FEDERAL FIGHT THE APPEAL TO ELECTORS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 78, 2 April 1914, Page 8

FEDERAL FIGHT THE APPEAL TO ELECTORS

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDfiNT.) SYDNEY, 28th March. There has now opened the campaign in connection with the further appeal to the electors of the Commonwealth rendered necessary by tho results of the late" Federal elections, which gave the Liberals too small a majority for effective work in the House of Representatives, especially in face of the overwhelming Labour majority in the Senate. Considerable disappointment _ is expressed over the narrow, partisan character of the inaugural campaign speeches of the Prime Minister, Mr. Cook, and the. Leader of the Labour Opposition, Mr. Fisher. It has been aptly said that they have spoken us if they were tho national accusers instead of the national leaders. The Liberals are building on hopes of a double dis- : solution, which will throw the Senate, as' well as the House of Representatives, back into the melting-pot. But the Op- ! positionisls assert i that Mr. Cook lias no chance of getting > a doublp dissolution, and they describe as disgraceful 1 threats towards the Governor-General statements which have been made by Ministers as to what they intend to do ' in connection with their desire for such I a dissolution. Perplexity rather than 1 warmth seems to be the state of mind 1 at present of the average elector in relation to the campaign. The result of ! the impending elections is very difficult to forecast. Just now it seems quite likely that the .elections will produce only an "as you were" position, with a continued check on legislative progress.