POLITICS & WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1943, Page 4

POLITICS & WAR

BITTER PARTY CONTENTION IN AUSTRALIA OVER PAST & PRESENT POLICY. COMMENT BY CORRESPONDENT. LONDON, June 15. Australia’s “Brisbane Line” controversy is attacked in an article featured in the London “Times” and “Manchester Guardian.” Written by the papers’ Canberra correspondent, the article is displayed under the heading “Recriminations in Australia,’ and says: “The present party quarrels presage an election campaign in which the Government will seek to make a main issue of the rival merits of its own and its predecessors’ defence policies. This is an intolerable prospect for the great mass of Australians. Mr Menzies had to face entirely different war conditions from those confronting Mr Curtin when he took office. History’s verdict will undoubtedly be that Mr Menzies tackled the prevalent conditions with immense credit to Australia, and by doing so laid the foundation without which the Labour Party’s war record could not have been written. Labour has little to be proud of in its pre-war defence record. But, under Mr Curtin’s leadership, it has handsomely redeemed its past shortcomings, although there have been some conspicuous personal exceptions to that generalisation. The pity is that Mr Curtin should have permitted himself to make such a deplorable lapse from the high standard of public conduct which he has set himself as to indict his predecessors so unjustly.’’