VITAL DECISIONS SEEN

Chronicle (Levin), 5 July 1947, Page 5

VITAL DECISIONS SEEN

-Press Assoeiation

" Parliament " Behind The Parliament

Bv Telegraph-

WELLINGTON, July 4. . . Beports oireulating in tpadfi uiiion and politic'al cibcles 'htiri-: bute weighty dedlsionsj whidli were not rele'ased for publieation at t'lie time, to tlie reeent eonference of tlie New Zealand Federation of Labour. A particularly important oue referred to rationing, it is stated by oue source that there was a proposal that the abolition of butter and meat rationing shonid be the subject ofrepresentations to the;- Government, and that, as a re'sult there were recommendations that the cnt in the butter ration should be restored and that meat rationing should end. Signifieance is also attaehed, it ( is stated, to a report that there was-another proposal at the "Parliament behind Parliament" demanding the presentation by the Government, in draft form, of projeeted industrial legislation to the i'ederatkm exeeutive, for its sanction or otherwise. It is stated, however, that, on the ground that this praetiee is now being observed, no reeommendation from the eonference was considered necessary. It is recalled that only brief announcements of the transactions of the eonference were issued to the public, and it is known, from sources connected with the federation that this paucity of information, wrhen issues affeeting the public are discussed, does not necessar ily have the apxJroval of all trade union officials.

In faet, it is likcly to cause misunderstandings. For instance, a recent report from Auckland suggested that the Federation of Labour had been ari vited to s-end a representative to' the impending eonference at Honolulu oi Waterside organisations in the Paeitie. ft has since been denied, in federation and waterside eircles, that the Cju-estion was ever discussed. Anotlier remarkable oecurrenee was the publieation in a Communist paper of the details of three far-reaehing re cominendations by the international and national policy committee of the federation, although no word of these roeommendations was releas-ed at the time of the eonference. The reeommendations called on the World Federation of Trade Unions to assist the American trad-e union move-k ment in its "struggle" against "repressive legislation"; invited the NeW Zealand Government to aslc the British Government to "intervene with the object of bringing pressure to bear on the Greek Government to discontinue its use of repressive measures against the right ajid liberties of the trade unions," and called on the World Federation of Trade Unions to investigate "the financial assistance given Greece and Turkey for military purposes, " thus x>recipitating the possibilitv of a third world war. It was stated that the Soviet Union might be involved in the war, and a direction was desired from the World Federation of Trade Unions regarding measures- to prevent such a war. It is now stated that the background to these recommendations from the coh* ference was providcd in a remit saying that the Ganterbury Trades Council re affiEined that it opposed all policieS which could lead to war against Russia "for any conceivable reason, or under any jjretext. " President Truman 'fe statement about Turkey and Greece was deseribed as "a formal declaration oi the general plan of tlie most aggressive seetions of eapitalism for the third world war." It is reported also that this particular remit suggested that Turkey and , Greece were to be an imperialistic base, and Russia was to be the object of i aggre.ssion. It was eontended also that the United States would try "to starve into submission the revolutionary work ing class of Yugoslavia. "