Fast Our Own Melbourne, "Apr. 8.
Parliament is once more in session, though it has temporarily. adjourned for about a month in order that members. may go over to Sydney and participate in the! Special Naval Squadron festivities. There is not much that is.now ex-ceted from these, but it was noticeable that, political Labour did not lodge protests against "wasting the people's time in order to pay tribute fo an effete militarism," that being tthe sort of way the Federal Opposttion and. its friends mostly talk when they are mounted on the soapboxes, which are the popular ostrims of liberty. During' th fleet's visit to Sydney the battle cruiser, Australi will be sunk off the Sydni many. She cost the best couple of millions, and the agitation which has been going forward against her destiuetion in accordance. with the Washington' Treaty is ample evidence of the irresponsible ignorance of Australian pressmen and_politicians, who want: to defy the world, or at least the great nations of it, But they are Tearning, and the League of Nations is proving of the highest educative value. Probably the most interesting incidents of the sittings of the Commonwealth Parliament in its Present session were the reports of those members—Major-Gen. Sir Neville Howse, v.c, and Col. Cameron, of the House of Representatives—who attended the fourth assemblage of the League, The Light that Failed.
Labour has made an absurd mistake in Parliament—n mistake which one fears indicates that] amongst the astute tacticians of So-vierism our subscribers to the great Red Objective are mere children. The Prime Minister moved the adoption of the Imperial Conference resolutions in, globe, and the Labour Opposition was so anxious to get its Pacifist feelings on record that it insisted upon at once moving. an Amendment that it approved of the foreign policy of the Ramsay Mac-government, "as approved by the representatives of the people." Having thrown down the Gauge the Opposition adopted the Policy of masterly inactivity. It fused to talk—why, is not qui clear, An election for the State Assembly of South Australia was pending, and there were those.who believed that the silence was duc to a belief that it was silvery and that garrulity might produce' statements which could be seized upon and used to the detriment of the: party. There was probably a good deal of truth in that view, but it also seems likely that an issue, such as that of the foreign relations of the Empire and the Singapore Base, bristles with so many difficulties that the Opposition did not want to talk—South Australian elections or not. Labour in Australia hates the very mention of Empire, because it pro-supposes an outlook beyond the corridors of the trades halls. One member, who appealed fora statement as to whether the Opposition was for or against the Empire, was howled down with derisive cries, of which the chief was the single word "Empire." Later on when the matter of ratifying the Lausanne treaty was brought forward Labour devoted quite a lot of venom in emphasizing the fact that when Britain at war every Dominion the right to declare itself neutral.. But the Opposition, which is chiefly con-corned in winning votes, - lost its: way. The light of the laider went out," It "found itself anxious to support quite a lot of things accomplished by the Imperial Conference, but deprived of the portunity of doing so. 'The leader, Mr. Charlton, said there was nothing in the report of the Prime Minister, and consequently it was useless' for him to ask the House for the concession of opportunity to discuss what, on second thoughts, his party had de-_ elded was in the report, Thus for' the first time in ite history, p bably, Labour has had ammuni to fire, and yot has itself rejected the opportunity" of making the pyrotechnic display. Ths the dis-{cussion on the Imperial Conference resolutions tode the form of pro-agenda speeches from the minis-"terial side, to which the Labour Op-Position listened with ill-concealed restlessness, and occasional inter-lections, without so much as filling columns of useful fighting material convenient' "Hansard" form. for! the use of their friends outside.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.