 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, a presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Edward P. Morgan and Larry Lusser, both of the CBS television news staff. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the right Honorable Richard G. Casey, Australian Minister of External Affairs. Mr. Casey, let's start on a what we might call domestic note. Whatever happened to all those American GIs who took Australian War brides and went down to your country to live? Oh, they're still there, and they're going strong. I happen to be connected with the Australian American Association in Australia, and so I come across lots of them. They doing fine. Mr. Casey, you know America very well. Could you tell us candidly just how you Australians feel about this country? Well, yes, I've been in and out of this country most of my life, really. We feel perfect at home in this country, as I think your fellas do down with us. I know not only this country, but I know what America is doing in all parts of the world. You're doing, you're carrying a vast load throughout the world, trying to keep democracy on an even keel. And you're not getting a very great deal of thanks for it, but that's one of the penalties, I think, you've got to pay for world leadership. Larry Lusser and I have been fascinated, Mr. Minister, by reports that Australia has been able to reduce taxes. I wonder if you'd explain that a little bit, and I have a hunch that maybe that's one of the reasons some of the Americans are doing so well down there. Yes, that's true. The budget that we introduced, just a week ago, we managed by a reasonable amount of careful housekeeping in Australia to reduce all our taxis. Taxis of every sort. And still balance our budget, and still maintain our defense expenditure at what is for us a very high figure. Mr. Casey, you were recently in Washington working on the ANZUS Treaty with the United States and New Zealand. Could you tell me why Great Britain is not a member of that treaty? Well, it's simply the United States and Australia and New Zealand. It's a limited regional treaty confined to the Pacific area and confined to the three of our countries that are most concerned with the Pacific. You've got a treaty, as you know also, as well as with us. You've got one with the Philippines and one with Japan, and quite soon one with Korea as well. All these treaties stem from the Pacific back to Washington. Provides a network of treaties in the Pacific that go somewhere at least, I think, to guarantee peace in the Pacific. As we get into this question of peace and security in the Pacific, Mr. Minister, I think it would be interesting if you would tell us what you can within the bounds of security on what's going to happen at your fascinating Wumaraw range next month and what the Australian participation in the atomic experiments with Britain is. Well, the Wumaraw rocket range is more or less in the center of Australia in a desert area. It's an enormously long range, about 1500 miles, and you can shoot guided weapons or atomic bombs or anything you like out there without disturbing anybody. We've been working on that for a great many years now, since the end of the last war with Great Britain. And we share the expense of it, and I think it is developing into one of the world's really good guided weapon areas. Next month, there will be some loud bangs out there in October. They'll be trying some of these weapons out. It's a place we're rather proud of, really. We think we're playing our part in adding to the knowledge of the free world in atomic weapons and guided weapons in particular. Naturally, you speak of atomic weapons, one thinks of defense, Mr. Casey. The other day, at the United Nations, you made a speech outlining Australia's foreign policy, and you did say at that time that if Russia's intentions towards peace showed any signs of goodwill, you could pledge reciprocity. Could you say what you meant by reciprocity? Well, you see, Russia in the last nine months has made a lot of small gestures towards the democracies, but they've all been in matters of not very much importance. There are plenty of areas in the world of real importance. I mean, there's Korea, there's Indochina, there's Germany, and there is the whole field of the control of atomic energy. All these are directions in which, if the Russians really want to live side by side with the democracies, they can show some advanced wards at the moment. There's no advance in matters of importance at all. What reciprocity could we show them? Well, I think if they come halfway to meet us, I think one can say very truly that we'll come at least halfway to meet them. Do you have a communist problem in Australia, Mr. Casey? Oh, yes, indeed. Yes, we have indeed. We believe we're getting on top of it. Now, we've been working very hard on it for the last five or six years, and I think it's less of a domestic menace in Australia now than it was. It's a great deal. Oh, we're very conscious of it. Well, you certainly have a communist problem in Southeast Asia. Would you say that now that there is a truce in Korea that Indochina is the most important area of that problem? Yes, quite differently. We in Australia, as you could imagine, we're very concerned, very interested in Southeast Asia as a whole, and quite certainly Indochina is the most important part of Southeast Asia. In that if the communists got Indochina, then there's very little to stop them getting the whole of Southeast Asia, and then communism would, so far as we in Australia, be concerned, be right on our doorstep. Mr. Casey, Indochina is a French protectorate, and yet France is not a member of the ANSIS Treaty. Could that be because she's a colonial power? Well, I don't quite think that. You see, the ANSIS Treaty, the Australia-American New Zealand Treaty, is really up to now, not concerned with the Asiatic mainland. Indochina, of course, as you know, is on the Asiatic mainland. The three of us, America, Australia, and New Zealand, we're countries just away from the Asiatic mainland. So, that's why it's been called frequently a pacific fact. But is it a pact of maritime powers rather than a pact of naval power? Yes, it's a simple, if you like to call it that, it's a simple mutual defense treaty, under which if any one of us is attacked, all three regard themselves as having been attacked. Mr. Casey, you still have Australian troops in Korea during the truce. Do you need those troops at home? Yes, indeed. We've got all our troops there. We've brought none of them home yet. Well, we're trying to build up a civilian army in Australia. They need a great deal of training. Our chaps in Korea, when they come back, will be most useful to help us train our civilian army. I asked that question specifically because I wondered what your position, what your potential would be. If a larger emergency broke out in Indochina, if you would be prepared to help there, as you did in Korea? Well, that's a difficult question to answer until the time comes. We've got potential obligations in several parts of the world. For instance, we've got forces in Malaya and out in the Mediterranean at Malta. We've got forces there. And in the event of a world war, we need to depend on circumstances where we would direct what military naval and air strength we've got, whether it be to the Middle East or to Southeast Asia or where else. That would be after discussion with our friends, which are great Britain than yourselves. Mr. Casey, Australia is a very small country, relatively. Population, eight or nine million, is not much bigger than New York City itself. How can you afford to run atomic tests, send troops everywhere in the world, and still reduce taxes? Well, I don't know. We're trying to do quite a lot of things at the same time in Australia, and it makes life a bit difficult for us. Our taxes still, unfortunately, are fairly high, but they're at least ten or twelve and a half percent less than they were last year. Just to add to Lesser's question, Mr. Casey, Americans a lot of us think that we have an exclusive right of invention on the system called the Marshall Plan of helping foreign nations, and a lot of us are very critical of that plan. Apart from that, it is true that the British Commonwealth has what's called the Colombo Plan. Can you tell us what Australia very briefly does in that plan? Yes, under the Colombo Plan, we are setting out on a conscious effort to try and help the countries of South and Southeast Asia. That is India, Pakistan, Salon, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, Indochina and the Philippines. We send them equipment for developmental purposes. We send them trucks and bulldozers and every sort of farm equipment to help them grow more food, which as you know is their main need. We send them everything we can possibly spare, because we think, amongst other things, it isn't quite fair that America should be left to carry all the burden of aiding all the countries that underdeveloped. And so we now have for a number of years been trying to play our part, but our part is directed to the countries of South and Southeast Asia, whereas yours of course is more or less worldwide. What, to get back to the military situation, sir, what would happen if, as far as the operation of the American-Australian-New Zealand treaty was concerned, excuse me, if war broke out in the Pacific tomorrow? Well, I presume the treaty would be invoked, and each of the countries would have then to go through its ordinary constitutional processes. You would have to go through your Congress, of course, the Senate. It would have to go through our Parliament. But having made this arrangement in advance, I think that automatically we would all be aiding each other in the common struggle. One final question, sir. Many experts say that if Third World War does come, it will break in the Pacific. What do you think are the prospects of it, and what do you think is the best way to prevent it? Well, I think it's only the people in Moscow who could really answer that question, and I'm not in their confidence, I'm afraid. But I think the various treaties, such as this American-Australian-New Zealand treaty, your treaty with the Philippines and the other treaties that exist, they're all deterrents. They all tend to stop war breaking out, because people know in advance that they'll be up against a collection of countries, and not any one country in particular. Thank you very much indeed, sir. The opinions that you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Edward P. Morgan and Larry LaSere, both of the CBS television news staff. Our distinguished guest was the right Honorable Richard G. Casey, Australian Minister of External Affairs. As with so many championship sports events in all fields, the official watch for the world's heavyweight title at the Polo Grounds between Rocky Marciano and Roland LaSterza was launching the world's most honored watch in the world of sport. Now, if you're one of the millions who follow championship boxing bouts like this one, whether for timing an international sports event or for your own personal use, Laun Jean is logically your watch of first choice among the fine watches of the world. The facts are that among the world's fine watches, Laun Jean watches alone have won ten World's Fair Grand Prizes, twenty-eight gold medals, highest honors for accuracy from leading government observatories. And so, when next you buy a very fine watch, either for yourself or as an important gift, remember these facts. And remember, too, that although it is one of the very finest watches made anywhere in the world, you can buy a Laun Jean watch for as little as seventy-one fifty. Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, the world's most honored gift, premier product of the Laun Jean Witner Watch Company since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening at this same time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Witner, distinguished companion watch to the world's honored Laun Jean. This is Frank Knight reminding you that Laun Jean and Witner watches are sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem. Agency for Laun Jean Witner Watches. There's only one Jack Benny and he's on the CBS television network.