CANBERRA CASE

Evening Star, Issue 25700, 25 January 1946, Page 5

CANBERRA CASE

OUTSPOKEN PRESS COMMENT TRADES COUNCIL'S REPLY (Rec, noon.) CANBERRA. Jan. 25. A decision to reply to Press attacks on the Canberra Trades andl Labour Council concerning its action in the Field case was made by the council. The motion was carried by 12 votes to 9. ; The council was particularly concerned about the front page editorial published by the Sydney 'Daily Telegraph,' which said the main issue was not the personal relations between Brigadier Schreiber and his ex-servant, but the Trades and Labour Council's claim to act as judge and jury, and to use the power, of the trade union movement to enforce decisions without hearing the defence'. The ' editorial added: "Concede to the trade unions" —or to any other section of the community—the right to interpret and administer the law, and you will live at the mercy of any pressure group powerful enough to start a witch-hunt. They tried this system of government in America once; They called' it lynch law." The council's reply stated, that it noted with amusement that everyone was springing to Brigadier Schreiber's defence now that the inquiry ordered by the Prime Minister, Mr Chifley, was not going to be held. The council was willing to produce four witnesses at the inquiry. The employers stopped the inquiry by unconditionally reinstating Field. Apparently they preferred that evidence they knew was in the possession of the council should not be placed before the public, and l that they and Brigadier Schreiber should make es jparte statements. "