Leaders Staying In Sydney For Final Week Of Vital Election Campaign

Chronicle (Levin), 6 December 1949, Page 5

Leaders Staying In Sydney For Final Week Of Vital Election Campaign

Received Tuesday, 11.15 a.m. SYDNEY, December 6. Both the Prime Minister, Mr. Chifley, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Menzies, addressed crowded and enthusiastic audiences in Sydney suburbs last night. Each party leader has arranged to be in Sydney during the last week of the campaign as the city is regarded as the key to the FederaFelections.

Speaking at Randwick, which is in the Watson electorate, where the Labour Party is trying hard to unseat the Labour rebel, Mr. S. M. Falstein, Mr. Chifley said that the policy speeehes of the Opposition leaders were only an interchange of generalisations, the most specific of which was on the nationalisation of banking. The Opposition had made wild elaims about Labour and socialism, but Labour policy was that if there was a public utility not serving the best .interesls of the people, that utility should be brought under public control. Mr. Menzies, at a meeting in North Sydney, Which seat is held by Mr. W. M. Hughes for the Liberals, made the charge that Labour propagandists would tell any lies to suit their purpose. He added: "It turned out when this campaign had been going a week that my distinguished opponent was not Mr. Chifley at all but Abraham Lincoln. Very difficult. Now you see him 'and now you don't. It's like shadow sparring." Fight At Meeting. • At a street corner meeting in the suburb of Edgecliff, at which the Minister of External Territories, Mr. Ward, was the principal speaker, ihis chairman, Mr.

R. Johnson, was involved in a scuffle with an interjector. Earlier Mr. Ward's supporters had stopped him three times from trying to fight the same man. The heckler drove a truck alongside Mr. Ward and shou'ted several times, "What did you get out of New Guinea?" Mr. Ward replied: "Get out on the road and say it. That's the best way to finish you." Mr. Ward was held back by the coat when 'he tried to grapple with the man. After making further remarks, the man drove away but found that someone had let down his tyres. He returned and hurled accusations until Mr. Johnson removed 'his coat an'd started to -fight him. The fight lasted three minutes and was indecisive.