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Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 71, 25 March 1931, Page 8

Discussing the result of the East Sydney election under the title, "Who Got a Mandate on Saturday?" the "Bulletin" of the 11th inst. remarks:

It is a cold day when Lang cannot discover a mandate, and he found one on Saturday. Ward fought the election mainly on the Lang policy of repudiation, so the Labour candidate's win is, of course, a mandate to Lung to proceed with his policy.

Mr. Lang's "mandate" was, of course, based on the fact that Labour had retained the seat, and the disregarded fact that its majority was about 10,000 less than it had been at the General Election gave the lie to his contention. But the "Bulletin" enhances the significance of the East Sydney figures by a reference to those of the New South Wales General Election in October- which gave Mr. Lang his majority. In that election Labour polled 56 per cent, of the total vote, but in the East Sydney by-election its poll of 52.7 per cent, represented a fall of 15.7 on the previous figures.

If Labour lost 15.7 per cent, [in the State], says tho "Bulletin," Labour would thus be in a hopeless minority. In that election the Nationalist vote on a first count was 487,593. A bare 15 per cent, added to that would have carried the figure to 731,389, which would more than exceed Labour's total even if Labour did not lose a vote! Such a swing as that on Saturday would rob Lang of three-fourths of his country supporters.

From this comparison the "Bulletin" infers a very different kind of mandate from that which Mr. Lang had professed to find in the East Sydney result.

In these circumstances, it says, the question is not whether Lang got a mandate on Saturday to carry on with his predatory campaign, but whether the Governor of New South Wales did not got a mandate to send his advisers to the country.

As ' the "Bulletin" had previously been arguing that in view of the Parkes election and other significant changes, it was not time for the Gov-ernor-General and the Governor of New South. Wales to be considering whether their respective advisers had not lost the confidence of the people, its contention was considerably strengthened by the result in East Sydney. And if Mr. Lang had any apprehension that this advice might be acted upon by the Governor of New South Wales he must be congratulated on the promptitude which has enabled him to anticipate and perhaps avert the blow by assuming the aggressive himself. If he cannot be said to have the strength of the man "that hath his quarrel just," he has at any rate seized the advantage of "getting his blow in first." The only question is whether in his eagerness Mr. Lang has not been just a little too "previous," as the Americans say. It is well to lose no time in getting off the mark promptly, but the man who starts ahead of the signal gains nothing by it, and may lose everything. Mr. Lang's desperate eagerness to start some irrelevant quarrel which might serve as a red herring to draw the public off the scent of broken promises and deepening distress was revealed at the beginning of the session by his otherwise quite superfluous Bill for the abolition of the Legislative Council. Foiled in that attempt, first by the Supreme Court of New South Wales and afterwards by the High Court of Australia, Mr. Lang now proposes to take the case to the Privy Council at the cost of thousands more from a Treasury which is already unable to meet its obligations, but in the meantime the scent is cold, and it is not unlikely that Mr. Scullin may have put the bailiffs in before it revives. Another red herring was therefore urgently needed, and Mr. Lang must be congratulated upon having provided two. On the strength of a new crime the Legislative Council is made to do duty again, but an additional and- much greater attraction is provided in the shape of the Governor of the State. Baiting the Legislative Council may be an exhilarating sport, provided of course that those plaguy Courts do not interfere, but at the best it is a merely local affair. Baiting the King's representative presents, however, much wider possibilities. New South Wales is a mere beargarden, especially when it is under Mr. Lang's control, in comparison with the huge arena to which his new enterprise may extend. He may embroil his State with the British Government, get a magnificent opportunity for saying exactly what he thinks of Downing Street, the Imperial connection, and the War Debts, materially weaken the bonds of Empire, and even persuade his countrymen that the root of their trouble is in the greed of the British bondholder, if this new crusade works out as he hopes. But there is reason to believe that he is hoping too much. The problem presented to a Dominion Governor by proposed appointments to the Legislative Council when it is in conflict with the elective Chamber is often very difficult, but Mr. Lang's precipitation has made Sij

Philip Game's task an easy one because it anticipated the conflict. By letting his gun go off at half-cock he has rendered it quite harmless. The offence of the Legislative Council was that when ll^e Government's Arbitration Bill, which had already been passed by the Assembly, came before it a motion was carried by 33 votes to 24 referring the Bill to a Select Committee. In the true spirit of his chief, Mr. Willis, the Leader of the Council, then said that

the decision would bo accepted as an intended insult. No Labour member would sit on the Committee.

The Government was, of course, fully entitled to regard the action of the Legislative Council as an insult if it so desired, and to withdraw its followers from the Select Committee. But it was almost farcical that, without awaiting the report of the Committee and the decision of the Council, Mr. Lang should have approached the Governor at a special meeting of the Executive Council and requested the necessary appointments of Labour members to the Council to assure the passage of policy measures. If they had been talking in private Sir Philip Game might well have told Mr. Lang not to be so silly, not to cry out till he was hurt, and in the meantime to get on with the business. But though he properly preferred to reply in writing it was not because lie had any doubt about the matter. His official reply promptly expressed his inability to accede to the request, and the reason given is understood to be

that the Government had not put forward sufficient reasons why he should accede to the request—

a very safe conjecture, indeed!

As we have said, the action of the New South Wales Government verges on the farcical—so much so indeed as to suggest that it is mere bluff. To refer a measure to a Select Committee is Hot to reject it, nor had the Governor, any reason to suppose that the majority of nine by which the Opposition's motion was carried would represent a majority of nine, or any majority at all, against the passing of the Bill. The matter will be ripe for treatment, or may prove to need' no treatment at all, when the Council votes have been taken. Meanwhile, the Governor is to be congratulated on his prompt and sensible action, and it is to be hoped that no weakness in Downing Street will let him down. I