Federal Election Nearing Final Result

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 206, 31 August 1943, Page 4

Federal Election Nearing Final Result

EIGHT SEATS STILL IN DOUBT ! (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Aug. 30. Only eight of Australia’s 74 Federal electorates are now in doubt. The final result of the Commonwealth elections will not be known until the end of tho week, when the soldiers' votes are counted and preferences allocated. Of the seats in which the outcome appears to be certain, Labour holds 48, Opposition 16, and Independents 2. Both these Independents have consistently supported Labour and are expected to continue to do so. Assessors reveal that the soldiers* vote is going heavily in favour of the Labour candidates, but the seats of three challenged Opposition leaders, Messrs. Fadden and Hughes and Sir Earl Page, now appear to be secure. In Tasmania Dame Enid Lyons, widow of the late Prime Minister, is losing ground to the Labour candidate; in Sydney, Mrs. Jessie Street, wife of the Supreme Court Judge, is making the fight of the elections to take the Wentworth seat for Labour and become the first woman to sit in the Australian House of Representatives. She holds a primary majority of 7000 over the sitting United Australia Party member, Mr. E. J. Harrison, and needs about 25 per cent, of the preferences to win. Mr. Curtin May Go Abroad It is being widely forecast that Mr. Curtin may visit London and Washington early in the new year. £om© American commentators, including Mr. Joseph Harrison, of the influential Christian Science Monitor, have forecast that Mr. Curtin will leave for abroad in October and will probably address both the United States Congress and the British Parliament. However, the Prime Minister has a heavy legislative and administrative programme ahead, including the selection and consolidation of his new Cabinet, the Budget, the Parliamentary session, and a series of War Council talks to catch up with the time lost in the election campaign. Official quarters feel that if Mr. Curtin went abroad immediately Australia's war effort would suffer. Observers agree that no one in the Govj eminent has the Prime Minister's cool ' judgment and grasp of the war sitnaj tion. I “Mr. Curtin was easily asset No. 1 in Labour s election balance-sheet,” says the former Prime Ministt.% Mr. | Menzies, in enumerating factors in i Labour’s election victory. He addod: i “The election also demonstrates that the recall of Australia’s Forces from abroad and the lines drawn around I Australia by the Militia Bill command I the support of the majority of Australian voters. Experience shows, too, that Governments are not readily defeated in times of prosperity. Australia’s national income, as a result of her unprecedented war expenditure, is at a record level." The Opposition survivors are reported to be agreed that their party organisations throughout Australia must bo purged and refashioned. Mr. Fadden’* leadership of the Country Party and Mr. Hughes's leadership of the United Australia Party are likely to be challenged.