THE STATE ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 4, 5 July 1927, Page 3

THE STATE ELECTION

CALL FOR YOUNGER BEOOD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 23* d June.' The actions of the State Premier (Mr. Lang) have been characterised by, so many dramatic surprises that thero was some doubt whether . the..'present Parliament had actually ended.,; The belief that it would again be Bammoned before the coming election was based, on the talked-of rapprochement be- 1 tween the two wings of the Labour Party, who have been at one another's throats for some time past, and on the knowledge: that a number of .members were strongly urging a' postponement of the appeal to the...country.,__Howeyer,' thero is now the definite assurance that tho Government' will not again assemble the present Parliament.

The general belief is that, before thepoll is taken, most of the Labour fa.e.tion which is now opposed to the Eahg^ wing will bo back in ''the' Premier's camp, Lut it is difficult, indeed,\toisee-, how the present breach in the party canibo wholly repaired, after the things: Labour members have beea sayingi about one another quito openly in the| Press and on the platform. Half a' dozen unity conferences, such* ag'thej ono proposed, could not, orie: would On-' agine,. reconcile the ex-Minis'Sor''oflEdii-' cation (Mr: Mutch), for exiiiiple, -as- the 1 leader of the anti-Lang faction, to-the; Premier and his followers, especially in; tho light of tllie Eoyal Commissioner's! finding which vindicated Mr. Mutch in! his now famous dispute with his forn mer chief (Mr. Lang^ over the Child 1 Welfare Department. The Labour 'Party j may parade as a, united force'st'tjie election, but that there will be; under-i neath, the smouldering fires of unrest.! and dissatisfaction is beyond question. There is ah insistent demand ;th'at;;the' Nationalists shall tV time select young-: er blood in choosing their standard-bear-, ers for the coming fight. The'call for' new blood, in fact, has become so arti-i culate as to be riot..altogether- to"the-j liking of some of the old'brigade,'who; feel that, as elder statesmen; ■.>they l '!( should not be swept ungraciously,:aside.Tho fact remains that the youth of the' Labour Party in Parliament in New. South Wales is in striking contrast with ( the composition of the other benches. A. now although small force! at the election will be the Constitutional 'Association 's candidates, mostly young men, who will inevitably be ranged against ("Labour. . The Constitutionalists, by the way, are adhering faithfully to -the party principle of pre-selection. .' ," ' *'