THE ELECTIONS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13910, 8 December 1910, Page 6

THE ELECTIONS.

Mr Will Crooks made himself so popular in New Zealand that widespread interest will be felt in the Dominion in his return for his old constituency. The last election took him by surprise when he was visiting us, and he arrived I back in London only on the eve of the poll. Had he conducted his own campaign he would probably have been returned. His earnestness and his devotion to the class from which he sprang has made such an impression on political opponents as well as friends that there will be a good deal of general satisfaction at the success, on this occasion, of this champion of the poor. Mr John Burns is another man for whom the election must be highly satisfactory. His majority, running well into four figures, is much larger than was expected. The Socialists in Battersea have made a dead set at the "right hon. renegade," as they call him, and the general impression during the last few years has been that his seat was none too safe. The Socialist influence in Battersea, however, must be largely noise, for their candidate, polled only 487 votes, and Mr Burns more than doubled his January majority. Mr Burns could ill be spared from Parliament. He is that rather raro (person, a Minister who is an expert in the affairs of his own department, and no Liberal Minister has a better administrative record. Labour seems to b© holding its own well. Against the defeats at Wigan and St. Helens it has won three seats from the Unionists — Sunderland, Woolwich and Whitehaven. The Unionist majority over Labour at Sunderland at tho last election was 1212, and now tho Labour majority is nearby ICOO. Another interesting result is that of Coventry, where Mr A. E. W. Mason has again been returned. The author of "The Four Feathers" and other very enjoyable books was elected for Coventry in 1906, but did not stand at the last election, finding th© claims of literature too strong. Politics havo prevailed again, but we hope they will not seriously interfere with Mr Mason's literary output. It would be no very serious loss if he did not write another detective story, readable though " The Villa Rose" was, but we hope he will find time to write another book of the class of "The Broken Road."