The Souhtland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1923. QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

Southland Times, Issue 18937, 10 May 1923, Page 4

The Souhtland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1923. QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

At the end of thus week the Theodore Government will face the electors. The campaign is being fought strenuously, and the Government is coming in for some severe criticism because it has hurried forward the elections. The reasons for this move are fairly patent. In the ranks of the Queensland Labour Party there have been signs of dissension, and a delay to the due date would have increased the risk of a split. On the other hand the Opposition is divided, and has been so for some years, but in recent times it has appeared that there was a unifying influence at work, and it is to anticipate the completion of this process, if possible, that Mr Theodore decided to go to the country as quickly as possible. In Queensland the growth of the Country Party has been very sure, but the party has been split into two sections: the one favourable to the Nationalists, and the other leaning toward the Labour Party.

The adoption of a “red objective” by the last State Labour Conference at Rockhampton, however, has affected the loyalty of the radical wing of the Country Party to the Government, and much will depend this week on this section’s attitude. If the Opposition in Queensland were favoured by a strong leader, the situation for the Government would be extremely dangerous, but so far no one has risen to unite the interests opposed to Mr Theodore into a cohesive organisation, and the campaign waged so far has not provided sufficient evidence to make any forecast of the result valuable. It is generally conceded, however, that the adoption of the “red objective,” which Mr Theodore opposed but now attempts to explain away as a harmless thing, has increased the difficulties of the Labour Party, which lost a great deal of ground at the last trial of strength. The Government has made much of its work in encouraging the growth of cotton, but as against that its experiments in State trading have been exceedingly costly, and they are sure to weigh heavily in the balance when the electors go to the booths. The crux of the position, however, is the small farmer who in past has stood strongly as a supporter of the Labour Party. It is in the influence on him of th? damaging “red objective” that the secret of the contest is to be found, and so far it is not possible to determine what he small farmer is going to do. The Opposition professes to be very hopeful, and there is no denying the fact that the Labour Party is anxious, so that it looks as if a change in Queensland’s Government is not at all unlikely.