Editing Earle Page (section)

==Prime Minister and aftermath==
{{Further|Page Ministry}}
[[File:Earle Page.jpg|thumb|upright|Page c. 1940]]
When Lyons died suddenly in 1939, the [[Governor-General of Australia]] [[Alexander Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie|Lord Gowrie]] appointed Page as caretaker prime minister pending the UAP choosing a new leader. He held the office for three weeks until the UAP elected former deputy leader [[Robert Menzies]] as its new leader, and hence prime minister.<ref name=naasio>{{cite web|title=Earle Page, In office|work=Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/in-office.aspx|access-date=19 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718003048/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/in-office.aspx|archive-date=18 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Page had been close to Lyons, but disliked Menzies, whom he charged publicly with having been disloyal to Lyons. Page contacted Stanley Bruce (now in London as Australian High Commissioner to the UK) and offered to resign his seat if Bruce would return to Australia to seek re-election to the parliament in a by-election for Page's old seat, and then seek election as UAP leader.  Bruce said that he would only re-enter the parliament as an independent.<ref>Black Inc, ''Earle Page, Prime Minister of Australia''</ref>

When Menzies was elected UAP leader, Page refused to serve under him, and made an extraordinary personal attack on him in the House, accusing him not only of ministerial incompetence but of physical cowardice (for failing to enlist during World War I). His party soon rebelled, though, and Page was deposed as Country Party leader in favour of [[Archie Cameron]].<ref name=naasio />