AUSTRALIAN LABOUR SPLIT “GRAVE”

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27613, 21 March 1955, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR SPLIT “GRAVE”

(Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 20. It is now clear that the split in the Australian Labour Party is wide and grave. The Sydney “Sunday Telegraph” says it is regarded as certain that:— (1) There must be a complete change of leadership.

(2) The breach between t and his deputy (Mr Calwell) is The “Sun-Herald” quotes Labour observers as saying that the one point of unity between the warring Labour factions is that new Parliamentary leaders must be found. Both factions said yesterday that neither Dr. Evatt nor Mr Calwell could win an election. “With the delegations back from the inter-State Labour Party Conference at Hobart, bitter faction warfare is expected in aU States except South Australia, where there are no industrial groups. The conference decisions to withdraw recognition from industrial groups and investigate the New South Wales branch will intensify the faction warfare.

The “Sunday Telegraph,” after saying that there is every indication that both Dr. Evatt and Mr Qalwell are likely to be succeeded as Labour Party leaders, adds: “It is possible that the Party may seek somebody from outside the Federal Parliamentary Labour Party. It could be that a successor to Dr. Evatt may be chosen from a State Parliament.” The crisis within the party reached a new point of gravity through Mr CalweU’s attack yesterday on Dr.

the Federal Leader, Dr. Evatt, beyond healing. Evatt’s leadership. Mr CalweU’s attack is reported to have been the most bitter ever made against a party leader at any similar Labour conference. During a 60-minute speech, Mr Calwell is reported to have said:— That Dr Evatt had secretly co-operated with Mr Santamaria whose Movement has been the issue creating the split in the Party. That this co-operation had been terminated only by incidents arising from the Petrov affair. That Dr Evatt’s behaviour at the Petrov Commission had ended aU possibility of him ever leading the Federal Labour Party to victory and becoming Prime Minister. “Mr Calwell is said to have asserted that virtually aU the blame for the Federal Labour Party’s present troubles could be placed on Dr. Evatt’s shoulders,” the "Sunday Telegraph” said. Comment by Dr. Evatt Dr. Evatt, back in Sydney from the Hobart conference, last night described reports that Mr Calwell had attacked his leadership at the conference as "a concoction and fabrication.” Dr. Evatt, whose only appearance at the conference was when he addressed it by invitation, said that Mr CalweU’s alleged statement, which was headlined throughout the Australian press as “We Cannot Win With EVatt.” was not made. “Delegates and officials at the conference have given me an absolute and unequivocal assurance about that,” he said. "I am quite satisfied that the purpose of the concoction was to assist the cause of the Santamaria Movement” Dr. Evatt said that the Hobart conference was the first great step towards setting the Labour Movement on its feet; towards ‘eradicating the outside influence which had infiltrated from the Santamaria Movement. “I am absolutely convinced that except for the action of the Federal authority in the last five months the Labour Movement would have been completely subverted,” Dr. Evatt said. “The Labour Movement would have been permanently controlled by a Santamaria-Menzies axis. Now this great evil has been definitely 1 averted.” In spite of Dr. Evatt’s statement about Mr CalweU’s reported attack on him, the "Sunday Telegraph” says the opinion is widely held that the breach between the two is beyond bridging. It says that the Federal Labour Party now, therefore, finds itself in the position of being forced to seek new leaders while being sharply, divided on the industrial group issue.