AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE

THE MILITIA

QUESTIOM OF CONSCRIPTION

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, May 2

Since Britain introduced conscription last week, the question whether it will be introduced also in Australia has reached deep political significance.

The Leader of the Federal Opposition (Mr. Curtin) asked the Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, to reaffirm the pledge against conscription given by Mr. Lyons during the 1937 election campaign. Mr. Curtin said that Mr. Menzies in his national broadcast last week failed to remove a suspicion that something more than voluntary enlistment would be required. An emphatic declaration that Mr. Menzies and his Government intended to observe the undertaking given by Mr. Lyons would go a long way towards making a national effort truly national. In its absence, the workers of Australia would view with distrust any statements by the Prime Minister that there would be no profiteering, and that equal sacrifices would be demanded of those well placed in life.

Mr. Menzies when questioned about Mr. Curtin's demand replied that the assurance given by the late Mr. Lyons in 1937 was that there would be no conscription for oversea service. He had reiterated in his broadcast that no Australian would be compelled to go abroad to fight, but he refused to discuss suggestions that the Government intended to abandon the system of voluntary training of the militia. The Government, he said, would review its policy according to the circumstances of the moment.

Unofficially, it is stated that, there is no basis for the inference drawn in some quarters from Mr. Menzies's broadcast that conscription is to be introduced. If circumstances demand a change in the existing system, however, universal training is likely to be introduced. Mr. Menzies assured members of the U.A.P. before he was elected leader that he believed in the principle of universal training, but he pointed out at the time that there were many administrative difficulties in the way of introducing it for some time.