STILL IN DOUBT

Grey River Argus, 15 August 1944, Page 4

STILL IN DOUBT

THE REFERENDUM Australia’s Poll on Saturday (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) (Rec. 7.40.) SYDNEY, August'l4. The Commonwealth Wider Powers Referendum will go to the polls next Saturday. Its outcome, to which no reliable guide has been .offered, must be of far-reaching importance to postwar Australia. The country has been split into two camps, with a small, out perhaps a vital percentage of “neutrals.” Latest public opinion surveys give the “No” case a slight margin, with the so far undecided voters holding the balance. The “Yes” campaign, however, has taken a sharp reverse because of the illness of the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, who has been heavily preoccupied with the problems of coal and manpower. Mr. Curtin therefore has made only two public speeches in support of the referendum. There nas been a cancellation of his Sydney and Brisbane engagements this week. TJus may spell the difference between tne success and defelt of the referendum. Much importance was attached to Mr. Curtin’s visit to Queensland. There, the Federal Government is reported to be out of favour. The political observers give the Government sound prospects of carrying the day in New South Wales and in Victoria. Western Australia may also vote Yes. South Australia and Tasmania are doubtful, with the No caiuse slightly in the ascendant m Tasmania. Queensland is expected to vote No. Damage to Labour prestige will be considerable unless Yes predominates, because it would be the Government's first public reverse sihee its assuming office. Often bitter, the referendum campaign has seen, some surprising alignments and dissentions. _ The chief No protagnist, the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr. R. G. Menzies, has numbered among his unsought lieutenants, the former New South Wales Labour Premier, Mr. John T. Lang. The first world war Prime

1 Minister, Mr. Wm. Hughes, has ranged himself on the Yes platform, on which he is beside the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Most Rev. Doctor D. Mannix, whose differences with Mr. Hughes on the conscription issue in the last war have passed into .Australia’s history. The sole surviving author of the Constitution, which the referendum seeks to amend, the first Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth, Sir Robert Garran, shares with Sir Isaac Isaacs (a former Gov-ernor-General and a former Chief Justice of the High Court) the legal championship of the Yesl case. The Sydney “Morning Herald”, which has supported Mr. Curtin consistently in the past, recommends a No vote as a “muchi needed check to the growing insolence of office and to all those who value regimented efficiency higher than individual freedom.” The paper adds that it still sees “no effective rival for Mr. Curtin’s role of the nation’s wartime leader”. , . „ , L . Meantime the influential Sir Keith Murdoch chain of newspapers, whicn are customarily opposed to Mr. Cur-

tin, are supporting the referendum. Writing in the Melbourne “Herald,” Sir Keith Murdoch says:- “A failure to grant the powers sought would mean grave losses and penalties, instabilities, soaring costs, disorderly shortages, and over-supplies. The immediate political and social effects would be bad, but the worst of all. we would be the loss of our initial impetus on the path toward national strength; we would be seething and quarrelling about the. entrance gates, instead of going forward in a sensible .and orderly unit. There are some who distrust the Curtin Government so much as to deny them any increase of authority. With this view, I have considerable sympathy. One can distrust this Government, however, and contest its objectives, without making the quarrel a cause of general injury and chaos in rehabilitation. Refusal of these powers to the central Government of Australia will mean a faltering and unhappy development ot provincialism, and weaknesses where there should be striding betterment and development on complete national lines. It will mean finally the destruction of the country.” The Sydney “Telegraph says: “Australia must have a workable constitution. The referendum is not a party issue. Above all parties and personalities is the fact that we canhot deal with modern problems under the limitations of a horse-and-buggy document. The present position is in absurd contrast with that, of every other Empire Government.”