Crusading Communist lawyer, Elliott Johnston , who died in Adelaide this week at the age of 93 ,had a close association with the late Territory editor James Frederick Bowditch, pictured right. Johnston , a QC, became a judge of the SA Supreme Court and headed the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
As editor of the Centralian Advocate, Bowditch chaired an Alice Springs Peace Council meeting held by Johnston’s sister , Marjorie , in June 1951. Miss Johnston had recently returned from an international Peace Congress in Warsaw. With her in Alice was Mrs Esther Meaney, president of the Darwin Housewives Association, who was to accompany Miss Johnston in the Territory. Mrs Meaney, the wife of a waterside worker, had been the NT delegate to the 1950 Australian Peace Council in Melbourne , attended by the Dean of Canterbury,dubbed the “Red Dean “ because he had written favourably about Russia .
The Alice meeting was attended by the ASIO Darwin chief ,Mr Mooney, and his secretary who took notes throughout. Also present was Bowditch’s longtime friend,lawyer Dick Ward ,who became a judge of the NT Supreme Court . It being the time of the Korean War and the Menzies Government trying to abolish the Communist Party in Australia,it was a controversial meeting.
In February 1952, Bowditch , facing a crisis in his life following the break up of his first marriage , drove to Adelaide, uncertain of his future. ASIO records seen by Little Darwin show that Bowditch was kept under surveillance and that he was "believed" to be temporarily residing at the Elliott Johnston residence .The Bowditch car was observed parked outside on three nights from early morning until late at night, when surveillance was discontinued.
In 1983,John Mortimer , the lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey, met Elliott Johnston in Brisbane, just before he was to be made a judge of the SA Supreme Court . Mortimer subsequently wrote that Johnston’s appointment , without him not having to sever his connection as a paid up member of the Communist Party, was a sign of enlightenment in Australia. His appointment would show that some Communists were not “little Red monsters from outer space” or moles in endlessly incomprehensible English spy stories.
Bowditch was often called a “Commie”, as was Dick Ward –dubbed “ Red Richard” – and both ,like Johnston, his late wife and his sister, fought to make the world a better and safer place and to improve the lives of working people. Penelope Debelle wrote RED SILK The Life of Elliott Johnston QC, published by Wakefield Press. (More details of Bowditch’s involvement with the Johnstons and ASIO comments will be supplied in the continuing Little Darwin serialisation of the Bowditch saga .)
As editor of the Centralian Advocate, Bowditch chaired an Alice Springs Peace Council meeting held by Johnston’s sister , Marjorie , in June 1951. Miss Johnston had recently returned from an international Peace Congress in Warsaw. With her in Alice was Mrs Esther Meaney, president of the Darwin Housewives Association, who was to accompany Miss Johnston in the Territory. Mrs Meaney, the wife of a waterside worker, had been the NT delegate to the 1950 Australian Peace Council in Melbourne , attended by the Dean of Canterbury,dubbed the “Red Dean “ because he had written favourably about Russia .
The Alice meeting was attended by the ASIO Darwin chief ,Mr Mooney, and his secretary who took notes throughout. Also present was Bowditch’s longtime friend,lawyer Dick Ward ,who became a judge of the NT Supreme Court . It being the time of the Korean War and the Menzies Government trying to abolish the Communist Party in Australia,it was a controversial meeting.
In February 1952, Bowditch , facing a crisis in his life following the break up of his first marriage , drove to Adelaide, uncertain of his future. ASIO records seen by Little Darwin show that Bowditch was kept under surveillance and that he was "believed" to be temporarily residing at the Elliott Johnston residence .The Bowditch car was observed parked outside on three nights from early morning until late at night, when surveillance was discontinued.
In 1983,John Mortimer , the lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey, met Elliott Johnston in Brisbane, just before he was to be made a judge of the SA Supreme Court . Mortimer subsequently wrote that Johnston’s appointment , without him not having to sever his connection as a paid up member of the Communist Party, was a sign of enlightenment in Australia. His appointment would show that some Communists were not “little Red monsters from outer space” or moles in endlessly incomprehensible English spy stories.
Bowditch was often called a “Commie”, as was Dick Ward –dubbed “ Red Richard” – and both ,like Johnston, his late wife and his sister, fought to make the world a better and safer place and to improve the lives of working people. Penelope Debelle wrote RED SILK The Life of Elliott Johnston QC, published by Wakefield Press. (More details of Bowditch’s involvement with the Johnstons and ASIO comments will be supplied in the continuing Little Darwin serialisation of the Bowditch saga .)
