“BAYING AT THE MOON”

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 90, 10 January 1935, Page 4

“BAYING AT THE MOON”

Secessionists of Western Australia PERTH VISITOR’S VIEW The opinion that the secessionists of Western Australia, in their efforts to establish their independence of the Commonwealth, were baying at the moon, was expressed by a prominent Perth retired business man and former member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia, Hon, J. A. Thomson, in an interview with "The Dominion” last night. Mr. Thomson, who has been on a brief holiday visit to New Zealand, will leave to-day on his return to Australia. The average person in Western Australia, he said, did not take the issue of secession seriously at all. The constitution did not permit of secession, except by a majority vote in a referendum of the whole Commonwealth and a majority vote of the states. Even the people in the north of Western Australia, where in the early days federation had been opposed, were now determined to stand by it. Mr. Thomson, who was born near Balmoral, Scotland, has paid five visits to the Dominion, the first being in 1877. and he recalls vividly his Impressions of the Wellington of those days. He was with the Royal Horse Artillery in Dublin in 1872, at the age of 17, and revisited Ireland in 1916, when Saekville Street, seen from a bridge over the Liffey, looked like a devastated area in Belgium. He has long been identified with the life of Western Australia, and recalls the names of many of the men who have played a prominent part in the life of ■the State, including H. C. Vosper, former editor of the Perth “Sunday Times”; Lord Forrest; C. Y. O’Connor; G. H. Reid, Australia’s first High Commissioner ; and Dr. Hackett, proprietor of the “West Australian.”