A NOTABLE BY-ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 6

A NOTABLE BY-ELECTION.

The Labour party will claim the result of the Smethwick by-election as a great victory, and since it increased its majority over the Conservative candidate from 1253 to 6592, it has some cause to rejoice. It is clear, however, that the Liberal candidate took votes from the Conservative, "'and the anti-Labour vote is really 4000 votes and not 6000 odd behind the victor. Mr. Oswald Mosley was probably an exceptionally good candidate for Labour. The journalist who described him as the most notable recruit Labour has secured in the last few years was thinking not only of his exceptional ability and energy, but of his social connections. The son of a wealthy baronet, he was educated at a famous public school and served in a " crack" cavalry regiment, and when he won a seat in the Commons as a Conservative and married a daughter of Lord Curzon, his political and social course appeared to be well marked out. However, this is an age of change and surprises, and he and his wife went over to the Labour party. The same year, 1924, he lost his seat, and since then has had to confine his activities to the platform. Such a man, especially when he has such a wife, must make a strong appeal to middle-class voters. The contest was more than usually exciting, but in view of the denial by the Mayor of allegations of hooliganism in ' the London Press, it is wise to discount the description of it as unprecedented. The fighting seems to have been fast and furious, and women in the Labour party appear to have illustrated afresh tho theory that the female of the species is "more deadly than the male." Some journalists, however, have short memories. The most disagreeable feature of the whole business was the action of a section of the London Press in turning Mr. Mosley and his wife into a "stunt." Clearly this did no good to the party that these papers wished to serve, which, if they had read experience aright, they would have known beforehand. Such methods defeat their object, and generally lower the influence of newspapers. Mr. Mosley will be a welcome addition to the Labour party in Parliament. He will bring to it brains and a steadying influence. Moreover, quite a number of people will argue that a party that attracts such a couple must be respectable.