AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1916, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

LABOR CONFERENCE, Australian-N.Z. Cable Association. Melbourne, Dec. o. A Labor conference of delegates from (•very State, with the exception of West Australia, vigorously condemned Mr Hughes and his followers for refusing to oppose conscription. The conference carried a motion expelling from the movement all Federal members who advocated cciiscription or formed another political party Senator Gardiner opposed the motion, and members of the Federal Labor Party announced that they intended to move towards deposing him from the leadership of the party in the Senate. Interviewed, Senator Lynch said Lis K.pnlsion 'was the undoubted limit of audacity and lawlessness, as the conferonce was illegal. The chief cause of the upheaval in the movement was the weakness and insincerity of the so-called leaders. In the west the leaders stood up to their duty, while in the east they cowered in feai and trembling of irresponsible Trades Hall juntas. Had those spi'rious leaders of public thought stood manfully to their guns and spoken instead of stifling thought, conscription would have been carried by half-a-million votes.