LABOUR AND THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24347, 11 July 1940, Page 9

LABOUR AND THE WAR

ATTITUDE IN AUSTRALIA POLICY REVOLUTIONISED . " NEW PACK AND NEW DEAL" (By Tasman Air Mail) (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, June 25. The Federal Parliament, with majorities of 59 to 10 in the House of Representatives and of 28 to 3 in the Senate, empowered the Government to. require persons to place themselves, their services, and their property at the disposal of the Commonwealth to secure public safety, the defence of the Commonwealth and territories, and the efficient prosecution of the war. Thus, the Government now has the powers to conduct its "all-in" war policy—the widest emergency powers ever held by an Australian Government and given by one of the briefest but most momentous parliamentary sittings in Federal history. . Communist Minority The minority votes represented the undying determination of the so-called non-Communist Labour Party not to fall into step with the rest of Australian Labour. The label is merely camouflage for the old- Lang Party, disgruntled and dishevelled after reverses in the conferences of the whoie Labour movement. It will reap its own dire harvest as Australians are sweeping more and more wholeheartedly into the prosecution of their country's war effort. Observers have not failed to note that the few Parliamentary allies from outside New South Wales with the New South Wales "non-Communist" breakaways were Labour members long known to be the closest associates of the Communist Party in Australia. The attitude of the Labour majority, revolutionised for the purpose of making war, is support of the present Government to a point only short of cooperation in the Cabinet. The Labour majority opinion,' reflecting accurately the opinions of a similar majority of working-class and middle-class Aus-

trajians, is that sacrifices will be heeded of many privileges hard-won over many years of industrial arbitration. But, at the same time, it has insisted that the Government must not abuse or misuse the powers which the Labour Party helped to give it. Mr William Forgan Smith, Premier of Queensland, and regarded by many as the outstanding Labour leader, Federal or State, in Australia, perfectly expressed this view in a statement made in Sydney. It was his resolution pledging support to the Allies at a national Labour conference that decided the party's policy. _ . The Sole Objective "The Labour Party's sole desire," he said, " is to serve Australia in its hour of need. What Australia now needs is a new pack, a new shuffle, and a new deal. My objective at the Labour conference was to secure national unity; in other words, to bring Labour policy into line with the maxi-

mum effort required in existing circumstances, and that was agreed to. There is a vast difference between national unity and a National Government. "There is nothing miraculous about a Government that is merely called national. 'No specification of such a Government has yet been made. If it is merely a reinforcement of the present by the inclusion of more capable men, that does not, of itself, constitute a National Government. The realignment of Labour policv is all that is required to express the objective of the Australian people which, I claim is fully outlined in the main resolution carried at the Labour conference. What is required now is a Government resolute enough, honest enough and sincere enough to exercise wisely the powers contained in the principles set out. Labour is not seeking anything for any individuals either in position or salary. W« are not making any sordid bargaining.'