Shattering Images

In Australia's elections later this year, one issue that may affect the outcome is 30 years old. The problem facing Liberal Prime Minister William McMahon, who has a tough fight ahead to stay in office, is how to handle the country's World War II archives, which are supposed to stay sealed until 1990.

If rumor is correct, the archives will pretty well destroy the Australian notion that the nation's World War II soldiers were a breed of bronzed supermen. During the retreat from Singapore, 300 Aussie soldiers are said to have pushed aside women and children at gunpoint in order to get aboard the liner Empire Star. During the 1942 Japanese bombing of Darwin, soldiers panicked and fled the city ahead of civilians; one air-force deserter was found 300 miles away.

Many Australians have urged the government to open up the archives immediately to get things settled once and for all. But what Prime Minister wants to risk shattering one of his country's most cherished images? Last week McMahon adroitly managed to have it both ways. He will release the records, he said--but only those that are not contrary to the public interest. The sorting-out process will take at least six months--by which time the elections should be safely over.

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