Tail Feathers

A talkative bird is the Australian cockatoo (katkatooe), who so nearly resembles the Australian politico on the hustings that cartoonists often represent the one by the other. Last month, facing up to their fifth general election in six years, Australians wearily resigned themselves to a prolonged burst of cockatoo talk, and the sight of sulphurous crests raised in simulated alarm and indignation over the state of the nation. What they got instead was a beak-and-claw fight that made the political feathers fly as they had not done for a decade.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies, a Liberal, had adroitly called for new elections at a time when the political plumage of his opponent, Labor's tousleheaded Herbert Vere Evatt, was sadly ruffled by the Petrov spy case. Because two former Evatt associates were named by Petrov as his collaborators in espionage (but later cleared) Evatt, with birdlike innocence, had written to Molotov, asking for confirmation of his own contention that the MVD documents produced by Petrov were forged (TIME, Oct. 31). Molotov obligingly answered yes, and Evatt set out to use Molotov as a character witness. This reassured no one. Then Evatt turned his ire on critical anti-Communists in his own party, and forced the ouster of Catholic Action groups. They set up a rival Labor Party.

Unreal & Defeatist. Labor leaders had cautioned Evatt against using the Petrov spy case as an issue in the election, had urged him instead to campaign along traditional Labor Party lines: more Welfare State benefits, reduction of military expenditure, withdrawal of troops from Malaya, admission of Red China to the U.N. But the Liberals pinned the Communist label to this policy as well.

"You will find it significant," said Menzies, that Evatt "should now propound a defense policy which is unreal and defeatist and which will be received with enthusiasm only by the Communists and those who support them." In Melbourne, Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix, a Catholic Action leader, added: "If the foreign policy of certain leaders is any indication, the Communist rot has begun to set in here."

Ten Smears a Day. While his Iowa-born wife campaigned in his own critical Sydney electorate, Laborite Evatt stumped the country in a sweat-stained hat and rumpled suit, screeching defiance. Said he: "The championship of smearing has passed from Senator McCarthy to the Prime Minister. His election motto is ten smears a day to keep the doctor at bay." But wherever he went, the cry of "Molotov" brought shouts of laughter from his audience. Evatt attacked the Communist Party as "totalitarian in method and antidemocratic in character." But as fast as he shed his red feathers, the Communists stuck them back. A Communist-dominated union collected funds for his campaign; Communist mobs heckled Menzies. Said Menzies: "It takes a Communist mob to try to break up my meetings. Let them yell. It will be their last opportunity."

This week, as 5,000,000 Australians got set to vote, everybody appeared to be getting sick of cockatooing about Communism on one side and McCarthyism on the other. But all polls still showed Menzies, who has been Prime Minister for the past six years, a clear favorite to be reelected.

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