MR. WATSON INTERVIEWED.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 47, 24 August 1904, Page 5

MR. WATSON INTERVIEWED.

■ ■» MR. REID AND TRADE UNIONISTS. PREMIER'S ADJ)RBSS CKJTJCISED. [I'RKSS ASSOCIATION.] SYDNEY, 23rd August. In tho course of an interview to-day, tho hito Premier, Mr. J. C. Watson, said Mr Reid's address to the electors of the Commonwealth wns framed with a viow to consolidate tho Coimervutivc vote and to frighten timid people into the belief that tJiero was a conspiracy on the part of trade unionist* to get control of the electoral machinery. The address, continued Watson, was a distinct attack on t™o unionists. Apart altogether from the mere question of preference involved in the Arbitration Bill, the pretence that the labour unionists were trying to vise the Judge of tho Arbitration Court as Jin instrument of a dangerous nnd selfish movement wuu ridiculous. It wns hardly likely that tradeunionists would rely on a Judge, who was necessarily apart from their cln.v), and, therefore, not likely to be prejudiced in their favour. Mr. Reid's Ministry, ho concluded, was under the complete domination of tho small Conservative section of tho House.