The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST.” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1943. The Federal General Elections

Northern Advocate, 28 June 1943, Page 2

The Northern Advocate “NORTHLAND FIRST.” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1943. The Federal General Elections

THE Federal general elections, to be held before the end of August, are expected to prove the bitterest —some critics even use the word dirtiest—in Australia’s history. What a prospect at a time when Australia, in common with the United Nations as a whole, is engaged in a world-shaking war! The fact that the Federal Government’s life has hung on two Independent hairs, and that it is still in the same precarious state, may be some excuse for an appeal to the electors, though it is hard to understand why the measure of co-operation that has existed between Government and Opposition during the life of Mr. Curtin’s Administration should not continue until the “All Clear” is given by the United Nations.

However, it is only too evident that political partisanship has taken precedence over national welfare, and there is unfortunately reason to believe that the resultant elections will be marked by the' very thing calculated to drive a wedge into Australian solidarity. An election releases passions which slumber during normal days, and allows opportunists to adopt guises of ephemeral character. As a consequence, the criticism of circumstances leading to the decision to hold a general election in Australia should be examined with care. The cynic will doubtless discover significance in the recent optimistic references to Australia’s safety made by Mr. Curtin* and the report that the “Brisbane Line” is sure to form one of the principal issues of the election.

The “Brisbane Line,” it will be remembered, formed the subject of sensational discussion in the Federal Parliament when it was declared that the Menzies Government, which preceded the Curtin Government, had prepared a war plan providing that, in the event of a Japanese attack, Australia would remove its defences to south of a line drawn between Brisbane, in Queensland, and Adelaide, in South Australia. This, it was urged by the Curtin Government, revealed a spirit of defeatism on the part of Mr. Menzies and the other leaders of his Government. This revelation naturally set Australians by the ears, and there was additional excitement when it was alleged that the file concerning the “Brisbane Line” had disappeared from the archives. This allegation by Mr. Ward, the Minister for Labour, is at the present time the subject of a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and, pending its report, Mr. Ward has been suspended.

If indeed a “Brisbane Line” was seriously proposed by the Federal Government which is now the official Opposition, there was reason why it should have adopted the advice of its military commander, who doubtless believed that Australia, in its unprepared state, would be utterly unable to hold northern territory above a line drawn between Brisbane and Adelaide.

Who, remembering the state of mind created in Australia and New Zealand by Japan’s victorious southward drive, will say there was not something in favour of the strategic plan since revealed? True, the spirit which prompted it was far removed from the spirit which moved the people of Britain, infinitely more dangerously situated, to defend the beaches with improvised weapons should the Germans attempt the invasion of their land. Today, a very different situation exists. Australia has not only large forces ready to defend the Commonwealth, but her equipment, and her ability to increase it, have improved out of recognition. More than that, the United States forces, aided by those of Australia, have inflicted severe setbacks on the Japanese, whose chances of successfully attacking the Australian mainland have dwindled perceptibly.

In the light of this change, Mr. Curtin doubtless scented good electioneering material "in a comparison between his Government’s war achievements and the Opposition’s war policy as represented by the “Brisbane Line.” This may possibly have influenced his dramatic change-over from, pessimism to optimism regarding Australia’s safety. Apparently, the “Brisbane Line” is to be exploited to the maximum extent as an election slogan. Cabled reference to the chorus which already is being sung to the tune of “The Siegfried Line,” indicates plainly the atmosphere in which an election is to be fought while the United Nations are engaged in what General Smuts has prophesied will be the heaviest land fighting of the war.