PRIVU3 MINISTER'S INTERVIEW~ WITH RADIO 6PR -PERTH -20 OCTOBNR 197
QUES~ TION
.4ban on Jews entering Damascus?
PRIM~ E MINISTER., Well, it is very good news of course, because
we can't really condone a situation in which there is discrimination
against any section of the Australian people. Through the ages
there has been, fromi time to time, with differing severity,
discrimination against the Jewish people. Many Jews came to
Australia a long which ago, because this is a land, I believe,
that is quite free of discrimination, and to have the cir~ cumstances
in which there is an attempt to discriminate against people,
Australians, because of their religion, is, of course, quite
unacceptable. Diplomatic represecntations were made, inquiries
were made, about the alleged travel restriction concerning
Qantas flights through Damascus and we were told that the
regulation wasn't in fact operative. When it cea~ ed to be operative
I don't know it was in the IATA Handbook it has been
applied, as I understand, much more rigidly by a number of
other airlines who all understood it to b * e operative. But we
were told that it wasn't operative -put like that, as if it
could have come off at some time in the past. If that was so,
we hadn't been told about it but the fact that it doesn't
exist, that it has been removed, whther it has only just been
removed, or whether it was further In the past is something
that is very, very welcome indeed.
QUESTION: Has the Federal Government Just heard about the
restrictions? PflME MINISTER: One of the strange things about this is that
only looking back through the Handbooks, appatrently the restriction*
has been there at least since 1969, and perhaps much earlier,
I think one of the straynge things about this is that it hasn't
surfaced in the public domain before now, because the Handbooks
are circulated to all travel agencies, and I would have thought
at some stage, over the years, there would have been somebody
who would have been resentful of the restrictions, that might
say something for the-way Qantas and other airlines were
administering it the fact that it hasn't surfaced becauce
as I understand, passengers haven't b~ een refused tickets, but they
wereitold of the matter, and it was then for their decision.
It is surprising that it hadn't surfaced. X? am not aware that
any Transport Minister, in any Government, had been advised of it
in the past and was aware of it.
QUESTION: flow did the Federal Government first hear ( inaudible.)
PRIMP. MINISTER: I first heard of it when I read th-e Age newspaper
one morning -and within at. out five minutes I was speaking to
Peter Nixon , and hie said, I have already read it, and I have
already launched inquiries.
QUESTION: What sort of inquiries were these?
PRIME MINISTER: Those inquiries were: what are the, facts,
what were the facts?, When you see a newspaper story which
concerns you the first thing to do is to establish the precise
facts about i'b.
QUESTION: What is going to happen now as far as the Federal
Government is concerned?
PlUIME MINISTER: I don't think there is any need for anything
to happen now, because the restriction is not operative it
has been lifted. That means there is no disorimination against
any Australian citizens.
QUESTION: Was it ever operative, do you know?
PRIME MINISTER: It was in the Handbook, and the airlines thought
it was operative, so far as the Syrian Government is concerned.
As I say, on the advice available to us, some other airlines
have applied a bit more not necessarily on the route to Australia
but in other areas, have applied the restriction more rigidly
than Australia had.
QUESTION: In the case that the restriction wasn't lifted,
would we have gone so far as to a) protest, or b) ask Qantas
to fly through Damascus?
PRIME MINISTER: Let's not bother about a question that is
entirely hypothetical. The circumstance didn't arise the
good sense has prevailed, and therefore, not let's postulate
hypothetical circumstances which could be, quite obviously
difficult. QUESTION: There was no situation reached of formal Government to
Government contact with the Syrians?
PRIME MINISTER: Our diplomatic people made inquiries at a
political level, and were told that it wasn't operative.
That was obviously a very satisfactory answer from our point of view.
It is a satisfactory answer, let's not hypothecate what
might have happened in more difficult circumstances, because
they didn't arise.
QUESTION; So it is as a result of those diplomatic approaches
PRIME MINISTER: The word to us was the regulation wasn't
operative, implying that it hasn't been operative for some time.
All the airlines thought that it was operative not just Qantas,
other airlines, because checks have been made. Thereis a degree
of an element of uncertainty in relation to that.
I think what is past is past, and the important thing is that
the restriction is not operative it' 8 off and there is
not discrimination against any group of Australians, which is
the important thing from our point of view.
ENDS I