[LINK] Tampa or St. Louis?

[russell@Ashdown.net.au]

I received a phone-call from a colleague in the USA who asked me 
if it was really true that the Australian government had sent a 
warship and was threatening to sink the Tampa rather than let the 
refugees land in Australia.  He had heard the report on TV.  He 
finished by saying that this is the stuff that makes great movies.

Australia, and Australians are being portrayed by overseas media 
groups as a nation of callous xenophobes.  To my mind, this is 
being caused by a federal government, out-of-control and racked by 
scandal, thrashing around to find an issue with which the media 
(and unfortunately the overseas media) can be entranced. 

It could be construed that the government has artificially 
engineered an international incident by opportunistically marooning 
400 or so shipwrecked refugees on the Tampa.  While this may be 
politik, the long term damage to Australia's international reputation 
is incalculable.

For those of you who have forgotten the past, read on to relive it:

In 1939, 907 Jews fleeing Nazi Germany sailed on the St. Louis 
from Hamburg, Germany, with entrance visas for Cuba. However, 
when they got to Havana, the Cuban government refused to 
recognise the visas. Latin American governments were 
approached, but all refused to take the refugees. The St. Louis was 
forced to leave Havana harbour and sailed north. The U.S. 
government's response to the ship was to send a gunboat to make 
sure that it kept away from U.S. shores. Finally, despite an appeal 
by some prominent Canadians, Canada declined to take in the 
refugees. The top immigration official commented that no country 
could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of 
thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line 
must be drawn somewhere.

The St. Louis sailed back to Europe, where three-quarters of its 
passengers were murdered in the Holocaust.

Russell Ashdown