The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 8

8 FEATURES, LETTERS' THE AGE, Thursday, January 23, 1975 rr I BERNARD LEVIN (left) of The Times, London, "a friend of John Stonehouse (right) for quarter of a turns on the runaway British MPs' accusers. State owes parents a choice of schools Out of Darwin tragedy comes a spirit of hope baying The after tonehouse 3Sew schboiJ to teach GhmtianityN groups for a comprehensive review of the Newport issue might be costing Victorians millions of dollars. The very least achievement of your Newport articles is this: They will have clearly shown that it would be a travesty of environmental justice and an abuse of the principle of public involvement in the shaping of the environment if Newport were to be built without a proper debate of all the relevant questions within the framework of an official enquiry. It is surely the duty of governs ment (no matter what its politiJ cal color) to note the strongly, expressed wish of the people to be involved in such a process of information and consultation. (Dr.) J.

G. MOSLEY (Director, Australian Conservation JOHN LARKIN talks with Fr. Brian Morrison (above) who was flight chaplain on planes rescuing the people of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy. SIR, Your report about the opening of Donvale Christian School 181) is most encouraging. It is clear evidence that parents with strong convictions want their children to attend schools that support and explain these convictions a right proclaimed by several UN documents to which Australia is signatory.

Australian parents want both Government and private schools. They do not want to take over from teachers, or tell them how they should teach. They do want to be able to choose the school (Government or private, systemic or individual) they believe best serves their children. Current Government-aid policy is based on the needs of schools rather than on the needs of parents and the encouragement of their legitimate preferences. It would be much fairer to distribute basic aid in such a way as to give all parents the opportunity only the rich now enjoy, that of purchasing the educational service they prefer.

This could perhaps be effected through a grant to every child at school, the amount of the grant being the cost of maintaining a place in a Government school. (I can see no objection to this grant being subject to a means test, provided the same standards apply to children at Government schools as to those at private schools.) Among many advantages associated with this kind of aid are the way it supports the family and the encouragement it gives parents to involve themselves deeply in their children's education. The Schools Commission would still be concerned to provide supplementary aid for schools and communities suffering particular disadvantages. JOHN W. DOYLE (Yarra-lumla, A.C.T.).

Dire consequences SIR, A logical consequence of Spelling Reform SRI (ahed, agen, is that, for consistency, all pack went about it that can be reconciled with a picture of him as a man fully responsible for his actions, so grotesquely unlikely were they to lead to the end he had in mind. I have known John, as 1 say, for a quarter of a century, and perhaps one never knows anybody, but to me, as to others who know him, he has always seemed the most rational, the least wild of men. Yet his behavior has been that of a man who is seriously disturbed in his mind. (It is true that his descriptions of Mr. Short as "a pusillanimous twit" and of Mr.

Mellish as "a crude bore" have the stamp of a man who is in full possession of his faculties. But nobody is so crazy that he has no lucid intervals. Is it not reasonable, then, to assume that mentally disturbed is precisely what he is? And, if so, may I ask when we repealed the presumption in English law, not to mention English life, that a man who acts while the balance of his mind is disturbed is not held punishable for his actions (No doubt it was shortly after we repealed the one about men being considered innocent until found guilty.) If John Stonehouse's mind is disturbed, 1 know no more than another what caused it to be so, whether it was blackmail, or business worries, or business failures yes, or the knowledge that he had done wrong. Yet the sheer indecency of the Labor Party's behavior, in assuming the worst of a colleague, in presuming him guilty of crimes with which he has not even been charged, in ignoring the obvious and tragic fact that, on all the evidence, he is clearly suffering from a severe breakdown, and making such unseemly haste to rid itself of possible embarrassment and to restore its tiny majority in the House of Commons, should not pass without censure. "I find it very, very surprising." said Mr.

Stonehouse, referring to Mr. Wilson and the rest of his parliamentary colleagues, "that they are prepared to condemn me like this." I do not find it surprising. But I find it fairly disgusting, tered. "You may take it that proper measures are going to be taken, and taken quickly." Mr. Robert Mellish, the Government's Chief Whip well known as the very model of all that is calm, decorous, stable and judicious described his straying member as "a And Mr.

Edward Short, Leader of the Commons, has also seemed eager to hurry the sinner out of the House though, admittedly, he has more right than others to do so, being himself a man of such high standards, such severely olympian rectitude and scruple. I know nothing of John Stone-house's business affairs (in which respect, I may say, I am on a footing with most of the pack that are after him, except that the fact that many of the allegations against him are unsupported by evidence seems to worry them less). If he had done things which are unwise or questionable, I would not seek to defend them, though few of us have not. If he has committed offences against the law, the law no doubt has its own methods of dealing with him. If he Is convicted of serious crime he should certainly leave the House of Commons, and would be expelled from it if he did not resign.

UT so far it seems necessary to remind the Labor Party, not to mention many outside it, he has not been convicted of anything or, for that matter, ever charged. He has certainly behaved in a very strange and apparently improper way. To the conclusions being so freely drawn from that, he replies that, for reasons at which he has hinted and which may or may not be valid, he is suffering from some mental stress or disturbance. That seems a considerable understatement. Even if you put the worst possible construction on his actions something that is being freely done on all sides and assume that his conduct has been motivated from the start by a desire to escape the consequences of conscious wrongdoing, there is no possible explanation of the way in which he THE big wind which pulled Darwin to bits was nnt all ill, after all.

So sees Father Brian Morrison, who says that Cyclone Tracy has brought us together. Out of the chaos, a re-birth? Fr. Morrison's reflections are made early one afternoon in his stuay at the monastry of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers in Lower Plenty. He stays there, among a life of much travelling. Fr.

Morrison is an unofficial representative of the Catholic Church when there is crisis. Away from his work, he is known, too, for handling another kind of crisis. He is a VFA umpire and has refereed hundreds of games. He has been with the Aborig ines in the Northern Territory and he knows Darwin and has loved it: "I think it is a marvellous place. There is real community spirit among all the people." The priest got involved in the cyclone before most of the rest of the country even knew it had happened.

He was at Tullamarine Airport very early on Boxing Day when a couple of early victims arrived trom the north. By the same afternoon, after an Ansett request, he was in Brisbane to work as flight chaplain to the planefuls of refugees coming south. Asked how much sleep he got, he said, oh, about 16 hours in eight days. Once he stayed awake for three days straight. From his desk, Fr.

Morrison seemed for the first time to be able to sit back, look back at the Railways on wrong track THE only surprising thing about the British Labor Party's attitude to the case of Mr. John Stonehouse, MP, is that there has not so far been a proposal that he should be immediately executed, by hanging, without the formality of a trial. I have numbered John Stonehouse among my friends for some 25 years, and I shall certainly continue to do so. But if he were quite unknown to me, or even if 1 detested him, I would still feel strongly that the pack that is after him now, besides including some spectacularly unlovely mongrels jury, passing on the prisoner's life, may in the sworn twelve have a thief, or two, guiltier than him they is behaving in a manner that would still be disgraceful if he had done absolutely everything that has been alleged against him. And that is no little.

Spying, peculation, megalomania, anti-communism, adultery, forgery, lese-Mellish, fraud, breach of privilege as far as I can see, the only thing of which he has not yet been accused is being Jack the Ripper. There is a Mr. McGrath, for instance, who claimed to have been "his closest friend for 15 and who hastened the minute John was discovered in Australia to demonstrate that he was the kind of friend a man needs about as much as he needs an infestation of pasteurella pest is. "I was uneasy about several of his activities," babbled Mr. McGrath." Things of a personal nature of a moral nature I am fed up my concern was assets you can draw your own conclusion." Then there is Mr.

John Lee, MP, a fellow-member (for Hands-worth) of the party of brotherly love. He, apprised of the news that Mr. Stonehouse was not, apparently, going to resign immediately from the House of Commons, appears to have turned into a passable imitation of a turkey contemplating the fact that there are only a dozen or so shopping days to Christmas. "It is absolutely outrageous and quite intolerable," he splut It's When words containing long will have to bee changed, and wee may get spellings such as eequal, eemu, creeate, geenius, and thee personal pronouns hee, shee, wee. Will this bee supported by thee spelling reformers? C.

H. BAGOT (North Melbourne). Who runs the place? SIR, Congratulations to Tim Colebatch for his series of three articles on the proposed Newport Power Station and to "The Age" for publishing them even though they ran counter to your last editorial comment on the subject. As your third article showed 221) the Newport case does indeed raise the question of who is running the country. Clearly, the people of Victoria should be given a very much stronger formal role in making a decision on the question of how best to meet Victoria's future power needs than they have to date.

The value of conducting environmental Impact studies on public works proposals, and of public participation in this process, are now widely recognised all around the Western world a fact which the State Electricity Commission and some members of the State Government seem to want to ignore. As shown by Tim Colebatch, the public enquiries on Newport did not deal with the key questions of proper use of resources and alternative plant sites. The intransigence of the SEC towards the proposal by conservation approaches made since that time have been unsuccessful. The Miscellaneous Workers' Union, on January 7, again approached the State Government to set up a wages board. In view of the obvious need for a board, which has been highlighted by the publicity given to the $28 a week paid to the Filipino domestic in the employ of the British Consul-General, the union hopes that the approach on this occasion will be successful.

As a matter of interest, the Miscellaneous Workers' Union has, in the past two years, been successful in having wages boards appointed for kindergarten assistants, veterinary nurses and pest control operators, all of whom work in occupations which were award-free and open to the exploitation which domestic workers suffer. I might also add that if the application seeking a wages board for domestics is to be successful, it is essential that domestic workers take an interest in their own welfare and 1 suggest that they contact the union office and supply details of their current wage rates and conditions. RAY HOGAN (State Secretary, Miscellaneous Workers' Union). Cruelty to horses SIR, Your imposing picture of a magnificent horse 201) will fill animal lovers with acute dismay. Surely the vile cowboy-type bit the poor beast is fitted with is not going to be permitted for use in this "horse-loving" country? If a person is unable to control a horse with a more civilised and less severe contrivance, he should not be allowed to mount at all.

In any case, this much-advertised "test of endurance" strikes one as a piece of quite unnecessary and most regrettable cruelty to horses, which should be held contrary to the provisions of the Protection of Animals Act. J. H. ANDERSON (Melbourne). Rules were flouted SIR, Is Australia to become to illegal immigrants what Liberia has been to the world's shipping fleets Beaches are graded SIR, Mr.

Baitz (181) is concerned that the EPA does not state the precise location of its points in the weekly pollution survey results for bayside beaches. Water samples are taken from the most popular section of each beach, usually in front of the Life Saving Club. A few weeks ago the EPA published a report entitled "The Bacteriological Quality of Port Phillip Bay Beaches and Selected Input which gives details of sampling locations used last year and during the current survey. This report is available from the EPA, together with an information sheet giving a simple explanation of the programme. The Authority is aware of the difficulty of interpreting the results from bacteriological surveys, and I appreciate Mr.

Baitz's constructive remarks on this point. The present system of grading beaches has been adopted on the advice of experts in the field of bacteriology, and we consider it the most meaningful presently available to us. JOHN H. ALDER (Deputy Chairman, Environment Protection Authority). In flying the Liberian flag, rules have been flouted with impunity by shipping companies, Now Mr.

Stonehouse follows our former fleeting visitor, now domiciled in Brazil, in breaking our immigration rules in ah unmistakable demonstration of cynicism towards our This British MP may still be drawing pay many thousands of miles from his homeland. He has described his constituents as "simple folk, understanding like Australians" (Current Affair, GTV-9, 201). Downright turning the blind eye would be closer to the truth. Let him be shipped back, at his cost, so that he can make his plea for settlement from Australia House, not suburban Melbourne. TIMOTHY R.

NOLAN (Caul-field). Not against the law SIR, Under the heading of "Homosexual Mystery" 181) the well-meaning Phillip Adams, when he says, "female homosexuality is hot against the law" and "while homosexuality remains punishable by death in a number of American helps to perpetuate the common misbelief that homosexuality is a crime. I would like to inform Mr. Adams that neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality are are many celibate homosexuals who are offended and often distressed by the implication or suggestion that because they are homosexuals they are criminals. However, Mr.

Adams will be pleased to know that I shall recommend him for the Festival of Light Gold Medal Award for the Propagation of Myth. RON CLARK (Hlghett), In order to nuhh'vh th luMart possible selection of readers' views, prejerence will be given to letters which do not exceed 300 words. Letters must be signed and give full address. nica rttUM START fit? ROAD. NORTH BAI.wvie BAL.

30 DAYS Town House great space of the 10 days that shook us all, and see He shows the size of what happened by talking about 3500 people passing through the Brisbane airport between 1 p.m. Sunday after the cyclone and 4 a.m. the next day. How did he organise his attention to so many needs all at once? "You have to learn to sum up the situation quickly. These people are in shock.

They have been taken from the loved ones and their city. They are relying on you to reassure them and encourage them." He speaks spontaneously of all sorts of incidents which showed what people will do when they have to cope in stress. There was one plane with 140. mothers on board, most of them pregnant. Two were overdue.

They had left Darwin at 6 a.m. for Adelaide. At 6.45 p.nv they were still in Brisbane. Father Morrison went with them to Adelaide, where they arrived at 11.30 p.m. "On the way one had a heart attack and another went into labor.

Everywhere there was stress. But you also saw incredible companionship. Whenever anything happened they all gathered around." There were crew members, too, who wanted to work beyong their schedules, to just keep flying up and down. Two RAAF girls, for instance, stayed on board a Hercules. Policemen In Brisbane changed babies' nappies.

All were in it together: army, navy, air force, priests, police, pregnant women there was an Aboriginal woman with eight children, and Father Morrison got a VIP flight lounge exclusively turned over to them. Two of the kids were sickj On the Sunday afternoon in Brisbane, when it was 31 hundreds of people were coming through from Darwin. All flights north and south were stopped to take them. The ordinary passengers just stood back and let them through, into their planes. The whole experience, he says, bound us together.

"If we applied the same courage and dedication to one another all year around, we'd really build Australia into something strong." Fr. Morrison now sees inside the Darwin experience. As a man who has always taught the beauty of human life, he says they have now tapped the human spirit in Australia in a way never done before. "If the people can realise what they have been through, they will be able to cope with anything ahead in their lives." "What troubles me now," he says, "is whether we will keep this spirit together The disaster will continue, he says, until all the people are again doing what they want to do, and living where they want to live, how they want and with their own families. People are worried about going back to Darwin.

They are feeling insecure being in the other capital cities. They are worried about how their children are coping. "What are we doing about counselling the kids? There is, for instance, a little boy in Brisbane who starts to scream every time the wind starts to blow. What kind of psychological help can we give them?" "Do people reading the different headlines," he asked, "realise what thousands are going through?" He refers to the Salvation Army relief telephone numbers, 63341-6. Spiritually, the disaster brought alive the goodness of the Australian people.

"A Darwin father I was talking with on the telephone today told me that since the disaster this is the first time they feel part of the country." He is, says Fr. Morrison, a better priest for it all. He does not have to try. Vice FEDERAL The (Sir John Kerr) arrived In Canberra from Sydney yesterday morning. He received the Prime Minister (Mr.

Whltlam) and Mrs. Whltlam at Government House. Later he received Sir John and Lady Bunting and entertained at a luncheon In their honor. Other guests were Mr. and Mrs.

Whltlam. Sir John and Lady Duntlna, Sir Morrlce James. Sir Arthur and Lady Tanaa, sir Frederick Wheeler, Mr. and Mrs. R.

Klnasland. Mr. and Mrs. A. S.

Coolcy, Sir Hugh and Lady Ennor. Mr. and Mrs. C. W.

Harders, Mrs. T. A. O'Brien, Mr. A.

P. Renour, Mr. and Mrs. J. L.

Menadue, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Boswell, Mr.

and Mrs. D. O. Hay, Mr. and Mrs.

A. L. Moore, Mr. and Mrs. J.

P. O'Neill. Dr. and Mrs. N.

H. Fisher, Mr. and Mrs. K. R.

Ingram, Lady Bailey, Sir Richard and Lady Randall, Dr. and Mrs. P. J. Cal-vert and Mr.

and Mrs. B. E. Fleming. He received the following callers yes torday afternoon: Mr.

Justice J. II. Woltcn; Dr. Joan Woodhll; Mr. G.

K. Miller. Mr. R. Brolnowskl, Mr.

R. Pes. eott, Mr. S. H.

R. Hume and Miss S. Boyd, officers of the Department of Foreign, Affalri, whafs inside that counts. SIR, In view of the decision of the Victorian Government not to transfer the Victorian Railways to the Australian Government I believe that the recent announcement of improvements to suburban rail services should be seen in perspective. It is merely a public relations exercise to justify State retention of the railways.

The extension of suburban services to Pakenham is a step which could have been taken at any time since the Gippsland line was electrified many years ago. In fact, special trips have been organised in the past by railway enthusiasts in which blue suburban trains have been driven much farther than Pakenham along the line. It would have been more meaningful for the railways to announce an extension of electrified suburban services to Momington, for example, because that would involve erection of overhead wiring and possible duplication of track. The improved service on the Glen Waverley line is the result of a timetable alteration. I make it clear that I applaud the announced improvements and the provision of a third track on the Frankston line and of new rolling stock.

However, many of these projects are substantially funded by specific grants from the Australian Government. Why not transfer the railways, and allow them to provide funds to run the entire organisation? JOHN CHRISTIANSEN (South Yarra). Plight of domestics SIR, Amanda Borgeest (111) is amused at the sudden interest taken in the plight of domestic workers by the trade union movement and accuses the trade union movement of having made no effort over the years to improve their lot. For the information of Amanda Borgeest, I point out that going back as far as 1938 the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, through the Trades Hall Council by way of deputation, approached the conservative State Government of the day and sought the setting up of a wages board to lay down wage rates and conditions for domestics. That approach was rejected and similar Regal STATE The Governor (Sir Henry wlnneke) was entertained to luncheon by the chairman (Mr.

W. D. Brookes) and members of the board ofthe Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society at 330 Collins Street. Lady Wlnneke received the call of Miss B. Watson, president, and Mrs.

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