LOSS OF POWER FEARED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 20, 21 December 1944, Page 5

LOSS OF POWER FEARED

AUSTRALIAN MINERS' ACTIONS SYDNEY, Dec, 20.

Expressing a fear that an extension of the coal dispute would lead inevitably to the displacement of the Federal Labour Government, the executive of the Australian Council of Trades Unions at today's session of the allunion coal conference has urged upon the miners' delegates almost complete capituation to the Government's demands. In a recommendation to the conference the executive has asked that the miners obey the Government order to take a 10-day holiday break at Christmas instead of 16, that the miners resume work at all pits that are idle on the garnishee issue, that the mass meetings of miners called for January 10 be cancelled, and that a Royal Commission of inquiry be appointed to investigate every aspect of the mining industry. The recommendations, which are expected to have the support of a large majority of the conference delegates, were moved by the secretary of the A.C.T.U. (Mr A. 15. Monk). He said maintenance of the Government in office was essential to the interests oi the Australian workers, and the present cleavage between the miners and • the Government if it were allowed to persist, would bring about the Government's downfall. If the miners insisted on taking the full 16 days' Christmas holidays, M r Monk said, the eoal stocks would be insufficient to meet the demands of industry and the resultant shortages would have a grave effect on the international and national spheres of the war and also on the defence of Australia.

The Government was on trial before the public, declared the Treasurer (Mr Chifley), in a blunt speech to the conference. He added: "If the United States Fleet had not come, Australian miners today would not be asking for 16 days' holiday. They would be working under the ■ Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo." v Earlier the Acting-Prime Minister (Mr Forde). was applauded by the conference when, reading a letter he had written last week to the Miners' Federation, he emphasised that the Government was appealing not only to the law of the land but also to a higher law "which binds every worker to his fellows and all workers to the community which gives them life, livelihood and freedom." Mr Forde told the conference that the coal position had almost broken the heart of the Prime Minister (Mr Curtin). The Australian Government faced the possibility of having to tell Mr Churchill that sufficient coal could not be obtained for servicing the British Fleet sent here at Mr Curtin's request. Admiral Eraser had told him that the might of the British Fleet in the Pacific would shorten the Japanese war by a considerable period, added Mr Forde, but that the success ol pending naval operations in the Pacific depended upon coal While the coal conference is still proceeding, live mines are idle today oh the garnishee- issue.