BAN ON REDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22637, 14 May 1948, Page 5

BAN ON REDS

CALL IN AUSTRALIA RETURNED SERVICEMEN TREASONABLE : WRECKING (9 a.m.) SYDNEY, May 14. The Federal executive of the Returned Servicemen’s League has decided to ban Communists from League membership. The president of the league, Mr. E. Millhouse, said that the resolution was immediately binding on all the branches throughout Australia, It was carried by an overwhelming majority. Today the executive is discussing other motions dealing with communism and will decide whether the league should ask the Commonwealth and State Governments to declare the Communist Party an illegal organisation, The question of banning Communists has never before been considered by the Federal executive of the Returned Servicemen’s League. At the New South Wales State conference in 1946 the chairman, Mr. K. Bolton, refused to admit a resolution that any known Communist be banned from holding office in the League, Mr. Dolton took the stand on the grounds that Communism was a political philosophy and that the league was a nonpel ’tical body. Recently, however, the New South Wales executive decided to recommend the banning of Communists and Mr. Bolton said that circumstances had compelled him to take the view that Australian communism was treasonable, anti-democratic and destructive.