DEFENCE POLICY IN N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 6

DEFENCE POLICY IN N.Z.

LABOUR FEDERATION DEFERS OPINION

PRIME MINISTER’S RETURN FROM BRITAIN AWAITED (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Sept. 23. . Warning workers not to be misled by “factions which are trying to formulate the defence policy of the Labour movement,” the national council of the Federation of Labour to-day authorised the national executive to call a conference to discuss military questions, if circumstances warranted, after the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) returned from Britain and reported to the nation.

Because of the tense' international situation, said a motion submitted by the executive and adopted by the federation, the council called on affiliations and workers not to be misled by groups

Saying that Mr Fraser had given an assurance that upon his return from the Prime Ministers’ conference in London he would take the people into his confidence and make known the circumstances of the world situation, the motion added that after then the federation executive should convene a special conference of affiliations to consider the position should the circumstances warrant. Mr Fraser visited the conference and suggested it should defer its decision until his return from Britain.

Two amendments seeking to give the federation council, instead of the executive, authority to call a conference of affiliations and one amendment suggesting a conference before Mr Fraser s return were defeated.