Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1932. NEW GUARD ELOQUENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 10, 13 January 1932, Page 8

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1932. NEW GUARD ELOQUENCE

In sending 200 picked members to Gobar to help in fighting the bush and grass fires which have been devastating the western districts of New South Wales, the New, Guard displayed an energy and a public spirit which even Mr. Lang might safely commend, and though they may have been disappointed to find on arrival that most of die fires were already out or under control, there was compensation in the good work that stil! remained for them to do in checking fresh outbreaks. Outside of the afflicted areas Colonel Eric Campbell, the enthusiastic leader of the organisation, would probably say that its functions are still essentially those of fire-extinction and fire-pre-vention. But he is. himself such a fire-eater, and the master of so fine a strain of incendiary "eloquence that even to many of those whom he is anxious to protect fire-promotion may well appear to be an equally essential part of the propaganda. He is fighting fire by fire—an operation which in a grave emergency is often necessary and effective, but except in such a case is full of risk and may easily make tilings worse instead of belter. "Wherever you see a head hit it" may have been sound advice to a stranger involved in the kind of trouble traditionally associated with the Kilkenny Fair, of two or three generations ago. "Wherever you see a Red hit him" is not equally sound advice for general application in the normal'politics of. a peaceful State. It all depends, upon how Red he is, and what he is doing, and the gravity of the emergency, and the answer to ihese questions may turn upon the kind of spectacles you are wearing and upon other elements in your personal equation which may make you the worst possible judge. To take the law into your own hands is to declare war, against society, and to incite others to do so is a still more perilous responsibility. So close r has Colonel Campbell seemed to us to have come to the line in some of his philippics that we were not, surprised to hear that Mr. Lang had asked his law officers to advise whether he had overstepped it. As no proceedings followed, Colonel Campbell may be congratulated on the factthat either the law from Mr. Lang's point of view was too weak, or that his fear of a jury was too strong, to allow him to take action. In his latest attentions to the Lang Government Colonel Campbell may be again congratulated on the severity of his invective, which on this occasion, has sought a novel outlet and, as summarised in a Sydney message yesterday, appears to'be free from legal risks. The New Guard is now promoting a petition to the King which prays for the dissolution of, the New South Wales Assembly on the following grounds:— Certain members of Parliament have protected disloyalists, Communists, and seditionists, allowed tho, uso of school buildings for the, propagation of seditious doctrines, and even appointed persons, to the Legislative Council who were avowedly disloyal. The Government has repudiated debta to bondholders, and has enacted legislation gravely infringing tho rights of the people, the petition emphasises. ■ To ask for the dissolution of Parliament on the ground that "certain members" i have misconducted themselves, without even alleging them to be in a majority, makes the strange procedure doubly strange. "Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city," was Abraham's first plea on behalf of the people of Sodcm. If Mr. Lang were to put in a similar plea on behalf of the State Assemblyhe would be giving the majority a character, and as the petition only j attacks the character of "certain" un-1 named and unnunSbered merabers, I would he not be entitled to a non-' suit? | It is certainly difficult to under- j stand why the petitioners who ex-' pressly attack the Government in the I second of their sentences direct the. charges in the first, including even the appointments to the Legislative Council, at "certain members" only. But, as the whole procedure cannot possibly have any legal effect, and except that, if extensively signed, it may have some moral effect, it might! even be dismissed as "eye-wash," much more interest attaches to the alternative programme which after the petition has fizzled Colonel Campbell intends to submit.

If it is not granted, ho says, I will put before you for adoption other means quite lawful and appreciated by constitutional lawyers of high standing, but, believe mo, very, very effective. With this cryptic utterance the equally cryptic declaration that the people of New South Wales: will not

permit Mr. Lang to open the Sydney Harbour Bridge is presumably to be closely associated. We in our generation, says the leader | of tho Now Guard, are for ever dishonoured if wo allow Mr. Lang to open the bridgo, and wo of the New Guard tell him now that ho will not bo given that honour. Let us see that somebody of quality, if possible some Prince of tho Hoyal blood, opens it on behalf of the people of this State. If the King and the Governor-General refuse to dismiss Mr. Lang, as of course they will, what can be the other means quite lawful and. appreciated by constitutional lawyers of high standing, but, believe me, very, very effective, > j> j which Colonel Campbell has up his sleeve for removing Mr. Lang from office, or at any rate for preventing him from discharging an important function incident to his office? Hitherto the most practical method for dealing with the.Communist menace in New South Wales has been in the rural districts, where the farmers have; given the offenders the choice between taking their departure or being dumped Jn the; creek. This simple remedy has proved "very, very effective," but we have not heard that, it has been certified to be "quite lawful" v by constitutional lawyers of high standing. A similar procedure might prevent Mr. Lang from ing the bridge by dumping him in the Harbour, but here again no certificate of legality is likely to be forthcoming from the Attorney-General or any other constitutional authority. If Mr. Lang cannot be kept from opening the bridge either by dismissal or by dumping, what can be the secret and hot unconstitutional remedy that Colonel Campbell has in view? A further doubt is suggested by his contradictory references to the source from which relief is to come. In one breath he tells us that the people of New South Wales will interpose its veto; in the next it is the New Guard. The solution may be that they are both merely projections of the colonel's own personI ality. That appears to be the way I of dictators. 1 a ?"?„ organis ation in the world, says Adolf Hitler, has such perfect disci- , pline as the ranks of the 750,000 fighters who are inscribed in the National Socialist Party proper, and they arc backed by 15,000,000 voters, as 'shown by recent elections in Germany. This party is absolutely under my control My will is done. There is a good deal of the ex-Kaiser in Hitler and perhaps a good deal of Hitler in the leader of the New Guard, but Hitler does not worry about the constitution. The "Order of the Silent Knights" which after a year of hesitation has just confessed its existence in Melbourne suggests by its title a pleasant change irom all this eloquence, but these silent people are apt to talk too much.