THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1925. AUSTRALIA'S VERDICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19177, 17 November 1925, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1925. AUSTRALIA'S VERDICT.

Coming with the slowness unavoidable because of the voting system, returns from the Australian election show, nevertheless, that a substantial victory for Mr. Bruce and his composite party is assured. Comment in the Commonwealth is based on that belief, and the figures already given show that there is sound ground for it. Mr. Bruce on present appearances will return with : his immediate followers appreciably : strengthened, his associates of the ' Country Party at their former level, i and his opponents of the Labour Party weakened by the loss of seats they could ill spare. There was a challenge to the forces of disruption and disorder showing themselves only too plainly in certain branches of industrial life. Mr. Bruce had pledged himself to combat them and to discipline them. He asked the people of the Commonwealth to declare by their votes whether they were for him or against him in this determination. A strong majority has/placed the seal of its approval on his attitude. Political Labour the issue to be a false one, used to camouflage political deeds nnd intentions which the country would not endorse. The electorate by a majority voice has repudiated this interpretation. The stratum of sturdy British common sense which underlies the occasional exuberances of Australia in politics has been reached, and Mr. Bruce can feel the ground safe beneath his feet. It is true that the situation is not yet cleared, for the Senate position is still uncertain. On the results for the House of Representatives strong hopes are expressed for a similarly happy outcome in the Senate. The inference is a reasonable one. It is supported, moreover, by an analogous case, to which for many reasons memory turns, the war-time election of 1917, when there was a similar appeal for the voice of the Commonwealth. In 1917 there was. in existence a National Government opposed by what was known as the Caucus Party. These were the Labour members who., refused to join the National Government, but remained obedient to the caucus of the Labour Party. In the House of Representatives the Ministerialists numbered 48 and the Opposition 27. Here the position was secure. The Senate, however, contained only 17 Ministerialists and 19 of the Opposition.' The result was deadlock. No progress could be made because the hostile majority in the Senate refused to compromise. After many and acrimonious wrangles a general election was suddenly announced. The Labour Opposition had opposed conscription. Relying on the adverse vote the proposal had received, it hoped to carry the country. Butwhile a majority of the people had rejected conscription, Australia wasstill heart and soul for prosecution of the war. Suspecting the Labour Opposition of lukewarmness toward the great objective, Australia voted so solidly for the Nationalists that the new House of Representatives contained 53 Ministerialists and 22 Opposition, while by winning every one of the 18 vacant seats . in the Senate the Government returned with 25 members to 11. On that occasion the vote for the lower Chamber was not even so emphatic as that for the Senate. The Government won five seats from official Labour, just as Mr. Bruce appears to have done. It absolutely routed its opponents in the Senate, where the position was most difficult and had been considered most doubtful. Whether history will repeat itself at this election cannot . be predicted with certainty, but on the example of 1917 there is material for strong optimism. As then, one dominating question transcending ordinary political issues hangs over the contest. It is little use declaring that communism is simply a bogey set up to stampede the elector. Mr. Charlton and his Labour confreres have disclaimed any sympathy with communism or any connection with Russia. In their political .capacity they may do so, but those who follow Australian affairs soon find that the political section of the Labour Party is not independent of other phases of the movement. It is here that doubt intrudes. Little effort has been made to deny that communism is represented in the industrial branch of Australian Labour. There is, for instance, Mr. J. S. Garden, secretary of the Sydney Trades and Labour Council, who has visited Russia as a delegate to a conference of the Third International. He is an avowed. Communist. There are others, active and outspoken, in the unions. The possibilities of these circumstances may not be appreciated until it is realised that there arc links binding one section of the movement to another. Professor Meredith Atkinson, who cannot be accused of antiLabour bias, has written thus of the position: "Threatening as is the Caucus to the liberty of action of Ministers, still more so is the Labour Conference to the Caucus itself, and thereby to Parliamentary institutions in general, at least in the period when Labour is in control. . . . The net effect of these developments is to strike at the root of representative government by binding members of Parliament to the decisions of a body which represents no more than a fraction of the electors, and without responsibility j to them." Here is one great factor | making it perilous for Australia to [ return a Labour Government- at a j time when a Communist offensive was manifestly in progress. The elector could not be sure he was not clearing the way for a virtual die

tatorship by a numerically small but disproportionately influential section of extremists, which, if not included in tc°. Parliamentary wing, was and is ura&. )>tedly active in the Labour Party. Thus, as in 1917, there was a real issue of weight and moment hanging over the election which has just ended. In the war year the people saw clearly and acted decisively. In its own way the crisis of 1925 called for a similar answer from the country. The revealed results of polling for the House of Representatives show that the voice of the nation has been heard, and that the National Government has every chance of an unassailable position in both branches of the Legislature.