Once & For All

"This is the real showdown," Australians said. "Either Ming will break the Reds or the Reds will break Ming."

"Ming"--antipodean lingo for Prime Minister Robert Menzies--had made an election promise last fall to outlaw the Communist Party. The defiant Reds had called quickie strikes on the Melbourne and Brisbane waterfronts, tied up shipments of wool and meat abroad. A fortnight ago Ming's government moved toward a showdown by invoking the Emergency Crimes Act (first passed in 1914 against wartime sabotage), under which strike leaders could be jailed. "We will deal with Communists here once & for all," warned the Prime Minister. To waterfront strikers went an ultimatum: either back to work, or prison for union officials.

Last week Australia's Red bosses' called a two-month "truce," sent their men back to the docks.

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