636 



The Review of Reviews. 



we do most vehemently protest against 

 questions of real national importance 

 being thrown into so creaking a machine, 

 impotent alike for good or evil to voice- 

 the will of the people. What the 



The Bulletin.] I Sydney. 



"Progress" under Party Government. 



Advancing the will of the people along Parliamentary lines. 



nation wants is a banding together of 

 those who, recognising that national 

 affairs are but the first step to im- 

 perial affairs, will insist, and with 

 no uncertain voice, that all political 

 parties recognise publicly and solemnly 

 that certain questions are, in principle 

 at any rate, not to be made the sport 

 of party tactics or the spoil of political 

 bargaining. The people, whose exist- 

 ence and welfare are otherwise imperilled, 

 and who are responsible not only for the 

 taxes for national objects, but also for 

 personal salaries at Westminster, have 

 e\'ery right to demand this. Let a 

 national party be formed of all sane 



and thinking men of any political shade 

 or belief, within or without the House, 

 who will declare that they will not for 

 mere party advantage go against, or 

 endeavour to stultify, national ques- 

 tions. The programme of this party 

 would be composed of national common 

 denominators, and they would be always 

 questions upon which parties depend, 

 and which do not depend upon parties. 

 The Navy and Army, physical training, 

 education, railways, and agriculture are 

 only a few which at once come to the 

 mind. On these questions there is 

 little difficulty surely in arriving at a 

 basic principle which all parties would 

 be able to recognise as the national 

 one. The time has come when the 

 party machine should no longer be 

 allowed to cramp and to destroy great 

 national questions. The moral re- 

 straining power of such a party, which 

 would never probably take office as a 

 whole save in time of national crisis, 

 would be incalculable ; the continuity 

 of its programme would be a national 

 asset of enormous value. While it is 

 true that an election gives to-day a 

 blank cheque to the elected Go\'ern- 

 ment, we must not forget that payment 

 may be refused when the cheque is 

 presented, especially if we — the nation — 

 see that it is being cashed not on our 

 behalf, but on that of some servant of 

 Naaman whose possession of the cash 

 is not in the interest of the people at 

 large. We have a responsibility which 

 we will not be able to escape in the 

 future by saying that, having voted for 

 any Government, we therefore allowed 

 it to do harm without any action on our 

 part to prevent it. 



