SENDING ARMS TO MALAYA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25552, 21 July 1948, Page 5

SENDING ARMS TO MALAYA

BOYCOTT THREAT BY SEAMEN’S UNION (Rec. 11.30 p.fti.). SYDNEY, July 20. The Australian Seamen s Union would boycott the transport of arms to Malaya, said the Federal secretary of the union (Mr E. V. Elliott) to-day. He added that repeated requests had been made to the Federal Government asking that the authorities in Malaya be requested not to oppose the formation of industrial unions in Malaya or to try to suppress any such organisations already in existence. If any moves were made to send arms to Malaya, the attitude of the Seamen’s Uiiion would be similar to its attitude when a move was made to send arms to Indonesia to be used against sections striving to form trade Union movements in that area, he said. The Customs authorities at Canberra said to-day that the export of fireatms and ammunition for personal protection to Malaya was being permitted, and that companies could export firearms for the protection of their employees. The Prime Minister (Mr Chifley) said to-day that questions affecting the export of arms to Malaya were matters for consideration by the Government. There was a long-standing embargo against the sale of arms “to anybody or any country.” He declined to comment on a Singapore message which said that within the last fortnight the Australian authorities had refused to permit the Brisbane representatives of one of the biggest rubber estates and tinmining agencies in Malaya to export several hundred revolvers. “The Prime Minister should make his position clear,” said the ActingLeader of the Opposition (Mr E. J. Harrison). “The Australian people should be told whether Mr Chifley’s attitude arises from a direction by the British Government or a direction from Communists.”

Poliomyelitis in North Carolina.— With 30 new cases reported to-day, making the total for the first 18 days of July 293, compared with 290 for the whole of June, the poliomyelitis epidemic in North Carolina reached a total of 709 cases for the year. The epidemic is the worst in the United States since the one in Minnesota in 1944. —New York, July 19.