Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1931. LABOUR'S DILEMMA

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 76, 9 March 1931, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1931. LABOUR'S DILEMMA

THE Federal Government in Australia is making distressing discoveries of the manner in which kindly deeds may come in time to embarrass those responsible for them. The Labour caucus, which assembled in the hour of victory last year to select a Ministry and other office-holders, distributed its largesse of portfolios and salaried Parliamentary ' positions with a willing hand. ' To Mr. Makin went the Speakership of the House, with its considerable addition to the modest salary of the ordinary member of Parliament, and, looking round for a good servant to the cause, who had not received a Ministerial appointment, the caucus selected Mr. McGrath a 3 Chairman of Committees, a position which increases both the prestige and the salary of the occupant. Lately, however, has come the financial frost, a killing frost, which has nipped Labour schemes and aspirations in the bud and has caused great damage in the Labour garden over which Mr. Scullin acts as beneficient horticulturist-in-chief. The caucus, suffering severely from frost-bite, in the pedal regions, assembled recently, this time to make a clearance in the shrubbery of political appointments. Mr. Theodore had rejoined the Cabinet, and two Ministers had straightway departed. Their places had to be filled, and the time seemed opportune for a general reorganisation. Mr. Makin retained his post as Speaker but the caucus decided that Mr. McGrath must go into the ranks, and that another Chairman of Committees should be appointed. So far, so good, but Mr. McGrath has his own views on the subject, and it has been intimated that he refuses to resign his office. For the caucus the position is annoying and baffling. While a party with a comfortable majority in the House can, through its caucus, decree the appointment of a Speaker and a Chairman of Committees of its own selection, the actual appointment is made by the House as a whole. Therefore, it is much easier for the caucus to make than to unmake an appointment, and Mr. McGrath is aware of the fact. By Labour he has attained to a position of some eminence, and in spite of Labour he is determined to remain there. The caucus may gnash its teeth, and Mr. Cunningham, the successor selected by the caucus for Mr. McGrath's post, may become white-hot with indignation, but Mr. McGrath is unmoved, secure in the certain support of his friends and the Opposition in any attempt to unseat him. It is a ludicrous position, but not the only one in which the Labour Government finds itself. A vote on a motion of want of confidence is imminent, and Labour has a nominal majority sufficient for defensive purposes, but it is suggested that an actual majority does not exist. All in the Labour Party is not pro-Scullin, and while Messrs. Beasley, Eldridge and Lazzarini remain loyal to Mr. Lang and the New South Wales Labour Party they cannot remain loyal to Mr. Scullin also. They are needed at Canberra to save their Government from defeat, but the State Labour Party declared that it* required their presence at. Sydney to assist in the East Sydney by-election campaign. Torn between their duty to Federal Labour and their equally pronounced duty to Labour in New South Wales, they are regarded as incliuin;j,' towards the State. Thus the Labour Government has made two discerning discoveries in one day—(he first, that two men cannot hold one office at the same time, and the other that three men cannot be in two places atouce. What further relevationr. await Mr. Scullin itwould be di'licult to foresee, but he is probably feeling decidedly apprehensive.