End of a Fiery Campaign

Australia’s Prime Minister Harold Holt went into the final weeks of the most emotional election campaign in memory with quiet confidence, although things have not gone well for his Liberal Party-Country Party coalition government lately. There is little doubt that the voters, who will be going to the polls for the first time since the retirement of former Prime Minister and long-time Liberal leader Sir Robert Menzies, will give Holt’s party the victory he seeks in this week’s election. But last-minute developments may prevent Holt from winning the comfortable majority he needs ifheisto carry through his policy of full support of United States policy in Vietnam. (At stake on November 26 are 124 seats in the House of Representatives. The delegates are elected for three-year terms.)

In the present House, the Liberals have a handsome majority of eighteen seats over the Australian Labor Party, led by Arthur Calwell, a 70-year-old veteran of the Australian political scene. While the Liberal Party is united on most major issues the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is badly split, both by a behind-the-scenes leadership struggle (see NR, August 23) and by the Vietnam issue.

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Michael Tatlow

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Australia’s Prime Minister Harold Holt went into the final weeks of the most emotional election campaign in memory with quiet confidence, although things have not gone well for his Liberal Party-Country Party coalition government lately. There is little doubt that the voters, who will be going to the polls for the first time since the retirement of former Prime Minister and long-time Liberal leader Sir Robert Menzies, will give Holt’s party the victory he seeks in this week’s election. But last-minute developments may prevent Holt from winning the comfortable majority he needs ifheisto carry through his policy of full support of United States policy in Vietnam. (At stake on November 26 are 124 seats in the House of Representatives. The delegates are elected for three-year terms.)

In the present House, the Liberals have a handsome majority of eighteen seats over the Australian Labor Party, led by Arthur Calwell, a 70-year-old veteran of the Australian political scene. While the Liberal Party is united on most major issues the Australian Labor Party (ALP) is badly split, both by a behind-the-scenes leadership struggle (see NR, August 23) and by the Vietnam issue.