RUSSIAN SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25581, 24 August 1948, Page 5

RUSSIAN SOCIETY IN AUSTRALIA

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MEMBERS RESIGN

ALLEGED COMMUNIST CONTROL (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 23. Bishop Cranswick, of the Australian Board of Missions, and the Rev. W. G. Coughlan, of the Church of England Christian Social Order Movement, today resigned from the Australian Russian Society. In a letter to the society, Mr Coughlan said: “There has come to my notice evidence that convinces me that whatever the society may have been in its early stages it has recently come so much under Communist Party control that I can no longer remain a member.” The letter added that for almost a fortnight the society had not answered Mr Coughlan’s request that it should repudiate any association with an attack made upon the Rev. E J. Davidson by the Communist paper, “Tribune,” for resigning his chairmanship of the society. Bishop Cranswick gave Mr Coughlan his written resignation to send to the society if necessary. After conversations with Mr Davidson both resignations were sent in. The New South Wales Minister of Housing (Mr Clive EVatt) has refused to comment on the statement by the New South Wales president of the Australian Labour Party (Mr J. A. Ferguson), a member of the Legislative Assembly, that the Australian Russian Society was a Communist Party auxiliary. A panel of senior officers of the Labour Party will ask the State Executive next Friday to declare the society such. This recommendation is contained in a report prepared by party officials last Thursday. Its adoption, which is considered certain, would place an immediate ban on membership of the society. Mr Evatt’s position as president of the society has caused considerable controversy since Mr Davidson announced his resignation from the society on August 4. In the Legislative Assembly last week Mr Evatt said that it was , a deliberate falsehood to describe the society as Communist-controlled, and he added: “If any member of the Opposition can nominate a member of this society who is a member of the Communist Party or a Communist sympathiser. I will write out my resignation to-day. but I will not be bludgeoned and blackmailed out of trying to preserve peace in the world.” Mr Evatt is at present in Canberra attending the Premiers’ conference. In his report. Mr Ferguson said: “The report is based on a dependable investigation, which leaves no doubt in the minds of the committee that the society is just another example of trickerv to deceive prominent people into allowing themselves to be used. Nobody could be condemned for his association with any valid attempt to promote friendship between nations and to aid the cultural development of any country. The Australian Russian Society’s use of this as part of its policy is regarded by the committee as an inexcusable means to conceal a cunning political purpose.”