Question of Degree of Socialisation in Labour Policy

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1948, Page 6

Question of Degree of Socialisation in Labour Policy

RAISED BY CATHOLIC WRITER

SYDNEY, September 22. Mr. Bryan Doyle, Associate Editor of "The Catholic Weekly” Sydney, in an article in the “Sydney Morning Herald” hints at a proposal for the formation of an “inaependent political party based on Christian principles, and equivalent to the M.R.P., in France, the People’s Party in Holland, or the Christian Democratic Party m Belgium.” Air. Doyle says: “The present situation affecting Roman Catholic memoership of the Australian Labour Party is the most serious that has arisen in the history ot the party, m which Roman Catholic influence has been well nigh definite.” He added: “Many Roman Catholics are wondering why, if the Labour Party objective does not envisage complete socialisation, the executive or political leaders ot the party will not say so, and remove the cause of their anxiety.” The article is stated to have been strongly attacked by prominent members of the Catholic Church. Air. W. F. Sheahan, New South Wales Minister of Lands, said that if some people, without the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, were sponsoring a political party with a religious background, it was doomed to failure, as it would be in any other British Dominion.