[2] The agreement was facilitated by Monsignor George Crennan the National Director of the Federal Catholic Immigration Committee.
On Sunday, 3 March 1963, the Sydney Sun-Herald, published an (unattributed "fake news") article, entitled "Nude Girls Picking Grapes" — allegedly sourced from Mildura, Victoria on the previous day — that reported that "five young Spanish women have been working in the nude at a vineyard near here to beat the heat".
[11] According to García (2002, p. 71), "there were heated discussions about [the article] after Spanish chaplain Father Benigno Martin gave mass in Albion St., Sydney".
Although not reported in the Victorian press, the article was repeated, with some (very minor) stylistic variations, the next day in The Canberra Times, the newspaper of the nation's capital city (full text at right).
[12] The Merbein matter was the subject of one of Molnar's page two editorial cartoons in the Sydney Morning Herald of 6 March 1963.