National Register Divides Australian Opinion

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1939, Page 4

National Register Divides Australian Opinion

(Received 11. a.m.) SYDNEY, July 17. The coalminers of Australia held a one-day strike to-day as a protest against the: National Register. On the other hand, many thousands of men 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 required to fill in cards setting out their age, country of birth, whether married or single, the number of dependent relatives, and occupation. Wealth and property cards must be completed by persons with gross assets of £SOO or more'. The attempt to end the trade unions’ 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, Mi" G. A. Street, at a conference at Melbourne on Friday, to try to arrange an amicable settlement. Mr Curtin hitherto had expressed the view that the trades’ unions would •‘play into the hands of the Government and ruin their own chance at the next general election, if they disobeyed their obligations under the National Register Act.” At 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 to-day, in protest against the National Register. All were arrested.