FEDERAL POLITICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 243, 12 September 1929, Page 7

FEDERAL POLITICS

CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA. NEW PARTY MAY BE FORMED. MR W. M. HUGHES AS LEADER, (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received September 12, 9.20 a.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 12. It is stated that as a result of the political crisis an attempt will be made to form a new party consisting of certain Labour M.P.’s and the dissatisfied section of the Australian Labour Party, the party to be led by Mr W. M. Hughes. The Australian Workers’ Union, it is stated, figured prominently in this move.

It is regarded as not unlikely that a few of Mr Hughes’s staunch friends in the National Party, who were expelled from the labour ranks for the advocation of conscription during the war, will range themselves behind the former Prime Minister.

It is practically certaini that Mr Hughes will be ostracised from the National Party along with the other members who rebelled against the Ministry.

ALL AUSTRALIA INTERESTED. SYDNEY, Sept. 11. The Federal political crisis is the subject of lively discussion in all parts of Australia to-day. Tli© majority of the influential daily papers support the Bruce Ministry’s action in seeking 'a dissolution. The remainder claim that Mr Bruce, in attempting to abolish the arbitration system without a special mandate' from the people, was ill-advised. The consensus of feeling among the Nationalists is that those members of Mr Bruce’s party who crossed the floor to vote with the opposition and thereby wrecked the Government should be ejected from the party and denied endorsement in the event of a general election. Mr Marks, whose last-minute defection caused a sensation, explained todav that a plank of the National pint" form permits freedom of speech and action, and that had Mr Hughes not moved for a postponement of the abolition of the Arbitration Court he would himself have taken that course.

HOUSE ADJOURNS. CANBERRA, Sept. 11. Mr S. M. Bruce announced in the House of Representatives to-day that he had tendered certain advice to the Governor-General, who was now considering the position. Mr Bruce then secured an adjournment of the House until to-morrow. Immediately after a meeting of the National Party to-day, Mr Brace went to Government House and requested that the Governor-General should grant a dissolution of Parliament, His Excellency promised to make his decision known later in the day. NEWSPAPER COMMENT. MELBOURNE, Sept. 11. The Argus states in the course of an editorial: “Mr W. M. Hughes must now take the responsibility for his action. He is a leader without a following, a wrecker with no power to reconstruct. “Mr Bruce, warned members before the division took place: ‘lf you are all determined that this issue shall go to the people, well we will all go and get their answer, and many of those who so insist will regret it.’ ” LONDON PAPERS’ COMMENT. (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, teept. 11. The defeat of the Commonwealth Governinent is given prominence in the Press. The Morning Post states: ‘The experience in Australia, as elsewhere, proves the folly of outside intervention in the affairs of industry. The best hope of peace lies within the industry itself.’ The Daily News states: “Can anyone deny that Australia’s experiment in industrial arbitration has been a failure ? Compulsory arbitration in industry lags even further behind than compulsory arbitration in international affairs ” The Times states- “It was always clear that the question behind the Arbitration Bill must sooner or lifter go before the people. They alone are competent to decide, for upon it depends, as far as can be judged, the social, economic and political future of the Commonwealth. The people will have to choose not between Mr Bruce and Mr Hughes, or Mr Bruce and Mr Theodore, but between the rule of Parliament and the rale of the' trade union managers tnd those behind them—the rule of Socialism and the anarchy accompanying it That Mr Bruce will not lose heart and abandon lxis post now the battle is joined seems wholly incomparable with his character and his past.”