LABOUR’S RED RETINUE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20191, 31 August 1927, Page 12

LABOUR’S RED RETINUE.

NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTIONS. A BITTER CAMPAIGN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 18. Now that the date of the dissolution of tho State Parliament has actually been announced tho main topic, of course, is political, and the campaign that bus begun promises to be the most bitter and vitubcrativc in the history of the State. The Labour Party, with its retinue of Communists, has decided to jettison the moderate wing, but the members of the latter, all of whom have given years of faithful service to their party, are not going to walk the political plank without a protest, and a vigorous one, too. The Communists have always relied upon violence to quell opposition, and apparently the same methods will be adopted towards the ex-Ministcrs and members who have been so ruthlessly cast aside. The first instance of this has occurred in respect of Mr Cecil Murphy, who a few months ago was the darling of the party. When he saw how tho selection ballot rolls were being prepared, without the slightest semblance of fairness, Mr Murphy did not wait for the axe, but announced that he would not submit his name to a packed ballot. Immediately he made this announcement he was threatened with violence if he dared to offer himself to the electors, and acts ,of vandalism and sabotage have been committed against his personal property. The Premier (Mr Lang) is unfortunate in having such drastically undemocratic friends as the Communists, for it will be very surprising if they do not destroy the hopes he has of regaining the Treasury. In the meantime the Premier is vociferously optimistic. ’ “We will wiu 50 seats,” he keeps on declaring as if to keep his faltering courage from failing. . Whenever the Labour Party in Australia faces the prospect of an election from the Treasury benches the_ unemployed of the city come into their own. Courted, petted, and cajoled, rosy opportunities are presented to them. In some of the electorates the addition of a few hundred votes makes the return of a Labour candidate reasouably certain, and so residents of these districts find roads, dams, bridges, and other works, long despaired of, being constructed by hundreds of carefully-nurtured workmen whose every want is considered until they are shepherded to the polling booth. It has produced an amusing contretemps at Goulbourn. One of the principal roads, long the subject of agitation, is now being torn up by several hundred languid workmen from the city, and the work will assuredly be “spun out” until polling c ay, October 8. Citizens were more or less agreeably surprised by this unexpected activity and consideration on the part ot an hitherto heedless government, but their animation turned to gall when they found that hundreds of unemployed registered at the labour bureau in their own town had been passed over. Believing that the votes of the local unemployed were assured, the Government apparently passed them over, but they aie now raising such a diu that there must surely be some misgivings as to whetlici they will not upset the careful calculation That have been made by somebody They need hardly be disheartened If they will only continue to protest thej also will receive a concession. Goulbuni Sight to have some fine roads before election day. ’