GREAT TRIUMPH

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 106, 1 November 1930, Page 9

GREAT TRIUMPH

CALL FOR CONSERVATIVES

GIVE COUNTRY A CHANCE (Hcccived Ist November, noon.) LONDON, 31st October. .Vice-Admiral E. A. Taylor, who won South Paddington as an Independent Conservative, championing Lord Beaverbrook 's campaign, was Commander of H.M.S. Eenown during the Prince of Wales's trips to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in 1919-20. The Beaverbrook Press claims that the decision is a great triumph for Empire Trade. The "Evening Standard" deduces that,the total Conservative poll, showing a majority of 14,027 over Labour, reveals that the Government's policy at the Imperial Conference is not making firmer its feeble hold'on the electors' confidence. Editorially the paper says that the official* Conservatives! candidate stood for a vague policy of postponement, promising only the quota, while Admiral Taylor stood for a full and definite plan of Empire Free Trade, including a response to the Dominions' offer and fiscal justice to British Agriculture, both based on duties on foreign foodstuffs. "The Conservative Party still has power to give the whole country a similar chance -of supporting a definite straightforward policy instead of a vague, wavering policy of Empire Trade.

Empire Free Trade has been an issue at several, recent by-elections. In the North Norfolk contest in July, necessitated by the elevation of Mr. Noel Buxton to the Peerage, Lord Beaverbrook strongly advocated the Empire Free Trade policy on behalf of the Conservative candidate, Mr. T. A. Cook, who ran the successful candidate, Lady Noel Buxton, to a majority of under 200, as opposed to a 2000 majority for_ Mr. Noel Buxton at the General Election. At the Bromley by-election in September, Mr. Redwood, the United Em■.piro candidate, polled 9483 votes as against the official Conservative's 12,782 and the Liberal's 11,176. The 'Daily Express" said in comment on the result: "The clear deduction to- be drawn ... is that the only issue possessing political vitality and appeal is the policy of Empire Free Trade." In the South Paddington election, for a seat previously held by the Right Hon. H. D. King, Conservative, unopposed, there was a split in the ranks of official Conservatism. Sir Herbert Lidiard, who was disowned by the Conservative Party because of his advocacy of food taxes, recanted and "was received back into the fold.-Vice-Admiral Taylor, the now successful candidate, was then adopted by tho Empire Crusaders. Lord Bcavcrbrook passed sc,vere comment on Sir Herbert Lidiard.