WILL FORM MINISTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 83, 4 October 1941, Page 10

WILL FORM MINISTRY

DECISION BY CURTIN

FADDEN PROMISES HELP

(Rec; 9 a.m.> CANBERRA. October 3.

Mr. Curtin has accepted the commission to form a Government, and caucus will select a Labour Ministry on Monday. Sir Earle Page, who was recently appointed to visit London, is being recalled from overseas. ! The fall of the Fadden composite Government, although not entirely un- . expected, ' has been ■ received with ' mixed feelings outside Parliament. ■ There is no doubt about how financfal ; and vested interests regard the position ; following Labour's repeated criticism iof the banks and of big industrial or- ; ganisations of the type of the Broken !Hill Proprietary Company, It would 'also appear that there is a very large ; section of the Australian people who 'are at a loss to understand what good .purpose can be served by a change of .Government at the present juncture, who are most anxious .hat Mr. Fadden should be given a proper trial, and 'who are convinced of his capacity to lead the, nation successfully arid worthily. AN OLD DECISION. However, Labour, by reason of its equal numerical strength and the. insistent demand of the New South Wales labour unions, long since resolved to displace'the Government. Its chance came today with the aid of the two Victorian Indepenuents, Messrs, Coles and Wilson. Mr. Fadden tonight waited on the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, tendered his Ministry's resignation, and advised him to commission Mr. Curtin to form a new Administration. • At the same time he assured his Excellency thatjhis party was prepared to extend to tHe hew Government the fullest general support in its war" effort. In a later statement, Mr. Fadden acknowledged the great co-operation he had received from Mr. Curtin, the magnitude of whose task, he said, could not possibly be underestimated. SUPPORT FOR WAR DRIVE. Mr. Fadden said: "I fully appreciate the loyal co-operation which the Labour leader has extended to my Government in the prosecution of the war, and to me while I was Acting Prime Minister. At the same time, I do not consider that the war emergencies of the nation should be used as instruments to advance a peacetime policy directed towards revolutionising the financial structure of the nation. ' "Although the Government was not actually defeated on the Budget, the opportunity was used to create a vital issue. Even Mr. Coles admitted that he had no fault to find with the Budget. His complaint. was of the Government's instability. ■ "It is now "for Mr. Coles to reconcile his statement with the platform and policy of the Labour Party, and for the Labour Party to accept Mr. Coles as a supporter in the light of his own statement. Whether Labour will get better co-operation from him than my Government received remains to be seen."