FEDERAL OUTLOOK

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 67, 19 March 1924, Page 5

FEDERAL OUTLOOK

HEALING DIFFERENCES

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 13th March.

. The determination of the Prime Minister, Mr. Bruce, expressed immediately upon his return to Australia last week from the Imperial Conference, to call Parliament together on 27th March threw all parties into a state of great activity. It was expected that Mr. Bruce would have taken longer to acquaint himself with developments since his departure, but apparently his chief anxiety is to get legislative sanction for all the London decisions to which he had been a part}', thus leaving the Imperial Parliament, when the decisions are submitted to it, in possession of the final views of Australia. There appears to be promise of a more thorough understanding between the two branches o£ the Government party—the Nationalists and the Country Party—than there has ever been since the quasi coalition after the General Election. Events in "Victoria, where a Labour candidate was elected recently purely and simply through the differences between the Country Party and the Ministerialists in that State, have had a profound effect, and it is realised that unless the differences are composed there, is a strong probability of the Labour Party slipping ■into power at the election. The most conciliatory speeches have been delivered by both Dr. Page, the leader ol the Country Party, who has been Acting Prime Minister during Mr. Bruce's absence, and by Mr. Bruce, since the latter's return, and it is believed that when the next election comes there will be some sort of united front. There are irreconcilibles in the Country Party who are proving a serious obstacle in the path to such a consummation, but it is believed-that the force of circumstances may bring them into the cohesion. The root trouble is personal ambition. There are men who realise that the adhesion oi their leaders to the Nationalists afford an opportunity for them to establish themselves as leaders, and thus give themselves a bargaining power for office which has succeeded so eminently with others. This happened in New South Wales, where the coalition of the front of the Country Party with the Nationalists merely left the rump with as much power for dictation as the front had had, and new leaders arose. Sardonic indifferences to the real interests of the country as such behaviour expresses, since it leaves the road open for a party to, which Country Party and Nationalists are alike opposed to get into power, it is at the present moment oiie of the most potent factors in Australian politics. Leaders are afraid to negotiate for unity because of the stimulus which the success of such efforts gives to other factions to arise witli sectional interests on their lips asd personal ambition in their hearts. For that reason it is improbable that any useful understanding will be reached either in the Federal sphere or in the several State spheres where this condition of affairs obtains until there' is substitution evidence of unanimity on the part of the country party minorities concerned.