"the departments of Foreign Affairs, Attorney-General's and Immigration" had conspired to withhold information from him about Croatian separatists in Australia. Murphy wanted to fly immediately to the ASIO headquarters in Melbourne but was delayed at Canberra Airport for several hours. The Director-General of Security (head of ASIO) Peter Barbour was informed of Murphy's intentions at 5:20am and arrived at the Melbourne headquarters of ASIO at 6:45am. 27 Commonwealth Police officers in plain clothes arrived "with orders to seal all file containers" at 7:40am in order to "preserve and ascertain certain information". Murphy arrived at 9:45am and instructed three officers with "special acquaintance with matters of Croatian terrorism" to assist him while the other officers waited outside. It was initially reported that ASIO's switchboard had been disabled or interfered with, however the government later denied these reports. Various files were inspected by Murphy and his staff – without the police – until 12:40pm, when the inspecting party left. They replaced original documents but took "Photostat" copies with them. However, no evidence of conspiracy was found. Later on the 16th, Murphy explained that the reason for the raids had been the safety of the visiting Yugoslavian Prime Minister. According to Murphy the press had been alerted to the investigation of ASIO's headquarters by George Negus, who was then Murphy's press secretary. Footage was obtained of Murphy arriving at the building surrounded by plain clothed police officers. Responses Immediate reaction Politically, the raids on ASIO are said to have ended the new government's 'honey-moon' period by throwing its competency into question. The raid also improved ASIO's image as it was shown that ASIO was not engaged in conspiracy. It also damaged the bilateral relationship between the United States and Australia because of the intelligence exchange between the two states. The Yugoslavian Prime Minister arrived in Australia five days after the raids. At around the same time the Prime Minister's office was fitted with bulletproofed glass and the pregnant wife of Attorney-General Lionel Murphy, Ingrid, went into hiding after a series of death threats. At a reception for the visiting Prime Minister held at The Lodge, Whitlam said: Murphy had indicated on 1 March that he was going to make a statement on the issue of terrorism in Australia. However, the raids delayed this until 27 March. In the Australian Senate he explained that the Whitlam Government saw political violence against persons and property