NATIONAL REGISTER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 194, 18 July 1939, Page 7

NATIONAL REGISTER

DISPUTE IN AUSTRALIA. ONE-DAY COAL STRIKE. SYDNEY, July 17. Coalminers in Australia Held a oneday strike to-day as a protest against the national defence register. In Perth five men and one woman carried a coffin bearing the slogan, “We are not going to be cannon fodder for Menzies,” through the city in protest against the register. Ail were arrested.

On the other hand, many thousands clamoured at city and country post offices for cards with the object of registering.

All male persons between the ages of 18 and 65 are requested to fill in the cards, setting out their age, country of birth, whether married or single, the number of dependent relatives and occupation. Wealth property cards must be completed by persons with gross assets of £SOO or more.

The attempt to end the trade union hostility to the register was advanced a further stage to-day, when the Federal Labour Leader (Mr J. Curtin) agreed to meet the Prime Minister (Mr R. G. Menzies) and the Minister of Defence (Mr G. A. Street) in a conference in Melbourne on Friday and try to arrange an amicable settlement. Mr Curtin had hitherto expressed the view that the trades unions would “play into the hands of the Government and ruin their own chance at the next election if they disobeyed their obligations under the national register.”

It i 6 reported from Perth that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence will meet the Federal Labour advisory committee, which comprises the Federal Labour executive, the Federal Parliamentary Labour Party, and the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, on Friday to consider the position that has arisen regarding the decision to oppose the register.