Word: petrov
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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...
...Minister of External Affairs in three successive Labor governments, was once (1948) president of the U.N. General Assembly, and was long a man expected by many to become Prime Minister. But Herbert Evatt's public popularity and political power have been shaking apart since Australia's Petrov spy case broke early last year, just as Evatt, leader of the Labor Party, was fighting to return to power. Spy Petrov, onetime third secretary at the U.S.S.R. embassy in Canberra, revealed that there had been information leaks to Russia from the External Affairs Department during Evatt's leadership, even...
Honest Witness. No one accused tousled Herbert Evatt of any Communist affiliations or pro-Communist leanings. Still, he exploded like an enraged bull before a royal commission that set out to investigate the Petrov revelations (TIME, Sept. 27, 1954), and even questioned the motives of the commission itself when it ruled unanimously last August that Petrov was an honest witness...
Many were astonished at Evatt's tactics, for royal commissions are highly respected institutions in the Commonwealth countries. But Australians were even more astonished last week when Herbert Evatt revealed that he had written to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov asking whether the Petrov documents, with their proof of energetic Soviet espionage, were valid. Said Evatt: "I duly received a reply which informed me that the documents given to the Australian authorities by Petrov 'can only be . . . falsification, fabricated on the instructions of persons interested in the deterioration of Soviet-Australian relations and in discrediting their political opponents...
Profound Naiveté. Australians could only wonder what Evatt thought he was doing. It had been possible for Evatt to claim with some justice that the Petrov case had been unfairly used to defeat his chance of becoming Prime Minister; it was also a fact that the Petrov disclosures had led to no arrests. But to suggest that the word of Moscow should be solicited, let alone be taken seriously, displayed at the least a queer and profound naiveté on the part of a longtime high minister who aspired to govern Australia. It seemed a blunder that could wreck...