MANPOWER ORDERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 124, 26 May 1944, Page 5

MANPOWER ORDERS

DIRECTIVES TO WORK ARE NOT EFFECTIVE RULING OF HIGH COURT IMPLICATION'S of serfdom. Recd. 11.30 p.m. Sydney, May 25. Manpower orders directing people to work in canneries, factories, or for any other specified private employer, .ire w.tnout effect, according to a Judgment given by the New South Wales Full Court, to-day. The Court, unanimously decided that a section ot manpower regulations under which such directions nero given was invalid. The validity of the regulations was challenged hy two cmplovces of a city firm who wer P directed to change their employment. They sought statutory prohibitions preventinc any further action following their conviction by a magistrate for disobeying manpower orders. "The regulation, as It stand.,” said thejahief Justice, Sir Frederick Jordan, '‘would. If valid, reduce the population of Australia to a state of serfdom more abject than any which obtained in the Middle Ages. “Ther c is nothing in the Commonwealth Constitution which authorises an executive Government to impose upon the people of Australia a status of villenage." , “The High Court of Australia has granted the Commonwealth leave to Sppeal against the Full Court's deci“So far as I know, this is the first time any Court in the British Emp re has chosen to characterise necessary manpower organisations as imposing serfdom." said the acUng-Prime Minister Mr. Forde, commenting on tn» Court's decision. The regulations were imposed purely temporal fly—for the duration of the war. and for tile sake of saving the very life of the country. The public will reject this implied reflection on their patriotism. By means of th- manpower system, we were able to help greatly in preventing a threatenefl invasion.