CAMPAIGN SHOTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 10

CAMPAIGN SHOTS.

N.S.W. ELECTIONS. MR. LANG'S "SOB-STUFF." "RESIGNATION" OF GOVERNOR REFUSAL OF ADVERTISEMENTS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 4. An advertisement appears this week in all the leading Sydney papers to the effect ■that the board of Associated Newspapers, Ltd., has resolved that, in the interests of the community as well as of its shareholders, "it is not desirable that any election advertisements be accepted from the Lang section of the Labour party."

The step taken by these papers is understood • to be due to the character of some of the cartoons published by Mr. Lang's organs, and to the systematic misrepresentations and distortions of the truth in which they have indulged. Calumnies and virulent personal libels have alternated with attacks upon the Governor, the Courts, the legal profession, the Trivy Council, and, in fact, every person or institution that has in any way opposed or obstructed Mr. Lang. "Oh! My Brothers!" ■Whatever can be said against Mr. Lang, he certainly has an acute appreciation of "mob psychology," and he is quick to turn it to his own advantage. The other night at Gunnedah —a country town whore an electoral meeting is a public entertainment, and where, a3 a Sydney reporter put it, the row of parked perambulators outside the hall recalled a famous scene in Owen Wister's "Virginian" —Lang was harping on one of his favourite 'themes, the endowment of mothers and children. A baby broke into loud lamentations, and Lang seized his chance at once.

"Do you hear the children weeping, oh! my brothers?" he cried, and lie utilised Elizabeth Browning's pathos to drive home his fervid appeal to the mothers and fathers there present, to give their support to the man who had clone so much to save them and their children from starvation and from the cruel fate that the banks and the capitalists had prepared for them. Of course he omitted to mention that he had held up the endowment cheques and kept the suffering women and children without food for some weeks because he had to pay his colleagues and his Trades Hall friends, and there was not enough money to go round. But, all the same, he knows every trick of the demagogue's trade. Newspaper's False Report. Since that eventful "Friday, May 13," when vice-regal authority brought Mr. Lang's wild career to a close, Sir Philip Game has played no very obvious part in public affairs. Of course, Mr. Lang, in his policy speeches, described the Governor as an "assassin," and then Mr. Ely, the Lang Minister of Health, has publicly declared that "the Governor will get" no pay after Saturday week, if Mr. Lang is returned to power" —so that Sir Philip at least knows what to expect; but this week his Excellency was brought suddenly under public notice again in a new and unexpected light.

About 5.30 p.m. the "World" put out a "scare-head" billboard notifying the world at large that the Governor had resigned. The "stop press" column of a special issue explained that his Excellency had asked the King to relieve him of his duties. It was stated, also, as from Government House, that "his Excellency's resignation is in no way connected with recent political developments in New South Wales." This created great excitement in the city, but when a representative of the "World" went to Government House for further information he was told that there was no foundation for the report. The Governor was rung up, and he replied that this was the first that he had heard of his "resignation." The "World" at once withdrew its special edition from circulation and next day it published a complete repudiation of the rumour. Sir Philip Game is in the country at Sutton Forest, and the report was sent by telephone from Moss Vale, in that neighbourhood, by someone who professed to speak with official authority. The "World" declares that it has been the victim of a "stupid hoax perpetrated by some mental deficient who should not be at large." Privy Council Decision. On May 31 a cable message from London informed Australia that Mr. Lang's appeal to the Privy Council had been dismissed, with cost 3 against the Government of New South Wales. The disappointment of the Langites, who had been repeatedly assured that the Privy Council must certainly decide in their favour, was plainly expressed in the "Labour Daily," which characteristically accused the Privy Council of becoming an accomplice of Mr. Lang's numerous enemies. It reserved its bitterest indignation for Lord Sankey and his colleagues because they waited until a week before polling day to deal Mr. Lang this cowardly blow. "The gentleman who forged the Zinoviev letter with the deliberate object of stampeding the British electors in 1924," said Mr. Lang's newspaper, "was an amateur compared with the gentleman who decided that this judgment snould be made available on May 31."

Bribery Allegation. Rumours are afloat of deliberate ' attempts to bribe candidate* to with- - draw in favour of Langites. The other ' night, Mrs. Melville, one of the few ! women standing at this election, stated publicly that "if Mr. Coleman eared to \ accept the offers that have been made to him to stand down in the fight against Lang at Auburn, he could have a considerable sum of money in his * pocket by midday • to-morrow." Mr t Coleman confirmed this statement and took the opportunity in his Lidcombe • speech to make a few pertinent remarks i about Lang's financial position. Mr. Lang's Wealth. Mr. Coleman is one of the leaders of the A.L.P. (the orthodox Labour party led by Mr. Scullin in the Federal Parliament), which is bitterly hostile to Langism. To-day—so Mr. Weaver said the other night—Mr. Lang is one of the ■wealthiest men in the State. Mr. Coleman told his audience at Lidcombe, that Mr. Lang had his farm, his motor launch, and "all the things that go for happiness and contentment," while many of his supporters were living in tents and "humpies" (New Zealand "whares"), and wailing in vain for relief payments. And Mr. Lang could lend his newspaper, the "Labour Daily," £13,700 at 5 per cent (2 per cent more than the extreme limit -which he desired to fix for other mortgagees), and could contract himself out of the Moratorium Act, which lie professed to havp devised in the interests of tho worker.