LABOUR’S GREAT OPPORTUNITY IN BRITAIN IS NOW

Grey River Argus, 6 October 1949, Page 5

LABOUR’S GREAT OPPORTUNITY IN BRITAIN IS NOW

(Rec. 9.10) OTTAWA, Oct. 4. Organised Labour was now entering its greatest period of opportunity. declared Rt. Hon. Ernest Bevan in an address to the Canadian Congress of Labour Convention. He added that labour in Britain occupied a position where the government could not do a thing without seeking its advice. Labour had assumed its responsibilities with dignity and statesmanship in a tremendous task that was being carried out there. Britain’s great wealth was largely gone. Vast problems of economic adjustment between the First and Second World Wars had fallen most heavily on the poor, and those who were least organised—but not the Britons as a whole —were sharing in the adjustment. The workers were handling their new power with discretion and courage, and were building a better world for the people who would follow them. It was the Government’s firm intention to continue with, the social services and the other changes that it had launched. 1 (Rec. 10.5) NEW YORK, Oct. 4

The American Federation of Labour did not believe that Britain’s recovery troubles were due to her Labour Government, said the A.F.L. President, Mr William Green, at the A.F.L. Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is being attended by fraternal delegates from Britain. “We are not in accord with the reactionary opinion, expressed in some quarters of the United States” said Mr Green. “We believe that the British people should be free to form their Government as they see fit, so long as it is not totalitarian in form. We claim the same right four ourselves.”