"Nest of Traitors"

Nest of Traitors

Last November Australia's Communist newspaper The Tribune had a scoop: the details of a draft treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation between the U.S. and Australia. The treaty, which has been in the works for five years, contained no vital secrets, but the affair was nevertheless alarming: it suggested that a high government official with access to the classified treaty had given the information to the Reds. In Parliament later, Australia's foreign minister, Richard Casey, admitted the leak. (Although Casey denied the connection, members' questions pointed to one John Burton, a former top official under Casey's Laborite predecessor, Herbert V. Evatt. Burton last spring led a delegation of fellow travelers to Red China's "Pacific Peace Conference.")

Pressed for action, Casey said: "The government is doing its utmost to uncover the nest of traitors which exists somewhere or other in our public service."

Last week an anti-Communist charged that there were spies at the Rum Jungle uranium mines (see below) and even in Parliament itself. Australians were beginning to wonder whether the government's search for the traitors was getting anywhere. In Parliament last month, Laborite Allan Fraser asked: "Can the Minister for External Affairs inform me whether the nest of traitors is still in public service?"

Casey: "Yes."

Fraser: "Will the Minister say why the traitors have not been arrested and placed on trial?"

Casey: "If the honorable member will bide his time, all will be made clear."

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