WAR COUNCIL

Grey River Argus, 29 July 1940, Page 9

WAR COUNCIL

Australian Labour Proposal

SYDNEY, July 14.

The Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, has not yet indicated willingness to accept the proposal of the Federal Labour Leader for a War Council. In a national broadcast, Mr J. Curtin, Leader of the Opposition, gave clear and authoritative expression to a great change which is working in ihe social body. He voiced, on behalf of Labour, the urgent need for co-opera-tion and consultation in Australian industrial and economic life in face of the common danger to national security and freedom. “The lead that Labour gives,” said Mr Curtin, “is that Australia shall be ; united in this struggle; that greedy desires for profits and personal advancement shall be proscribed; and that the common efforts shall be for the common good in the face of the common danger. . . . The National War Council proposal was the expression of Labour’s offer of aid to the Government in the war effort. - • • The idea behind the National War Council was not that it should be a super-Government or duplicate tne work of the War Cabinet, but that it should, in effect, lubricate the machinery of the national effort. . . . Such a council would eradicate friction, stimulate all sections and classes of the community, and, by advice and negotiation, rectify what might otherwise .become anomalies, delays, injustices and much-wasted effort. . He had urged the trade unions to constitute an industrial panel and urged the Government to constitute conciliation committees to adjust differences. ’ The most significant and hopeful feature of Mr Curtin’s statement, not only for the present crisis, but for post-war reconstruction, is that the approach of labour is social rather than political. Labour is averse to forming a National Government. It is working for social co-operation outside the Cabinet and party politico. The proposed National War Council is designed to ‘-'lubricate the machinery of our national effort,” to quote Mr Curtin’s vivid phrase. This development is of first and vital importance for reorganising our social system. . For co-operation between Capital and Labour, th e fundamental social problem, cannot be imposed from above, but must develop from helow. Fortunately, th e war needs of the nation are accentuating the things that unite Capital and Labour. The class-antagonism which has been th e mark of Australian society for so long is yielding before the common peril. And the Nitional War Council contains the germ of a National Economic Council of employers and employees, which could inaugurate a planned co-operative economy, when peace comes.