SOCIAL SECURITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1942, Page 3

SOCIAL SECURITY

FAR-REACHING PROPOSALS APPROVED BY BRITISH LABOUR CONFERENCE. CLOSE VOTE ON PARTY TRUCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.20 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. Big issues before the Labour Party annual conference were by-election policy and the electoral truce. The executive tabled motion that, subject to special circumstances, the Labour Party’s participation in the Government for the purpose of taking a full part in the prosecution of the war carried with it the maintenance of an electoral truce and general co-operation with the other parties participating in the Government in promoting the return of Government candidates at by-elections. Mr Griffiths, M.P., proposed a motion demanding a comprehensive scheme of social security, including adequate cash payments to provide security in whatever contingency, and also a scheme of family allowances and the right to all forms of medical attention and treatment through the national health service. The motion added that adequate provision must be made from public funds, and not through private charity, for the dependants of all who lost their lives or were disabled in the Avar. Mr Griffiths said: “We believe that an essential part of the reconstruction of the . new world must be a charter of security as a right for all citizens. If we are to have a new Britain it must be healthy. The annual cost of ill-health in Britain is £300,000,000, most of which is preventible.A The conference adopted Mr Griffiths’s motion and also passed a resolution demanding increases in old age, supplementary and disability service pensions. Another message states that the executive resolution regarding the continuance of the party truce was carried only by the somewhat narrow majority of 1,270,000 votes to 1,209,000.