"Well at home, I didn't go home after the war. I went straight from the islands to Japan and I was there when all things developed so my knowledge of communism in Australia was from reading newspapers and listening to reports and the arguments, particularly the RSL were making the biggest noise about the communist problems and Menzies was talking about communists under bed and using it as a political football as it appears now. But we were pretty well stirred up with the problem that Australia could be in trouble with the communist influence. When I came home to Australia after service in Korea and Japan I felt it there. Everywhere I went there was a general feeling that things weren't going right in this area. I was fairly glad to get out of it and go to Malaya where there was another communist problem on at the time with the emergency."

MAJOR BEN O'DOWD