The Raglan Election.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19120, 1 October 1927, Page 14

The Raglan Election.

Various explanations of the result in the Raglai) by-election have been offered by newspapers and individuals, and some of these are reasonable enough. But there is little to be gained by analysing the figures. It is far more useful to consider the general lesson of the election and the comments of the three people whose opinions are significant—the Prime Minister, Mr H. E. Holland, and Sir Joseph "Ward. Mr Coates feels sure that one restdt of the polling will be "to consolidate the forces in the community " which are definitely opposed to the " platform of the Labour Party," and unless the moderate majority are very foolish and shortsighted, this will be the result. Mr Holland and Sir Joseph Ward, looking at the situation from different angles, agree in thinking that the voting in Raglan indicates ;a movement towards a chacge in Governm§pt.

They agree also in this: that neither of them ventures to say that his Party will be. the triumphant beneficiary of any snch change. Mr Holland's position is very easy to understand. He hopes and probably believes that the Labour vote will increase as time passes, and that ultimately he will command a majority in the House of Representatives, although he does not allow himself to hope or predict that this will happen next year. What, however, are we to think of Sir Joseph Ward's attitude? It must be as clear to him as it is to everyone else that the Liberal Party can never hold office again, and will be very fortunate if it can hold the few seats that it holds at present. But it will still be able to obtain a body of support which, while far too small to contain the promise of more than ten or a dozen seats, may in some electorate be sufficient to give the victory to Labour. There are some supporters of the Liberal Party to whom such a result will be quite satisfactory—those Liberals who are really Socialists at heart and those others who after fifteen years are still so resentful of the defeat of 1912 that they will welcome revenge in any shape that it may take. But there are many Liberals who will not rejoice at all in that splitting of the moderate vote which is the chief hope of the Labour Party. Each general election has revealed that more and more Liberals are of this way of thinking. The time has come when those to whom the Liberal voters look for guidance should say what they intend to do—whether they will keep up the old pretence that there is a distinctive Liberal Party and so play into the hands of Labour or ■whether they will frankly admit the fact that the only real Party issue is the challenge of the Reds to moderate men of progressive outlook.