FACING A CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25625, 28 August 1944, Page 4

FACING A CRISIS

CURTIN GOVERNMENT HANDLING OF COAL PROBLEM (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 27. The Curtin Government will this week enter the most critical phase of its 146 weeks of office. In spite of its substantial majorities in both Houses of the Federal Parliament, some political observers express the opinion that coal could bring about the Government’s downfall; failure to handle this problem satisfactorily might provoke a split in the Labour camp. Alarm at the growing seriousness of the coal position and its effect on industry generally has caused the Australian Council of Trades Unions to call a special meeting of the Labour Advisory Council. This is the most powerful committee in the Labour movement. An influential section of the party is demanding the nationalisation of mines, but some Ministers believe that even such a costly and drastic step would not guarantee the production of the coal needed. Censure Motion The State Premiers, meeting in Canberra, were told that the present coal production is 20,000 tons below the full Australian consumption. The rationing now introduced aims at a weekly saving pf 24,000 tons. Coal is expected to be the subject of an early censure motion when the Federal Parliament reassembles on Wednesday for the Budget session. The Government’s referendum expenditure of about’ £200,000 will also be sharply criticised. The latest counting in the referendum has given “No ” an overall majority of more than 300,000, but the services’ vote in all States, except Queensland, have shown small “Yes” majorities. . ~ Apart from their criticism of the Government, the Opposition parties are likely to settle important domestic questions during the coming parliamentary session. The main nonLabour groups in New South Wales, the Democratic and Liberal Democratic parties, have now linked under the title of the United Democratic Party of Australia., Thus after several earlier amalgamation failures the stage is now set for exploring the possibilities of an effective national organisation of the non-Labour forces. A “Privileged Class” Indicative of the rising public temper against the striking coal miners who have given Mr Curtin his greatest cause for worry, is a strongly-worded editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald, which had hitherto given the Government much support. The paper says: “If the full meaning of the coal shortage in dwindling transport, widespread unemployment, and damage to the war effort is driven home to the people, anger will rise against the miners who are betraying Australia and the Government which has spinelessly deferred to them. Whereas the power to conscript men or to direct girls to employment has been rigorously exercised, the organised coal miners have been left to go their own way. They have never been asked to do a stroke of overtime. They have been bribed, cajoled, and treated generally as a privileged industrial class. Their return has been to sabotage the rest of the nation’s war effort and bring the Government into contempt. “There is still time for the Prime Minister to redeem his own and the Cabinet’s reputation, but if a complete break is not made without the pusillanimity of the past, and if the Government does not stand up to the miners, public opinion will begin to cpst around for alternatives. The largest majority in Parliament is not proof against the disintegrating effects of popular revulsion and disdain.”