MR. COOK'S MISCALCULATION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1914, Page 6

MR. COOK'S MISCALCULATION

Although the Cook (Liberal) Government made the most of the "war and of the danger of swapping horses when crossing a ford, it has been decisively beaten at the Federal ballot-box. Clearly the Commonwealth, electors had sufficient confidence in the continuity of Australian defence policy to form the opinion that no harm would result from changing the political heads. Besides, they remember Mr. W. M. Hughes's courageous championship of compulsory training in days when Labour politics were (mistakenly) dissociated from citizen defence. They remember also the big part played in more recent times by Labour members and the late Labour Government in creating the Australian Navy and Army ; and though Mr. Cook has put in a lawyer-like plea that he was the actual author of one of the Bills, his relentless pursuit of this bit of political "credit"' and his undisguised attempt to shelter his Government behind the German cannon have not created the exact impression that he expected. He appealed for support in the name of patriotism, but at tho same times exposed himself to the criticism that it was unpatriotic, in such circumstances, to force an election ; consequently, it is not surprising that, for this reason, some Liberals abstained from voting. In both pieties tho üb*oi'bing interest of tho war would cause abstentions, but this factor

probably hit Mr. Cook's Liberals hardest, for Mr. Fisher's Labour voters take their politics more seriously. The argument of the Sydney Daily Telegraph (Liberal) that the Australians should not vote for Labour, because Counb Bernstorff (lie-manufacturer) will misrepresent then- action, is rather far-fetched. On the same weak line of argument, German candidates should not be entered, yet one of the successful ones is a Liberal. The Telegraph's other objection, that a, change of Government will " embarrass defence operations," is opposed to facts. Not even the worst enemy of the Australian Federal Labour Party can deny its nationalism and devotion to defence. Tho Liberals have chosen their own battle ground and, notwithstanding tho war, they have lost. A Fisher Government will be at least as patriotic as that of Mr. Cook.