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REPARATION

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dangerous surprises, and the Prime Minister lent anear to them. The party managers demanded more" ginger." The Prime Minister looked about forsome.

On the assumption that the return of the PrimeMinister to power was the primary consideration, therest followed naturally. At that juncture there wasa clamour from certain quarters that the Govern-ment had given by no means sufficiently clearundertakings that they were not going "to let theHun off." Mr. Hughes was evoking a good dealof attention by his demands for a very large in-demnity, 1 and Lord NorthclifFe was lending hispowerful aid to the same cause. This pointed thePrime Minister to a stone for two birds. By him-self adopting the policy of Mr. Hughes and LordNorthclifFe, he could at the same time silence thosepowerful critics and provide his party managers withan effective platform cry to drown the increasingvoices of criticism from other quarters.

The progress of the General Election of 1918affords a sad, dramatic history of the essential weak-ness of one who draws his chief inspiration not fromhis own true impulses, but from the grosser effluxions

1 It must be said to Mr. Hughes' honour that he apprehended from thefirst the bearing of the pre-Armistice negotiations on our right to demandan indemnity covering the full costs of the war, protested against our everhaving entered into such engagements, and maintained loudly that he hadbeen no party to them and could not consider himself bound by them. Hisindignation may have been partly due to the fact that Australia, not havingbeen ravaged, would have no claims at all under the more limited inter-pretation of our rights.