A Coup in New South Wales?

Just stumbled across the tale of Jack Lang, the Labour Premier of NSW during the Great Depression. I'll quote the Wikipedia verbatim:

Early in 1931, Jack Lang released his own plan to combat the Depression; this became known as "the Lang Plan". This was in contrast to the "Melbourne Agreement" which all other State Governments and the Federal Government had agreed to in 1930. Key points of the Lang Plan included the reduction of interest owed by Australian Governments on debts within Australia to 3%, the cancellation of interest payments to overseas bondholders and financiers on government borrowings, the injection of more funds into the nation's money supply as central bank credit for the revitalisation of industry and commerce, and the abolition of the Gold standard, to be replaced by a "Goods Standard," whereby the amount of currency in circulation would be fixed to the amount of goods produced within the Australian economy. The banks had indicated that if he paid the interest they would advance him an additional amount which was greater than the interest, thus giving him a positive cash flow.
Lang opposed the Premiers' Plan agreed to by the federal Labor government of James Scullin and the other state Premiers, who called for even more stringent cuts to government spending to balance the budget.



In October 1931 Lang's followers in the federal House of Representatives crossed the floor to vote with the conservative United Australia Party and bring down the Scullin government. This action split the NSW Labor Party in two - Lang's followers became known as Lang Labor, while Scullin's supporters, led by Chifley, became known in NSW as Federal Labor. Most of the party's branches and affiliated trade unions supported Lang.
Since the Commonwealth Government had become responsible for state debts in 1928 under an amendment to the Constitution, the new UAP government of Joseph Lyons paid the interest to the overseas bondholders, and then set about extracting the money from NSW by passing the Financial Agreement Enforcement Act 1932, which the High Court held to be valid. Lang then contended that the Act was rendered null and void by contravening the 1833 prohibition of slavery throughout the British Empire; the Premier held that the actions of the Lyons government deprived the State of New South Wales of paying the wages of State employees and that this necessarily constituted an (illegal) state of slavery.


In response, Lang withdrew all the state's funds from government bank accounts and held them at Trades Hall in cash, so the federal government could not gain access to the money. The Governor, Sir Philip Game, a retired Royal Air Force officer, advised Lang that in his view this action was illegal, and that if Lang did not reverse it he would dismiss the government. Lang stood firm, and on 13 May 1932 the Governor withdrew Lang's commission and appointed the UAP leader, Bertram Stevens, as premier. Stevens immediately called an election, at which Labor was heavily defeated.


Gerald Stone, in his book 1932, states that there is evidence that Lang considered arresting the Governor to prevent the Governor from dismissing him, (which Lang admitted in his own book, The Turbulent Years). The possibility was sufficiently high that the armed forces of the Commonwealth were put on alert. Michael Cathcart and Andrew Moore, among others, have put forward the possibility that such a clash would have seen the Commonwealth Armed Forces fighting the New South Wales Police.

Game himself felt his decision was the right one, despite his personal liking of Lang. He wrote to his mother-in-law on 2 July 1932: "Still with all his faults of omission and commission I had and still have a personal liking for Lang and a great deal of sympathy for his ideals and I did not at all relish being forced to dismiss him. But I felt faced with the alternative of doing so or reducing the job of Governor all over the Empire to a farce."[2]

So how about it, Lang takes the initiative and has the Governor arrested - What is the fallout?
 
Just stumbled across the tale of Jack Lang, the Labour Premier of NSW during the Great Depression. I'll quote the Wikipedia verbatim:



So how about it, Lang takes the initiative and has the Governor arrested - What is the fallout?

wait a week and you shall find out in.....

WITHERED WARRATHA !
Tales of the New South Wales Civil War !

(might not be what you think.....)
 
So how about it, Lang takes the initiative and has the Governor arrested - What is the fallout?
Immediately its seen as a rogue and hasty action on behalf of Lang and his cohorts. Divisions in his support emerge and order is retored when loyal elements of the police/army release the Governor and then arrest Lang.

OTL process is followed (UAP intrim premier, election immediately called)

Court proceedings against Lang continue and Labor in NSW is tarnished for a generation.
 

Rush Tarquin

Gone Fishin'
Lang is one of my favourite Australian politicians, mostly for his AH potential. I'm looking forward to reading it Pasquin.
 
This could be very interesting!

While I doubt you are going to go that far, the right wing NZ government of the time could be convinced to send supporting forces, such as they were (militia?) in support of the federal government. The right had proven willing to raise or arm their supporters during the pre WW1 strikes (very odd time!).

It could get even more interesting in NZ as the Opposition of the time, the Labour Party (who took power in 1935), were largely led by ex Australian Labour party exiles, with NSW born (he left at age 42) Harry Holland as leader, followed by Victoria born Michael Joseph Savage (he left at age 35). They had a strong interest in "back home" so far as I recall and were also pacifist inclined. I would be interested to see if there are any spillovers into NZ, given these connections
 
Just stumbled across the tale of Jack Lang, the Labour Premier of NSW during the Great Depression. I'll quote the Wikipedia verbatim

Urrghh. IIRC Lang's most important biographer, Bede Nairn, makes no mention of this, ergo he doesn't take seriously any ramblings Lang later made about it having been a genuine possibility.

But more importantly, let me be blunt: f@#k this bog ordinary wikipedia article which (a.) has no cites for its central disputed claim regarding what pop historian Gerald Stone alleges, or (b.) doesn't even bother to have any cites for the generally agreed upon facts about the economic policy history/political actions of Jack Lang & co during the Great Depression.

This article appears to have been overly influenced by micro-party cheap money enthusiasts, though the talk page indicates that its worst contributions have been deleted by reality-based editing.

Immediately its seen as a rogue and hasty action on behalf of Lang and his cohorts. Divisions in his support emerge and order is retored when loyal elements of the police/army release the Governor and then arrest Lang.

OTL process is followed (UAP intrim premier, election immediately called)

Court proceedings against Lang continue and Labor in NSW is tarnished for a generation.

Reasonable, but Lang actually convincing police command to do the deed is ASB to begin with.

I can't even get my head around making this scenario plausible in the first place...
 
As Magniac says as cool as this is NSW is nearly a first world place, even in 1930 with a reasonable understanding of democracy and the rule of law. I find it very difficult to believe the NSW Police (most of whom probably dislike the ALP) would follow Langs orders and take part in a coup.
 

Rush Tarquin

Gone Fishin'
Sigh. Lang will just have to join Huey Long and Maurice Duplessis as would-be-if-they-could-be first world autocrats.
 
I understand quoting Wikipedia isn't the strongest opener, I was merely hoping some people with a knowledge of Australian history would enlighten us on the issue.

Sadly it seems to good to be true.
 
Top