He at once brought in his Arbitration Abolition Bill according
to plan. The second reading was carried four votes, but in the Committee stage on Tuesday, Mr. Hughes, the well-known former Prime Minister. who used to be leader of the Labour Party but has lately been called a Nationalist, pressed an amendment which obtained a majority of one vote. Mr. Hughes is a brilliant guerrilla commander, and Mr. Bruce's former changes of policy, which have really been only necessary adaptations to a continually changing and baffling situation, supplied Mr. Hughes with material which he well knew how. to use. He pointed out quite truly, though not quite fairly, that Mr; Bruce always used to argue that the industrial problem was national in quality and must have a national solution. Yet now here was Mr. Bruce advocating a Bill which repudiated a national settlement and left all the power to the States I- " For six years he has been sailing due north._ Now he puts the helm hard over and sails due south ! " That con- veniently. ignored the fact that the whole crew of the ship had refused to sail due north. As the result of his defeat, Mr. Bruce has asked for a dissolution—a thing which nobody dreamed of when he returned to office with the mandate he had demanded. It is not known, when we write, whether Lord Stonehaven will agree to a dissolution. .
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