SUPPORTED BY LIBERALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26719, 13 March 1948, Page 7

SUPPORTED BY LIBERALS

CAN ON FEDERAL COMMUNIST PARTY Rec. 8 p.m. CANBERRA, Mar. 12. The Federal Parliamentary Liberal Parly has decided unanimously to advocate and support a complete ban upon the Communist Party. The decision is likely to be followed by a move in Parliament when the House of Representatives meets again after Easter to demand that the Government take action against the Communist Party. The collapse of the current sitting of the House late yesterday, a week earlier than had been intended, frustrated any immediate Government action.

Mr R. G. Menzies, who until recently held that the best way of dealing with the Communist Party was to keep it in the open, now says “recent events have made it quite clear that Australia’s Communism is treasonable, anti-democratic, and destructive.” The Liberal decision has removed one of the main differences between the Liberal and the Country Party policies

The Minister of Repatriation, Mr H. C. Barnard, said to-day that Communists in Australia were taking advantage of the misfortunes which are the aftermath of war. He agreed with the statement by the Post-war Reconstruction Minister, Mr F. J. Dedman, that Communists needed starvation and chaos in which to pursue their evil aim of revolution. Some rank and file members of the Labour Party are still not ready to attack the Communists, though they agree with the attacks made by their leaders. Several private members today refused to comment on Mr Dedman’s statement.