FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1929, Page 6

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

! “ THE TIMES’S ” VIEW. BRUCE REPUDIATED BY | DEMOCRACY. I (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, October 14. “The Times” says: “Labour in Australia has won a decisive victory. The election figures mean that Australian democracy has utterly repudiated the Bruce policy, and has declared in favour of the somewhat obscure policies of his opponents. There is undeniably a good deal of hot political youth among the Australian leaders to cause uneasiness in the ranks of sober politicians, but Mr E. G. Theodore found painful experience in Queensland of his ventures' in State Socialism upon the credit of that State. Others have learned the same lesson by responsibility.” “ The Times ” adds: “Mr Scullin is credited with having a clear, logical mind. It may take time for the new Ministers to appreciate their position, but it is unlikely that Mr Bruce’s successors will contemplate any very desperate 'or alarming policy.” “The Financial Times” says: Time will tell whether there is immense scope for the reproductive employment of British capital in Australia, but the investors -will closely scrutinise loan issues by the Labour Government whose financial orthodoxy may natural-

ly excite doubt. “MORNING POST’S” LAMENT. LONDON, October 14. The “Morning Post” has a leading article entitled “Deep Calleth Unto Deep.” It says: The defeat of Mr Bruce is a matter for regret rather than for surprise. He has been long in office, and bad trade, and industrial depression have inclined the electorate for a change. A Coalition is never the best ground upon which to build a Government. The work of the Arbitration Court seemed to be successful when there was a brisk demand for labour and rising wages, but with a turn of the tide, difficulties of enforcements began, and the Australian Government was faced with the impotence of the Courts to enforce their decisions. When Air Bruce attempted a compromise, he courted political disaster. He antagonised our old friend and his enemy, Billy Hughes, who, by his antecedents, is wedded to arbitration. Mr Bruce has been denounced as the Guy Fawkes of a capitalist conspiracy against Australian Trades Unionism, and incidentally he has offended the ardent Australian Nationalistsl who desire to see everything concentrated in the Commonwealth. The result has been a great victory for Antipodeary Labour. “Deep calleth unto deep ! ” Doubtless the present success of the Labour movement in the Mother Country has contributed to this victory in the Commonwealth, but if democracy makes itself too expensive to compete with the rest of the world, no social legislation can save it from unemployment and dead trade. Australia, we believe, will live to regret Mr Bruce’s fall. He is not a showy politician, but is an honest, patriotic man, who is trusted and respected at home and abroad.

MR BRUCE TO RESIGN. SYDNEY, October 14. Mr Bruce announces that his .Ministry will resign next Monday. There is great jubilation in Labour circles over the election victory. TOOWOOMBA STILL FOR GROOM. SYDNEY, October 14. Sir Littleton Groom (who has represented the Darling Downs. Queensland, for many years in the Federal Parliament) has again been returned. Sir L. Groom, who was the Speaker in the late Parliament, stated after the Government defeat on the arbitration issue in the House, that had he voted in the division, it would have been against the Government. He this time stood as an Independent Nationalist, and defeated the selected Nationalist, Mr Morgan, who was expected to win. DOUBTFUL SEATS GO TO LABOUR SYDNEY, October 14. To-day’s check of the election papers has determined the fate of four more doubtful seats, each of which has gone # to the Labour Party, thus increasing the strength of that party to fortytwo. The indications are that at least four of the other doubtful seats will also go to the Labour Party, bringing its total up to forty-six in a House of seventy-five. At the most, the former Ministerial coalition party can win only twentytwo seats. Four other seats have already been won by tbe unendorsed Independent Nationalists, namely, Messrs Hughes, Marks, and Maxwell, and one Independent Country Party man, Mr Stewart. LABOUR’S POLICY. SYDNEY, October 14. Exactly what tbe new Government’s programme will be nobody knows, as tbe election was fought solely on the arbitration issue, which is now settled. However, it is likely that immediate steps will be taken to relieve unemployment, and to present Budget proposals, and also to consider tariff matters.

LONDON PRESS OPINION

LONDON, October 14. The “Daily News” says: “ Air Bruce’s summing up of the Australian election result as ‘ ghastly ’ is not just. From a strictly party standpoint, fortunately, the election seems to have been fought without bitterness. Air Scullin is respected by all sides. There is little likelihood of Australian affairs being mishandled or that Australian relations with Britain will take any turn for the worse.” HELP FOR BRITISH LABOUR. / IN PEACE WORK. NEW YORK, October 14. Air A. A. Alam, sipeaking from Radio Station W.P.C.H., stated that Labour’s return to power in Australia would undoubtedly strengthen Mr Ramsay AlacDonald’s wonderful work for peace. Air AlacDonald’s mission of peace to America evidently played an important part in the sweeping Labour victory in Australia. Air Alam predicted that the Mac- ' Donald Government would “rule for its allotted span.” Air Ramsay AlacDonald declined to comment on the Australian election when he was at New York. lAIPERIAL ASPECT. LONDON, October 13. The Labour “Daily Herald” says: “ Australia has rejected Air Stanley Bruce," contemptuously as Britain did Air Stanley Baldwin. It has not merely been the opposition to his attempt to abolish arbitration which has destroyed Air Bruce. It was the realisation that he stood for Imperialism abroad and for reaction at home—that lie was the ally, if not the servant, of “ jug Businesses ” in their attacks on the workers’ hours, wages, and conditions. By a fortunate coincidence, Labour has achieved power in Australia when Labour is in office at Downing Street.” The “Herald” continues: “Mr Scullin’s promise to co-operate with Air Ramsay AlacDonald’s splendid peace efforts will be the easier and the more effective because it will bring to the new type of imperial problem a . new type of imperial mind, where Mr Bruce’s old-fashioned imperialism would only have been a nuisance.” BRUCE’S JUDGMENT. CONDEMNED BY LONDON PAPER. { LONDON, October 14. The “ Daily Telegraph ” has a leading article entitled: “A Landslide in Australia.” It says: ALr Bruce once spoke of the 1 the triennial tragedy ’ of the general election. By dissolving Parliament, contrary to the Australian precedent, within one year of the last election, he has brought tragedy upon the Nationalist-Country Party coalition. Labour’s victory is by far the greatest that Labour has won during the twenty-eight years of the Commonwealth's existence. The severity of the Government’s defeat has been quite unforeseen, though many had anticipated a result which would enable Mr Hughes and the dissentient Nationalists to hold the balance of power. If a Government with a strong majority is the ideal, then the outcome of this election in the Commonwealth has assured that blessing, for Australia has had a long experience of Labour Alinistries. It is clear (the paper states) that nnhour must have had the support of many voters who are not Labour adherents upon ordinary occasions. Mr Bruce, who sei’ved the country well has fallen because, with a gesture almost of despair, he committed the Government to an almost revolutionary policy, that of doing away with the Federal machinery of arbitration. This was a rash decision-. It alarmed the voters. Tt roused the hitter hostility of Air Hughes. The Daily Telegraph adds: Air das. Scullin is an able and respected public man ; but it is hard to see how ho can deal any better than did All - Bruce with the corroding vice of the Australian economic situation—that is the resolute policy of the Trades Unions to maintain even a fiat defiance of arbitral awards, and to’ force wages and conditions which industry is unable to support.