SOME STARTLING CHANGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 293, 8 December 1923, Page 7

SOME STARTLING CHANGES.

TORIES LOSE GROUND. "LABOUR WIKS SOME. LOXDOX, December 7The announcements of successive Liberal and Labour gains and Conservative losses, which continued until the early hours of the morning, left Conservatives everywhere hoping that later results maystraighten out Mr. Baldwin's majority. Crowds in Labour centres hailed the defeats of Sir M. Barlow, Sir A. Mond, and Mr. Winston Churchill as signal victories.' The success of two of Mr. Henderson's sons, I each gaining a seat from a Conservative, consoled the father and his party for the loss of his Newcastle seat. Mr. Henderson's case curiously- corresponds with his experience in the" 1922 election, when he lost Widncs and had to wait till a by-election to secure a seat. Sir M. Barlow was strongly attacked by Labour for the dealings of the Labour Ministry with regard to unemployment. Wholly unexpected was the defeat of Admiral" Sir Reginald Hall, chief agent of the Unionist party. There is evidence of widespread Conservative abstentions. There were some remarkable drops in majorities, notably at Grimsby, from 0-190 to 161S; Wallasley, 7524 to 545; Exchange, Liverpool, 3036 to 229. Sir Edwin Stockton, whom the "Morning Tost" called the most perverse aird pronounced Conservative Free Trader, lost to a Liberal on a total poll of only 55 per cent of the electorate.—(A. and K_. Cable.)