LABOUR VICTORY

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1929, Page 9

LABOUR VICTORY

VERDICT IN FEDERAL POLL POLICY OF PARTY UNKNOWN UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF TARIFF REFORM POSSIBLE By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received Oct. 14, 10.30 p.m. t , Sydney, Oct. 14. There is great jubilation in Labour circles over the election victory. Exactly what the new Government's programme will be nobody knows, as the election was fought solely on the arbitration issue, which is now settled, but it is likely immediately steps will be taken to relieve unemployment, present new Budget proposals and consider tariff matters. Mr. 8. M. Bruce announces that his Ministry will resign next Monday. The Australian Workers’ Union claims it will have a preponderance of representation in the incoming Ministry.

To-day’s check of election papers determined the fate of four more doubtful seats, each of which has gone to Labour, Increasing the strength of that party to 42. The indications are that at least four others doubtful seats will also go to Labour, bringing that party’s total to 46 in a House of 75. The most the former Ministerial coalition party can win is only 22 seats. Four other seats have already been won by unendorsed Independent Nationalists, namely, Messrs Hughes, Marks, Maxwell and one Independent Country (Party man, Mr. Stewart. The Prime Minister is by no means safe as it is now reported that his Liberal opponent (Mr. Birch) requested the voters to give their second preferences to Mr. Holloway. If that were done it should in a substantial measure enable Mr. Holloway to win. Another similar development "has occurred in the Henty electorate where Mr. Gullett, Minister of Customs, is so closely pursued by the ’ Labourite, Mr. Duggan, that he too may be defeated by the same manner. The outcome of both contests will be known in a couple of days. BRITISH VIEWS OF THE RESULT. MR. BRUCE ALARMED VOTERS. Received Oct. 14, 5.5 p.m. London, Oct. 14. The Daily Telegraph in a leader entitled “Landslide in Australia” says Mr. Bruce once spoke of the triennial tragedy of the general election. By dissolving Parliament contrary to Australian precedent within a year of the last election he brought tragedy upon the Na-tionalist-Country Party coalition. Labour’s victory is by far the greatest Labour has won in the 28 years of the Commonwealth’s existence. The severity of the defeat was unforeseen, though many anticipated a result that would enable Mr. Hughes and the dissentient Nationalists to hold the balance of power. If government by a strong majority is ideal, the outcome of the election in the Commonwealth has assured that blessing for Australia.” The paper states that Labour must have had the support of many voters who were not adherents on ordinary occasions. Mr. Bruce had served the country well and had fallen because with a gesture almost of despair he committed his Government to an almost revolutionary policy in doing away with the Federal machinery of arbitration. This dash . decision alarmed the voters and roused the bitter hostility of Mr. Hughes. Mr. Scullin was an able, respected public man, but it was hard to see how he could deal better than Mr. Bruce with the corroding vice of the Australian economic situation. It was the resolute policy of the trades unions to maintain even flat defiance of arbitral awards and force wages and conditions which industry was unable to support. The Daily News says Mr. Bruce’s summing up of the election as. the “ghastly 5 ’ is not just from the strictly party standpoint. Fortunately the election seems to have been, fought without bitterness... Mr. Scullin, the Labour leader, is respected by all sides, and there is little likelihood of Australian affairs being mishandled or the Commonwealth’s relations with Britain takin<r a turn for the worse. '(The Daily Herald says Australia rejected Mr. Bruce contemptuously as Britain did Mr. Baldwin. It was not merely opposition to his attempt to abolish arbitration which destroyed Mr. Bruce; it was the realisation he stood for imperialism abroad and reaction at home. That he was the ally, if not the servant, of big businesses in their attacks on hours, wages and conditions. By a fortunate coincidence Labour has achieved power in Australia when Labour is in office at Downing Street. Mr. Scullin’s promise to co-operate with Mr. MacDonald’s splendid peace efforts will be easier and more effective because it will brino- to a new type of Imperial probnew type of imperial mind where Mr. Bruce’s old-fashioned imperialism would only have been a nuisance. The Morning Post, in a leader entitled “Deep Calleth Unto Deep,” says the defeat of Mr. Bruce is a matter for regret rather than surprise. He has been long in office, and bad trade and Industrial depression inclined the electorate for a change. A coalition is never the best ground upon which to build a Government. The work of the Arbitration Court scorned successful when there was a brisk demand for labour and rising wages, but with the turn of the tide difficulties of enforcements began, and the Australian Government was faced with the impotence of the courts to enforce their decisions. When Mr. Bruce attempted compression he courted political disaster. He antagonised our old friend and his enemy “Billy” Hughes, who by his antecedents is wedded to arbitration. Mr. Bruce has been denounced as a Guy Fawkes of a capitalist conspiracy against Australian trades unionism. Incidentally he offended ardent Australian Nationalists who desire to see everything concentrated in the Commonwealth. The result has been a great victory for antipodean Labour. Deep calleth unto deep,” and doubtless the present success of the movement in the

Mother Country contributed to this victory in the Commonwealth, but if democracy makes itself too expensive to compete with the rest of the world, no social legislation can save it from unemployment and dead trade. Australia, we believe, will live to regret Mr. Bruce’s fall. He is not ft showy politician, but an honest, patriotic man, who is trusted and respected at Home and abroad.

The Times says Labour in Australia has won a decisive victory. The figures mean that the Australian democracy has utterly repudiated Mr. Bruce’s policy and declared in favour of the somewhat obscure policies of his opponents. There is undeniably a good deal of hot political youth among the Australian leaders, the paper continues, to cause uneasiness in the ranks of sober politicians, but Mr. Theodore had painful experience in Queensland of the effects of his ventures in State socialism upon the credit of the State. Others have learned the same lesson by responsibility- ... Mr. Scullin is credited with having a clear, logical- mind. It may take time for the new Ministers to appreciate the position but, the Times considers, it is unlikely Mr. Bruce’s successors will contemplate any very desperate or alarming policy. The Financial Times says time will tell whether there is immense scope for reproductive employment of British capital in Australia, but investors will closely scrutinise the issues by the Labour Government, whose financial unworthiness may naturally excite doubts. EFFECT OF BRITISH POLITICS. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER SILENT Received Oct. 14, 9 p.m. New York, Oct. 14. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald declined .to comment on the Australian election when at New York. Mr. A. A. Alam, speaking from radio - station WPCH, stated that Labour’s return to power in Australia would “undoubtedly strengthen Mr. MacDonald’s wonderful work for peace.” Mr. MacDonald’s mission of peace to America evidently played an important part in the sweeping Labour victory in Australia. Mr. Alam predicted the MacDonald Government would “rule for its allotted span.”

FICKLENESS OF ELECTORATE. “THE SWING BOUND TO COME.” Sydney, Oct. 14. The latest returns show that of the 13 doubtful seats, Labour is likely to win eight, giving it 46 seats in the new Parliament. At Darling Downs (Queensland) the former Speaker, Sir Littleton Groom, standing as an Independent-Nationalist, defeated the selected Nationalist, Mr. Morgan, who was expected to win. Mr. Mann, one of the breakaways who voted with Mr. Hughes against the Government on the arbitration measure, was defeated in Perth as an Independ-ent-Nationalist. Mr. Bruce’s return is now beyond doubt, the later figures being mostly in his favour.

A review of the whole position shows that both New South Wales and Victoria voted solidly against the Government, and in these States Labour will gain four or five seats. The Government is in danger of losing seats in Tasmania and South Australia, but it may succeed in holding its position in Queensland and Western Australia. In no case did the National or Country Parties succeed in taking a seat from Labour. The Sydney Morning Herald editorially says that the swing to Labour was sooner or later bound to come. “It is remarkable,” the paper says, “that the Australian electorate at large, traditionally fickle, should have remained for so long constant to one party, or to one combination of parties. It is nearly 13 years since a Labour Ministry sat on the Federal Treasury benches, and never before has Labour been so emphatically approved at its appeal for popular confidence. Mr. Bruce’s courageous policy has been defeated but only for the day. The country will lean, in due course that he is right.” A London message states that the Observer, commenting on the Australian elections, says it is generally recognised that all is not well with Australia economically, and that legislation will powerfully affect her prosperity. The Sunday Times says the development of the situation created by the return of Labour will be awaited with deep anxiety, for it will undoubtedly encourage the subversive elements which have so long been a curse to Australian industrialism. Still there is no cause for panic; it may well be that in Australia, as in Britain, the Labour Government will give the extremists the cold shoulder.