Australian Politics A dissolution of the Federal Parliament in Australia
cannot be delayed very long. Mr. Scullin's attempt to hold his Labour majority together by the middle course of bringing Mr. Theodore back into the Government as Treasurer and preferring Mr. Theodore's scheme of a fiduciary issue (which means inflation) to the stern econ- omies asked for by Sir Otto Niemeyer, has lost him friends both on the right and left wings. At present he is dependent upon the tolerance of the Left, but this will not serve him long, as indignation is rising throughout the country against any trivial treatment of Australia's plain duty. The most remarkable fact in Australian politics of the past week has been the spread of enthusiasm for the policy of Mr. Lyons, who was Acting Treasurer when Mr. Scullin was in London for the Imperial Conference. Meanwhile the British Treasury has strengthened Mr. Lyons's hand by the announcement made by Mr. Thomas on Wednesday, that it will come to the rescue of the Commonwealth and postpone for two years more the repayment of the Australian debt to this country. The concession means that Australia will be relieved of the payment of 11,600,000 a year for the next two years, and that the British taxpayer will find that sum instead of the Australian taxpayer. Perhaps Mr. Lang will now unsay some of the hard words that he has said about British " Shylocks."
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