Australia in War Till it is Won

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 100, 29 April 1941, Page 7

Australia in War Till it is Won

CURTIN ANSWERS JAPAN SYDNEY, April 27. In an outspoken statement to-day» Mr F. Curtin, Federal Labour leader, assured the world that the Australian Labour movement was wholeheartedly behind the war effort. “To-day,” he said, “I have been advised in a most authoritative way that, in Japan and the United States, a controversy set going last week in Australia has been capitalised by the enemy to the fullest extent, to the great detriment of our cause and even our security. “In the United States,” Mr Curtin added, “what was published in Australia is causing speculation whether Australia is pulling out of the war. It wa6 reprehensible that this should have happened. There never has been, nor should there be, any doubt about Australia. “As leader of the Australian Labour Party, I say to Germany and Japan that Australia and its workers are united in their determination to give their all in the war that has been forced upon us. We are pledged to devote the entire resources of the nation to this end, to bear willingly any burden imposed, to preserve our security, and to demonstrate to the Empire and its allies that we si)all not be found wanting in this crucial struggle for human liberty. “To the United States, I say that the Labour movement in Australia will be unflinching and unyielding to the end. We have a common interest in resisting aggression wherever it may come.

“The suggestion that Australia !• pulling out of the war is utterly false,” Mr Curtin declared. “The workers here know too well what has happened to trades unionism and civil liberty in the lands of the dictatorships and, more poignantly, in the lands which the dictatorships have mastered.

“Finally, I say to the world, friends or foes, that there is no political disunity m Australia regarding the prosecution of the war. We face it as a united and determined people. In thic country, opinions are still free and criticism is not muzzled, but it would be absolutely false for our foes to mistake liberty of speech here as a source of strength to themselves, and it would be wrong for our friends to construe it as evidence of doubt. On the contrary, the liberty we now practice, even while the war rages, is the surest guarantee of our undiminished determination to continue the war for the preservation of that liberty to a successful conclusion.”