RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS RADIO AUSTRALIA NEWS
From the Overseas Service of the Australian Broadcasting Commission is distributed by the
AUSTRALIAN INFORMATION SERVICE, Canberra House, 10-16 Maltravers Street, Strand, WC2R 3EH, Telephone: 01-836 2435
Wednesday,
7 May 1975.
MR WHITLAM TO SEE U.S. PRESIDENT TOMORROW President Ford will see the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, in Washington tomorrow and review the international outlook following the end of the American presence in South Vietnam and Cambodia.
The President is scheduled to see three Commonwealth Prime Ministers individually tomorrow. They are Mr Whitlam, the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Rowling, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Wilson. The Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, has an appointment with President Ford the next day.
The leaders will be holding their brief summit talks in Washington following the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of State in Jamaica. Correspondents say that President Ford will stress that the United States is bent on honouring its commitments despite the collapse of the Indo-China policy. Mr Whitlam, after speaking with the President, will follow up his discussions with the Secretary of State, Dr Kissinger and Vice-President, Mr Nelson Rockefeller.
CALL BY OPPOSITION LEADER FOR ANTI-COMMUNIST TALKS The Australian Opposition Leader, Mr Fraser, has called on the Government to support President Ford's call for consultations among the anti-Communist countries in South East Asia.
In a statement released in Canberra, Mr Fraser said that the Prime Minister, Mr Whit- lam, should use his meeting with President Ford tomorrow to discuss the Communist victory in Indo-China and its implications for the United States, Australia and South East Asia.
Mr Fraser said the talks between the Prime Minister and President Ford would be of vital interest to Australia and the region around it.
U.N. ACTS ON AUSTRALIAN PROPOSAL FOR REFUGEES. Australia has been told the United Nations will mount an International Resettlement Program for the Vietnamese refugees. Australia yesterday suggested to the United Nations that it undertake the resettlement program.
The Australian Government said it would take a fair share of the refugees in any international move to resettle them. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said in Canberra today Australia had received a favourable response from both the United Nations Secretary General, Dr Waldheim, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Radio Australia's Canberra office says there is still no indication as to what the Government regards as its fair share of refugees. Meanwhile, the Depart- ment of Foreign Affairs now understands the Vietnamese refugees who sailed to Singapore will now go to Subic Bay in the Philippines.
There had been earlier reports that some would try to continue to Australia. The Foreign Affairs Department spokesman said today Australia might take some of these refugees under the United Nations program.
ARAB LEAGUE MEMBER GRANTED VISA The Australian Government has granted a visa to an official of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to visit Australia next month. However, he will not be visiting as an official of the PLO. He is Mr Jamel Al- Burant, the head of the Mio arrive in rain, when will enter Australia In his others capacity, as a member of the Arab League, a confederation of the Arah States,
Mr Jamal Al-Surani is on a tour of South-East Asian countries to put the case of the Arab States in the Middle East conflict. The Australian Government earlier this year refused visas for a PLO delegation to visit. Ground for the refusal was
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.