Jim Coulter. Born in Perth in 1922. 100 and so far, so good. My father, John McCrae Coulter was the first person "to show motion pictures in Western Australia." So free movies every Friday night. Not every Saturday night. His first cinema was the Capitol Theater. "That was an independent that Dad and another person launched." "It was, you know, the Depression years and so instead of getting usherettes" he got ushers. And something like three or five thousand lined up and went round and Dad said, "“Every one of you will be interviewed and you'll all have an equal chance”." There were 30 jobs. "That was the picture of the Depression for me." "Theater managers and bookmakers, I think, were" "the ones that were never broke because people had to have a turn up." I was dolled up like, you know, clothes and shoes and so on. "In the school photos you see quite a lot of them without shoes." "My mother, I have very fond memories, but I was seven when she died." Pleurisy and pneumonia. No antibiotics in those days. "So they came with what they called ‘the crisis’." And you either got through or you didn't. And she didn't, you know. "So a little bit later Rose came onto the scene." They married and she became my stepmother. "We were both competing for Dad's affections and also she came from a" pretty tough background and I [could] be "described as a ‘smart alec’ rather, and so," "you know, we were sort of just not not a natural mix." "But eventually she finished up a very dear friend and that's another story." I went away for a school camp "and some people came who said that they were" from Moral Re-Armament. “Moral Re-Armament?” I said. What sort of morals? They said like absolute honesty, purity and selfishness and love. "I said, “Gee, I think I'm living the opposite to all four of them”." Where did you get them? "And they told me they came from the Sermon on the Mount." "Now there’s a Mount Street In Perth, so I said, “Which" "church in Mount Street was it?” They were kindly, they said, “No" "it was given abroad actually Jim some time ago." You can find it in Matthew 5, 6 and 7”. I'd never opened the Bible before. I did. "I read down to where it said, “If you looked at a woman" "and lust after her you already committed the act in your heart”." I said, “That’s absolute... and shut the Bible. That was the start of an adventure. Frank Buchman was the man who initiated Moral Re-Armament "initiated Moral Re-Armament and he didn't set" "about to create a movement, but he set about creating change" "and the next person you met, and passing it on, you know." "It became much more than that, and the object of" "it was very simple, that if you want to change the world," "you need to change human nature and the place to start is with yourself." Every man, every woman, "Every man, every woman, every child in Holland." every child in Holland. Holland, a miracle among the nations. I apologized to Rose's daughter "about treating her badly because I didn't like her mother." And then she "decided she’d try and do something about her life" "so she apologized to her mother for never doing any housework." "The next thing I knew was Dad said Rose had this amazing talk" "with Wilma, her daughter, and she doesn't care" "what you call what you found, but she wants to know more about it." "So it led to a transformation in Rose’s life." And Dad, who brought me and my brother up "as complete pagans finished up getting a faith through Rose." So it's quite remarkable in the end. "In Perth, I went to the North Perth State School because Dad had heard" "they were the best ones at getting scholarships for Perth Modern School." "And they were successful enough to even succeed with me," "so I then went to Perth Modern School " "so I then went to Perth Modern School and Rita" "who little did I know would become my wife," "she became the head girl so she was the ideal student" "and I was a bit more involved with sport and things." I got a job in the West Australian. I did the paper at night "I did the paper at night when I was going to school" "and then the War came along and, nobody was talking" "about what they're going to do after the war." When they left school, it "was, you know, going into the Army, Navy or the Air Force." So I volunteered for the Air Force, and then I was sent to Britain. I finished up being posted to Coastal Command, flying from Pembroke Dock, "and was a pilot on a Sunderland flying boat." "Australian flying boat squadron was number 10" "and then out of that they made another one [which] was 61." So that was our squadron. So they were basically all Australians. We flew at night. 25 tonnes, crew of 12. Eight depth charges. "Flew 15 hours at a time to sink submarines if we found them." Theory was that we had the latest radar and we could actually see them at night, which they didn't know about at that time. But we stopped sinking submarines because we couldn't find them. During this time, you know, I met Polish fliers who said to me, "“You’ll win your war and we’ll lose our country”." I said, “Don't be cynical to me. "I gave up my job in Perth to come over and try and free your country." "And so did thousands of Australians, so don’t come that!” And they said, “You’re" "a nice young man but you don't understand history or ideology”." "And of course I realized later that they knew" what they were talking about. We had an air marshal come down to give us his "to give us up his ‘up Guards and at ’em’ speech and he tells us" you will be flying in support of D-Day, and we expect 50% casualties. "But I want you to know, for every one of you that die," there'll be hundreds of sailors’ lives "that’ll be saved and thousands of the troops." Do you think we cared about them guys? "Half the squadron went out and got drunk that night." "Yes, and of course, like all these prophesies" "they never happened because all the planes that we're supposed to shoot us down," moved to D-Day. And so we had no casualties at all. I had a very fortunate war. This was the Légion d'Honneur, "which was given to me for taking part in D-Day." "70 years later, the French government gave me Légion d'honneur" for my part in D-Day. "I think really the French had a terrible history pre-war." "You know, they kept on changing governments and corruption and so on." "France had to start again at the end of the war." "And really this Légion d’honneur was really to show" "what they'd done with the chance they were given by the war." I'm very grateful to have it. The day after the war finished, I circled "an island off France, and all the kids went in" "and when they found out we were ‘goodies’ they came out with tricolors" "that they had made to celebrate the end of the war, and wave the flags." And with this 25 tonne flying boat "at about 100 feet we circled for about 20 minutes." There were some "real ‘toughies’ on our crew and I don't think there was a single one" "that was dry eyed because this was what we were supposed to be doing." The European war had just finished but we were not at all "happy with the thought of going out and fighting the Japanese." "And, you know, there were sorts of strange things..." "They are going to use Sunderlands as dive bombers over there, you know." "People have written philosophical statements about the" "dropping of the atom bombs... but as far as we were concerned," "it finished the war and were we were relieved." "I don't remember, for myself or anybody else," "going through all the moral pros and cons. No." It's... All the real bits are so real you don't really want to go back to them, go back to them, and many people in my experience, are damaged psychologically and and not, not the people they were when they went. And so it's it's stripped bare. "You want to put a lot of effort into seeing it doesn't happen again," rather than spending a great deal of time reminiscing about the past. First day I got back, I met Ben Chifley. "I gave him a colossal lecture of what Australia should do and" had all these riches and everything. Wasn’t just meant to be for us and so on. "So then I said, “Excuse me, I’ve given you a bit of a lecture, but" it's what's been going on in my mind "because I've been wondering if I should actually" resign my job and do something about it”. "And he pulled a pipe out of his mouth and said, “If I were you, young fellow," "I’d back your hunch and give it a go.”" "I’d back your hunch and give it a go.” And I'd met" "Curtin in London during the War, and I felt both those men" cared for me more than I cared for them. "And I had a strange thought: who cares for the people" who are in leadership positions? "So I thought I heard a voice saying you’re meant to." Yeah. in the meantime, I'd found a faith. I actually resigned my job on the paper "I actually resigned my job on the paper and I" went across to Europe and helped, so did Rita, "so did Rita, help create a center where people come who were in the war" and so on, run by Moral Re-Armament and which I'd heard about at school. Frank Buchman, I met him when I... coming back from the war, and I made it clear to him "that I, and the man that I was traveling with" "whose name was Gordon Wise, that really we were" bits of talent "that were available when the war had finished." "We didn't really know what we were going to do and" we wanted to do something in the world. And I thought he’d gobble us up, you know. "And he, not once but twice, let my purple prose" flow by without picking it up... "And then I later thought about it and I thought, he wants me" to get my call from God, and not... "He used to say that Moral Re-Armament wasn't his, it was God’s." "And so there's this an example of it you see." And so in the end, Gordon and I both did get our call. "One thing led to another, and so Rita and I were invited to go" "to Switzerland where they were getting a very big conference center together." "All the people, particularly that have been fighting one another together." So we actually did that for six or seven years. The Army of Occupation sent 300 from Germany, another 400 or so from France. "But Rita and I were often the host and hostess" at the table where there was another two couples. One was from France, one was from Germany. "And we never found one of those that have ever met somebody from the other country." "You know that for two or 300 years, they'd been fighting," "you know, and so when you actually got down to it," they'd never met in an ordinary way. "We Australians have imperishable traditions." We shall maintain them. We shall vindicate them. We shall hold this country "and keep it as a citadel for the British speaking race." "When we fought and changed the White Australia policy," "which was an issue that I with other people put a lot of effort into," "and we said to our cabinet that our immigration policy" "should be based on character, not colour. And" so I mean, I was sent off to the war and every person "that went abroad, you know, 20,000 what ever it was, 50,000." They were all given the same message. "You were meant to tell everybody that you come from a country" that is 98.6% of Anglo-Celtic background. "I mean, we never, ever used that phrase, but" that was the official line. And Malcolm Fraser, I knew him and I said to him that "I had these two guests coming to Australia." "One was Rajmohan Gandhi who was the grandson of the Mahatma," "and the other one was Madame Laure, who was one of the French" "resistance leaders and had done a great deal" "during the war, through the conferences that we had in Switzerland," to bring both France and Germany together. "And they were coming out over the Christmas period" "and he said, “Oh, that's a pity, there will be nobody in their offices”." "But I said, “Well, yeah, but they'll be in their homes, wouldn’t they?”" "So he said, “Oh yes, I suppose so.” So I said, “Could I" down to Nareeen?” which was his property. “Oh, yeah. Yes”, he said. "So, so I was a little bit cheeky but anyway..." mother was very conservative and "she started speaking about how I think everybody would agree" "that the basic problems of the world came from the socialists." So I felt my moment had come. "So I said, “Look, I think you should know the lady sitting on the couch with you" "was the Secretary of the Socialist Women of France”." "And Tamie then comes in and says, “Yes, and I suppose you're all socialists”." Like, ‘who gives a damn’. Malcolm brought it back to order and he said, "do they feel about us in Asia now The White Australia policy" has gone?” Malcolm, he was many different people. And there was a lot of... I mean, he had a tremendous feeling for the Aboriginal people for instance. And then I find out from Tamie that he had "a terribly isolated growing up in a very backwards property" "and so on, and the only two friends he had were" two Aboriginal boys, you see. "I very often felt that there was another person" entirely that was much more worthy than the one that was put about. He and John Gorton had a great falling out and "falling out and Malcolm Fraser resigned from the cabinet" "but also brought him [Gorton] down as Prime Minister." "And I saw him [Malcolm] and said, “You know, look," "I really feel that both of you are great people" "and I think that your divided in this way is a tragedy for the country” and so on." So then he told me what he had said in Parliament and I "said, “But did you say that all to him before" you said it in Parliament?” "you said it in Parliament?” So he said, “Yes”." I said, “Including the last sentence?” The last sentence was "was, “this man is not fit to be prime minister of Australia”." So he said, “No, I didn't say that. Do you think I should apologize?” "Do you think I should apologize?” So I said, “Well I don't know," but I'm sure God does”. "I've never known whether he did or he didn't." We got engaged to be married the night before I went abroad for two years service in Britain. Her father wasn't very keen on the idea "because he had gone through the First World War" as a teenager and there were so many young men who "got engaged or got married as they left, who never came back." "That's on my right hand side, that’s Philip." Oldest son. "Oldest son And there's Rita in the middle and Gordon flanking her." Well, "we told one another everything there was to know about each other." "We had a sense of humour, which I think helped us" "to laugh some times or otherwise we might’ve gone the other way." She said to me not long before she died. “Met at 16. Here we are, 100. That's a very long journey. Very long journey. And I don't think we're the type.” Never told me what the type was. I think she felt we were still young at heart.