Communist move - White Australia Policy
The article reports Federal Government concern that Communist supporters were encouraging Indonesian seamen and Australian waterfront unions to refuse work on Dutch ships carrying arms for use against Indonesian nationalists. Ministers portrayed the dispute as part of a broader Communist challenge to the White Australia policy, while unions called for arrested Indonesians to be released and allowed to return home. The boycott was spreading across the waterfront to other maritime trades.
# COMMUNIST MOVE
## White Australia Policy
### PLAN TO UNDERMINE
**CANBERRA, Tuesday.** — A plan to undermine the Commonwealth Government's White Australia policy is believed by some influential Federal Ministers to underlie the present strike of Indonesian seamen. A special Cabinet sub-committee, in considering the dispute, received evidence that Communist Party supporters had instigated the refusal by Indonesians in Sydney to work Dutch ships if they carried arms for use against their fellow countrymen.
A confidential report, based on special investigations made for the Commonwealth, asserts that the Communists are managing the case for the Indonesians. The Government has obtained a circular which, it is alleged, originated from the Communist Party.
The full Cabinet is reported to have discussed the situation at length to-day. To-night it was stated that telegrams had been received by the Government from certain unions, in which it was alleged that there were Communistic influences. The telegrams ask that the Indonesians who have been arrested should be released and returned to their homeland. The phraseology is stated to have closely resembled statements made by Communists in opposing the White Australia policy.
The Ministers' reactions were that if they permitted the 1000 Indonesians who are involved to stay in Australia, serious steps would be taken towards breaking down the White Australia policy. The Ministers are firmly of the opinion that they must maintain their stand that the Indonesians are prohibited immigrants, and that Cabinet cannot accept dictation.
A circular obtained by the Commonwealth, it is stated, is being distributed through Communist sympathisers in such unions as the Seamen's Union and the Waterside Workers' Federation. The Government is seriously concerned at this evidence, which, linked with information about the causes of other recent and current industrial disturbances, suggests definite patterns of organised dislocation which Ministers feel, the Communists are fomenting.
Already it is pointed out that the dispute has spread to the waterfront repair industry, by the refusal of ironworkers, boilermakers and ships' painters and dockers to work on the Dutch ship the Swartenhond.