Evening star., 1950-01-22
The Upset Down Under
Australians Reported Hoping
Britain Will Gust Loborites

in the boat or they're going to be
padding all by themselves.
How long do you think this en-
pire's going to hang together with
nothing but a vacuum at the CEN
ter?"
Any Britisher who dismissed
this as mere barroom talk would
miss a chance to learn the real
temper of the Australian and New
Zealand people.
For the Australian and New
Zealand pubs are the nations
clubs and debating forums, where
opinions are shaped and spread.
Vote May Decide Future.
Many of the people in these
commonwealth nations of the
South Pacific believe the British
vote on February % will decide
the future of the British Empire.
1t is a striking experience to fly
from London to this farthest cor
ner of the empire. In London the
average man seems but dimly
aware of the empire-now palely
dubbed Commonwealth - which
supports his activities.
1t exists as a somewhat vague
hlnterland, source of raw ma
terials and markets populated by
distant cousins who, no doubt, still
call England home.
But here, four and a half days
from London by plane, one hears
the magic word empire" spoken
again in a tone that has real
meaning.
Here, 10000 miles from White
nall, the idea or rebuilding the
empire is both realistic and ur-
gent-almost desperate.
No study of maps can give quite
the same feeling as standing on
the ground, seeing the sun in the
north and knowing that England
and the United States are half
way around the globe.
For Australians and New Zea-
landers looking north know all too
we'll that they are the end of the
line.
And what lies between them
and the two great English-speak-
ing powers?
Just to the north is the new
federated republic of Indonesia, a
seething group of oVercroWded is
lands, populated by 70 millions of
brown people infamed by a new
nationalism and faced with eco
nomic problems that could bring
a sudden upsurge of Communist
sympathies.
Just above that is the Malayan
peninsula, where British troops
fight the hit-run Communist
bandits"
Beyond that are Burma, Siam
and French Indo- China, all torn
by internal conflicts and Com
munist rebellions. .
Just beyond, held back for the
moment by dixie that is nothing
but a line on the map, is the
mass of Red China.
Australians remember we'll how
swiftly the Japanese drove down
the Malay peninsula, through the
Islands of Indonesia and New
Guinea, to threaten landings on
the shore of white Australia
whose very name is a challenge
to the people of Asia and the
Islands.
What is to keep Communism
rom doing the same?
Australians and New zealanders
find two obvious answers: the
British Commonwealth or the
United States, either or both sup
plemented by what self-help the /
Australians and New Zealanders
can themselves provide.
Common sense tells Australians
that the United States already is
'houldering a disproportionate |
share of responsibility for the .
worlds peace in Europe.
1t is obvious that America sim /
gle handed cannot guarantee |
oeace in both the Atlantic and the
Pacific. If the facts are not plain /
by themselves, they have I
been brought home to every Aus
'ralian by the fortnight an
1ouncement of Secretary of State
Acheson that the American de-
tense line ends at the Philippines
Is 1t Weak Staff?
So the British Commonwealth
must carry the hopes. 1t is the
logical answer for Australia and
New Zealand, already bound to
the commonwealth by every tie
of blood and commerce.
But how strong a staff is the
commonwealth, or empire, in the
face OF the desperate prospect of
'enclrclement" by Asiatic Com
prospect that here
seems all too real, and even i'm /
ninent?
Australians and New Zealand
ers today find that they must ask
themselves this question with cold
realism. And the answers they
Ind hold little comfort.
They are beginning to think.
many OF them, that in these post
war years Britain has not been
pulling its weight in the boat:
That Commonwealth relations
have become one-way street.
They have grown increasingly
by continued demands
on their own economy for the
support of that of the common
wealth.
They are well aware that with