MR. LANG'S DEFEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 81, 7 April 1931, Page 6

MR. LANG'S DEFEAT.

Last week the New South Wales Labour Party, at its Easter Conference, carried proposals for the "socialisation" of the industrial, financial and political systems of that v State on Communist lines. Yesterday the Conference reversed its decision by a majority twice as large as that which Mr. Lang secured a few days ago for his thinly-veiled Bolshevik schemes. This proof of dissension and schism among Mr. Lang's followers is encouraging from two distinct of view. In the first place, the division in the Labour camp must at least have the effect of putting some check on Mr. Lang's power for evil. But in the second place, it suggests that even in Labour's ranks many who follow Mr. Lang's banner are alarmed at the violent extremes to which their leader is prepared to go, and are beginning to wonder whither all these things are tending. Mr. Theodore, who, in spite of his eccentricities, is by no means lacking in political acumen, has summarised the inevitable outcome of the Lang policy in a series of telling phrases—the destruction of public credit, loss of confidence in the Government's good faith, withdrawal of money from New South Wales, inability to raise loans for public works or unemployment relief, refusal to pay taxes, and possibly even civil war. It is an impressive indictment, and even those who have succeeded in convincing themselves that Mr. Lang is a new Messiah must begin to reflect seriously when they hear such charges brought against him by one of the ablest Labour leaders in Australia to-day.