British High Commission, Canberra, 20 December 1972
1803. Confidential
Immigration
1. At our talk today, 20 December, Prime Minister (who had been briefed by Sir Keith Waller immediately beforehand) said there were 2 principles which he had to bear in mind. It would be quite wrong if (a) attitude of Australian Government towards our immigration policies were used on either side of the House of Commons as a weapon in debate: and also (b) if the impression got about in the world that because of the kinship between Australians and British, Australia was involved in helping Britain to solve the problems which were a legacy of the empire. Australian Government were under no responsibility or obligation in respect of the ‘British colonial aftermath’, their responsibility was solely to the people of Australia, and to maintain the policies which were in their interests.
2. In the light of the foregoing (Mr Whittam continued) the proposal to hold consultations at senior ministerial level looked too lofty and formal for him. He did not oppose informal discussions between officials, but prefers not to commit himself at present to subsequent ministerial discussions which we had in mind.
3. I then spoke as in paras 3(b) and (c) of your tel No 1330. 1 I added that if our two Governments did not discuss together how best to remove the irritant to relations which had arisen, great disappointment would be caused to many hundreds of thousands of Australians with close British connections, and an equal if not larger number of British people who had migrated to Australia and were not yet Australians. (Mr Whitlam himself interjected at this point:–‘and they all have votes’.)
4. Mr Whitlam then said that he did not wish to reject outright the idea of ministerial discussions at a later stage, but at present furthest he could see himself going to meet us on this point was to have private and informal discussions about immigration (among other subjects of interest to the two countries) with Lord Carrington when he comes here: but he would not want the fact of these discussions to be made public.
5. I told Prime Minister that Mr Kirk had expressed New Zealand’s Governments’s [sic] readiness to hold consultations with us, and to begin these at official level. At my request Mr Whitlam confirmed his agreement that the British officials who go to New Zealand should also come here. But their visit to Australia should (he thought) not be highly publicised, i.e. the officials should not give interviews to the Press or TV. I said that he could rest assured that they would not do so.
Comment
6. Mr Whitlam was at his most wayward, arbitrary and doctrinaire during this talk. […] It confirmed that on this issue we must do our best to bring him along patiently and persistently. At least we have now got him to agree to the officials’ visit which is less than we wanted, but still a start. I will follow up question of timing for visit of officials with Waller tomorrow, 21 December.
1 Document 360.
[UKNA: FCO 24/1318]