GOLD FOR AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 7

GOLD FOR AUSTRALIA.

WORKERS' NEW SCHEME. BORROWING IN AMERICA. When the Australian Workers' Conven- | tion meets on January 26 remarkable financial proposals, including one to borrow £30.000,000 in gold from tho United j States, will be submitted. . How the new programme of the Aus- ■ q tralian WorkerS' Union Could be tarried 1 into effect, if ratified by the convention, is not made cleai% .but it is reported to g embrace a gold loan of £30,000,000 to be | sought from the United States for the f[ stabilisation of Australian currency' and. | the expansion of internal credit, and nego- a nation with Britain to ensure the refund- 1 ing of Australia's debt of approximately | £880,000.000 on terms equal to those S granted in June, 1923, by the United | States to Britain (that is, 62 years' pay- jj ments at 3.3 per cent.). As conditions p precedent to those two forms of relief, i there are to be guarantees of progre«sive jl centralisation of government authority in :? Australia, the abolition of State Parlia- | meats, State Governors, and their de- | pendent executive and administrative 11 forms, consolidation of all State enter- I prise and social services, the setting up of provincial councils, and the formulation of a new "national economic policy 1 of a constructive . nature, taking its inspiration from and in keeping with these changes." , . The leaders who will advocate this 1 policy hope to get from the convention a decision in the form of a recommendation ; to the Commonwealth Government. Ihcy h claim that the formulation of a policy jj touching fundamentals is as urgent a '| question for their organisation as it is j| for any existing Governmental authority. j| That any recommendation from the j convention will be seriously considered bv the Government is thought likely, be- ;j cause of the obvious influence of tlio Aus- | tralian Workers' Union within the Fed- | oral Labour caucus. Half, or more than f half, of tho Federal Labour members of § Parliament are members of the union. | 'i'ln-ec members of the Cabinet are or f have been important office holders. It is also claimed that within the Labour | movement in ihe States the policy of [j centralised authority will be supported in I an organised ,A\ ay when the time conies § to launch it.