THE FUTURE OF MR. BRUCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21617, 9 October 1933, Page 8

THE FUTURE OF MR. BRUCE

Australian comment about the proposition that Mr. 8. M. Bruce should relinquish politics and become High Commissioner for the Commonwealth has come out into tho open. There has been an undercurrent of it for some time. Tho burden of the discussion is that Mr. Bruce is the ablest man on his side in politics, that he is the best equipped to be Federal Treasurer at a time when the task is particularly onerous, and that with his ripened experience he should do even better in that difficult office than when he held it before. Accompanying these comments there has been an assertion that his resignation from politics to remain in London is not his own suggestion, but that the idea lias been more or less forced on him. If so, it must be to somebody's interest to keep Mr. Bruce out of Australia and out of politics. The latest comment, by the Sydney Morning Herald, could easily have been based ou such an underlying assumption. It is a reasonable idea that if lie returned to Australia with the honours of his recent conversion operations thick upon him, there would be a popular demand for his appointment to a more important office than that which he hold before he left for Ottawa and London. No such position is vacant. Consequently the making of a vacancy would lie necessary. From common knowledge of human nature and politics it is easy to sec why aii effort should be made to keep him in London, if that is a true estimate of tlie position. Selfimmolation is not popular in public life, in Australia or anywhere else; the spectacle of a leader who will tolerate no rival near the throne is nothing new. Interpreted in this fashion, the future of Mr. Bruce may have a bearing on the future development of Federal politics. It will be interesting to sec whether the expressed desire that he should return to Australia will defeat the dbvious intention that he should not do so. ;