I hope that my Departmental Despatch No.27 will be the last, for
some months at least, which you will have from me on the subject
of the fourteen Malay seamen. The issue seems to be settled so far
as local opinion is concerned and, until the arrival of the men
here [1] and the possible development of a new controversy
regarding the reaction of their wives and children to Malay life,
I really think we have heard the last of it. Only press reports
from Australia are keeping it sufficiently alive to cause us a
lingering embarrassment here. I have forwarded a selection of
these to the Department without comment. The 'Straits Times'
correspondent in Australia, Bob Gilmore, seems to be responsible
for almost all of them.

The lesson of this sorry business was conveyed in my Ministerial
Despatch No. 5/47 of 27th November, which was rather lengthy, I'm
afraid, but which was meant to treat the subject exhaustively
because of its gravity. I am writing now to emphasise to you
personally that the repercussions in Malaya and in surrounding
countries have been very bad, and have largely undone all the good
achieved by the efforts of Australian representatives in this area
since the war to secure the goodwill of the local peoples, and the
excellent impression made by the Government's positive policy
since July on the Indonesian question. This is all the more a
cause for chagrin because the idea had secured widespread
acceptance that Australia was identifying itself with the
interests and aspirations of its neighbours, and because our
position here as a result had been appreciably strengthened. It
may seem hard for the general public in Australia to believe that
the private misfortune of fourteen not particularly estimable
Malay seamen could largely undo the good of a public policy which
is clearly liberal and democratic. This has, however, happened.

So long as our immigration policy remains what it is (and we know
there is no thought of changing it) we will always have to face
the general bitterness towards it which I have found lies under
the surface and which has been recently shown here in such a
crystallised form. But we can do much to play this bitterness
down, by avoiding provocation, by instituting a quota system, and
by educating our own public opinion to not only take a wiser view
of our immigration policy's dangers, but also to try and
understand the problem by realising that there are very many
highly educated, highly cultured persons of Asian birth. I have in
mind the beginning that might be made in the 'Observer' for
instance. If it would assist, I would arrange for a series of
short articles to be supplied from here for publication in
Australia.

It was possible for me in the present case to prevent a really
dangerous situation by working in turn on each section that took
up the agitation against us. But a repetition of this incident
will be hard to handle indeed, and may lose us more ground still.

I hope therefore that you can convince the Government of the very
real dangers which are ahead of us, and of the impossibility of
pursuing a successful policy on the political plane here while the
situation remains unchanged as regards immigration.