COMMONWEALTH ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17645, 23 December 1922, Page 13

COMMONWEALTH ELECTIONS.

MR HUGHES'S "GREATNESS." A ' 'MORNING POST" PANEGYRIC. (By Caole—Press Association—Copyright.) ■ (Australian and N.Z. Cfcble Association.) LONDON, December 21. The "Morning Post" in an eaitoual. says:— certain section of the J'-ng-lish public opinion is indecently exultant regarding the possibility of th® exit of Mr W. 11. Hughes from office i if not from active participation in Australian jolitifes. What a dreadful person Mr Hughes is I If he had refused to stand by the Mother Country in ier | hour of gravest peril; if he had jna< ! o a separate agreement with the enemv; if he had prevailed upon his fell >-. v countrymen to stay at home, theq, we may take it, his health to-day would have been drunk in. repeated potaiions. Mr Hughes is assertive, obstinate,, idealistic and inspired, and is the very embodiment of the stuff of which Empires are made. He fought as hard in the great cause as those Australian soldiers who inspired so wholesome a dread in the Germans. ' Whatever may be the result of the elections, the vast majority of Englshmen salute in Mr Hughes a great Imperialist. Australia may need a new Administration —-that is Australia's business —but Mr Hughes, if he loses office will never lose the afFection and respect of the race tor whose survival and victory he fought in the hour of crisis. Mr Hughes was great in the war, and also great in peace. Almost alone among the minor statesmen, l?c saw through Mr Woodrow Wilson's pacifism and Mr- Lloycl George's .meglomania. He brushed aside humbug, and strove hard to come into touch with realities. If his counsels ■ had -been listened to t*ie world 1 might have been at peace to-day." * A "CONTENTED" PEOPLE. MELBOURNE, December Mr Hughes, commenting on the small poll, said it was evidence that the people were contented. In a perfect state of society, not more than 2 per oent. of the electors would go to tlie poll. ■ " NATIONALISTS LOSE TWO TASMANIAN SEATS. ; " SYDNEY, December 22. ■ The only olection change reported yesterday affected Tasmania, the Nationalists losing Darwin and Denison to the Country and Labour Parties respectively. i The final return of the Hon. Sir Elliot Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, for Lang, New South! Wales, is announced. MB HUGHES'S LIBEL ACTION. (Received' December 22nd, 9.45 p.m.) , SYDNEY, December 22. Mr Justice Adams refused ,Mr Hughes's application. After severely commenting upon the length to which a newspaper might go in its criticism of public men, he said he thought the proper course for Mr Hughes to adopt 'was to proceed against the "DailyMail" civilly, . [An application was made 'in Cham■bers on behalf of Mr Hughes calling on Claude Delalande, journalist, to" show cause why a criminal prosecution should! not be commenced against him in connexion with the publication of an article in the "Daily Mail.'' A previous message-said that Mr HUghes had issued a writ claiming £IO,OOO damages tor' alleged libel from, the j "Daily Mail," and tha,t he had also issued a summons against the writer j of the article in the "Daily "Mail," and against the editor, to appear in the Court with a view to instituting proceedings for criminal libel- .The J Japanese Settlement Report has beerf the subject of conflicting newspaper accounts for several days. • A Japanese merchant acquired properties along the coast and in the Blue Mountains, the "Daily Mail" contending that he did this with the knowledge of Mr Hughes, who deniep all knowledge of the transaction.]