Arthur Calwell

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Arthur Augustus Calwell (28 August 1896 - 8 July 1973) Australian politician, was Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He was born in Melbourne. His father was a police officer of Irish descent. His mother was of Irish-American descent. A gifted high school student, Calwell was a devout Roman Catholic and joined the Australian Labor Party in his youth. Lacking the resources to pursue a university education, Calwell became a clerk in the Victorian Public Service, in which he worked for the Department of Agriculture and the State Treasury.

Active and energetic in the Labor Party, he was elected President of the Victorian Labor Party in 1931. He was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Melbourne in 1940. During World War II, Calwell was Minister for Information in John Curtin's government, and became well-known for his tough attitude towards the press in enforcing wartime censorship.

In 1945, Calwell became Minister for Immigration in Ben Chifley's government. He was the chief architect of Australia's post-war immigration scheme, at a time when Europe was teeming with refugees who desired a better life far from their war-torn homelands. He popularised the slogan "populate or perish." The immigration program coincided with a period when Australian industry was growing rapidly and suffering from shortages of skilled and semi-skilled labour. In July 1947 he signed an agreement with the United Nations Refugee Organisation to accept displaced persons from European countries ravaged by war.

Despite his far-sighted immigration policies, Calwell was a staunch advocate of the White Australia Policy: while Europeans were welcomed to Australia, Calwell was deporting many Malayan, Indochinese and Chinese wartime refugees, some of whom had married Australian citizens and started families in Australia.

Calwell left office in 1949 when Chifley was defeated by the Liberals, led by Robert Menzies. After Chifley's death in 1951, Dr H.V. Evatt became the Labor leader, and Calwell became his Deputy. The two disliked each other, but Calwell refused to challenge Evatt's leadership despite his lack of confidence in him.

During the split in the Labor Party in 1955 over this issue of Communism, Calwell remained loyal to the party at a time when many of his fellow Catholics were leaving: he lost many of its oldest friends at this time, including the Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix.

Evatt retired in 1960, and Calwell succeeded him as Leader, with Gough Whitlam as his deputy. Calwell very nearly defeated Menzies at the 1961 Federal election, due to widespread discontent at Menzies's deflationary economic policies. Menzies won 62 seats while Calwell won 60. The result was decided by a handful of votes in two seats.

After this near loss, however, Menzies was able to exploit divisions in the Labor Party over foreign policy to recover his position. Calwell opposed the use of Australian troops in Malaya and opposed the establishment of American military communications bases in Australia. At the 1963 elections Menzies gained ten seats from Labor. Many thought that Calwell should retire, but was determined to stay and fight.

Calwell made his strongest stand with his vehement opposition to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, and the introduction of conscription to provide troops for the war, publicly saying that "a vote for Menzies was a blood vote". Unfortunately for Calwell, the war was initially very popular in Australia, and continued to be so after Menzies resigned from office. During late 1966 the Labor Party suffered a crushing defeat in a general election, which Menzies' successor Harold Holt fought explicitly on the Vietnam War issue.

In January 1967 Calwell resigned as Labor leader; by this time it was clear that his awkward, old-fashioned image was no match for that of his charismatic and ambitious young Deputy Leader, the urbane, university-educated Gough Whitlam. In particular, Whitlam's clear mastery of the media gave him a huge advantage over the staid Calwell, who (as an old-fashioned stump orator whose career was forged in the day of the raucous public meeting) had always come across badly on television compared with the smooth and reassuring Menzies.

Calwell retired from Parliament in 1972, by which time he was the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, after serving as an MP for 32 years. He was succeeded as Labor leader by Whitlam, whom he cordially disliked and of whom he was frequently critical, especially since he knew that Whitlam intended abandoning the White Australia Policy.

Outside of the political arena, Calwell was a devotee of the North Melbourne Australian rules football team - he was the first life member of the club. He was always devoted to the Catholic Church despite his many conflicts with Church leaders. He was awarded a papal knighthood for his life-long service to the Church.

Calwell is also notable for being only the second victim of an attempted political assassination in Australia (the first being Prince Alfred in 1868). On 21 June 1966, Calwell addressed an anti-conscription rally at Mosman Town Hall in Sydney. As he was leaving the meeting, and just as his car was about to drive off, a 19-year-old student named Peter Kocan approached the passenger side of the vehicle and fired a sawn-off rifle at Calwell at point-blank range. Fortunately for Calwell, the closed window deflected the bullet, which lodged harmlessly in his coat lapel, and he sustained only minor facial injuries from broken glass. Calwell later visited Kocan in the mental hospital (where he was confined for ten years).

In July 1973 Calwell died; he was given a state funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Mary Elizabeth, who continues to jealously protect his reputation.

Calwell is regarded unfavourably by many for his defence of the White Australia Policy, but his courage in opposing the Vietnam War is remembered with admiration in the Labor Party.

[edit] Calwell and racism

Calwell's remark in Parliament in 1947 that "Two Wongs don't make a White" is widely quoted. The remark was intended as a joke, being a reference to a Chinese resident called Wong who was wrongly threatened with deportation, and a Liberal MP, Sir Thomas White. Today the remark is seen as evidence that Calwell was a racist.

Calwell later wrote: "It is important to me, at least, to set about the facts about [this] remark, which have been misrepresented so often it has become tiresome... I said, among other things, that an error may have been made in the case of two men named Wong. I then said, and I quote from Hansard, 'There are many Wongs in the Chinese community, but I have to say - and I am sure that the Honourable Member for Balaclava [Thomas White] will not mind me doing so - that "two Wongs do not make a White".' It was a jocose remark, made partly at the expense of the member for Balaclava... Hon T.W. White. I expected that I would have been correctly reported, as I was in Hansard, and that the initial letter 'W' on both the names 'Wong' and 'White' would have been written in capitals. But [later] the name of White was deliberately altered into a definition of colour, so as to read 'two Wongs don't make a white.' ... There was never any intention in my mind to raise any question of colour."^[1]

In his 1978 biography of Calwell, Colm Kiernan wrote: "Was Calwell a racist? All Australians who upheld the White Australia policy were racist in the sense that they upheld a policy which discriminated against coloured migrants... Calwell never denied the discriminatory reality of the laws: 'It is true that a measure of discrimination on racial grounds is exercised in the administration of our immigration policy.' But he did not consider himself to be superior to any Asian."^[2] Calwell also said in Parliament: "I have no racial animosity."^[3]. Kiernan further says: "Calwell had many friends among the Chinese community in Melbourne. This would have been impossible if he had been prejudiced against them. Anthony Wang, the first Chinese councillor of the City of Melbourne, has acknowledged Calwell's support and friendship. He liked the Chinese people so much that he learnt Mandarin in which language he could converse."^[4]

Kiernan observed that until the 1950s virtually all Australians supported the White Australian policy, that Calwell's views were entirely within the political mainstream at that time, and Calwell believed himself to be free of personal prejudice against people of other races. But these observations must be set against Calwell's comments in his 1972 memoirs, Be Just and Fear Not, in which he made it clear that he maintained his view that non-European people should not be allowed to settle in Australia. He wrote: "I am proud of my white skin, just as a Chinese is proud of his yellow skin, a Japanese of his brown skin, and the Indians of their various hues from black to coffee-coloured. Anybody who is not proud of his race is not a man at all. And any man who tries to stigmatize the Australian community as racist because they want to preserve this country for the white race is doing our nation great harm... I reject, in conscience, the idea that Australia should or ever can become a multi-racial society and survive."^[5]

Calwell's attitude to Indigenous Australians should also be considered. In his memoirs he wrote. "If any people are homeless in Australia today, it is the Aboriginals, They are the only non-European descended people to whom we owe any debt. Some day, I hope, we will do justice to them."^[6]

[edit] Further reading

• Arthur Calwell, Labor's Role In Modern Society (1963)
• Arthur Calwell, Be Just And Fear Not (1972)
• Colm Kiernan, Calwell (1978)
• Arthur Calwell, I Stand by a White Australia (1949)

[edit] References

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Dr H.V. Evatt	Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1951-1960	Succeeded by Gough Whitlam
	Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1960-1967
Preceded by John McEwen	Longest serving member of the Australian House of Representatives 1971–1972	Succeeded by Fred Daly

Leaders of the Australian Labor Party
Watson | Fisher | Hughes | Tudor | Charlton | Scullin | Curtin | Chifley | Evatt | Calwell | Whitlam | Hayden | Hawke | Keating | Beazley | Crean | Latham | Beazley | Rudd