The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1916. AUSTRALIA'S POLITICAL TURMOIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1916. AUSTRALIA'S POLITICAL TURMOIL.

"leavage lias arrived, as it was bound to do, sooner or later. The immediate cause of the present political upheaval is the conscription question, 011 which a large negative vote was cast. It has (ico: always understood that resort to a referendum v.as a safeguard against political strife, inasmuch as the responsibility 011 the particular burning qiies-' tien of the day was removed from Cabinet and placed on the shoulders of the people. Possibly no such vital and mo mentous issue has ever before been submitted to the popular vote as that of compulsory service, so that it is hardly fair to judge of the value of the referendum by sueii an abnormal test. Labor, as a political body, was averse to conscription, probably not on personal grounds, but as a dangerous infringement of the liberty of the subject. The Federal Premier (Mr. Hughes) had recently visited the Mother Country and the battle front on the West. He, therefore, knew at first hand how imperative it was that the man power of the Empire shou'd sacrifice all other claims on its energies and swell the ranks of the great allied armies which are fighting for the deliverance of Australia, as well as the rest of the world, from the menace of German militarism with its lust {or dominance by the sword. That was the motive power which urged him to enter upon campaign in favor of conscription. He di'l not stand alone in this good work, but had the countenance and help of some of his colleagues, though others turned against him at the most crucial time in the history of the world. For daring to have a conscience and follow its dictates, for daring to have freedom of thought and action and refusing to bo tied down to the ultimatum of the Labor extremists, Mr. Hughes and his loyal colleagues were ejected from the Labor Party as a preliminary, it was thought, to being driven out of political life. Speaking at the Lord Mayor's banquet at Melbourne, Mr. Hughes, while regretfully acknowledging the adverse vote of the people on compulsory service, made it perfectly clear that lie and the Government accepted the verdict, but lie indicated that the Government intended to continue the war work resolutely and press on its' policy. Immediately following that avowal a Federal caucus was held,' when Mr. Hughes and his conscription party of eleven Senators and twelve Representatives, seeing that the majority was determined to eject them, left the meeting and met in a separate room. The outcome of this cleavage is tftat Mr. Hughes has formed a new Cabinet, and the tug of political war will com? when the House meets and a no-confidence motion is tabled. It is quite easy to understand that Mr. Hughes felt his position in relation to the Labor Party had become intolerable, as members w.ere no longer free* agents, but merely registered the opinion of outside organisations. After a lifetime devoted to the uplifting of ill# Labor cause, Mr. ' Hughes has been turned down at the caprice of the extremists. Sucii is the invariable fate ot those who have the misfortune to bui'd up a machine that gets out of hand and wrecks the builder. In New South Wales the position is somewhat similar, and a National Government has been formed to prevent further Labor dictation. Indirectly the miners' strikes are linked up with the political upheaval* It is deplorable that thousands of men should be idle and industrial work at a standstill merely for the want of coal which the miners will not supply. The Federal Government has taken the drastic step of commandeering coal and coke for its most urgent requirements, but the Labor extremists have practically forced all the best members of the Party from its ranks, and now those in command (the Political Labor League) are exorcising their autocratic powers to the detriment of the country and to their own .ultimate undoing.