AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 24280, 22 August 1942, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS

INDEPENDENT FAVOURS GOVERNMENT (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent); SYDNEY, August 21. Mr Alexander Wilson, of Victoria, the Independent member whose vote can make or break the Federal Government, has made it clear that if th» Opposition attacks the Federal Government during the coming parliamentary session on either the war administration or censorship issues he will vote for the Government. He declared that the present Government was a vast improvement on its predecessors; Mr Wilson said he believed that the censorship should be applied to prevent any inkling of our war strategy reaching '"the enemy, but apart from achieving this fundamental need there should be complete freedom of expression, and the present Australian censorship allowed that. The possibility of the Opposition members withdrawing from the Advisory War Council is now being canvassed, but it is generally felt that such withdrawal by representatives of the parties which" have made a national Government their outstanding platform plank would not be favourably interpreted by the public. This was uo time for Australians to fight among themselves, said Sir Earle Page, formerly representative of the Commonwealth Government in London. If the war was to be won there must be complete unity. Everything else must be subordinated to the job of getting ready Australia’s defence and building up a mighty bastion of democracy within these snores, from which the fight could be carried to the enemy.