TWO VIEWS OF MR HUGHES.

Evening Star, Issue 18157, 23 December 1922, Page 6

TWO VIEWS OF MR HUGHES.

The panegyric which' the ‘ Morning Post' has pronounced on Mr W. M. Hughes on the occasion of his possible deposition: from power in Australia, reads somewhat strangely, coming from snob a bulwark of Conservatism. It has to be remembered, however, that this paper and other powerful organs who were opposed to Mr Lloyd George lionised Mr Hughes on his visits to Britain in connection with Imperial matters arsing out of tho war. It is unquestionable that much of what the ‘ Morning Post’ says of Mr Hughes was true, and that some of it is true to-day. He is a great Imperialist. He was great in war. As to whether he is also great in pea.ee there may be and evidently is a oleaxcut division of opinion. The ‘ Post ’ exalte him because he saw through Mr Wilson’s pacifism and Mr Lloyd George’s megalomania. One of the causes of the fairly widespread Australian complaints against Mr Hughes is that he has himself developed megalomania of a severe typo. The election campaign against him personally has been extraordinarily bitter. Persistent use has been made, in letterpress and cartoon, of two things—lris selfesteem and tho presentation of a sum of £25,000 to him, the origin of this gift still remaining a mystery which he has never satisfactorily explained. On the other hand, there has never been any veiling of his self-esteem. It has been becoming increasingly obvious month by month. A well-known Sydney writer recently attacked him in these terms: “ Nowadays he is exceedingly rich, bad-tempered, savagely jealous of able men who might show up his lack of ability by contrast, too infallible for words, too arrogant for description.” It appears to be the rule rather than the exception that long exercise of power makes for the development of qualities such os these, leading to the estrangement of colleagues who find their chief impossible to work with unless at the sacrifice of a considerable loss of temper or self-respect. Possibly in Mr Hughes’s case this has been aggravated by a physical disability, as very deaf people incline to become self-centred.