Ex-Australian Premier Sings Blues After Memphis Robbery

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was quoted Friday as saying that he was drugged and robbed during a recent visit to Memphis, Tenn. His experience was front-page news in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Fraser in an interview from his farm near Melbourne as saying that he was robbed of his passport, wallet, suitcase and trousers Oct. 14 after he made a speech to the Economic Club of Memphis on “Can The Western Alliance Maintain Peace?”

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that Fraser, prime minister from 1972 to 1983, had appeared in the Admiral Benbow Inn lobby wearing only a shirt, tie and a towel wrapped around his waist. Fraser borrowed a pair of pants from a bellman before departing in a taxi, the newspaper said.

No Police Report

Memphis police said they had no report of the incident.

“I wish I’d never heard of bloody Memphis,” the Morning Herald quoted Fraser as saying.

The former prime minister’s experience also was the subject of several radio and television commmentaries.

The Morning Herald quoted Fraser as saying he could not remember the night’s events in detail. He said he went to another hotel, the Peabody, after the Economic Club dinner but could remember little more.

“The dinner meeting finished about 9 p.m. and I asked what there was to see,” he said. “I was told Memphis was the home of the blues and that Beale Street was the place. Somebody said I should see the Peabody.”

‘Everything Blank’

The Morning Herald quoted him as saying “everything after the Peabody is a blank,” and that he was drugged and robbed. Fraser did not elaborate.

“There’s nothing I can say,” he said. “I had no sense of balance that day, which I had never experienced before.”

“I spoke to a friend of mine in New York. He said it happens all the time. But it always happens to someone else. When it happens to you, it’s not very pleasant,” the Morning Herald quoted Fraser as saying.