Labour Leaders Express Views In Support Of Menzies Bill To Outlaw Communism In Australia

Wanganui Chronicle, 29 April 1950, Page 5

Labour Leaders Express Views In Support Of Menzies Bill To Outlaw Communism In Australia

SYDNEY, April 28 (Rec. 6 pm).—The acting-chairman of the New South Wales State Parliamentary Labour Party, Air. R. 0. Hamilton, said today: “It is practically the unanimous viewpoint of the State Parliamentary Labour Party that the Communist Dissolution Bill should be supported by the Federal Parliamentary

Labour Party. “Men of the State Parliamentary Labour Party are prepared to make this issue plain if the question arises in the State House. Tfce attitude of the State Parliamentary Labour Party is consistent with the views expressed and the action taken during the coal strike last year.”

Mr. Hamilton said that one of the dangers of the Bill was that it might tend to create a false sense of security. It would still be necessary for the industrial wing of the Australian Labour Party to maintain a policy of offsetting the influence of Communists in the union even if Communists were underground. The State Minister of ~ands, Mt. Sheehan, said that action had to be taken against Coiamuri.sU, whose activities and aims had created a position that could not be tolerated. The president of the New South Wales Labour Council, Mr. C. Anderson, appealed to trade unionists not to be stampeded by Communists, con-, cerned only with their own political lives. He added that the only body capable of determining trade union policy on this issue was the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which would consider the postion at a special Congress next month. Mr. Anderson added: "Personally I feel that any action taken to assist those who have consistently opposed Communist disruption in the trade union movement will be welcomed by all decent Australian workers. The important question is to what extent attempts will be made to use the legislation against decent Australian militant unionists. The Menzies Government will need to make its approach to this question quite clear.” In a broadcast from Canberra tonight Mr. Menzies (Prime Minister! said: “There was no subject on which our mandate was clearer than that of the banning of Communists. If the Labour Party desires to advocate that Communism in Australia is to continue to have the blessing of law and is, therefore, to masquerade as a respectable political philosophy, that will be that party's responsibility. “There will no doubt be a Commu-nist-inspired outcry about the privileges of Communist union officials. Do not be misled by it. Union officials, quite properly, have great powers and responsibilities. Their legitimate functions on behalf of their members will not be interfered with by us—but they are no more above the law than the’rest of us. For the last 12 months Communists have been whipping up what they call a common front. They want non-Communist unionists to protect them and keep them in positions from which they can do, under suitable conditions, irreparable harm to the prosperity, safety and defence of Australia.” Speaking to the Bill in the House of Representatives last night, Mr. Menzies said that Communism in its principal home was a prime mover in the present disorders of the world, and the prime cause of the fears which now distracted millions of peace-lov-ing homes the world over. It was not to be thought that Australia was immune from the espionage disclosed by the Royal Commission m Canada and the Fuchs trial in Britain. “We would not have tolerated a fifth column in 1939-45. We certainly do not propose to tolerate one in 1950

when militant Communism, checked for the time in Western Europe, is

, moving east and south-east to carry | out. its plans of putting down de- ■ mocracy and ushering in a revolution. It would be an act of criminal ; folly to leave revolutionary Communists in key positions in vital indus- , tries so that with all their smallness of numbers they may achieve destructive results which five army corps would hardly hope to achieve. ’ The Bill prescribes imprisonment for five years of anyone continuing to be an officer or member of an unlawful association. Before Mr. Menzies introduced the Bill, the Speaker. Mr. Cameron, introduced Mr. W. J. Polson, M.1..C , of New Zealand, to the House. Hfi was given an armchair on the floor of the House.

The House listened in silence broken only by approving “Hear hears” to the Prime Minister's address. Mr. Menzies spoke for nearly an hour and a-half. He finished with a reference to the preamble to the Bill, saying: "If they are in substance false, then not only is the Bill unjust, but the Dean of Canterbury is right The North Atlantic Pact is mere hysteria and the British-American policies are wickedly wrong. We are .‘tow bound to make our choice.” When Mr. Menzies finished, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Chifley) obtained an adjournme.tr. of the debate and the galleries emptied. The evening papers in Sydney both use the anti-Communist Bill as main lead stories. The "Sun” comments: “If for mere political reasons the Labour Party rejects the vital clauses of the Bill in the Senate the Prime Minister will have no course left but to appeal to the nation by a double dissolution—and if he Is compelled to do so he will have the Australian nation behind him.”

The New South Wales Labour Party president, Mr. J. A. Ferguson, said that nobody knew better than Mr. Menzies that he could not legislate an idea out of existence, and added: "Anti-Communist legislation will be welcomed only if it can be proved effective against the party and not used for any other purpose. Trade unions will rightly defend their right to selfdetermination, and insist on the election of officers of their own choosing. Should any such officer be a member of the Communist party he must, of necessity?, put up with the consequences of any political actions, and should not look to the trade unions for protection. We still insist there is adequate provision under the Climes Act and Security Act to deal with any person or bodies responsible for subversive activities.

“We are in agreement with Mr. Menzies that we must fight Communist wherever we find him, with no immunity at all. Our difficulty now will be to find him.”