In 1955 Frank joined the Australian government's immigration information service.

 

In 1956 he was appointed information attaché at Australia House, London, where he had responsibility for Australian immigration publicity in Britain, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

 

In 1960 he was appointed press attaché to the Australian Embassy in Germany with responsibility for publicity in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

 

He returned to Canberra in 1965 and transferred to the Australian diplomatic service. Because of his knowledge of European affairs and his fluency in German and French, he spent his diplomatic career alternating between postings in Germany and Canberra spending until he retired in 1980.

 

“When I was press attaché at the Australian Embassy, Bonn, on one occasion I had to meet the Minister for Immigration, Sir Alexander Downer, in Vienna after doing some work in Switzerland. I took the early morning flight from Zurich to Vienna and, as usual, travelled in casual clothes, with a suit in my luggage. My travelling companion was always as bottle of Ballantine’s whisky – chosen because it was a square bottle which would not roll around in the suitcase.

 

I was to meet Downer at the Embassy at mid-day and my timing was impeccable – I checked in at my hotel at 11.15, which would allow me time to change and get to the Embassy by mid-day. To my horror, when I opened my suitcase I was hit by whisky fumes and I found the whisky bottle had broken and my clothes were saturated with whisky. I had to decide quickly which would be worse – to meet Downer dressed in slacks, sports shirt and wind cheater or in a suit which reeked of whisky. I chose the suit, but I was never convinced that Downer believed my story when I apologised for the whisky smell.

 

By an odd twist of fate, some years later I met Downer at a cocktail party in London, when he was High Commissioner. We had quite a long chat about a bloke he disliked, because, in Downer’s view, he was dishonest. The bloke was Harold Wilson, Britain’s Prime Minister. Throughout the chat, an overpowering smell of (yes) scent wafted from Downer.

 

After our visit to China, the Chinese Embassy in Bonn took quite an interest in us and eventually we were invited to dinner with the Ambassador. We dutifully ploughed through the first few courses without having the faintest idea of what we were eating, but then a course arrived which we had no trouble identifying – it was goldfish, one each, about 30 cm long and fat. The Ambassador and his wife tucked into theirs with gusto and Joy and I tried to do the same, but it was ghastly. It was hard to cut, tough, full of bones and the taste was nauseating. Boiled boot would have been haute cuisine compared with this.

 

After dinner we sat around drinking some really presentable liqueurs while the ambassador told us in perfect German what he thought of the Russians, which wasn’t much. It seemed odd to hear from a communist diplomat such trenchant criticism of another communist country.

 

Next day Joy and I had upset tummies, but that happened quite often after dinners where we had to eat the national dishes of our hosts.

 

The high cost of illness in a communist country!

When we were in China I was taken to hospital in Peking with a tummy illness of some sort, due to the strange food we had eaten in Mongolia or back in Moscow.

 

Anyhow, I spent stayed three days in hospital with a dear little Chinese lady doctor at my bedside most of the time. The service and attention I got was amazing, probably because we had only recently started diplomatic relations with China and they did not want to lose a diplomat.

 

When I was leaving I asked for the bill and I worked it out at about 30 Australian cents for the hospital and about 30 Australian cents for the medical attention. When I queried this, they explained: “Normally it would be free, but since you come from a capitalist country we thought you would feel happier paying something”.