WI Jack Lang kidnapped by the New Guard?

[BlackMage]

In Gerald Stone's excellent 1932, he mentions a plot to kidnap Jack Lang in February-March 1932 by the New Guard. According to information reaching Billy Mackay, Commissioner of the New South Wales Police, the New Guard aimed to whisk Lang away to an abandoned gaol at Berrima, along with several key cabinet ministers. They would be held out of reach until Governor Game felt he had no choice but to appoint a new government pending a new election.

According to Lang (although his recollection can be a tad exaggerated), he managed to only narrowly avoid kidnapping on a specific, unmentioned date. So what if the New Guard had actually managed to kidnap Lang? I think the suggestion that Game would have appointed a new government without cause (please, don't let this get into a dispute over the actual dismissal) is highly fanciful, but a sustained kidnap plot would have, at least, thrown the government into chaos for an extended length of time. What would have been the consequences of such a kidnap succeeding?

 

[MarkA]

In Gerald Stone's excellent 1932, he mentions a plot to kidnap Jack Lang in February-March 1932 by the New Guard. According to information reaching Billy Mackay, Commissioner of the New South Wales Police, the New Guard aimed to whisk Lang away to an abandoned gaol at Berrima, along with several key cabinet ministers. They would be held out of reach until Governor Game felt he had no choice but to appoint a new government pending a new election.

According to Lang (although his recollection can be a tad exaggerated), he managed to only narrowly avoid kidnapping on a specific, unmentioned date. So what if the New Guard had actually managed to kidnap Lang? I think the suggestion that Game would have appointed a new government without cause (please, don't let this get into a dispute over the actual dismissal) is highly fanciful, but a sustained kidnap plot would have, at least, thrown the government into chaos for an extended length of time. What would have been the consequences of such a kidnap succeeding?

Game was a member of the Round Table, an empire wide body that was founded by Rhodes. Their members' involvement in every serious secret army and mainstream conservative political party in Australia seems more than a coincidence.

The New Guard was really a front for the Old Guard who had very influential membership. Every Old Guard member of any note or authority was also a member of the Round Table.

If the incompetent New Guard to achieve this feat would be a minor miracle.

 

[BlackMage]

If the incompetent New Guard to achieve this feat would be a minor miracle.

Well, they had 50 000 members at their peak. Surely some of them must have been competent to carry out a simple operation against a man with very, very staid habits. If you wanted to pick someone to kidnap, a man so set in his ways as Lang would be a price target.

 

[DMA]

Well, they had 50 000 members at their peak. Surely some of them must have been competent to carry out a simple operation against a man with very, very staid habits. If you wanted to pick someone to kidnap, a man so set in his ways as Lang would be a price target.

But as MarkA alluded to - the New Guard couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery

Game, regardless of his "secret" background, was also rather "correct" in his Governor's duties. For example, before dismissing Lang, Game warned him that his actions were unconstitutional & could lead to his dismissal. Now if Game's Premier, not to mention senior Cabinet Ministers, are kidnapped, I think you'll find that the police will be called in to, not only rescue Lang & company, but prosecute the New Guard members involved with the full weight of the law.

Furthermore, the federal govt may intervene as well. So whoever is involved with the kidnapping, considering we're talking a premier & numerous cabinet ministers, may well be charged with treason & sedition. If so, they may hang high on the gallows set up in Martin Place in Sydney.