AUSTRALIA: Piddington's Protest

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Scholarly, tract-penning Hon. Mr. Justice Albert Bathurst Piddington, president of New South Wales's Industrial Commission, startled the Empire last week by penning a new tract to prove that His Majesty's Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game, acted unconstitutionally fortnight ago when he dismissed Laborite State Premier John Thomas Lang, famed for repudiating New South Wales's debts (TIME, May 23).

To back up his opinion Justice Albert Bathurst Piddington resigned last week in protest against the action of the crown, resumed his scholarly researches as president of the Australian Modern Languages Association. Friends of Mr. Justice Piddington recalled that he was not appointed to the Industrial Court during the Lang régime but previously. They prophesied that his stand will enable ex-Premier Lang to stump New South Wales in the coming election on the issue of Royal meddling in the affairs of a sovereign Australian state.

Promptly the new Premier of New South Wales, Conservative B. S. B. Stevens, tried to spike the Piddington protest by saying that "the opinion of the best constitutional lawyers is opposed to Justice Piddington's view."