Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER'" Established 1890. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1931. MR. SCULLIN AND THE CABLES

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 90, 25 March 1931, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER'" Established 1890. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1931. MR. SCULLIN AND THE CABLES

SYDNEY papers just to hand tell in details the story of the cables which passed between Mr. Lyons and Mr. Scullin during the latter’s absence at, the Imperial Conference, and which to Mr. Scullin’s annoyance have been made public during the recriminations which have characterised Australian politics lately. Mr. Scullin in London cabled on November 5 to the then Treasurer, Mr. Lyons; “All this talk about creating credit and inflation i.s most damaging. . . . Financial panic may result.” That was a strong and honest pronouncement against tampering with the currency. It pointed to dangers that the leader realised, if his followers did not.

Two days later Mr. Lyons informed Mr. Scullin by cable of the caucus resolutions passed on November 6. That resolution was the famous, or infamous, one not to redeem the £27,000,000 loan due for redemption the next month, but to compel holders of maturing bonds to keep them for another year.

Mr. Lyons was indignant, and said so. Mr. Scullin was also Indignant. “I do not approve,” he cabled back, “and will not support resolution of the party.” In a following cable he spoke of “this appalling resolution.’ There was no qualification in his anti-repudiation attitude.. He added the interesting information —“Brennan and Moloney concur.” The world knows what happened. Mr. Lyons made his stand on the instant. It was a stand from which he never budged. As he informed his leader; “I immediately notified the party I would not be prepared to carry out its decision, buPwould ask you, if you approved of it, to relieve me of my position in the Cabinet.” He told the party, the reader sees, “immediately.” His prompt action saved, for the time being, the credit and honour of Australia.

A few days later Mr. Lyons cabled the caucus decision —not then publicly known —to appoint new judges to the High Court. The Cabinet’s “No” to the proposal, he informed his chief, was unanimous. Mr. Scullin cabled back: “I urge that Cabinet remain firm.” The Cabinet, as we know, did not remain firm. Its surrender was conveyed in another Lyons message: “Cabinet agreed to dictation of party during my absence from Canberra. I learned of its final decision from Press.”

That is the story from which the veil is now torn aside. Mr. Scullin in England was against currency inflation. He was against caucus dictation in the matter of the judges. Back in Australia he surrendered on both points: more than that, he took into his Cabinet the arch-inflation-ist, Mr. Theodore, and allowed —in effect, caused —the retirement of the men who in his absence, had striven to keep the country abreast of its obligations. The leader’s moral failure needs no emphasising. He is the sorriest example in our time of a man who saw the light and turned away from it. He does not stand alone. Messrs. Brennan and Moloney, to mention no others, share the full ignominy. Both these men were aware in London of the terrible harm the inflationists and repudiationists were doing Australia. Yet both are now prepared to do the caucus bidding. And Mr. Brennan was not, ashamed, during the censure debate, to call Mr. Lyons “traitor” —for preferring Australia to its political assassins! It looks as though before long Australians will have the chance of choosing between Mr. Lyons and his traducers, and in the light of recent events is not difficult to foresee that Mr. Lyons will get the verdict. If not Australians deserve all that is coming to them.