10 OCTOBER 1925, Page 2

Mr. Bruce, the Prime Minister of Australia, opened his election

campaign on-Monday when he declared that the Government was - determined to -defeat the nefarious designs of the extremists. He -asked the electois for a mandate so that the Goverment could take all the neces-, sary steps. • He pointed out that nothing but a General Election could decide the issue between Democracy and Communism, for political Labour was afraid and industrial Labour was helpless since its machinery had been captured by the revolutionaries. The position in Australia re- sembles the position here, though the progress of the anti- democratic forces has been much more noticeable in Australia. Mr. Brace thinks that the average Trade Unionists in Australia have unwillingly submitted to their executives, and he proposes to restore Democracy within the Trade Unions by means of the secret ballot. The coming. General Election will clearly be one of the most critical in the history of Australia. But we have not much doubt that there, as here, men of sense will prefer the constitutional methods of Democracy to the new class tyranny which is called the Dictatorship of the Prole- tariat.