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Australian Govt. Orders Consulates Not to Issue Visa to Rockwell

February 1, 1961
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George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi party, announced here today that he has been invited to address a May Day rally at Sydney, Australia, arranged by the Australian National Workers party. He said that the group is affiliated with an international Nazi organization known as the World Union of Free Enterprise, Nationalist Societies.

According to Rockwell, he will go to Australia if proper “financial arrangements” are made by the officers of the organizations that invited him. He plans to apply for a visa to travel to Australia, he declared, and will ask State Department aid in case he is refused a visa.

Dispatches received here today from Canberra, capital of Australia, reported that both Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies and Minister of Immigration Alexander R. Downer have ordered their American consulates to withhold any visa application that may be filed by Rockwell, pending decision by Australia’s highest officials. Mr. Downer was quoted as saying: “Australia detests all political extremists. If the facts show that this man is a Nazi or neo-Nazi, he would be most unwelcome in our land.”

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