LABOUR UPHEAVAL IN AUSTRALIA.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 881, 6 December 1916, Page 7

LABOUR UPHEAVAL IN AUSTRALIA.

SORRY AFTERMATH OF THE REFERENDUM "LIMIT OF AUDACITY AND LAWLESSNESS." By Cable. — Press Association. — Copyright. (Received December 6, 10. ")0 a.m.) MELBOURNE, December 6. The interstate Labour Conference delegates from every State, with the exception of West. Australia, vigorously condemned the Right Hon. W. M. Hughes and his followers for refusing to oppose conscription, and carried a motion expelling from the Labour movement all Federal members who advocated conscription or formed another political party. Senator Gardiner opposed the motion, and members of the Federal Labour Party announced that they intended to move to depose him from the leadership of the party in the Senate. In an interview, Senator P. J. Lynch (Labour, West Australia) said that such expulsion was the undoubted limit of audacity and lawlessness, as the conference was illegal. The chief cause of the upheaval in the movement was the weakness and insincerity of the so-called leaders. In the West, the leaders stood up to their duty, while in the East they cowered in fear and trembling before irresponsible Trades Hall juntas. Had those spurious leaders of public thought stood manfully to their guns, and spoken instead of stifling thought, conscription would have been carried by half a million votes.