IN quick succession, Bowditch made known his
views on important issues . In an editorial headed NEED FOR UNION UNITY
he said for the NT to progress
there had to be unity of purpose
and action from all sections of the community. This being so, it was disconcerting to see
that North Australian Workers’ Union was in
the grip of a faction fight. While one
group announced its intention to
declare black all pearlshell won by
cheap indentured labor , the
executive had issued statements to the contrary. The NAWU, he wrote, owed it to its members
and to the people of the Territory , and
to the “great Trade Union movement ” to
put its house in order.
Bowditch
made the public aware of his
stance on what he regarded as an
important community matter- freedom of
speech . In an editorial headed FREEDOM TO SPEAK
he raised the matter of Darwin people
being reluctant to air their
views publicly. He pointed out that when the
paper asked people if
Japanese divers should be allowed
back to the Territory to revive
the pearling industry they had
been “ afraid ” to
comment and have their names
published. This was an unhealthy
situation . The editorial recalled that
one of the first people elected to the Legislative Council had been a
public servant who had been told
that he
had to resign from his job or refrain from standing as a representative of the people.
A copy of this editorial went
into the ASIO files.
The
editorial drew a letter to the editor
from one Bob Steele which said it
was high time that all citizens took
hold of their liberties and defended
themselves against the insidious
influences at work in Australia, the country
being run from Canberra like a police state. ASIO headquarters received
a copy of the letter from its Darwin office with a note which said that
since Bowditch took over running the
paper he
had written or edited articles “
which would appear to support his well-known leftish ideas”. It pointed out
that Steele, “ a known communist”,
had taken the opportunity to
congratulate the editor on his editorial. In
adding to the ASIO file on Bowditch , the
Victorian regional office of the service
in March composed an erroneous entry :
I understand the
paper at Darwin now known as " Northern Territory News" was
previously known as " Northern Territory Standard" , and was edited by
one Douglas Lockwood , brother of Rupert Lockwood. It amazes me
to think why the ( Melbourne ) Herald would
send Douglas Lockwood to act
as their representative in London.
I might add that Bowditch and Lockwood
were on very friendly terms
The
clangers in this statement are
: the NT News and the Standard were two different
papers; Doug Lockwood edited neither.
Rupert Lockwood , Doug’s brother
, a Communist, figured in
the Petrov Inquiry . Rupert
Lockwood was said to have
been a Liberal until
experiences as a reporter in
Europe , especially in the Spanish Civil War , where he saw the
mangled bodies of children killed by aerial bombing , turned him
to communism. Doug Lockwood definitely was not a
communist. It is said the
reason why Doug Lockwood went
to London was due to a gross
error made in the Melbourne Herald’s coverage of the controversial
Petrov Inquiry . In referring to
the “ communist” Rupert
Lockwood, a sub editor supposedly changed the name
to Douglas Lockwood. As
a result , the Herald acknowledged the mistake
and asked Doug Lockwood if there
was anything they could do to make amends. Send me to London ,
was the supposed reply.
(The Lockwoods were at the London
screening of the Territory movie Jedda,
and emerged from the theatre to find
snow falling.)
ASIO
also reported that Bowditch , in moving to Darwin , had taken
his coloured “ de facto” and
their child north . ASIO made
several mentions of Betty ,
calling her Beth in one report , and variously described her as “ coloured”, half- caste” and a “
quadroon”. It is difficult
to understand the relevance of the fact
that ASIO recorded that she had lost a
baby in Alice . What
comes through clearly in the
files kept on Bowditch is that he
and many others
in the Northern Territory were
subjected to Australia’s brand of McCarthyism. Just associating with a
person or expressing a democratic
view against the government
was enough to have you entered in a file .
NEXT : Police officer sent to “Siberia” over case involving Bowditch .
