The People's Republic of China 

Chapter 7-Vietnam Vietcong→ Murdered for Mao: The killings China ‘forgot’

In a profoundly precarious situation, my small gestures of compassion may have unexpectedly become a lifeline. After being coerced into denouncing myself as a US aggressor and a supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, I found myself under the watchful eye of the Red Guards aboard the ship. They stood poised, ever vigilant, two days away from my fate, the tension palpable against the backdrop of my reality.

When instructed to write to my parents, I filled 22 pages with my truth, revealing my complexities and the depth of my life, including my relationship with a woman far removed from the saintly image my parents held. It was crucial for me to be honest, to let them see the raw fabric of my life, no matter how uncomfortable.

Amidst the daunting watch of the guards, I noticed something that weighed heavily on my conscience: the stark reality of starvation around me. While the crew indulged in their meals, I couldn't help but watch as scraps tumbled into the sea, a stark contrast to the hunger that loomed just moments away. The sight of Red Guards' longing glances toward the discarded food stirred a deep-seated empathy within me, a compulsion to act.

Thus began my small, deliberate acts of rebellion—a metallic tray bearing leftover food, placed thoughtfully on the deck. I would signal my satisfaction, patting my belly, allowing me to slip away unnoticed, only to return later to find the tray licked clean. In those delicate moments, I felt a strange connection with the guards. They were no longer mere watchers; perhaps, through sharing these meager offerings, a silent bond was formed.

Looking back, I can’t help but wonder: did my simple act of saving food ultimately save my life? In a world rife with dehumanisation and despair, perhaps it was these small gestures of kindness that softened the harsh reality. No words needed to be spoken; in those quiet exchanges, we bridged an invisible chasm. In the precarious balance between survival and despair, my humble offerings of sustenance may have shaped my fate in ways I am only beginning to understand. 

British Seaman’s Record R744269 -  Open Letter to PM File No 1 Alan Smith's Seaman. 

 

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The People's Republic of China 

Murdered for Mao: The killings China ‘forgot’

 

I have addressed this China issue on the absentjustice.com homepage because it is directly linked to my arbitration from 1994 to 1995—a dark chapter in a scandal that spans decades. During this time, I uncovered disturbing evidence regarding former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's complicity in allowing Australian wheat to be shipped to communist China. This betrayal occurred while he was Minister for the Army in 1967. 

What information was removed from the Malcolm Fraser FOI-released document 

 

A Promise Betrayed: Twenty-One Years of Silence

What remains both alarming and unacceptable is what followed. When I presented this interception evidence to six senior government bureaucrats, they made a political bargain. They assured Senator Barnaby Joyce—acting on behalf of Senator Helen Coonan—that if he provided the critical Senate vote needed by the Howard government in 2005, they would ensure this evidence was addressed in the 2006 Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA) government arbitration review assessment process.

That promise was made twenty-one years ago.

Since then, there has been no transparent investigation. Only a letter from the Minister for Communications telling me to take Telstra to court for intercepting faxes during and after my 1994 arbitration process.

On 17 May 2007, after I alerted The Hon. Senator Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, that David Lever from her office had not fulfilled his promise to alert the relevant authorities concerning the screening of my faxes to Federal government ministers including, which included my faxes to the Hon Peter Costello, Australia's Federal Treasure and the submission of fraudulently submitted claims during my arbitration, Senator Coonan wrote back to me, noting:

"I have now made both formal and informal representations to Telstra on behalf of the CoTs. However, Telstra’s position remains that this is a matter that is most appropriately dealt with through a Court process. Telstra is not prepared to undertake an alternative means of pursuing this matter. I also appreciate the depth of feeling regarding the matter and suggest you consider whether any court proceedings may be your ultimate option". (Refer to exhibit AS 616-B  File  AS-CAV Exhibits 648-a to 700       

•  My office and residence 

•  The offices of several Senators and Politicians 

•  The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office

•  Why was it deemed acceptable for an Australian citizen to be forced to take legal action against Telstra for unlawfully intercepting documents during a government-endorsed arbitration?

•  How could Telstra justify interpreting my faxes to government ministers three years after my arbitration had concluded?

The evidence within this report Open Letter File No/12 and File No/13) also indicated that one of my faxes sent to Federal Treasurer Peter Costello was similarly intercepted, i.e.,

Exhibit 10-C → File No/13 in the Scandrett & Associates report Pty Ltd fax interception report (refer to (Open Letter File No/12 and  File No/13) confirms my letter of 2 November 1998 to the Hon Peter Costello Australia's then Federal Treasure was intercepted scanned before being redirected to his office. These intercepted documents to government officials were not isolated events, which, in my case, continued throughout my arbitration, which began on 21 April 1994 and concluded on 11 May 1995. Exhibit 10-C File No/13 shows this fax hacking continued until at least 2 November 1998, more than three years after the conclusion of my arbitration.

 

What is eerily chilling and profoundly disturbing is the intricate, treacherous web of deceit that unfolded from this situation. In 2006, I presented irrefutable evidence that arbitration-related faxes were not just intercepted but meticulously screened by a secondary fax machine from 1994 to at least 1998. These crucial documents were ultimately rerouted, but some were intentionally kept from the arbitration process altogether. As a result, the claims of the innocent were ruthlessly left without any fair assessment during their arbitrations from 1994 to 1998.

And then, like a dark shadow cast over justice, history repeats itself during the 2006 DCITA assessment process. It became shockingly clear that a covert conspiracy thrived among at least five, possibly six, government bureaucrats. These individuals engaged in a calculated operation to obliterate at least two critical written claim submissions containing my damning evidence. They preserved these files for 18 long months before coldly disposing of them, all without ever bothering to open the seals or acknowledge their explosive contents, as recounted in "The eighth remedy pursued."

This appalling miscarriage of justice is meticulously documented in "The eighth remedy pursued." I strongly urge you to scroll down to the relevant section, for it is impossible to overlook.

This treachery raises a chilling thought: other claimants may have suffered similar fates, with their vital evidence submerged in a sinister shroud of corruption before the DCITA bureaucrats could ever determine whether our claims for punitive damages were fully justified.

It was essential to highlight the corruption of Australian bureaucrats on the Home Page, not just because they were willing to send Australian wheat to China over fifty years ago, despite knowing it could contribute to the killing and maiming of Australian troops and their allies, as I previously described. As you read further into my COT story, you will see that Pata Credlin's statements in her news media release on May 23, 2021, have merit and substance.

 

 

These were the same breed of bureaucrats that, on May 23, 2021, Peta Credlin, former Chief Advisor to the Hon Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia, and now a prominent Australian media figure and TV host, wrote an engaging article in the Herald Sun newspaper titled: 

“Now that the Prime Minister is considering a wider public service reshuffle in the wake of the foreign affairs department's head, Finances Adamson, becoming the next governor of South Australia, it's time to scrutinise the faceless bureaucrats who are often more powerful in practice than the elected politicians.

Outside of the Canberra bubble, almost no one knows their names. But take it from me, these people matter.

When ministers turn over with bewildering rapidity, or are not ‘take charge’ types, department secretaries, and the deputy secretaries below them, can easily become the de facto government of our country.  

Since the start of the 2013, across Labor and now Liberal governments, we’ve had five prime ministers, five treasurers, five attorneys-general, seven defence ministers, six education ministers, four health ministers and six trade Ministers.”

I found this article to be somewhat alarming, to put it mildly. Alarming because Peta Credlin has hit the nail squarely on the head and I can not only relate to the information she writes about, but I can also link it to the many bureaucrats and politicians I have met since this debacle first began, i.e. before, during and after my arbitration, who have continued to ignore the evidence now attached to this website, Absentjustice.com.  Ms Credlin’s article is also particularly alarming in relation to her statement that:

“When ministers turn over with bewildering rapidity or are not ‘take charge’ types, department secretaries and the deputy secretaries below them, can easily become the de facto government of our country". 

Anzac Reflections: Wheat, War, and the Weight of Conscience
On 25 April 2025, as Australia solemnly commemorated Anzac Day—a sacred occasion honouring the soldiers who gave everything for our freedom—I invite you to explore the link → Flash Backs – China-Vietnam. On this day of national remembrance, I ask you to pause and reflect on the heavy emotions many of us carry. For some, like myself, the weight is not just grief—it is guilt. A lingering sense that we may have betrayed the brave countrymen sent to endure the unforgiving jungles of North Vietnam.

As I approach my 82nd birthday in May 2026, the days surrounding Anzac Day stir deep introspection. I think of the forlorn seafarers—men like me—who played unseen yet vital roles in a narrative few dare to confront. In 1967, aboard the Hopepeak, we unloaded 13,600 tons of Australian wheat in Communist China. Only later did we learn that some of that grain was being redirected to North Vietnam, where it nourished soldiers engaged in brutal combat against Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. troops.

Sold as humanitarian aid, this wheat became a weapon of unintended consequence. Several of us refused to load another shipment. We were not diplomats or generals—we were seamen with a conscience. Yet our government remained silent. The Minister for Trade and Industry offered no sympathy. The Liberal-Country Party turned a blind eye. And the farmers, whose wheat fed our enemies, were never asked to reckon with the truth.

On 24 April 2025, I watched politicians lay wreaths at the base of statues of fallen warriors. Their gestures felt hollow. The disconnect between ceremonial reverence and the gritty realities of war left me silent and sorrowful. Each year, I step away from the pageantry, haunted by the decisions we made and the truths we uncovered.

Among those truths is a disturbing revelation: Telstra, in its surveillance of my communications, recorded nearly a full A4 page of my conversations with former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser—conversations that were later redacted. In those calls, I recounted my interrogation in Communist China on espionage charges and asked if he remembered my letter dated 18 September 1967, detailing our discovery of Australian wheat being rerouted to North Vietnam.

This chapter of history—painful, complex, and unresolved—demands reflection. It is not just about trade or war. It is about conscience. About the quiet courage of those who refused complicity. And about the enduring responsibility to honour the fallen not just with flowers, but with truth.
For more information, see Chapter 7 – The Vietnam War. → Murdered for Mao: The killings China ‘forgot’

British Seaman’s Record R744269 -  Open Letter to PM File No 1 Alan Smith's Seaman. 

The Canadian government and its moral code of ethics.   

By hovering your mouse over the Canadian flag image below, you can also learn about the strong ethical principles upheld by Canadian seamen. Despite facing significant challenges, they believed that sending wheat to Communist China—especially when that wheat was being redeployed to North Vietnam, a country at war with Australia, New Zealand, and the USA, where hundreds of troops were being killed or mained—was immoral and unethical, and therefore should not have continued.

Yet the Australian Government made a conscious decision to maintain its trade relations with Communist China, despite knowing that a significant portion of Australia’s wheat was being diverted to North Vietnam. This wheat was not merely a trade commodity; it had the potential to sustain North Vietnamese soldiers who were directly engaged in combat against Australia and its allies during the conflict. The ramifications of this trade raised serious ethical questions about the implications of supporting a nation that was opposing Australian, New Zealand and USA forces.

 

There is a striking and thought-provoking similarity between my narrative of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Canadian perspective on democracy, along with the fundamental concepts of right and wrong that underpin them. This connection is compellingly illustrated in Tianxiao Zhu's meticulously crafted 2021 paper, developed as part of his Ph.D. requirements at the University of Minnesota. During my extensive research for my first manuscript, which ultimately inspired the launch of the website absentjustice.com, I fortuitously discovered Zhu's insightful work. His paper sheds light on a significant trade that took place during the chaotic and turbulent period I was examining.

Footnote 169 → FOOD AND TRADE IN LATE MAOIST CHINA, 1960-1978,

Tianxiao Zhu's Footnote 83, 84, 169: In September 1967, a group of British merchant seamen quit their ship, the Hope Peak, in Sydney and flew back to London. They told the press in London that they quit the job because of the humiliating experiences to which they were subjected while in Chinese ports. They also claimed that grain shipped from Australia to China was being sent straight on to North Vietnam. One of them said,“I have watched grain going off our ship on conveyor belts and straight into bags stamped North Vietnam. Our ship was being used to take grain from Australia to feed the North Vietnamese. It’s disgusting.” (my emphasis)84. The Minister of Trade and Industry received an inquiry about the truth of the story in Parliament, to which the Minister pointed out that when they left Australia, the seamen only told the Australian press that they suffered such intolerable maltreatment in various Chinese ports that they were fearful about going back. But after they arrived in London, Vietnam was added to their story. Thus the Minister claimed that he did not know the facts and did not want to challenge this story, but it seemed to him that their claims about Vietnam seemed to be an “afterthought.” 169 "...In Vancouver, nine sailors refused to work on a grain ship headed to China: two of them eventually returned to work, and the other were arrested. Just when the ship was about to sail, seven more left the ship but three of them later returned to work. In Sydney, six  Canadian sailors left their ship; they resigned and asked to be paid, but the Australian immigration office repatriated them. At that time a grain ship usually had crew members about 40 people. A British ship lost the Chief Officer and sixteen seamen, who told journalists that if the ship were going to the communist countries, they would rather go to jail than work on the ship..

Examining this wheat agreement made with the People's Republic of China during the Menzies government in the mid-1960s is essential. This controversial deal had significant implications, which were obscured by a government campaign to discredit British and Canadian merchant seamen, including myself. These brave individuals tried every conceivable legal way to expose this illicit diversion of wheat to North Vietnam. 

Instead of receiving praise and support for their stance, they were slandered by the Liberal Coalition government of the time. Twenty-seven years later, the same government allowed five Australian citizens, out of twenty-one who had faced similar challenges with Telstra, to have their arbitration claims assessed by the Senate under a litmus test scenario. If the Senate ruled in favour of the litmus test case, the remaining sixteen claimants would be treated equally in that agreement. However, the Coalition government did not honour this understanding. (Refer to An Injustice to the remaining 16 Australian citizens).

The Coalition government followed with a similar campaign, reminiscent of the slanderous tactics they employed during the Communist China episode in 1967. They labelled the claims of the sixteen COT cases as frivolous and referred to the individuals involved as vexatious litigants.

 

 

But let's take a moment to consider the gravity of the situation: how does the author of this narrative, Alan Smith (me) delve into a far more complex and alarming story that involves government officials who, much like those in the COT (Communications and Technology) story, were willing to jeopardize the lives of their fellow Australians? They concealed even more pressing public interest issues that unfolded over thirty years before the events surrounding Telstra and COT. Indeed, some aspects of my story trace back to significant dates between June 28, 1967, and September 18, 1967, when the People's Republic of China arrested me on dubious charges of espionage. My alleged crime stemmed from being seen with a notebook and a pen, where I took meticulous notes about times and dates.

My presence in China was more accidental than intentional; I served as a crew member on the British tramp ship Hopepeak. Our vessel was engaged in the humanitarian task of unloading Australian wheat, which we had loaded at the port of Albany in Western Australia. This shipment was not just ordinary trade; it was sent with the noble intention of alleviating hunger in the suffering nation of China. However, a significant and troubling twist emerged: some of this wheat was redirected to North Vietnam, providing sustenance to the very Viet Cong forces who were at war with Australia, New Zealand, and the United States (refer to Chapter 7-Vietnam Viet Cong).

As a result, we may be left in the dark about the sheer volume of Australian wheat that found its way into the hands of the Vietcong guerrilla forces, who marched through the jungles of North Vietnam, intending to slaughter and maim as many Australian, New Zealand, and USA troops as possible. 

The following three statements taken from a report prepared by Australia's Kim Beasly MP on 4 September 1965 (father of Australia's former Minister of Defence Kim Beasly) only tell part of this tragic episode concerning what I wanted to convey to Malcolm Fraser, former Prime Minister of Australia when I telephoned him in April 1993 and again in April 1994 concerning Australia's wheat deals which I originally wrote to him about on 18 September 1967 as Minister for the Army.

Vol. 87 No. 4462 (4 Sep 1965) - National Library of Australia https://nla.gov.au › nla.obj-702601569 

"The Department of External Affairs has recently published an "Information Handbook entitled "Studies on Vietnam".  It established the fact that the Vietcong are equipped with Chinese arms and ammunition"

If it is right to ask Australian youth to risk everything in Vietnam it is wrong to supply their enemies. The Communists in Asia will kill anyone who stands in their path, but at least they have a path."

Australian trade commssioners do not so readily see that our Chinese trade in war materials finances our own distruction. NDr do they see so clearly that the wheat trade does the same thing."  .   

Arbitration Flashbacks

My arbitration with Telstra was particularly challenging, as it reignited painful memories I had long buried. The Freedom of Information documents I received from Telstra at the start of this process served as a trigger, bringing back flashbacks of my experiences, including being held under armed guard. This traumatic experience profoundly impacted my well-being and state of mind during the arbitration proceedings → British Seaman’s Record R744269 -  Open Letter to PM File No 1 Alan Smith's Seaman.

Among the documents I retrieved from Telstra, I found one particularly alarming file that I later shared with the Australian Federal Police. This document contained a record of my phone conversation with Malcolm Fraser, the former Prime Minister of Australia. To my dismay, this Telstra file had undergone redaction. Despite the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s insistence that I should have received this critical information under the Freedom of Information Act, the document and hundreds of other requested FOI documents remain withheld from me as of 2025.

What information was removed from the Malcolm Fraser FOI-released document 

The AFP believed Telstra was deleting evidence at my expense 

During my first meetings with the AFP, I provided Superintendent Detective Sergeant Jeff Penrose with two Australian newspaper articles concerning two separate telephone conversations with The Hon. Malcolm Fraser, a former Prime Minister of Australia. Mr Fraser reported to the media only what he thought was necessary concerning our telephone conversation, as recorded below:

“FORMER prime minister Malcolm Fraser yesterday demanded Telecom explain why his name appears in a restricted internal memo.

“Mr Fraser’s request follows the release of a damning government report this week which criticised Telecom for recording conversations without customer permission.

“Mr Fraser said Mr Alan Smith, of the Cape Bridgewater Holiday Camp near Portland, phoned him early last year seeking advice on a long-running dispute with Telecom which Mr Fraser could not help.” 

During the second interview conducted by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) at my business on 26 September 1994, I provided comprehensive responses to 93 questions concerning unauthorised surveillance and the threats I endured from Telstra. The Australian Federal Police Investigation File No/1 contains detailed transcripts of this interview, which document the intimidation tactics employed by Telstra’s arbitration liaison officer, Paul Rumble, and the unlawful interception of my telecommunications and arbitration-related faxes.

It is particularly alarming that Paul Rumble and the arbitrator, Dr Gordon Hughes, appeared to operate in collaboration. Dr Hughes supplied Mr Rumble with my arbitration submission materials months before Telstra was entitled to receive them under the terms of the arbitration agreement. This breach of protocol underscores the systemic corruption that infected the COT arbitration process—conducted not as a fair legal proceeding, but as a Kangaroo Court.

This betrayal echoes a broader historical concern: the unknown volume of Australian wheat that may have reached Vietcong guerrilla forces, who used it to sustain their campaign through the jungles of North Vietnam—inflicting unimaginable suffering on Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. troops.

To explore the remaining details of my Telstra story and its haunting intersections with geopolitical betrayal, please continue reading here → Click Chapter 7-Vietnam Vietcong to explore the full archive.