THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, October 25, 1937. NO CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23331, 25 October 1937, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, October 25, 1937. NO CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA

The old saying that a Ministry begins to die as soon as it is born is certainly not supported by the experience of the Lyons Government in Australia. If the preliminary estimate of the position is to be accepted, the general election in the Commonwealth on Saturday has resulted in the return of the Coalition parties to power with a definite working majority. With the result of twelve contests in doubt, the United Australia and United Country Parties are reported to have secured a majority of six over the Labour Party led by Mr Curtin. The expectation appears to be that most of the doubtful seats will go to the Government, for there is a suggestion that its final majority will be much the same as that enjoyed by it in the last Parliament. If the seats at present uncertain are for rural constituencies, as seems likely from the fact that the final returns are not yet available, the chances of the Government’s success are to be preferred to those of Labour. As a Labour platform derives its support from urban rather than rural districts, the forecast of the Government’s secure position may be accepted with some confidence. Mr Lyons will enter upon a third term of office with the certain knowledge that the principles for which his Government stands have the endorsement of the majority of the people. Indeed, it would have been surprising if the

result of the election had not shown I that to be the case. In Australia as elsewhere recovery has succeeded economic depression, but the process was substantially assisted in the Commonwealth’s case by the Coalition Ministry’s able utilisation of the Federal revenues and its constructive approach to the problem of industrial rehabilitation. In this appeal to the electorate it will have had the advantage of the prestige it won during a difficult and changing period. There was no good reason why the electors should vote to remove a Government that had served them well, especially when the only alternative offered was Socialism of an extreme brand. The Labour Party, presenting on this occasion the outward appearance of unity in opposing the Government, must be grievously disappointed over the outcome. In the closing stages of the campaign the defence issue virtually overshadowed in importance all other questions of general policy. The Government’s policy was one of domestic preparation with continued co-operation with the Imperial authorities. It took the realistic view that the interests of Australia are inseparable from those of the Empire as a whole and that both sentiment and selfinterest demanded co-operation in a co-ordinated plan of Empire defence. The Labour Party, on the other hand, sought to develop the isolationist theory that Australia should concentrate on her own defence measures and repudiate or ignore external obligations. It also broadcast the story—in spite of repeated and emphatic denials of its truth—that the Government was committed in advance to the conscription of Australians for foreign service in the event of a crisis. How ill-advised these tactics were is shown by the fact that they were Resented by a large section of organised Labour opinion. The president of the South Australian Trades and Labour Council actually issued a statement in which he said that it was impossible to imagine a policy “ better suited to keep the Labour Party in perpetual opposition than that enunciated by the Federal Parliamentary Labour leader.” Mr Curtin, it appears, misjudged the temper of the electorate as a whole as badly as he did that of a section of his own rank and file. The result has apparently confirmed the worst fears of those in the Labour movement who mistrusted Mr Curtin’s judgment. It has shown, too, that the majority of the Australian people, doubtless recalling the experience of New South Wales under Mr Lang, are in no mood to permit Socialistic experiment in the Federal sphere.