FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1929, Page 9

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

THE STORM CENTRES

NORTH SYDNEY SEAT

(From "The host's" Representative.) ■ '.. SYDNEY, 26th Sept. Sydney's leading morning newspaper put in a bit of piquant and probably very effective propaganda for the Prime Minister, Mr. Bruce, during the week.- . . If the Nationalists are not lacking in enterprise, they will make, use of it i every household in 'the electorate, North Sydney, in which Mr. Hughes is now engaged in a battle royal with tho selected Nationalist, Dr. Nott. This propaganda—a clever bit of work that told its own story without any comment—took the form of a largo picture of Mr. Bruce, with the story of Ms war record underneath it. Actually—and most of the public saw tho point of it, unless they were naturally stupid—ifc was the newspaper V sly tilt at Mr. Hughes and those of his horo-worship-pers who acclaim him as "The Little Digger/ and tho only politician, in their mind, who has any claims to war association, and to the support of the returned men. Mr. Hughes, although he is the petted darling of many of tho Diggers, is not, as is well-known, a returned, soldier. As Primo Minister, he certainly did things for the Diggers. Other soldier-politicians, however, including Mr. Bruce, have also been tireless in their advocacy of the returned men's claims. .

The newspaper's propaganda was just a reminder to tho public, since the man himself nover .refers to it, that Mr..Bruce has not merely done his bit for the returned men, but that he heroically played his part when ho landed with the famous 29th Division under devastating machine-gun fire at Gallipoli, was twice woundod, and, after having spent eighteen months in hospital, was Jdischarged as unlit, for further active service. MR. HUOHBS AND MB. MARKS. The'storm centres of the election in New South Wales are, of course, North Sydney, and Wentworth, the retiring Nationalist .representatives of which, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Walter Marks "ro-1 spectively, wore the central figures in the downfall of the Government which | they were returned to support. Excluded from selection, both are running against Nationalists carrying the party's ticket. The fact that Labour is not contesting these two seats is not a bit surprising in all the circumstances. It is unfortunate, at tho same time, for Dr. Nott, as far as North Sydney is concerned, for Mr. Hughes will now inevitably get tho Labour as well as independent Nationalist, support in the electorate. Dr. Nott-,'if he runs true to his old Queensland form, notably on the occasion when he sent Mr. Theodore into the political wilderness, is likely.to give Mr. Hughes the contest of the latter'a life, bnt ho can hardly hope to win, with Labour making a gift to Mr. Hughes of all its votes in North. Syd^jy. Dr. Nott, by the way, is giving his interjeetors a very rough passage. If the Nationalist Party can unseat Mr. Hughes by any process save dynamiting or other similar un-Parliamentary means, it will do so. If it can achieve that end, and still be defeated as a party at the polls, it will be unspeakably happy. It is of the same frame of mind with regard to Mr, Marks, whose prospect of being returned is not, afc the moment, quite as bright as that of Mr. Hughes. HOLMAN TAKES THE STAGE. A stronghold of Nationalism, North Sydney is, or always has been, one of the -party's "blue-ribbon. seats. The question now is whether Mr. Hughes, in view of his attitude towards the Government, has any rightful claim to a seat which up to the present, at all events, hah been true-blue Nationalist by a solid two-thirds majority. Nothing is more strongly indicative of the party's attempt to relegate Mr. Hughes to obscurity than the fact that Mr. W. A. Holman, K.C., ex-Premier, and one of the most brilliant and forceful of Australia's platform speakers, has taken the stage with Mr. Bruce and others in the campaign. Mr. Holman has been frankly and .openly critical ox the Nationalist Party on several occasions in the past. But he does not approve of Mr. Hughes's tactics politically, even if there is 'still to-day perhaps something of old traditional friendship for-him in a purely personal way, since they were both pioneers of the Labour movement back in the old days. Mr. Holman's entry on the election stage is one of the eireuD stances indicating that' the party's battle against Mr. Hughes is war to the last ditch.

Political tipsters are already busy. It is conoeded by both sides that the election will be won or lost in New Booth Wales, where several seats are regarded as doubtful, either from the Labour or the Ministerial standpoint. Some, Nationalists among them, with their ears to the political ground, believe that the Government will lose two or three seats in-New South Wales. Others, taking the position by auVi large, reckon that the Government will go back ■with a mere working majority* To sffia np bow, howeves, is premattHe.