The Resignation Of Mr Menzies

Southland Times, Issue 23768, 16 March 1939, Page 4

The Resignation Of Mr Menzies

THE resignation from the Fed- -* eral Cabinet of Mr R. G. Menzies, Attorney-General and deputy-leader of the United Australia Party, was not unexpected. According to a message from Canberra printed this morning Mr Menzies says that since last September he has been at variance with a majority of the Cabinet on several questions, particularly the speed and scope of defence preparations, but that he has refrained from resigning “in the interests of unity.” The Cabinet s drastic revision of the national insurance proposals has, however, proved “a last, but weighty straw”: Mr Menzies has felt compelled to resign rather than acquiesce in it. The effect of his resignation remains to be seep, but it can hardly fail to place in an even more unfavourable light a Government which has in the last few weeks been revealed as a disunited and weak-spirited body. The Australian national insurance scheme has already suffered many amendments and postponements. It was approved by the Federal Parliament in July 1938; an amending Bill was introduced in September; then the amendments were shelved and the operation of the scheme postponed until September 1939. Finally, after a meeting of the Cabinet a fortnight ago, it became known that, under pressure from the United Party, the scheme was to be abandoned. This caused a storm of protest and Mr Lyons hastily—but unwiselysummoned a caucus of members of the two Government parties to discuss the situation. At this meeting Mr Menzies made a vigorous speech in defence of the scheme in its existing form, and he was supported by Sir Henry Gullett, Sir Frederick Stewart and other influential members. The caucus resisted the full demands of the United Party, but called upon the Cabinet to revise the insurance proposals in such a way as to make their cost less burdensome. (Drought, conditions, a fall in export prices and the heavy requirements of the defence programme have caused a great deal of concern over the Commonwealth’s Budgetary position in the coming financial year.) Apparently the revision decided upon by the Cabinet has involved elimination of the new scale of old age and widows’ pensions provided in the scheme —a point on which the Country Party was insistent and which Mr Menzies was unable to concede. Whether those who supported Mr Menzies in caucus will rally to him now, will be shown within the next few weeks. But even if none prefer his leadership to that of Mr Lyons, there can be no doubt that the episode as a whole will damage the Government’s prestige, as the loss of an able Minister will impair its strength.