VICTORY FOR BALDWIN

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 150, 21 March 1931, Page 7

VICTORY FOR BALDWIN

Result of By-election EXCITEMENT AROUSED Duff-Cooper’s Popular Win PUNGENT PRESS COMMENT By Telegraph—Praa Association—Copyright (Beo. Marmh 20, 5J5 p.m.) London, March 19. The result of the St. George’s byelection was:— A. Duff-Cooper (C.) .. < 17,242 Sir Ernest Petter (IndConservative) 11,532 Majority for Cooper 5,710 The figures for the General Election were: Sir L. Worthington-Evans (C.), £2,448; J. G. Butler (Lab.), 6294. Mr. Duff-Cooper says the election is of national Importance in demonstrating that the public, whatever its political faith, will not be dictated to by a certain section of the Press. Sir Ernest Petter declares the election at least stirred the complacent mandarins of the Conservative Party. There was tense excitement at the close, and the great crowd outside Caxton Hall, Westminster, while the voting was in progress, included many society women in evening dress, who came on from restaurants and theatres to hear the declaration. Aristocratic Crowd. A force of mounted police was stationed in the vicinity in case of disorder, but it was not used. The crowd —certainly the most aristocratic ever associated with a byelection —cheered loudly when it was announced that Mr. Duff-Cooper had won. The section of the Press which supported Sir Ernest Petter, is silent editorially regarding the result of the by-election. “The Westminster election deserves its prominence in current political history,” says a leader in “The Times.” ’ Mr. Duff-Cooper’s victory is a discerning tribute to his high political courage and capacity. “The verdict will be greeted with wide, unqualified satisfaction for reasons embracing much more than Mr. Baldwin’s future or the Conservative fortunes. St. George’s has done a good day’s work for democracy and the Press. “The Daily Demagogues.” “The electorate tested the contemptuous assumption that It could be swayed by crude asservations, some of which were unbelievably puerile, especially the panic at the name of Mr. Gandhi. “If Mr. Gandhi becomes as much an object of timid superstition in England as in India, he owes such prominence to this discreditable newspaper campaign. “The victory is a most welcome assurance that the immense Imperial interests and obligations now committed to adult suffrage are not necessarily at the mercy of daily demagogues, even in a constituency exposed at close range to a foaming torrent of misrepresentation.” Widespread interest has been aroused ■ in the by-election for the St,. Georges division of Westminster. Sir Ernest Petter, made Mr. Stanley Baldwins leadership of the Conservative Party one of the principal issues of the election, and has been actively supported throughout the campaign by Lord Beaverbrook and by the newspapers controlled by him and Lord Rothermere. Considerable bitterness crept into the platform and Press campaign, and the climax, was reached when Mr. Baldwin, ignoring Precedent, addressed the electors on behalf of Mr. Dnff-Cooper, and scathingly denounced the Beaverbrook and Rothermere propaganda methods.