His Own Man

John Grey Gorton, 56, likes to say that he is "Australian to my boot heels." He is an avid sportsman (tennis, swimming, water-skiing), a cool politician with an instinct for shrewdness and enterprise, and a demanding boss with a reputation for firmness and hard work. Sworn in last week as Australia's 19th Prime Minister--succeeding the late Harold Holt, who drowned last month off Portsea (TIME, Dec. 29)--Gorton is also very much his own man. He will probably wield a stronger, more decisive leadership than Holt and bend slightly to the left in his domestic policy, pushing for more government-aided health services, larger old-age pensions and a more decisive federal voice in state affairs.

In foreign policy, Gorton will not only continue Holt's support of the U.S. policy in Viet Nam but possibly even step up the Australian commitment, now running at 8,000 men. The tall, tanned Prime Minister hopes to establish the same kind of "unique" relationship with President Johnson that Holt enjoyed. "I believe aggression must be stopped anywhere it takes place," he says. "It doesn't matter what sort of aggression. We must show that it does not pay."

Unbeatable Lead. Gorton came almost from nowhere to land his nation's top job. An orange plantation owner in Victoria, he entered politics in 1946, joined the Country Party, and was elected to the local council in Victoria. In 1949, he switched to the Liberal Party and won a seat in the federal Senate. Since then, he has served only in junior ministerial slots in Australia's Liberal-Country Party coalition, which has ruled the country since 1949; he headed up the navy, interior and works ministries, and at Holt's death was Minister of Science and Education.

After Holt's death, the Liberal leadership--and prime ministership--seemed far more likely to go to Deputy Party Leader William McMahon, Holt's treasurer and second-in-command. But Interim Prime Minister John McEwen, leader of the Country Party and a longtime personal rival of McMahon, warned that he would bolt the coalition if the Liberals chose McMahon. Amid the resulting party turmoil, Gorton went quickly to work gathering support for his own drive, and gained a full week on everyone else. By the time last week's Liberal Party convention opened in Canberra, he had already built up an unbeatable lead. He won on the second ballot.

Double Rescue. At election time next year, Gorton will have one big factor going for him in hardy, hero-loving Australia. Flying with the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, he was shot down in the Pacific in 1942, lived for days on turtle eggs and fish until his rescue, then went through painful plastic surgery for injuries he had received when his face "got mixed up with the instrument panel." As he sailed home at last on leave, his boat was torpedoed, and he spent another day and a night on a raft, chest-deep in water, before his second rescue. Today, in his amiably crumpled face, Gorton proudly wears the scars of his ordeal.

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