LABOUR CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25443, 26 January 1944, Page 4

LABOUR CONFERENCE

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA DISCUSSIONS AT CANBERRA (Rec. 7 p.m.) CANBERRA, Jan. 25. Plans have been initiated for sending a joint delegation from the New Zealand and Australian Labour parties to an Empire Labour Conference in London. It is expected that at the London conference plans will be evolved for the formation of a consultative Empire Labour body to deal with Labour problems of Empire interest. The national secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mr M. Moohan, has issued an invitation to the. Australian Labour Party executive to send a small deegation to Wellington within the next five weeks to discuss with the Dominion Labour Party executive the framing of a common policy tojibe; placed before the London conference. , Mr Curtin and Mr Fraser; - 'as" well as Mr Moohan, addressed the Australian Labour Party executive. Mr Curtin. who left a meeting of the Australian full Cabinet to address the delegates, reviewed the latest European war developments, and emphasised Russia’s place in future international affairs.

Mr Fraser expressed pleasure that tire Australian full Cabinet hall endorsed the terms of the Australia-New Zealand agreement. He felt sure his Government would also endorse the agreement. Opening the discussion on the proEosal to send a joint delegation to ondon. Mr Moohan' emphasised the desirability of a common policy for the guidance of the Australian and New Zealand Labour Parties on such post-war problems as security of employment, family wage, and immigration. The machinery should be ready to implement the post-war policy as soon as the war ended. The Labour movement, Mr Moohan pointed out, would have to give long and careful consideration to the question of immigration. Its immediate and final objective must be preservation of the white race. Every avenue should be explored for bringing to the white nations of the Pacific their own kith and kin from overseas and selected immigrants from Europe. Mr Moohan declared that Labour Governments must insist on setting out their point of view in the post-war world. There should be no repetition of the oppressive clauses of the Versailles Treaty. Mr F. A. Cooper, Premier of Queensland, moving a vote of thanks to Messrs Curtin, Fraser, and Moohan, said the Labour movement was destined to lead the world in the rehabilitation period. The preliminary discussions indicate that the present conference will favour the drafting of a Pacific Labour Charter which will include certain clauses of the Anzac Pact, and will contain special clauses for a joint AustraliaNew Zealand tariff policy, revision of the Ottawa Treaty in the light of the Atlantic Charter, and the lifting of the trade restrictions now existing between Australia and New Zealand. Details of the common tariff policy may not be worked out until the Wellington conference. Questions at present at issue concern particularly the New Zealand ban on Australian citrus fruits and the Australian ban on New Zealand potatoes. The tariff question is regarded as a matter of wide Government policy, upon which the parties could give a direction only after an exhaustive examination of the subject of trading throughout the Pacific. The conference is proceeding. Mr Moohan-to-day will-give details of New Zealand’s proposal for a common New Zealand-Australia labour policy to be placed before the Empire Labour Conference. The pay-as-you-go taxation proposals will also be discussed.