AUSTRALIAN SENATE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27858, 5 January 1956, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN SENATE

Deadlock Seems Certain

(Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 4. The counting of votes for the Senate is still continuing from the December 10 Federal election.

It now appears certain that there will be a deadlock in the Upper House. The Government has already won three out of five vacancies in Tasmania and Western Australia, and when the distribution of preferences is finished in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia the Government will win three out of five vacancies in those States.

In Victoria, however, two Government senators, two Australian Labour Party men. and one Anti-Communist Labour candidate will be elected. This would mean that the Government would have 30 in the new Senate, official Labour 28, and Anti-Communist Labour two. The Anti-Communist Labour Party already has one senator in the Senate who does not retire before June 30, 1959.

Senate rules provide that an equal vote is treated as a “no” vote.

LOAN TO BUILD ASSOUAN DAM

(Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Jan. 3 The State Department said today that the West’s offer of assistance in the building of the Assouan high dam on the Nile was still under consideration by the Egyptian Government, and no formal reply had yet been received.

The department’s spokesman was commenting on a report that the President of Egypt, Lieutenant-Colonel Abdel Nasser, had spoken of conditions attached to the loan, which has been offered by the World Bank, the United States, and Britain.