POLITICIANS AT ODDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1942, Page 2

POLITICIANS AT ODDS

BITTER CONTROVERSY IN AUSTRALIA OVER DEFENCE QUESTIONS & BROADCASTING. TALK OF “GUILTY MEN.” (Bv Telegraph—Press Association—-copyright) SYDNEY, February 2. Federal Ministers and former Ministers joined during the weekend in an acrimonious public controversy, the main issues of which were, first, the responsibility for the present state of Australia’s defences; second, relations with Britain; and, third, claims that the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Canberra session was being used for political purposes. Recent statements by Mr Menzies and Mr Spender, deploring the tone of some of the criticism of Britain, brought a reply from the Minister of Labour, Mr Ward, who said that Australians were only beginning to realise that there were guilty men within these shores who had put Australia’s interests last. Australia would be a militarily powerful nation today if these people, many of them in high places and with power to do things, had placed the interests of their own land before the interests of others. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Fadden, replying to Mr Ward,, said he did not contend that previous Administrations did not err in some defence measures, but they certainly left a solid foundation upon which the present Government could expeditiously build. An unfortunate aspect of the matter, Mr Fadden added, was that details of the attack on Messrs Spender and Menzies, and other matters of a purely political character, were broadcast during a special Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Canberra session. “It has become apparent that this session has developed into a period during which blatant Government propaganda is put on the air,” Mr Fadden said. The Minister of Information, Mr Ashley, claimed that the Canberra session was an impartial one and that those attacked had been communicated with by the staff of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and their replies broadcast.