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Australian Labor Party supports White Australia Policy
[Newspaper clipping attached to a backing page, which is stamped in purple ink: ‘SUNDAY SUN’, ’17 JUNE 1948’.]
[Heading:] Oppose tilts at White Australia
[Headline in large bold letters:] A.L.P. FOR RACE PURITY
An organised attempt was being made to break down and destroy the white Australia policy, declared AWU Federal Secretary, T. Dougherty, at the State conference of the ALP yesterday.
“I say now that the decision of the Communist Party to oppose a White Australia is in conformity with instructions from the Communist International,” he declared.
“Had we listened to these people, we would be under the domination today of the worst men the world has ever known – the Japanese.”
Urging that “the Labor Party’s White Australia policy be reaffirmed,” Mr Dougherty referred to “stupid mouthings” in the past that the Northern Territory should be handed over to surplus populations from the East. Labor policy was to populate Australia from the finest people in the world the stock from which Australians had come.
[Subheading:] Thornton criticised
“When Mr Thornton advocates these matters, he is not speaking on behalf of the Australian worker who has fought for years against the importation of cheap Asiatic labor.
“The Communist Party objective is clear it simply wants to flood the country with people it can use.”
Mr. G. Roper (PIEUA) opposed the motion on the ground that Australia stands adjacent today to two-thirds of the human race, most of whom are colored,” he said.
