The Big Fella, page 45
The Herald reported that ‘Mr. Lang congratulated Mr. McKell and promised him his co-operation and assistance’.1031
Epilogue: Revenge And Redemption
Like most of Lang’s colleagues, McKell had never been close to him, though they had both been in the Storey-Dooley cabinets of 1920-22, and he had been in each of Lang’s three ministries. McKell was minister of justice and assistant treasurer in the first, from 17 June 1925 to 26 May 1927; overseas from 11 February to 31 July 1927 on important loan-raising work in New York and London, he did not fully satisfy Lang of his loyalty and had lasted only twelve nominal days in Lang’s second (reconstructed) ministry; he was dismissed on 7 June 1927. With the help of his friend R. A. King, and some judicious acceptance of Lang’s position of power after the unity conference of July 1927, McKell retained his pre-selection for the safe inner-city seat of Redfern. After that experience he made sure that he did not give Lang any excuse to decapitate him; not that he toadied to the ‘Big Fella’—he just kept out of his way as far as possible. Lang patronized him as ‘Little Willie’.
McKell had entered the Legislative Assembly in 1917 at the age of 25 after a prominent career as a youthful officer of the Boilermakers’ Union. He had been active in the Industrial Section (IVC) but gradually withdrew from it after becoming an MLA. He was admitted to the Bar in 1925, but did not develop a large practice. After Labor’s defeat in 1927 he concentrated on building his parliamentary career and by 1930 he was recognized as one of the most capable MLAs, not a brilliant speaker, but cogent, and always well prepared for debate and questioning. He mastered the forms and procedures of the House. His cool relations with Lang, as the ‘Big Fella’ grew in Party stature and power in 1927-30, meant that McKell lost some popularity. But, when Lang allowed caucus to elect the ministry in the flush of triumph following the 1930 elections, there was no doubt that McKell would be included: he was the eleventh elected—he had been fourth in 1925.
Lang gave him the minor portfolio of local government. But McKell distinguished himself by preparing a comprehensive measure to modernize the administration of the city of Sydney, which had been neglected for many years. His greater Sydney bill, 1931, was extensively debated in the Lower House, but was ‘mutilated’ in the Upper House and did not become law. Lysaght’s resignation as attorney-general on 16 June 1931 resulted in McKell’s transfer to the ministry of justice.
As opposition to Lang grew after 1932, McKell continued to consolidate his reputation in parliament and made sure that the ‘Big Fella’ would have no special reason to replace him in the Redfern seat. In 1936 he was mentioned publicly as a possible leader of the Party, but like all the caucus, except Heffron, C. C. Lazzarini, Davidson and Horsington, he held his hand, though he was well informed by King and others about the details of the Labor Council’s moves against Lang.
When Lang was finally restrained in 1939, McKell had only one serious rival for the top position in terms of proven capacity and length of service—Dunn, who had entered parliament in 1910. But the latter was fourteen years older than McKell and did not have his trade union background and connections. In the event Dunn did not contest the election. Heffron lacked McKell’s experience and ability, and, moreover, was disabled by the patronage of known Communists and the suspected help of others who had secretly infiltrated the Labor Party. There was no doubt that caucus perceived that McKell had the qualities of leadership necessary to stabilize the Party, and regain its habitual electoral support throughout New South Wales.
It was certain that Lang’s congratulations on McKell’s win and his offer of co-operation would be soon dismissed from his mind. Lang’s lust for power and his envy could not be dispelled; and his supporters were as fanatical as ever. The general political climate produced by World War II, Russia’s insidious part in it and the associated gyrations of the local Communists, including those located in the Labor Party, all combined to generate conditions to ensure that Lang could easily remain a focus for serious disturbance. A main factor in the confusion was Labor’s traditional abhorrence of conscription for overseas war service. Curtin, much more than Lang, had fought W. M. Hughes in 1916-17 over this emotive issue. Nor could the nature of New South Wales Labor Party annual conferences be changed fundamentally, even by the decisive 1939 unity gathering. Indeed, it was only after 1933, when the Socialisation Units had been dismantled, that Lang and his inner group had what might have been described imperfectly as complete control: that meant that only six out of forty-seven conferences had been comparatively peaceful.1032
So the stage was set for an ‘all in’ factional conference for 1940, to begin on Good Friday, 22 March. Russia, which had earlier annexed half of Poland and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, had been expelled from the League of Nations for its attack on Finland in November 1939; Britain and France had prepared to send help to the Finns, but the invasion had ended on 12 March 1940. This development in the ‘phoney’ stage of the War had stirred the local Communists who were determined to help Stalin at all costs: the aborted plans of the Allies were important to them at the Labor conference in the discussion of defence. The Langites were also well organized and hoped to regain at least some of the ground they had lost.1033
A committee of four was appointed to report on War policy, consisting of McKell, Ross, W. E. Gollan and J. R. Hughes: Ross and Gollan were Communists and Hughes was now suspected of at least favouring their line. The committee’s report criticized, in effect, Curtin’s and Federal policy which now backed Britain and France. With the connivance of the Langites a reference to Russia was restored to the report: ‘[Conference] is also opposed to any effort of the anti-Labour Government to change the [War’s] direction … by an aggressive act against any other country with which we are not at war, including the Soviet Union’. The report was approved by 195 to 88.1034 It was at once labelled the ‘Hands off Russia’ resolution, and, in Machiavellian style, was immediately denounced by the Langites.1035 It embarrassed McKell and infuriated Curtin and the Federal Party executive, which was looking forward to victory at the elections due later in 1940.
Lang soon exploited the confusion he had helped to create, attacking McKell and demanding Federal intervention at a public meeting on 28 March, and dividing caucus by twenty-two to six on the ‘red resolution’.1036 His next move earned him the headlines he now craved, as he strove to retrieve the power that he believed had been unjustly taken from him at a crucial stage, when his qualities were needed by the nation. On 18 April 1940 he formed a new party, calling it the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist): nine MLAs, six MLCs, five MHRs and two Senators were claimed to belong to it. Curtin said that Lang and Beasley had again stabbed the Labor Party in the back.1037
Curtin was also under attack from the militants on the State executive and on the Labor Council for his support of the national war effort, which included security regulations disliked by them. But Curtin was not subdued. Early in August he inspired the Federal executive to dissolve the State executive, and on 8 August defended his action at the Sydney Trades Hall.1038 Over the weekend 17-18 August a new ALP executive for New South Wales was appointed with McAlpine president and Pullen a vice-president, reflecting a split on the Labor Council, of which McAlpine was assistant secretary. Simultaneously, the militants formed the State Labor Party with E. A. Barker, president, Hughes a vice-president and Evans secretary. King, a key actor in the drama, found himself on both executives, but remained decisively loyal to Curtin.1039
These events occurred at a critical stage of campaigning for the Federal elections, due on 21 September 1940. The State’s electors now had the choice of three Labor Parties: the ALP led by Curtin, the Lang–Beasley group, and the Hughes-Evans rump. In the circumstances the ALP polled very well. Nationwide it won thirty-two of the seventy-four seats, with 40.16 per cent: with the four seats of Lang’s group, Labor held thirty-six seats to the thirty-six of the coalition government (led by Menzies): there were two Independents. The Labor division in New South Wales probably cost the ALP a win: there, the ALP gained twelve of the twenty-eight seats with 35.30 per cent and Lang’s Party four with 13.25 per cent: the Hughes-Evans section did not win a seat with 6.61 per cent.
Lang’s Federal following was reduced to Beasley, Rosevear, Daniel Mulcahy and Sheehan, all of whom, especially Beasley now, had a clear vision of the Menzies government’s inadequacy, and of how vulnerable it would be in the new parliament as the immense strains imposed by the War increased with Hitler’s conquest of western Europe. Menzies highlighted his weakness by seeking in vain an all-Party coalition. (Sir) Arthur Fadden had become acting leader of the Federal Country Party which did join the government.
Despite Lang’s imprecations, McKell was proving popular with New South Wales voters. His candidate won Ryde from the UAP at a State by-election on 14 September 1940. And at Barwon on 16 November his nominee had a notable victory over the Country Party, showing that the State ALP was regaining its substantial rural support—the result also revealed to Lang and his seven MLAs that his new Party had no future, for his candidate polled only 7.65 per cent.1040 The State executive rejected their overtures on 29 November and invited all eligible breakaways to rejoin the ALP in the normal way. Under pressure from Beasley the dissident group accepted the official Party’s terms in February 1941—even Lang signed the loyalty pledge on 24 February.1041
McKell cemented his own prestige and leadership, and illustrated vividly the advantages of the downfall of Lang, by leading Labor to a landslide victory at the State elections on 10 May 1941. The Party won fifty-four of the ninety electorates with 50.79 per cent, sweeping up seats in the city, the Newcastle area and the country. The Hughes-Evans (State Labor) section contested twenty-seven seats and failed in all of them, obtaining only 5.64 per cent. The post-Lang period of New South Wales Labor had formally begun. Heffron, C. R. Evatt, C. E. Martin and Cahill were elected to the new ministry: McGirr was the only ex-Langite included. Lang was not a cabinet candidate. The electors had again disentangled conflicting elements in the Labor Party.
The results reflected great changes in national politics. The demoralization of the Federal conservatives reached crisis point. Menzies reshuffled his cabinet in June; and in August Curtin again declined to join him. On 28 August the prime minister resigned his untenable position. Fadden formed a stopgap government, which had Menzies as minister of defence co-ordination: it was dismissed by parliament on 3 October. Curtin became prime minister on 7 October; Chifley was made treasurer; H. V. Evatt, who had resigned from the High Court in 1940, was allocated external affairs and the attorney-generalship. Three ex-Langites were elected to the ministry: Ward, H. P. Lazzarini and Beasley, who was given the important portfolio of supply and development with a place in the War Cabinet.
Related to these significant events was a seismic variation in the War. Hitler’s invasion of Russia on 22 June ended his partnership with Stalin and persuaded the local Communists that Nazism was an evil to be fought. From being opponents, even at times saboteurs, of Australia’s War effort, they became patriotic supporters. On another plane, Churchill’s sympathy with Russia and welcome to it as an ally, irrespective of ideology, corresponded with the feelings of the mass of Australians who admired the great courage of the Russian people. In the changed conditions, the Communists almost joined the respectability, and found eager recruits from a wide cross-section of Australian society. They remained a muddled minority, snatching at mythic ‘theory’. But their increased numbers provided Lang with a belated opportunity to regain some prominence.
Lang prospered in another way from the new phase of the War, which in late 1941 exhibited ominous signs of an even more dangerous situation for Australia as the Japanese threat became real. The demands and responsibilities of defence intensified immeasurably for the Curtin government, gradually dissolving traditional concepts of Labor policy. When Japan finally attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December, bringing the United States of America and south-east Asia into the War, conscription of Australians for action outside the Commonwealth became a definite possibility with a wide range of other decisions never before contemplated by the ALP. The Curtin government proved equal to the occasion. But Lang could play the part of the Party’s conscience consummately, while not only Curtin but also Beasley, and other ex-followers of the ‘Big Fella’, had to confront great issues that touched national survival. On 28 November Lang had ‘remind[ed] Labor of the 1916 struggle [against conscription]’.1042
The ‘Letters of Demos’ had first appeared in the Century on 29 March 1940. They were originated and written mainly by Harold McCauley.1043 Appearing regularly, at first sniping at ‘Little Willie’ McKell and other Laborites, they also divulged caucus secrets and generally reflected the personal frustrations and hatreds of Lang, expertly interpreted and cleverly expressed by McCauley. By mid-1942 the administrative success of the McKell government, exemplified chiefly by well-organized cooperation with Curtin and Chifley in Australia’s revitalized War effort, had stoked Lang’s envy almost beyond endurance. The ‘Letters’ took on this bitter tone: on 24 July Curtin was warned not to ‘give the impression that you [are fighting the people]’.1044 Attacks on McKell continued. On 25 September Lang’s old enemy, Theodore, now head of the Civil Construction Corps, was ridiculed.
But the prospect of conscription in the south-west Pacific region brought the ‘Letters’ to white-heat pitch. Curtin was told on 27 November that he had ‘thrown the movement into turmoil’ by his proposal to adjust defence policy, including modified conscription, to the terrible consequences of the War.1045 Other articles and paragraphs in the Century intensified criticism of Curtin and his government. On 27 November the New South Wales Labor Party executive approved by twenty-three to thirteen Curtin’s plans after he had explained them in detail.1046 On 21 December Ross Gollan, the Herald’s Canberra correspondent, reported accurately that Lang’s ‘political journalism has landed him at 65… in one of the worst fixes of his career’.1047 By February 1943 Lang’s desperation had brought him to a final breach with Beasley, who had become one of Curtin’s ablest ministers and most effective supporters. Lang, who had nominated for ALP selection for Reid, was trying to prevent Beasley’s pre-selection in West Sydney for the 1943 Federal elections.1048 On 12 February in the Century Lang wrote ‘Conscription or anti-conscription. That is the issue’.
By twenty-five to five the State executive decided to call Lang before the organizing committee on 11 February ‘to justify the attitude of his paper “The Century” to the Party through the year 1942’.1049 He duly appeared and was examined for two hours during which he accepted responsibility only for his signed articles.1050 The inquiry went on throughout February, with W. C. Taylor, a solicitor and chairman of the organizing committee, playing the leading role in probing the operation of the Century.1051 On 5 March, after Boland had failed to have the matter held over for the annual conference, the executive adopted a comprehensive report, by twenty-one to eight, which exposed Lang’s sole control of the Century, stressed his disruptive policy and included a recommendation for his expulsion. The report concluded with a perceptive summary of vital aspects of Lang’s relationship with the Party since 1931:
The Labor Movement cannot live unless it receives loyalty from its members, and we now call upon all members to assist in securing Labor’s solidarity and to ensure that never again will the Movement place the interests of one man, and the family of his friends, before the common good.1052
‘I can be expelled’, said Lang, ‘but I cannot be silenced’, and he fell back on his most mischievous conviction: ‘the executive now contemplates an alliance with the Communist Party’.1053 Ironically, on 12 March, the Century boasted that it ‘has refused to truckle to Curtin, McKell and Beasley merely because they are in Government … Where Labor leaders have feet of clay it will knock them off their pedestals’.1054 But the annual State conference in June 1943 backed Curtin, confirmed Lang’s expulsion and decided that the Party would not be compromised by participation with the Communists in yet another proposal for a ‘united front’.1055
Lang’s career as an ALP politician was finished. But he and his remaining disciples, headed by W. N. O’Neill, State president of the Australian Railways Union, immediately began preliminary moves for the formation of another Lang Party.1056 Before it was organized, Lang ran as an Independent for Reid at the Federal elections on 21 August: he lost, after preferences, with 46.77 per cent to C. A. Morgan’s, the sitting Labor member, 53.23 per cent. The ALP won forty-nine of the seventy-four seats with 49.93 per cent. Lang regained his State seat of Auburn at a by-election on 2 October.
The beginning of the fourth Lang Party, which was named the Australian Labor Party (‘Non-Communist’ was added in 1948), may be tentatively dated from a meeting at Auburn on 5 September 1943; it slowly improved its rudimentary organization, with T. V. Ryan chairman and O’Neill secretary, in late 1943, and publicly announced its existence at a meeting on 9 January 1944.1057 By then the Century was probably the main anti-ALP paper in New South Wales, but it began to show some signs of one of the most prominent features of Lang’s later life—the resurgence, out of his encrusted misanthropy, of his basic democratic potentiality. When the Herald was censored on 17 April 1944, the ‘Big Fella’ pronounced that ‘It is the blackest spot on our record of democracy’.1058
But in the mid to late 1940s that quality was obscured as Lang fought on to pay back the teeming grudges he had accumulated after more than forty years in the Labor Party. In the 1944 State elections he attacked the Curtin and McKell governments and the Communist Party.1059 Labor won easily with fifty-six seats; but Lang held on to Auburn with 65.77 per cent, and one of his twenty-three candidates, Mrs Lilian Fowler, an old Langite, defeated F. M. Burke, an ex-Langite, in Newtown. His Party now had two seats and had gained 8.89 per cent of the total poll: these were indications that the ‘Big Fella’ still commanded a localized sympathy vote, probably nourished by incipient resentment of wartime restrictions, as victory appeared on the horizon, and by a growing popular feeling that the Communists were no longer disinterested supporters of the War effort. Lang could effortlessly build on these advantages: not as a major political force now, but certainly as a goad to the ALP, especially to those Party leaders he had in his sights.
