PRAISE & BLAME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1943, Page 4

PRAISE & BLAME

FEDERAL PREMIER’S POLICY SPEECH THOUGHT GIVEN TO FUTURE OF AUSTRALIA. INTERNAL POLITICAL ISSUES. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, This Day. "For the most part Mr Curtin’s speech had a statesmanlike ring, and he showed that his Government is thinking deeply about the future of Australia in the Pacific, as well as actively preparing for tasks of internal reconstruction at the end of the war” — this appreciation of the Prime Minister's policy speech was made by the "Sydney Morning Herald" editorially. The paper, however, takes Mr Curtin to task on several issues, including his “scrupulous avoidance” of any mention in this policy .speech of an allparty Administration, and his failure to make a completely unequivocal declaration that the Labour Party policy of socialisation would not be applied under any mandate given primarily for war purposes.’* The “Sydney Telegraph” comments that Mr Curtin had very little to say about the form of society proposed by Labour after the war, and asks: “Who will direct the new order if Labour goes back to office, Mr Curtin or the ‘Little Hitlers’ of the Trades Hall?”