VISA DIFFICULTY OVERCOME

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23257, 19 July 1945, Page 5

VISA DIFFICULTY OVERCOME

Mr Thornton Avoids United States SYDNEY, July 18. Mr Ernest Thornton, General Secretary of the Communist Party and secretary of the Ironworkers’ Union, has left Australia by sea to attend the world trade union conference in Faris. The route now taken by Mr The,rr ton will not require an American endorsement. A visa for Mr Thornton’s passage through the United States was held up by the United States Government. He was scheduled to sail on July 10, but owing to this hitch in his plans he was compelled to miss the ship. Attempts were made to get the Commonwealth Government to intervene on his behalf, but the Government adhered rigidly to the ruling given by Mr Chifley when acting-Prime Minister that Mr Thornton was to be given the facilities normally made available to an Australian citizen, but beyond that he was to get no special consideration.

'The grounds for refusing Mr Thornton permission to enter the United States were understood to be the American viewpoint that the United States has sufficient Communist problems of its own.