LABOUR ISSUES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 124, 28 May 1942, Page 7

LABOUR ISSUES

POLICY MOTIONS

Comprehensive British Scheme

For Social Security

United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, May 27. The big issues oefore the Labour party's annual conference were the party's by-election policy and the electoral truce. The executive tabled a motion that, subject to special circumstances, the Labour party's participation in the Government for the purpose of taking full part in the prosecution of the war carried with it the maintenance of the electoral truce and general co-operation with other parties participating in the Government in promoting the return of Government candidates at by-elections.

Mr. Griffiths introduced a motion demanding a comprehensive scheme for social security, including adequate cash payments to provide security for whatever contingency and also a scheme for family allowances and the right to all forms of medical attention and treatment through a national health service. The motion added thst "adequate provision must be made from public lunds and not through private charity for the dependents of all who have Jost their lives or have been disabled through war." "We believe," said Mr. Griffiths, that an essential part of the reconstruction of the new world must be a charter of security as the right for all citizens. If we are to have a new Britain it must be a healthy one. The annual cost of ill-health in Britain is £300,000,000, most of which is preventable."

The conference adopted Mr. Griffiths' motion and also passed a resolution demanding increase in old age, supplementary and disability Service pensions.

Occupied Countries Represented

National representatives of the German-occupied countries conveyed greetings to the Labour Partv Conference to-day, says British Official Wireless. M. Louis de Brouckers, of Belgium, told how Belgian factories working for the Germans caught fire and how the Belgian fire service proved to be the worst in the world.

Hitler was finding the countries which he had overrun liabilities instead of assets because he could not subdue free peoples. Manv Belgians had been gaoled, and had suflered agonies in concentration camps, M. de Brouckers said. All of them were hungry, and many starved beyond recovery. Dr. Gustav Winta, of Czechoslovakia, said the workers in his country had reduced production, disorganised German transport and performed many other acts of sabotage. M. Louis Levy, of France, said the overwhelming majority of the people in France supported the Democracies against Fascism.

Mrs. Rachel Severin, of Norway, said the Norwegian people had had their disappointments, but nothing could destroy their faith that Britain would succeed in the end. Madam Ciolkosz, of Poland, said the whole of the Polish people missed no opportunity to interfere with the working of the German war machine.

The conference unanimously passed a resolution, demanding a unified educational system in which education would be related to the capacity of the child and not to the means of the parents. A resolution was also proposed raising the school leaving age to 15 years at the close of the war and 16 within three years and that all children over 11 attend schools with a common code of regulation and a common standard of accommodation and staffing.