FASCIST NUCLEUS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 8

FASCIST NUCLEUS

READY TO ACT IN AUSTRALIA

SENATOR'S ALLEGATION

CANBERRA, December 12,

The startling statement was made in the Senate early this morning that the stage was set and the scene laid for the launching of Fascism in this country. The author of the statement was the Leader of the Opposition, the Labour member Senator Collings, who declared that he had information to the effect that big firms in Sydney and Melbourne had certain key men, known only by numbers, who had been told that when the time came —meaning ostensibly war trouble, but "in my interpretation meaning something different —they were to be ready, at command, to protect their employers' interests."

Senator Collings went on to say that men were being drilled and armed for no other purpose than to interfere with Australian forms of government. These men, he added, were called up by telephone at night to certain outer suburbs to receive instruction, supposedly in Swedish physical culture exercises. Senator Collings expressed his willingness to disclose the names of certain emporiums to which his remarks were directed.

The Prime-Minister, Mr. Menzies, stated today that he was prepared to have an immediate investigation 'of Senator Collings's allegations if he would furnish particulars. The Government had the very men at its command to undertake the job.

Senator Collings undertook to supply the details to investigators.

Mr. H. G. Hughes, president of the Employers' Federation in Sydney, ridiculed the allegations and said employers had given ample practical proof that they were behind the Government's war 'efforts.