ON EDGE OF TURMOIL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 43, 19 August 1941, Page 6

ON EDGE OF TURMOIL

AUSTRALIA'S PLIGHT

MR. MENZIES CAUSES STRIFE

SYDNEY, August 18

"Australia stands on the edge of political turmoil, with Mr. Menzies's proposed trip to London as the storm centre," says tonight's Sydney "Sun." It adds: "The situation is loaded with unpleasant possibilities for the Prime Minister, the Opposition leader (Mr. J. Curtin), and the Menzies Government.

"Fellow-Ministers have told their leader that a rejection by Parliament on Wednesday of his London visit will be regarded as a major defeat for the Government and will be a terrific blow to its prestige.

"The Labour members of the War Council, Messrs. Ford, Beasley, and Dr. Evatt, continue to be firm in their stand that Mr. Menzies should not receive Labour's approval for his plan to leave Australia.

"Mr. Curtin's leadership will most assuredly be at stake if he persists in | supporting Mr. Menzies's departure and I it will also afford encouragement to I those members of his party who consider that he is not sufficiently virile and who may try to displace him in the event of Labour being called • upon to form a Government." "LABOUR WRANGLING." Sir Earle Page yesterday declared that if Parliament rejected the proposal it would cause a political crisis and an election, and he condemned wrangling by the Labourites. Dr. Evatt returned to the picture today and said that Sir Earle Page's statement was so partisan in spirit and object that he might have some difficulty in explaining his part in "the political manoeuvre." Nor would it be Sir Earle Page's task to determine whether or not there should be an election There was no reason whatever why an alternative Government should not be created.

Dr Evatt accused the Government of having exaggerated the dangers of war in the Far East.

Mr. Menzies in Melbourne replied to Dr. Evatt. He denied the allegations of political manoeuvring and said that the proposal that he should go to London was initiated by his Ministerial colleagues for reasons with which Mr. Cuvtin was fully acquainted, as he was also with the gravity of the position in the Far East.