A curious development is that the influential section of the Press that supports the Government is foremost in urging the fulfilment of election promises. Three years ago Mr. Lyons was elected on the strength of a number of promised reforms, which the last Government side-tracked into enquiries by various Royal Commissions, With his mandate renewed, Mr. Lyons is now being invited by his own supporters to get to work, on a scheme suited to Australian conditions, but since. has done nothing 'A proposal that the experts should be invited to make a further survey provoked a retort from the Press that there was nothing more to be learned about the matter, and that it was time for the Government to act, Under the circumstances Mr, Lyons has no alternative but to honour his obligations, and proceed with the scheme without undue delay, In addition to dealing with bank reform and national insurance the Government has an ambitious programme of defence expansion to finance, and large internal loan conversions fall due this year. Defence expansion has been proceeding rapidly for several years. but is now being accelerated. Ships are being modernized and new ships will be added to the Australian squadron in the near future. The strength of the Air Force jill be doubled in the next year, and the army is being extensively mechanized, Special orders for munitions have been given to private firms to test their efficiency and adaptability in time of emergency and Government arsenals are being developed to meet the requirements of the expanded services.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.