NEW CONCEPTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 302, 21 December 1943, Page 3

NEW CONCEPTION

: AUSTRALIAN LABOUR i . 1 Peacetime Partnership With ■ Other Nations 5 Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. J Generally hailea as another major political triumph for the Prime Mini- - ster, Mr. Curtin, the results of last j week's Federal Labour Conference . j are regarded by the Sydney Morning - Herald as having much deeper signi--2 ficance. , Commenting editorially, the Herald t says: "For the general moderation of 3 its proceedings, the breadth of its decisions and the modernity of' its - outlook, last week's Federal Aust tralian Labour Party Conference was 1 outstanding among the meetings of the government body of the movement. Past conferences have tended to lag behind and shackle the Parliat mentary party as well as to empha--1 sise Labour sectionalism. The Gani berra convention, in a very large t measure, shook itself free from these . defects. To regard its outcome as a triumph for Mr. Curtin is to nar- „ row down the nature of its success. Rather the triumph was for the good 3 sense of the delegates, who, underT standing that the world about them was changing, did not insist either on enforcing outmoded policies or attempting to bind the future with " rigid formulas. This was especially ' true in the international field. Here ■* the Prime Minister-asked for a free ' hand and got it. His victory was 3 due not to spell-binding tactics, but \ to the conference's simple realisa--1 tion that the old isolationism was dead and that Australia henceforth t must work in closest peacetime partis nership with other nations." \ While the obscure wording of Mr. 1 Curtin's Empire and international " resolution is still being subjected to some criticism, political commenta- - tors are unanimous in stressing the . importance of the resultant scrap- * ping of Labour's outmoded isolation--2 ist policy and of the power which " has been given to the Curtin Govern- , merit to negotiate with the world at large to secure a stable peace.