PARTY FEUD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 214, 10 September 1934, Page 5

PARTY FEUD.

FEDERAL POLITICS. COMPLICATED INTRIGUES. ELLIOTT-MENZIES BATTLE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY September 1. Though the United Country party and the United Australia party have by no means concluded an unconditional alliance against all possible opponents, they have, for the purposes of this election, agreed to give each other a certain amount of support in the various constituencies, particularly in regard to the candidates selected by either party for tho Senate. In Victoria there are three Senators due to retire this year, and it was understood that after the first vote was cast for a U.A.P. candidate the U.A.P. preference would go to the candidate selected by the U.C.P. This was Sena- | tor K. D. Elliott, who is a strong U.C.P. man, and one of the most influential private members in Parliament. But after Senator Elliott had been selected to stand-in the U.C.P. interest, another C.P. j man, Mr. W. Gibson, of Corangamite, decided to stand on his own account, without his party's endorsement; and the U.A.P. has decided to support him. i This course certainly seems to contravene the pledge of support already offered by the U.A.P., and it is likely to aggravate still further tho bitterness now estranging Dr. Earle Page from the Victorian Country party on the one hand and from the U.A.P. on the other. There are several explanations of this curious development and the most important of them is the personality of Senator Elliott. He is a great power in journalistic and personal circles in Victoria. He is director of the Victorian Provincir.l Press Association, will' has control over the four-principal

country newspapers in Victoria, at Bcndigo, Ballarat, Mildura and Geelong, and he owns two of these on his own account. Also he is director of the organisation which supplies the Victorian country Press with its news service. In addition to all this he is married to the daughter of Mr. Theodore Pink, who is chairman of directors of the Melbourne "Herald." Senator Elliott has thus a large amount of journalistic weight an ' authority behind him, and he has used it sometimes in a manner by no* means pleasing to his political superiors. Appeals to Lord Beaverbrook. i A man of courage and energy, Senator Elliott has never hesitated to speak his mind on political questions, whether local or national, and to give his views j full publicity. When Mr. Latham went 011 his mission of friendship to the East, Senator Elliott attacked the mission as an offer of good-will that should have been directed to England and not to a I foreign Power; and he boasted that his opinion on this matter saw the light in 400 colonial newspapers. When the British authorities threatened to impose a duty on colonial butter, Senator Elliott, on his own initiative, appealed to Lord Beaverbrook for help, and the project was dropped largely j • through the efforts of the Beaverbrook Press. Again, during the controversy with France over wine place-names Senator Elliott invoked the aid of Lord Beaverbrook for Australia, and again secured valuable assistance. This independence of character has made Senator Elliott very unpopular in Ministerial circles, and Mr. Bruce, in London, agrees with Mr. Lyons at Canberra that the Senator is very largely a public nuisance. The rank and file of the U.A.P. dislike him because, like nearly all U.A.P. members, he demands rapid reduction of our protective duties. The result is that in U.A.P. circles he is highly unpopular. It is said that when Dr. Earle Pagei was negotiating here with the U.A.P. leaders for concerted action in Victoria two or three months ago, the telephone : rang, and the doctor answered the call. He came back wearing his usual sardonic smile, and when a U.A.P. member , asked what was the matter, the U.C.P. , leader made answer: "One of your people wants to know what we are doing ■ about 'that Elliott.'" The story may not he accurate in all par- . ticulars, but it gives a sufficiently clear idea of Senator Elliott's standing in the L eyea of the U.A.P.

In Mr. Menzies' Camp. But there is another personal factor to be taken Into account in this curious problem. One of the U.A.P. members selected for the Senate is Mr. W. Leckic, who is father-in-law of Sir. K. G. Menzies, late Attorney-General for Victoria, and now standing for the Federal seat of Kooyang at the coming election. Mr. Menzies nas made 110 secret of his dislike for Senator Elliott and his methods. Mr. Menzies is. able, ambitions and eloquent; it is believed that he aspires eventually to the position of Federal Prime Minister, and he and his allies in Melbourne are said to be prepared to spend £20,000 if necessary in organising effective opposition to Senator Elliott. The substituted candidate, Mr. Gibson, is an ex-Minister, and a man of some capacity; but lie will hardly increase his personal prestige by swinging over to the U.A.P. now. On the other liand, Senator Elliott declares that he will "fight to the death" rather than withdraw his claim to the scat in the Senate which he regards as liis due. Dr Earle Page is still supporting Senator Elliott, but one section of the. Victorian U.C.P., which has declared against the "tyranny" of Dr. Page, is likely to assist Gibson. It is all very confusing, and some people in Melbourne are watching with unconcealed amusement the efforts of the "Herald" to encourage the supporters of Senator Elliott (Mr. Fink's son-in-law) while avoiding any offence to Menzies, "who has hitherto been Victoria's "favourite son" and the peculiar joy and pride of the "Herald." Eyes on Prime Ministership. Much of the interest taken by the general public in this Elliott "imbroglio" centres round R. G. Menzies, the most enigmatic figure and possibly the strongest personality in our public life. It is held by many that he has waite.l only for Mr. Latham's withdrawal so that he might step into the vacancy left by the Federal Attorney-General and thus pave the way to an even loftier height. There is a report, firmly believed in some circles, that if MiLyons and the Nationalists return to power, the Prime Minister, who is probably by this time "tired of the job/' will be shifted to a High Commissionership or some similar post at a substantial salary, and the way may then be jclear for Mr. Menzies.