MR. WILLIS'S MANOEUVRES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 9

MR. WILLIS'S MANOEUVRES

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, sth May. •11, tho cautral figures in. the I I squabble which has been convulsing tho Labour Party in New South Wales for weeks past is Mr. A. C. Willis, VicePrcsulent of tho Executive Council, and tho Government's Leader in tho Letrisliitive Council. Tho public outside of Iv ew South Wales, and probably within v jit a largo measure, have probably been wondering what manner of man is this individual who has been the centre of a crisis greater than has ever faced a Labour Government in the history of tho State. A short, thickly built man, Willis has none of the personal attributes, at least as one sees him in the street, which often mark men out from.their follows ana give them inaiyiduality. The fact that he has not been a brilliant success as the Government's Leader in 1 the Upper House mainly because ho was flung into it without asy Parliamentary apprenticeship, has not served to make him popular among the Government's rank and file, who feel that the Ministry would bo better without him. BORN IN OLD COUNTRY. Willis, in common with a great number of Labour men iii Parliament in New South Wales, was born in tho Old Country. For. the 'most part, they are dominant forces in the councils of the movement where Australian natives largely take a back seat. Willis, bef"re the cat and dog fight in tho Labour Party brought him and others into the full glare of publicity, was known chiefly as a prominent official of the Miners' Federation, with which he linked himself up shortly after his arrival from the coal mines of Wales. The fact that he is a glutton for work; blended with' political astuteness which has made his Labour opponents very uneasy, probably accounts for his success. Mild of manner and quietly spoken, he,'has. about him nothing at all of the aggressiveness which is suggested by some of his recent outbursts Whntover his fate, he is not the type of man who will roadily surrender to his enemies. He will fight to the last ditch.