LABOUR PARTY CRISIS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22405, 12 August 1947, Page 5

LABOUR PARTY CRISIS

PREMIER’S LEAD CHALLENGED LARGE FACTION DISSATISFIED RATION AND ARMY CUTS; STEEL INDUSTRY (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter —Copyright.) (10.35 a.m.) . LONDON, August 11. Almost all the Labour Party’s 393 members of Parliament gathered behind closed doors in the committee room at the House of Commons today to hear a challenge to Mr. C. R. Attlee’s handling of the dollar crisis—but Mr. Attlee was not there for the opening of the discussion, says Reuter. Mr. Attlee arrived later and, with Mr. Ernest Bevin and Mr. Herbert Morrison, addressed the meeting which lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. . vicurred on the economic situation arising out of last week’s debate in the House of Commons. Mr. Attlee and Mr. Ernest Bevin re-

plied to the discussion.

armed forces, left the meeting still unsatisfied.

Three Main Criticisms,

“There was also a discussion on the socialisation of the iron and steel industry to which Mr. Herbert Morrison replied.”

The Government spokesmen apparently begged for more time to consider both questions and asked the rank and file to avoid embarrassing the Government by seeking premature decisions. Largest Bloc of Malcontents

Reuter says the Ministers heard plain speaking on three main criticisms. They were:— 1. The proposed smaller ration and longer working hours would not be balanced bv any equivalent demands on the rich.

The bloc of Labour malcontents is the largest yet during the present Parliament.

Both the Evening News and Evening Standard’s political correspondents said is is significant that the official statement issued after the Labour Party meeting was couched in different terms from that issued a week before Mr. Attlee’s crisis statement in the House of Commons, when the party chiefs let it be known that Mr. Attlee’s statement had been promised the united support of the Labour members,

(2) The Cabinet, by its silence on the nationalisation of the iron and steel industry, had encouraged suggestions that this strongly demanded measure be postponed. (3) The armed forces could stand a stronger cut than the 80,000 pro-

posed. The crisis within the Labour Party continues unchecked after the meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, says Reuter’s political correspondent. One hundred and fifty or _ more “Leftists.” seeking to force a decision on steel nationalisation and the size of the

The Evening Standard adds: “The fact that three leading members of the Cabinet had to be put up to answer the critics and defend the Government’s policy is evidence that strong and direct dissatisfaction was expressed with the Government’s programme.

“The future of world peace and of world strategy and world economics, is bound up with the future of Britain,” says the Times in a leader, discussing the prospects and effects of the Supplies and Services Bill. “What is recognised abroad must be recognised with equal unanimity at Westminster this week during the debates on the bill,” adds the Times. “Socialism is not the issue, as some speakers on both sides seemed to imply in the heat of the argument on August 8.

“For the Government to claim special powers with any aim except to save the' nation would be criminal. For Government supporters to make the precipitate and arbitrary nationalisation of steel a test of confidence in this emergency would be worse than folly. For any Opposition member to contest a grant of special powers merely because of the Government's political complexion would be no less culpable; this Government is far more likely to do too little than too much and the important requirement is to see that any resounding special powers are not used to disguise inaction.”

Whether of not Parliament is adjourned on Wednesday will depend on how long the two Houses take to pass the Supplies and Services Bill, says the Times Parliamentary correspondent. The bill is to be passed through all its remaining stages on Thursday in the Lower House and will go on Tuesday to the House of Lords for the second reading and the Government hopes the peers will pass the bill through committee and give it the third reading on Wednesday, so that it may receive Royal Assent later that day to enable Parliament to be adjourned.

The Daily Express understands that the Cabinet has decided to carry on with the full programme of nationalisation ‘at the next session of the House of Commons, starting in October, and that the steel industry will be nationalised.

The paper adds: “This ends one of the major Government splits. It is a victory for Mr. Aneurin Bevan and nearly 200 Socialist back-benchers. The Lord President of the Council, Mr. Herbert Morrison, will meet the two steel chiefs, Sir Andrew Duncan and Mr. Ellis Hunter, who is president of the Iron and Steel Federation, to tell them formally of the Government’s plans.