NEARLY WRECKED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1926, Page 7

NEARLY WRECKED

THE LANG GOVERNMENT

INSURGENT COUNTRY MEMBERS

BEVOLT AGAINST BEDS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, 25th November. The past seven days have been a critical time for the Lang Government in New South Wales, through the revolt of three, of its supporters, ana indeed it is not yet out of the wood. For the past three or four months the dissatisfaction of country members of tho Labour Party has been increasing, and following the abortive attempt to wrest •the leadership from Mr. Lang in Septomber through decision of caucus, the discontent simmered until the special conference of the party a fortnight ago vested in Mr. Lang the leadership of the party for the remainder of the life of this Parliament. THE GAUNTLET DOWN. It was not long before the blow fell. The recognised leader of the country members, Mr. P. F. Loughlin, then Minister for Lands, flung the gaunlct down •to his leader by resigning.Ms portfolio last Thursday. To an excited Assembly the next day he recited his reasons, in calm, phlegmatic tones that carried evidence of his earnestness and sincerity. la brief, the roasons were that Mr. Lang had persisted in exercising a dictatorship in Parliament and among his party, while ho had allowed himself to be subjugated to a dictatorship of the extreme industrialist section outside Parliament. This outside influence, Mr. Loughlin said, had worked against Labour interests in the country for the sake of the industrialists in the city. It had culminated in the increase of railway freights on certain primary produce and the proposed imposition of the tax on publications, which would hit country newspapers most severely. He said that if Mr. Lang allowed himself "to be dictated to by these outside '''Red" interests, he and two other members of the party would resign and vote with the Opposition. He demanded that as the price of allegiance Mr. Lang should either resign from the leadership or rid himself from the incubus of his outside influences. Mr. Loughlin speciflcially mentioned ~ no names, but everyone knew that by "outside" influences he mean*- Mr. «T 8. Garden and his group of Communist -'friends, between whom and Mr. Lang the link ia Mr. A. C. Willis, a member of the Legislative Council, and vice■president Of the Executive Council. In party conclaves, Mr. Loughlin demanded that Mr. Willis should disappear from the Ministry. Meanwhile, the Premier's staunchest henchman, the ■ Attorney-General (Mr. M'Tiernan), acting as a go-between, had secured a promise from Mr. Loughlin not to oppose .an adjournment of the House until . Monday on condition that sineero ef- • forts were made during the week-end to eradicate Mr. Loughlin's ground for complaint. What dramatic negotiatious wont on during that week-end are not yet fully known, nor are the threats, even of personal violence, against Mr. Loughlin and his two supporters, Messrs. Qoodin " and Gillies, yet disclosed. What is .known is this: Caucus met and referred the question of the endorsement of Mr. Lang's leadership to the A.L.P. executive. The executive interpreted it in the only possible way, that Mr. Lang had been given full power for, the next eighteen to twenty months* .Representatives went to Mobsts. Lough"lin, Goodin, and Gillies, beseeching them riiot to wreck the Labour Government. They remained adamant. Others went to Mr. Lang to ask him to resign. H« '. remained equally adamant. At midnight on Sunday, after more than 48 hours of "intense negotiation, it remained plain that the issue must be fought out on the floor of the House. MOST GRIPPING INCIDENT. And it was. "On the Monday, before ' crowded'gallerics and a full House, with 'the atmosphere,electrical with expectancy, the most gripping incident of recent New South Wales politics .was given thu full glare of publicity. The three insnigents stuck to theif guns, and on'an early motion to decide wheth•r a censure motion by the Leader of the Opposition should be treated as a ■ matter of urgency, they voted with the ' Opposition, and the Lang Government met itß first defeat in the Assembly by 45 votes to 44, an Independent voting :with th« Government. That seemed to -presage a certain Government defeat on the major motion, but it was not to • be. Tha gunpowder plot proved a • squib. After many speeches had been ■ made,' including those of the three insurgents, and after Mr. Lang had^proxnised to reconstruct his Budget, including the drastic proposals against which the Country Labour members had so - determinedly fought, a vote was taken, and the Government won by 44 votes . to 42, and an adjournment was granted until Monday. This happy result —for the Lang Government —was achieved by the three rebels absenting them- [ solves from the division.. This action they took on the promise of an elec.tion within four months, but even this is now said by the newspaper representative closest to Mr. Lang's confidence,' the political cordespondent of the "Sydney Morning Heraia," to be improbable. It is certain that Mr. Lang Las learnt Ms lesson. Whether his chastisement will be sufficient to rid himself of the extra-Parliamentary influences, and to accept Mr. Loughlin's demands to amend his Budget proposals •so drastically affecting country inter- • ests, is another matter. Mr. Loughlin •and his two henchmen now form the Country Labour Party. Whether that •■will expand is uncertain. Whether the ■ broach will be healed is uncertain. Whether the Lang Government will bp forced to resign is uncertain. Whether Mr. Loughlin has merely run away to fight another day is uncertain. Tho only certain thing is that it is useless to forecast what will happen.