BY-ELECTION IN N.S.W.

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25551, 20 July 1948, Page 5

BY-ELECTION IN N.S.W.

LIBERAL DEFEAT OF LABOUR (Rec. 9 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 19. The loss of the Kogarah seat to the Liberal Party, after pooling in the State by-election on Saturday, is accounted the worst reverse suffered by the State Labour Party since 1944. When counting closed last night, the Liberal candidate, Mr D. D. Cross, led with 12,038 votes, compared with 11.514 for the Labour candidate, Mr H. W. Oxford. The final result gave the seat to the Liberals with a majority of 836. At the last Kogarah election in May, 1947, the Labour majority was 3732. The poll indicates a swing of 15 per cent, against the Labour Party. This swing, if general, would be enough to sweep the McGirr Government, and even the Federal Government, out of office. The Liberal gains were general at all polling centres, the swing being most noticeable at centres previously regarded as Labour strongholds. When the Labour Party lost the Coogee seat on May 8 the swing was estimated at 4 per cent. Liberal supporters are now claiming that the drift from the Labour Party is reaching the proportions of a landslide. SOVIET INDUSTRIAL ' PRODUCTION 24 PER CENT. INCREASE OVER 1947 CLAIMED MOSCOW, July 18. A special communique from the Russian State Planning Commission announces that total Soviet industrial production was up 24 per cent, during the second quarter of 1948, compared with the same period of 1947. The statement said that the nation exceeded the second quarter plan for total industrial production by 6 per cent. It gave only percentage figures for production increases. It revealed that Soviet railways and river transport had failed to fulfil plans for haulage—the railways by 1 per cent, and river transport by 3 per cent. RUSSIAN PART, IN AIR FIGHTING CLAIMS BY “ PRAVDA ” LONDON. July 18. Red Air Force pilots bore the brunt of the air fighting in the war while the British and American air forces encountered “no serious resistance,” according to an article in the Moscow newspaper "Pravda,” quoted by the Tass Agency on the occasion of Red Air Force Day. , „ “Pravda” asserts that the “bulk of the German air force was concentrated on the Soviet-German front; “where our pilots methodically and mercilessly destroyed it.” “Pravda” claimed that the Russian air equipment was superior to any other nation’s, and that Soviet aviation held first place in international aviation records. A mammoth air parade over Moscow and other Russian cities, scheduled for to-day, was postponed until next Sunday because of rain and low cloud*.