LABOUR'S WIN

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 8

LABOUR'S WIN

QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS

MR. THEODORE'S FUTURE.

(FROM OUK OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 16th May. The result of the General Election in Queensland last Saturday, giving the Labour Party a majority of about half-a-dozen in place of its precarious one of a single member, has astonished even the most sanguine supporters of that party. Labour had been in power for eight years, and keen observers, basing their opinions on the Labour debacle at the last municipal elections and on the probable normal swing of the pendulum, foretold: at any rate a narrow defeat of the Government. The Press generally acclaim the result as a''signal warning of the folly of continuing the disunity that exists in the anti-Socialist parties almost throughout. Australia. Although a quasi-understanding existed, the Opposition went to the polls as two entities— the United Party and the' Country Party —making three-cornered contests in a number of electorates, whilst the Labour Party went, with one voice and one leader. Following' upon the harrow escape from disaster for the National Party at the Federal elections, moat of the anti-Socialist organ? express in. one.way or another the opinion of the. S/dney "Daily Telegraph," when it says that if the prediction of Mr. Theodore, the Queensland Premier, that the result, is the precursor of a wavi of Labour victories is not to come true, the antiSocialist ranks must be fightiy closed in future. Most of the papers also regard it a 8 largely a personal victory for Mr. Theodore. This reserved man .of Rumanian extraction, who is credited with?dominating his Cabinet and scarcely consulting his colleagues on some important decisions, took upon himself the entire responsibility of springing the election upon the countryside months before it was due. Although he has bean bitterly assailed throughout the campaign _as the leaderl of v the Socialists, there is ample evidence to show that up to a certain point lie is widely esteemed as the most able politician at present showing in Queensland, and as a man of comparatively moderate and broad views. The Sydney "Telegraph" says it shows what a good politician Mr. Theodore is that he set about making friends with the farmers instead of antagonising them. "If a section of the farmers of this country,'' adds the 1 paper,-"is not able to see .the danger that menaces agrarianism in Labour's set purpose of industrialising agricultural labour by introducing a rural basic wage and impossible conditions and hours of work on farms, that is its own lookout. Disillusionment will come afterwards—ptrhaps too late." The "Brisbane Courier," in common with many other papers, has revived the speculations and rumours, that have lain dormant for a month or two regarding the probability of Mr. Theoodore's taking over the leadership of the Federal Labour Party. "We do not suggest," says this paper, "that while he remains'. Premier Mr. Theodore will attempt to follow .all the crack-brained notions of the last' Labour conference, but how long will he remain Premier? Will not the straggling sheep of the Federal Socialist. Party look still more ardently at him as a leader sent to deliver them from the wilderness? If he transfers there is no assurance that he will leave behind him a leader equally moderate or. equally capable of keeping the wild-eyed extremists in cheok. Then safe with its majority and its one-eham\ bered Parliament, the Government may claim that the electors have given tjhem authority to carry-out many things that they had no intention of sanctioning."