Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1931. MR. SCULLIN'S REPRIEVE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 94, 22 April 1931, Page 8

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1931. MR. SCULLIN'S REPRIEVE

Mr. Scullin, who has so long played the part of a patient and passive sufferer, has been encouraged by his escape from defeat last week to talk as though he had a will and a policy of his own, and some power to control the situation. He has, of course, to be thankful for small and even contemptuous mercies. The margin of two votes by which the defeat of his Government was averted was contributed by the Beasley group, which despises it just as thoroughly as Mr. Lloyd George despises the British Labour Government, for which he nevertheless continues to vote.

We are in the unhappy position, said Mr. Lazzarini, one of; Mr. Beasloy's colleagues, of having to support one of two i sets of. duds. Wo therefore have to choose which is the better of a bad lot. Wo have decided that the Government is the better for the moment. It is a ridiculous and disastrous result of the attempt of three parlies to carry on the government of the country with a machine which was only built for two that in Australia as in Britain a Ministry should be kept in office which has obviously ceased to represent a majority of either the nation or its Parliamentary representatives. Yet with these glaring examples before them the leaders of the two principal New Zealand parties seem still content to ignore the obvious moral, and even to face the incalculable risks of a General Election under the same conditions. Though Mr. Lazzarini merely says that the Beasley group has decided in favour of the Government as the better of the two sets of duds available "for the moment," it is obvious from Mr. Scullin's altered tone that he has got* something better than a mere reprieve from day to day. Mr. Lang's Federal campaign has not opened so brilliantly that his friends can afford to precipitate a dissolution, and their policy is to keep a sufficient minority at Canberra to save the Government from defeat while concentrating their main strength on a platform campaign for its defeat in the constituencies. But in the meantime the Scullin and the Lang factions have important com-mon-ground in'their hostility to the Senate, which at present is an equally insuperable obstacle for both of them, and the recognition of this fact in a more definite arrangement than has yet been revealed seems to be implied in the confident tone of two of Mr. Scullin's utterances reported yesterday. In a broadcast speech from Canberra he said that thera -would be a double, dissolution after July if the Senate persisted in its obstructionist tactics. And according to a later message, Mr. Scullin, while admitting a double dissolution to be inevitable, had added that it would not be sought until Parliament had dealt with the Government's legislative programme and the tariff. : .

On previous occasions the dissolution that appeared imminent was none of Mr. Scullin's seeking. Now he speaks of it as within his control, and as, at the worst a leisurely affair. The reasons are to be found in his common interest with the Lang jtes to which we have referred, arid in a peculiarity of the Federal Constitution* Senators are elected for six years,, but half of their number retire every three years. If, however, the House passes a Bill and the Senate rejects it, and after an interval of three months the Bill is again passed by the House and rejected by the Senate, there may be a simul- J taneous dissolution of both Chambers. In view of the Senate's'rejection by 21 votes to 6 of Mr. Theodore's Fiduciary Currency Bill, which Mr. Scullin declares to be "the pivot of the Government's financial] policy," nothing short of a double dissolution will do him any good. And \though Mr. Lang, and Mr. Beasley agree with the majority of the Senate in their opposition to what a Melbourne paper by a happy misprint: described as the "Seduciary Currency Bill" they are just as much concerned as Mr. Scullin in getting rid of a Senate which would give their own policy even shorter shrift than it has given his.. Thus it is that Mr. Scullin is now able to speak of what is to happen in July with a confidence that he could not previously bring to the events of the next twenty-four hours. A week or two ago we ventured to compare the much-enduring Mr. Scullin to the passenger who, having been kicked, several times off an American train

oil which he.was travelling without a ticket, replied to a question about his destination that lie was going to Chicago if his pants held out. As the result of his arrangement with [the Beasley group, Mr. Scullin evidently regards his political panls as so firmly patched that they will be able to survive the worst that can happen to them during the next three months.

Bui despite Mr. Scullin's display of confidence it is possible that events which' arc beyond his control, even with the co-opcralion of Mr. Theodore and Mr. Lang, may precipitate a crisis before the three months needed for a double dissolution have expired. The financial omens grow steadily worse. On the 11th the Commonwealth Bank issued what is described as an ultimatum to the Federal and Stato Governments that there must be a limit to the issue, of Treasury bills, which Iliad increased by £2,200,000 in Australia, thus bringing the total to £8,400,000. On the 16th the return of the Commonwealth Bank showed an increase of £1,000,000 in the issue, of notes, and on the following day Mr. Theodore laid before the House the correspondence by which the ultimatum was followed. On his side this correspondence seems in large point to be worthier of a demagogue than of a statesman. The banks had, he said, drained vast sums from industry since the War by high charges by which they had doubled their profits, built up colossal inner reserves, and expended millions on palatial now premises. The Commonwealth Bank had allowed itself to bo dominated by the trading banks, which had become the final arbiters on interest and exchange rates, exacting a heavy toll on the community.

It is indeed, as Mr. Tranter, the chairman of the Associated Banks, says, propaganda and claplrap, and Australia may be thankful that for three months, at any rate, the Senate prevents Mr. Theodore from giving any of it legal effect. For the present the Commonwealth Bank survives, and the startling news from Sydney shows that even Mr. Lang is glad to make use of it.