Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1931. THE EAST SYDNEY CONTEST

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 77, 10 March 1931, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1931. THE EAST SYDNEY CONTEST

ATTEMPTS are being made by interested parties to show that the result in the East Sydney by-elec-tion is an indication that the electors went out whole-heartedly to support the Lang policy. Mr. Lang says that Mr. Ward's victory will give new hope to Australia, as it is a vindication of the policy of the New South Wales Labour Government. Mr. Scullin, on the other hand, describes it as a triumph for Labour, but not for Mr. Lang and his repudiationists. As a matter of fact they are both wrong, for the by-election indicates a strong swing away from both the Scullin and Lang varieties of Labour. East Sydney has always been regarded as a "safe" Labour seat, and one that there was no hope of wresting from that party. At the general election Mr. West, the former Labour member, went in with a majority of 13,552, which, on the present occasion, has been reduced by 9,880, while the Nationalist vote has increased by 4,750. Remembering that it is a Labour stronghold, it is hard to see what satisfaction the Labour Party can get from the result. It means that the workers themselves realise where Lang misrule and repudiation talk, Theodore inflation plans, and Scullin vaccilation are leading them, and they refuse to stand for these sort of things any longer. If it should happen that the Nationalist censure motion in the Federal House of Representatives is carried and an appeal made to the country, Labour rule in the Federal Parliament will come to a well merited end. Australians are learning their lesson. MR. FORBES AND MR. VEITCH CERTAIN newspapers are suggesting that because Mr. Forbes has decided upon a policy of de-political-ising the railways, with which policy Mr. Veitch does not agree, that the only course open to the latter is to resign. Mr. Veitch has made no pronouncement on the matter, and very likely he has no intention of resigning his portfolio. It has to be hoped that he has not, for there is no reason why he should take such a narrow view. Presumably, the taking of the railways out of political control was a decision reached by the majority of the Cabinet, and under the circumstances Mr. Veitch's duty to the country is to obey the wishes of the majority and carry on, doing his best to make the new policy a success. In other days it was always considered that in circumstances such as these a Minister must resign his oflice in order to retain his prestige, but the present is no time for the affairs of the Dominion to take second place to a question of prestige. In any case the removal of the railways from political control is no reflection upon him. He has done as well as his predecessors, and to say that the system is at fault is no reflection upon the Minister.