaps Mr. mley thought that lack of head r enabled him to escape the strict nition of “uniform.” lut surely it was a little unusual a Minister for Defence, with a kground as an RANK commander, venture on to a military establish it uncovered?

Publication of the photographs brought another indiscretion from Mr. Townley. He changed his ground, and despite his earlier state ment that the clothing had been made by an Indonesian Army tailor, he later claimed that it was the work of a civilian tailor.

The tailor had put the tiger’s head badge on the sleeve, he said, and he “could not cut it off.”

And, after the photographs were published, Mr. Townley described the garment as a “bush shirt,” instead of as a “Palm Beach shirt.”

There is a world of difference in the image conjured up by the two descriptions. ☆ ☆ ☆ If Mr. Townley’s visit and “uni form” stuck in Dutch gullets, an announcement by the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra a few days later did nothing to ease the pain.

The Embassy announced that a Papuan from NNG, Mr. Moses Werror, would join its staff in July as an attache.

Mr. Werror left his home in Semi (Japen Island) in 1955 for Djakarta, and became one of the first two Papuans in the Indonesian Foreign Service. The other is Miss Merry Hellena Papare, recently appointed to a junior diplomatic post at the Indonesian Embassy in Brussels.

Australia is not a country in which the birthplace of a minor diplomat is a matter of consequence.

But it is no criticism of Mr. Werror personally to suggest that his posting might have been made at some other time, without the background noises of Indonesian paratroopers dropping into his homeland. ☆ ☆ ☆ West New Guinea seemed to embarrass the Government at every turn last month.

A report from The Hague said that two villages, Waris and Jafi, previ ously thought to be in NNG, had been found on a re-survey of the boundary to be in Australian Trust Territory.

This was confirmed by the Secre tary of the Territories Department, Mr. C. R. Lambert, after consulta tion with the Administrator, Brigadier Sir Donald Cleland.

These reports brought angry howls from Indonesian newspapers, which protested against 3,000 “souls” being handed over by the Dutch to the Australians without any consultation with the villagers themselves or—

and perhaps more to the point of the protest—with the Indonesians.

Mr. Lambert found himself invited to a conference with senior officials of the External Affairs Department.

The conference was one of those “hush, hush” inter-departmental affairs, but apparently the External Affairs Department was upset by the Indonesian criticisms.

A few hours later it volunteered an unsolicited and anonymous state ment which denied that there had been any “agreement” with the Dutch for the handing over of the two villages.

The statement said that when the re-survey of the ground boundary was complete, it might be found that one or two villages close to it were not in the territory in which they had previously been assumed to be.

It was all very vague, and seemed to be aimed mainly at assuring the Indonesians that there was nothing yet cut and dried on the handover of the villages to Australian administration.

But it seems certain that although the two villages—which are shown on Dutch maps as lying about 50 miles south and slightly to the east of Hollandia—are really on the Aus tralian side of the border, the Ex ternal Affairs Department does not want the fact admitted at this stage.