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Salient. The Newspaper of Victoria University College. Vol. 20, No. 7. August 9, 1956
[Introduction]
Twenty-nine countries were represented at the Asian-African students' conference at Bandung, Indonesia, May 30 to June 7. New Zealand received no invitation to send representatives, and Australia received an invitation the day before the conference commenced. It is understood that the only strong opposition to Australia and New Zealand being invited was expressed by Chinese delegates on the International Preparatory Committee, and that in the face of this opposition the other countries on the committee conveniently decided not to press what they considered to be a perfectly valid case for our invitation.
The Australian National Union then wrote requesting: an invitation and were told they could send a press observer. Their International Affairs Vice-president immediately flew to the conference and was successful in gaining observer status.
Australian student newspaper reports indicate that from the point of view of Australia and New Zealand the conference was worse than a complete failure.
Information from various sources has been collated to give the following picture of the conference.