NATIONAL CABINET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1940, Page 5

NATIONAL CABINET

FEDERAL PREMIER’S OFFER REJECTED BY LABOUR PARTY. DOOR SLAMMED BY MR CURTIN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA. July 30. According to the “Sun” representative. the Federal Opposition leader. Mr Curtin, slammed the door against the Prime Minister's offer to form a National Government with five or six seats for Labour. Mr Curtin in a statement said: “The complete lack of cohesion in the present Federal Ministry makes talk of a National Government a sheer absurd'ity. The Prime Minister's offer has obviously been made for the purpose of avoiding an election. The Labour Party fully recognises Mr Menzies's responsibilities, and we are prepared to give the maximum constructive support, but he has around him colleagues and associates whose attitude is more destructive of national unity than anything the Opposition has said or could say or would say.” •TRADE UNIONS AGREEMENT SOUGHT WITH GOVERNMENT. (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The Interstate Executive of the Australasian Council of Trades Unions has decided to seek an amicable agreement with Mr Menzies (Federal Premier) on the question of the trades union defence advisory panel. Mr Menzies will be asked to give effect to the plan to which he agreed before it was submitted to the Trades and Labour Council of each State. He will be informed that majority of the Labour Councils have adopted the plan formulated by the Australasian Council of Trades Unions and the recent conference of Federal Unions and that as a result the plan has now become the policy of the trade union m'ovement. The seven individual unions which agreed to co-operate with the Federal Government in one major panel will be urged to refrain from having any negotiations With the Federal Government pending advice from the Australasian Council of Trades Unions.