Evening star., 1941-04-26
Rift in Australia

One of the most serious repercus-
sions of the British defeat in Greece
has been political controversy in
Australia. A large portion of the
eXpeditionary force sent to the
Balkans were Australians. The La
borite opposition party in the Aus
tralian Parliament has criticized
this use of the commemorative
troops-particularly the govern
ment's decision to send troops into
Greece without consulting the Ad-
visory War Cabinet-and has threat
ened to introduce vote of censure
against the government. If this
threat is carried out, it might pre-
cipitate crisis resulting in the dis
solution of Parliament and general
elections, fought on the war issue.
Australian parliamentary life has
long been on precarious basis. The
government is itself a coalition of the
United Australia and Country par
ties, representing the conservative
and liberal interests, both urban and
rural. However, this coalition has
had a slim majority in Parliament
over the Labor opposition, and Labor
has refused Prime Minister Menzies'
proposals to form united coalition
government of all parties. At this
crucial moment, one of the leading
government members of Parliament
has died, thus endangering its ma
jority The chief uncertainty arises
from the fact that the Labor party
is itself divided internally between
the relatively moderate majority
headed by Mr.. Curtin, its parliament
tary spokesman, and an ultra-radical
wing with Communistic leanings.
Australian labor has long been
highly organized and politically pow
erful. Although Australia is conti-
nent the size of the United States,
fully one-half of its scanty popula-
ton of 100000 lives in cities scat
tered along it's seaboard, which are
labor Strongholds. Largely through
political pressure, organized labor
has enforced high wage scales cou-
pied with social betterment laws of
a very advanced character. Labor's
chief aim has been to maintain and
extend this favored position. Ira
ditionally anti-imperialist and "iso-
lationist," it has always tended to
oppose military preparedness and
assuming a share of empire defense.
In the, Great War, generation ago,
it fought conscription and split over
this issue. Today, fear of Japan has
rallied most Laborites to military
preparedness, but there has been
strong opposition within the party
to sending troops abroad, especially
beyond Singapore, when the Japa-
nese menace may require them
North Africa and now even more in
Greece seem to be bringing Labor
criticisms of the governments i'm
perial policy to the boiling point.
No such opposition has as yet ap-
peared in the neighboring dominion
of New Zealand. Here, the Labor
party is the government. But New
Zealand labor, while equally intent
on high living standards and ad-
vanced social services, is less radi-
cally isolationist in outlook. Perhaps
because New Zealand is a smaller
country, less populous and even more
remote, its citizens appear to feel
more strongly their imperial ties and
responsibilities. So, in the furry
which has arisen over the disaster in
Greece, although many New Zealand
soldiers are involved, the dominion
government has publicly approved
the expedition and accepts full re-
sponsibility. Thus there seems to be
scant likelihood of a political crisis
in the dominion similar to that with
which the Australian Common
wealth may be faced at most un-
fortunate moment.