PUZZLE OF THE ELECTION.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19611, 6 May 1929, Page 11

PUZZLE OF THE ELECTION.

THE WOMEN'S VOTE. ISSUE NOT YET CLEARLY DEFINED. FIERCE CAMPAIGN EXPECTED. (CNITED ?BSSS ASSOCIATION— BY ELBCT3IC TKLEGBAPH—COPTBIGHT-) (Received May sth, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 4. While the General Election campaign has not yet fully developed, there is sufficient evidence to show that it will be one of the fiercest and most complicated and puzzling in British political history. All the Parties are at present manoeuvring for position. The issueis not yet clearly defined, but the platform and Press campaigns alike are already being conducted in the strongest language. The first official lists of candidates are not expected before next week-end. The Labour Party has already endorsed 555 candidates, and in all probability will endorse a further 30. This is easily a Labour record. There are at present 64 women candidates, compared with 41 at the last election. These are divided as follows: —Conservatives 8, Liberals 25, Labour 28, Communists 2, and Independent 1. Even this increased total is small m view of the women voters' predominant electorate, which now includes half the nation, compared with less than a century ago, when scarcely a 50th part of tne nation voted. Of these women voters there are many thousands of young women of Britain's middle-class arid better-class homes, who live in an atmosphere quite remote from Socialism, and there is no fear that they will be inveigled into Labour's battalions, but admittedly a huge unknown factor has been thrown into the scales. The chief puzzle will be the political leanings, of thousands of women and girl workers living alone in lodgings in the big cities, detached from home influences or any organisation. The state of the Parties after the General Election of 1925 was:— Conservatives ... ... 413 Liberals ... ... 40 Labour ... ... ~. 151 Constitutionalists ... 6 Independents ... ... 5 Total ... ... 615 Candidates for the next Parliament are: Conservatives ... ... 584 Liberals ... ... 475 Labour ... ... 575 Total for 615 seats ... 1654 Nomination day is May 20th and polling day May 30th.~Australian Press Association, United Service.