Cablegram 231, CANBERRA, 14 May 1948, 2.25 p.m.
SECRET
Your UN411.[1]
The Minister for Immigration has directed that United Kingdom proposal should not be supported and you should abstain from speaking or voting if its intention can in any way be construed as implying that married couples have the right to live together in a country in which one of them was resident or eligible for admission. If however, it is clear that the intention of the proposal is that married persons should not be prevented from leaving a country so that they may live together in another country to which both are eligible for admission, it may be supported.
Background material on deportation of Malays has been despatched by air.
_[1] Document 177.
_
[AA : A1838, 856/13, III]