Australian High Commission, London, 12 May 1972
I am writing to you on the contentious subject of the administration of your Immigration Act in so far as it affects visiting Australians. I have been asked to do this by the six Agents-General of the Australian States: The Hon. Sir Murray Porter of Victoria, Brigadier Sir John Pagan of New South Wales, The Hon. Stewart Bovell of Western Australia, Mr Royce Neville of Tasmania, R. C. Taylor of South Australia, and The Hon. P. Delamothe of Queensland.
Sir Murray Porter, Mr Bovell, and Dr Delamothe, are former State Liberal Ministers, with wide political experience; Sir John Pagan is a former President of the Australian Liberal Party, but has never been an MP; Mr Neville and Mr Taylor are business men.
The Agents-General told me that each of them is receiving complaints from visitors concerning their treatment by officials on entry. Apparently no one complains of rudeness, but all have received the impression that Australians are no longer welcomed, and are treated off-handedly.
The Agents-General aver that although there is a separate Commonwealth gate at Heathrow, this is frequently not manned, and consequently Australians are directed through the non-British gate. Sir Murray Porter tells me that he has had this experience himself on more than one occasion.
You may also recall the case of Sir John Pagan last November when some publicity in the National Press followed his refusal, on arriving at Heathrow, to walk through the aliens’ gate.
Sir Murray Porter is not a complaining, or over-sensitive man. After all, he was for nearly 14 years a Minister in the Victorian Government, and has had a wide experience of practical politics. But he tells me that only recently, on arriving at Dover after a very short official trip to the Continent, an immigration officer examined his Diplomatic Passport for about ten minutes, enquiring why it was not stamped when he left this country , what was his business in England, and generally subjecting Sir Murray to the closest scrutiny. I hope you will agree that it is most improper to treat an accredited representative to Britain, holding a Diplomatic Passport, in such a way.
As a separate attachment, you will find three cases which I am told have occurred in the last few months. The first two are put forward by Sir Murray Porter; the last by Mr Bovell. 1
For myself, what I find worrying is the attention that these, and similar incidents, are attracting in Australian newspapers. Questions have been asked in the Australian Parliament—and are still being asked. When I was in Australia last January and February on an official tour I found that there was a mounting impression that Australians were not welcomed in Britain with anything like the same friendliness as in previous years. Only last week I noticed a report in a leading Australian newspaper, The Melbourne Age, quoting the Lord Mayor of Melbourne as saying that the British now regard Australians as foreigners.
You and I know that Australians are not regarded as foreigners here, but I am sorry to tell you that the effect of your own, and the previous Government’s legislation and—more importantly—the way it is being applied, is generating a highly critical climate of opinion amongst my own countrymen. The very fact that the six Agent-General have asked me to make these representations to you, and that they publicly announced while I was away in Australia that upon my return to England they were going to urge me to do so, is evidence of this fact.
From my own administrative experience, as one who for nearly 6 years was Australia’s Migration Minister before I came here in 1964 to occupy my present position, I have much sympathy for immigration officials at ports of entry. Theirs is not an easy task. At the same time, I believe that a lot of unnecessary friction can be avoided by pleasant manners, and a broad, tolerant, and imaginative application of regulations. As I have told you before, Australians are hurt, rather than angered, by what has been happening in recent years. Britain is still their favourite country to visit; we are still, under our own Nationality Act, a British people; we are an enthusiastic Crown country, just as much subjects of The Queen as are the residents of the United Kingdom. It will not merely be calamitous, but an act of great political folly, if through lack of knowledge, careless handling, and ignorance of the profound ties that bind Britain and Australia, Australians come to regard Britain as a foreign land—with all the predictable reactions that could follow from that in my own country.
I hope that, despite the many pressing problems confronting you, you will be able to assist us on this really important matter.
1 See UKNA: FCO 24/1313.
[UKNA: FCO 24/1313]