Breakdown of Non-Labour Fusion Proposal

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 208, 2 September 1944, Page 5

Breakdown of Non-Labour Fusion Proposal

Received Friday, 11 p.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 1. The negotiations for unity between the non-Labour parties (Democrats and Liberal Democrats) in New South Wales have been broken off. The cause bf the breach after an agreement between the two parties had been announced was the Democratic Party’s refusal to agree to the appointment of a provisional council to act in temporary control of both parties. The breakdown will not affect negotiations for the formation of a Commonwealth-wide organisation of non-Labour forces announced this week by the Federal Opposition leader (Mr. Menzies). Commenting on the latest failure to effect a fusion between the principal non-Labour parties in New South Wales the Sydney Morning Herald says editorially: “There is so urgent a need for a strong and united Opposition Party that the public is less likely to be concerned with the rights and wrongs of the particular point at issue than with the fact that the political good sense of the negotiating bodies has not proved strong enough to find a mutually acceptable solution.”