THE REVERSAL IN GREECE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23318, 2 May 1941, Page 10

THE REVERSAL IN GREECE

Frank Discussion In Australia WAR CABINET’S STRONG CASE (F.0.0.C.) SYDNEY, April 24. Frank discussion .of the Government’s policy, sanctioning the dispatch of Australian troops to Greece, is promised when the Federal Parliament meets. The Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Fadden, said this would be as soon as possible, and long before the pre-viously-arranged date of May 28. The position is "enerally well understood, and it is admitted that the War Cabinet will have a strong case for its actions. What that case is can only be guessed at, but political observers consider their analysis of the position will prove the correct one. They conclude that when it was, first suggested that troops should be sent to Greece, the Australian Government asked that the British Government’s military advisers, including the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Dill, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Forces in the Middle East, General Sir Archibald Wavell, should make a report on the position from the military point of view, to the specific exclu* sion of any such political considerations as those arising from any pledge Great Britain might have given to Greece. The advice which the Government is understood to have received from these expert advisers was that a force could be sent to Greece, that the transfer of Australians from Egypt to Greece would not involve the risking of the ground which had been won in Cyrenaica, and that no strong German move in Cyrenaica* need be feared until the English autumn. The Australian Government, it is also believed, received full assurances about the equipment and support of the Australian forces. An undertaking was,also given that should the Greek campaign end unsuccessfully, satisfactory plans were in existence for the evacuation of dur troops. Government Hesitated Even after it had received all these assurances, the Commonwealth Government hesitated before finally committing itself to the expedition. After the. actual transfer of the troops to Greece had begun, the Germans made their advance from Tripoli. This completely surprised the military advisers on whose recommendations the Government had acted. It also, it is understood, necessitated the diversion back to Egypt of troops originally intended for Greece/ If that is the text of the Government’s answer, then every Australian who feels our part in the fight against Nazism is inseparable from that_o£ Britain’s can voice no criticism. Tms is no time for recrimination, and Labour members who may be counted on to demand a full explanation of the Government’s action, are unlikely to make it a political issue, Apart from recognising.that the Government has, a strong case, they realise that acrimony would provide propaganda material for the enemy and create a bad impression in United States public opinion. ■ . „• >Mr Fadden’s official statement on the: council meeting was that a review of, “the international and local positiori’’ had taken up all the time available. A general survey had been made of everything associated with local defence, including supply,, munitions, and manpower. He said that “the circumstances and full story of Greece” would be revealed at the apin Greece has raised more strongly than ever the issue of an Australian National Government. Labour, members of the War Council were, at first, resentful that the War Cabinet had acted without confiding in or consulting the council on the decision to send Australian forces to, Greece.. But Mr Fadden pointed put that it was a question of high policy, demanding the strictest secrecy, and one only for those who were prepared to share in the responsibility to decide. This was admitted by Dr. Evatt, a Labour member of the War Council, when he said that it was > essential, m the overwhelming emergency of-the present, that his colleagues and himself should.be asked to act as councillors whose one duty was to save the country from disaster. For the council, with its five Labour members, to accept executive powers, means a step closer to a National Government, but there is nothing to indicate that the Australian Labour Party executive’is prepared to call another conference to review its opposition last year to a non-party Government The death on Wednesday of, the Federal United Australia Party whip, Mr J. Price, leaves the Government open to defeat In the House of Re-' presentatives and' Labour could take j complete power if it desired, but such a step, it is considered, might do immeasUrable harm to the Allied cause. The Government is still anxious to v have .'Parliamentary unity and. it/Is understood, is prepared to give the Op-, position hatf the Beatsd(n the National Government. ' Most people are now wondering what further shocks and reversals will be necessary to, force Labour to accept a full share in the responsibility of governing the country.