THE BY-ELECTION AT IPSWICH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22345, 8 March 1938, Page 13

THE BY-ELECTION AT IPSWICH

BRITISH LABOUR PARTY'S CLAIMS COMMENT ON FOREIGN POLICY OF GOVERNMENT OaOM OTJB, OWH COBRESPONDENT.) LONDON, February 19. Opponents of the British National Government, jubilant over Labour's success at the Ipswich by-election, see in it an expression of profound dissatisfaction with the "vacillating feeble foreign policy of the Tories." At Ipswich, regarded generally as a Conservative stronghold, Mr R- R- Stokes increased his party's 1935 poll by 6300, while the Conservative poll fell by 4000. He gained a majority of 3161. The Conservative majority in 1935 was 7250. The Conservatives, admitting that Labour's victory is undoubtedly the greatest encouragement received by the Opposition since the General Election, claim "special circumstances. The Labour candidate, it is said, was the author of an offer made to the Government in 1936 to supply shells "without profit" to the firm of which he is managing director. The offer was rejected for reasons which were explained to the public too late, and the impression was created that the matter was mishandled; so that Mr Stokes may well have gained credence for his statement that an offer to make arms without profit "aroused no interest whatever amongst members of the Government." . „ , As enthusiastic as the Labour Party over the result are the Liberals. They claim, with justification, that large numbers of Liberals, as well as other elemonts not attached either to Right or L .ft parties, voted Labour as a challenge to the Government on its "feeble foreign policy." Consequently, the Liberals suggest that the Labour Party can learn a lesson from this and other by-elections, that the more it can appeal to the Liberal vote and the floating non-Socialist vote the better it succeeds. Mr A. L. Rowse has elaborated the point in a provocative article in the current "Political Quarterly." His thesif is that to become a national party Labour must broaden its appeal to the country and make use of all the progressive-minded people who will work with it. In his view "the key to this broadening of the appeal of the party lies in an understanding with the Liberals and nowhere else."

The opinion of the winning candidate, Mr Stokes, was: "We have won this election because the people of Ipswich are profoundly disturbed at the vacillating and feeble foreign policy which has been pursued by the Tory Government ever since it broke its specific election nledges and betrayed Abyssinia in 1935 —and because the people are thoroughly dissatisfied with the rising cost of living, the ever-in-creasing number of able-bodied unemployed, and the unwillingness of the Government to control the arms His opponent said: "I attribute Mr Stokes's success primarily to the fact that he is a large local employer." Ipswich has 61,910 electors on the poll and no fewer than 52.047 voted, lor more than 84 per cent. •