AUSTRALIAN NEWS BY MAIL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 306, 22 September 1919, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN NEWS BY MAIL

MR. HUGHES IN HARNESS FEDERAL POLITICAL OUTLOOK 1",.. Sydney, September 12. . Fede.ral .Politics. .- |M ;LeMling men of the National Party predict a, general election for'tho Federal Parliament about December 6. Mr. ...Hughes is expected to lead-a party with | tt new title, with a platform containing ' about seven essential planks., Mr. Hughes, .. the Prime MJinister, and Sir J.oseph Cook, Minister for the Navy, have had private oonforenco with the Interstate ' ilxeculive of the National 'Federation," and preiiminnry arrange-, ments were made for co-operation between the..Government and the Federation. A •cont'erenbe of executive members of Nu ; tiona'iist associations in all the States will be held in Melbourne in the first weak „ in October, when Mr, Hughes aid Sir Joseph "Cook will attend. It is expected ' 'that'prior to that date Mr. Hughes will' '• take some of the leading representatives of the oonferenoe into his confidence respecting tho programme which he intends to place before the electors when seeking the mandate which'ho indicated on Thursday night was : now essential for any Government whioh was to carry on suc.oessfullj under, the new conditions set ,up by. the declaration of peace. ' The Prime Minister is at present oiHJie crest of a great wave of popularity. He desires to accomplish work in dealing with ,tho cost of living, which an overwhelming .majority of people wish to.see dioiie effectively. He,, however, knows that ho is' powerless to deal with profiteering unless the powers of tho Commonwealth Parliament are added to-by the expressed wish of the people. His' supporters say his obviona course is to ask the people to grant the needed powers, and to obtain from them a mandate to carry out tho programme which he intends to place before the country. V

Mr. Hughes and the Peace Treaty. Mr. Hughes's first speech in the Federal House of Representatives, after his return from the Peace Conference was a jiotablo effort, listened to with close attention by a fuil House. Two points from the speeoh; One amount of the indemnity to be received by. Australia, and the Whito Australia policy ore. of special .interest. . • " : On the subject of alien immigration ■Mr: "Hughes said that Australia, had fecraght. and obtained the recognition of ■ what -was' known as that most' necessary White Australia, policy. (Cheers.) 'Australians believed in' their race, in themselves, ajid in their trpet for the future. This, great trust was j safe. The. race bq'uality; clause had undergone' amendments from every, quarter, finally it was reduced to only those aliens wlho were now admitted. But, speaking for ■ Australia, he had told the conference ■ that he would not .accept even that. It was due to Australia, the. House, and : himself to say what he had 6oid on this to Baron Makino, -the Japanese representative, on this matter of racial differ- . enpo. Baron .MaMno said: "We are a proud. people, who have fought at your aide, and it is intolerable that we should not bo regarded as your equals!" "I," recounted Mr. Hughes, "told hdm that there was nobody who more than I recognised the spirit and perseverance 'of the Japanese, and all that they had done in the wir, aiid I hoped that our people would.alwavs remain fast friends. I ad-mitted-thai we found ourselves bounded • by tho same ocean in like circumstances, bat that while we were friends a man in ordinary life did not invite all his irienda to his house, and that even when he did ; invito, them they did not all remain permanent residents therein. . The ideals of our races wore different. Wo did not venture to say" that our race was greater than; theirs,- but we contented ourselves " by'eiying tiioy were different. We muet tread the roads as "under'the direction' of ' those impulses and instincts which come from history - to our separate peoples, 'yet we oonla remain perfect'friends for - ever and ever." With , regard to the v indemnity; said the Prime. Minister, Aus\tnaliaV: claim ,';was! •: <£354,000,000 — ; .£300,000,000,f0r the actual'war debt, and >854,000,000 for the capitalised value of , , tvar' .pensions and repatriation-, and loss to civilians. At one stroke 4300,000,000 was struck out. The oost of the war to Britain, which, was .46,500,000,000, excluding the comparatively small cost which was of pensions' and repay-i-viienttfof damage to property—the whole thing was ,sfiped. out, so it was a very serious thing for Australia and Britain . when the 14 points wore accepted. Ho had been questioned regarding has cham-,-pionihg .of .Australia's claims—not by a Erenohman—and he had replied that if it lay between the slavery of Germany ' and the slavery of-Australia, tho penalty "must not fall upon Australia. Germany had been blood-guilty, Australia innof tMofi •• Einally ■ the position" was that • Australia's J . claim had' been cut down to 454,000,000, or there>iabtmts.l (■He did not • know' how muoh 'i'BMtaJn-.'Wis to get.' Practically. . tho ceffect of.tie acceptance by the Council of Eour of that basis of ropniation was i the neat burden, Australia lad incurred, she must hereelf bear. It .was provided tlia-t up to the end of April,' 1921, Germany was to pay .£1,000,000,000. Erom that thousand .millions important reductions had to be made—the cost of the Army of Occupation, cost of food and. raw materials to Germany, 4100,000,000 to Belgium; : and' .other costs. However, they could not 'ojcpect to bo available for distribution to all .belligerents anything moro than . 4700,000,WX). Consequently, when he .was' asked how muoh Australia would ectaaliy reoeive, oandidly he did not ' know. V SHe would get her share. Prob- . AMy, or possibly, at the end of April, '1921; 'She might gut anything of»from Jive to ofght millions, . What',would foll#w that he did not know, as the remolntng raymonta were spread over a period of BO yeaM,. Avtr infcch Germany could pay h6 did not know, . '

? Memorial to Anzacs in Egypt. • 'A report W been received by the l-'F&Joral'-'Defence Department from the .Commandant, A.I.F. . Hof/iquartors, Cairo, stating the progress of the movement initiated by Australian and New Zealand troops : in' Egypt and Palestine to erect a memorial to the fallen com- • rades on the banks of the Suez Canal. / At the last meeting of the committee, ' on May 8, the report states, it was ascertained that the total amount of funds subscribed by members of the Australian and New Zealand Forces in Egypt and Palestine.totalled i 4567 '133. sd. It was expeoteu that iMOO more would be received before the ?nd of August, that amount would ,bring the' maximum amount which it was possiblo to raise in Egypt to very nearly J35C00. A circular letter has been sent to the relatives and noxt-of-kln of deceased soldiers, and it was hoped that sufficient response would be made tp enablo tho total amount to reach .£IO,OOO. The,committee has decided that no seleotion of designs should take place until the totfl amount possible was subscribed. It is .anticipated that this will' take some months, and possibly the final selection ' of designs will take/ place In Australia. It is desired that the work should be ' done by on Australian artist, and bo completed In Australia with Australian materials. Several plans were, submitted at the meeting as well as a plasticene modal, but the oommittee thought it better to wait until it was known exactly how much money was available for the work, and then to call tor further designs and estimates in Australia. The Closed Door to Germany. , The Federal Prime Minister's emphatic/declaration that he is not prepared to agree to a resumption of trade] relations with Germany has given rise to considerable discussion in' commercial oircles (states the Melbourne ''Age"). ' Prior to his announcement the impression prevailed that Australian producers apd manufacturers would, if they so de- • sired, shortly bo permitted to export goods and foodstuffs direct to Germany, but Mr. Huzhes's statement undoubtedly suggests that lie is opposed to tho resumption of any tntdo relations'whatovCx with Germany, although both Great . Britain and America are now trading with that country. Tho recontly increased price of Australian hides is claimed to be due to the faot that Amerioan buyers aie competing in ■ the local mar- , ajd offering fancy prices on . the strength of contracts which American iWfl ftaye entered into with Germany, gotta iltcfa ttmo ago an order was ga-

zetted by the Minister of Customs permitting the resumption of trado relations under license with many of the countries with which the Allies were Tintil recently nt war, and the Federal Government has sinco . communicated with the Imperial authorities seeking information with regard to the question of trado relations with Germany and Australia. But this_ was before the Prime Minister arrived back (in the Commonwealth. Commercial men now await with considerable interest a detailed announcement from the Government concerning* tho nature of the embargo to he placed &n trading relations with Germany. Rumours of a Big Coal Strike. The possibility of a coal miners' strike throughout Australia is again being, raised. ths unrest arising not only on the coalfields, but as'an outcome of tho metalliferous miners' strike, at Broken Hill. Mr. A. C. Willis, general secretary of the Coal and Shale Employees' Federation, said: "This battle must be won, because on it depends tho chances of oilier workers having their hours of labour reduced. If tho people of Sydney soon have to go to! bed by candle light they must not. blaino' the Barrier miners." Asked later to explain his remark, Mr. Willis said the metalliferous miners were a branch of the federation, and that; members of the federation had been paying levies to keep them going. The seamen's strike had, rendered most of the colliery employees idle, arid the help now available was not 'sufficient. Action in/sympathy with the Barrier workers miijht therefore be necessary. The coal miners were continually complaining that the mine proprietors had not.carried out the agreement arrived at a fow months ago through the intervention of tho then Acting-Primo Minister. They complained especially that the machinery for the settlement 'Of disputes which was then agreed upon had never been put into operation, and that victimised men had. not. been reinstated.

Frozen Meat Tonnage, As a result of most urgent represeniations to tho Imperial authorities, further refrigerated tonnage has been allotted' to Australia, but the position ia still serious., Tho Minister for Trade and .Customs (Mr. Massy Greene) has sent several cable lnessages on tho subject to T.ondon. In the latest message dispatched ho described the position of the Australian frozen meat industry as alarming, and pointed o;ut that if the glut of frozen meat in the stores were allowed to continue. thus more or le6s paralysing the whole pastoral industry, the consequences must bo .calamitous. He also suggested that recently published 1 figures showing that :whlle in tne past twelve months the Argentine sent 12,000,000 tons of frozen meat to Great Britain, Australia sent only 1,500,000 tons, did not indicate the fostering of trade within the Empire in the manner, generally desired. In reply, the Minister received a message stating that there, had been a considerable increase in the insulated space allotted to Australia, which will be available before the end of the year. "Though this will not entirely relieve the. existing difficult position," said Mr. Greene yesterday, "it will Vet materially improve matters." •

Wireless to England. A test .to prove that wireless messages could be received in Australia from England was undertaken by Mr. B. T. Fisk, managing director, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Limited, and experiments were dommenced in Sydney towards the'end of the year 1917. After a long serigs of careful experimental work, test messages weie received at.th© experimental station at Wahroonffa, New South "Wales, direct from Carnarvon (Wales). Direct -wireless communication botweon Australia and the United Kingdom was then proved to be a commercial possibility, and the Marconi Company has demonstrated its/ faith' in this possibility bv offering to erect especially equipped stations in Australia and England for a permanent t commercial service, and to send and receive all messages at onethird less than the existing cable rates, that is, two shillings per word code messages, one shilling per word for deferred plain language messages, and sixpuioo per. word for week-end messages. Since it is necessary under the Wireless Telegraphy Act to obtain a license to erect wireless stations, the Marconi Company has asked for a license .to provide this service, and if the license is granted arA rangements-to erect the stations will be proceeded with immediately; and would probably be in operation within eighteen months. This would immediately place Australia in,much closer touch with tho United Kingdom and with Europe than it has ever been before, and closer than it oould be brought by any other means, becauso the wireless communication would be direct.

Sensational Boxing Bout. One,of the most sensational contests staged at the Stadium' for many years was that between Salvino Jamito, the Filipino light-weight, and Vinco Blackburn, the bantam champion of Australia. It was a wonderful exhibition of punching (says the Sydney "Sun"), Jamito is tho . greatest two-handed 'titter who has come to these shores for a long time, but he met in Blackburn also a great punoher, and a more scientific one at that, and the visitor was beaten on points. iTho fight was an extraordinarilj good one from many angles. - There wn'o not a moment when the issue was safe for either boxer. A'striking feature was Blackburn's stinging and 'unerrinff left to the fqoe, and, on the other hand, Jamito placed left hooks and rights to body with regularity. There was hardly a moment that the boxers were not pumping blows into one another, and the way they took punishment showed marvellous powers of endurance, fighting instinct, and gre-s.t courage.