Page "John Gorton" Paragraph 15

Harold Holt disappeared while swimming on 17 December 1967 and was declared presumed drowned two days later.

His presumed successor was Liberal deputy leader William McMahon.

However, on 18 December, the Country Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen announced that the Country Party would not continue to serve in the coalition if McMahon were to be the new Liberal leader.

His reasons were never stated publicly, but in a private meeting with McMahon, he said " I will not serve under you because I do not trust you ".

McEwen's shock declaration triggered a leadership crisis within the Liberal Party ; even more significantly, it raised the threat of a possible breaking of the Coalition, which would spell electoral disaster for the Liberals.

The Liberals had never won enough seats in any House of Representatives election to be able even theoretically to govern without Country Party support, and would not do so until 1975.

Indeed, since the Coalition's formation in 1923, the major non-Labor party had only been able to govern alone once, during Joseph Lyons ' first ministry -- and even then, Lyons ' United Australia Party had come up four seats short of a majority and needed confidence and supply support from the Country Party to govern.