Spa Conference on War reparations, but when Hughes cabled that Watt was not to agree to anything without consulting him, Watt complained that he was being treated like "a telegraph messenger." After an acrimonious exchange of cables, Watt resigned as Treasurer and returned to Australia. Watt spent the next two years on the back bench. At the 1922 elections he supported rebel former Liberals in Victoria who opposed Hughes and stood against Nationalist candidates: one of these, John Latham, won the seat of Kooyong from the Nationalist member. After the elections, the newly formed Country Party held the balance of power, and used it to force Hughes's resignation. Watt was passed over for leadership of the new coalition government in favour of the Treasurer, Stanley Bruce. As a consolation prize Watt was elected Speaker, a position he held until 1926. Although not happy about the demands on his time made by the move of the federal parliament from Melbourne to Canberra in 1927, he re-contested his seat at the 1928 federal election, but resigned from parliament nine months later, on medical advice. Later life Watt was chairman of several companies which operated out of his base in Collins House, Melbourne, including Barnet Glass, Dunlop Perdriau Rubber, Dunlop Rubber Australia, the Silverton Tramway Company and Qantas. He was partly disabled by a stroke in 1937 and died in his home in Toorak, survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters. Notes References |- 1871 births 1946 deaths Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Cabinet of Australia Treasurers of Australia Premiers of Victoria Australian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Treasurers of Victoria Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Balaclava Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Speakers of the Australian House of Representatives Liberal Party (1922) members of the Parliament of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians