Evening Post. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1925. THE VERDICT

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 110, 5 November 1925, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1925. THE VERDICT

With remarkable precision the New Zealand electors followed yesterday the lead which the electors of Great Britain had given them almost exactly a year ago. Like Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Coates had no spectacular programme, no resounding promises^ and no., emotional appeals to submit ,to the electors. ■"Tranquillity, stability, reasonable progress along commonsense lines- and in perfect loyalty to the existing social order and to the Empire—these are the grounds on which both leaders made their appeals for the popular confidence and got it. Which of them was it that summarised his appeal as follows 2—

In conclusion, I would appeal to you to_ help to secure for the country, in this difficult and anxious time, a strong and stable Government, based on an independent majority in Parliament, resolved to maintain the existing constitutional and economic liberties under which the nation has grown great and prosperous, and empowered to solve on practical and common-sense lines the urgent industrial and social problems of the day. ... I appeal, therefore, to all men and women who desire stable government to support the broad and national policy that I have outlined and to ensure the return of a House that will have tho will and power to carry it into effect.

Even the most careful reader of all of our Prime Minister's written and spoken addresses during the last three weeks would probably desire to refresh his memory by a reference to.the text before committing himself to the dogmatic statement that this passage is not to be found in one of them. Yet, as a matter of fact, it is taken from the manifesto addressed by Mr. Baldwin to the British t electora last year, and, except that we have generalised two specific references' to Britain and the House of Commons which would have betrayed the origin, the quotation is exact.

But the parallel between the two cases is not limited to these generalities. The' well-grounded fear of a Labour Party dominated by foreign influences' aiming directly at the destruction of the Empire as the chief, bulwark of civilisation pointed tlie appeals of both Prime Ministers. In Britain the sudden capitulation to Red influences of a Labour Government which had previously made a good impres-, sion, and its tenderness for the' Bolshevists and Communists who were plotting her destruction alarmed the electors, and the Zinovieff letter completed their stampede. Here we had nothing so dramatic as the._publicaHon~xi£zthis3;".'docu4l jbieritL on., the-eve-of .-tha.pi)]!.,.. but j / the h.and_ofJJxi^aw__ffias_E^in.li discejraib_l^in_Jb^_sjri|)Bing_fi.tr.ike] ,While the producers of this country were threatened .with a disaster which would rapidly have extended to every one of us, and the engineers of the strike in Moscow and their dupes and accomplices in London were gjoating_oyexi-the success, of Jiheir.littenlpf to hold up the shipping of'thje.,..Empire, "the New'Zealand-Labour Party had nothing to say beyond a word of sympathy for the men who in violation of their legal obligations and of the resolution of their own union had taken this stupid and perilous step. It was time that the electors administered a severe rebuff to a party which is prepared to scrap the defences of the Empire but dares not oppose the treachery and the violence of its avowed enemies, and they have done it. There is yet another parallel be- j fcween the British verdict last year and that of our own electors yesterday, and it should make a strong appeal to the lovers of coincidence. In electing 415 Conservatives to a House of 615 members the British electors gave Mr. Baldwin the support of rather more than two-thirds of tho whole House, and in giving Mr. Coates a following of 55 in a, House of SO the New Zealand electors have done the same for him. The exact proportions arc 67.48 and 68.75 respectively, so that the merit of Mr. Baldwin's great performance has been slightly exceeded by our own Prime Minister. There are two other points which enhance the achievement of Mr. Coates. It was as a brand-new leader that he faced the General Election yesterday, and yet the triumph was a' personal one to a far larger extent, than that of Mr. Baldwin. At the next General Election in Britain Mr. Baldwin's personality will be a great asset for his party, but at the lact one it was little known outside the party ranks and, owing to the blundering precipitation of his appeal to the country in the previous year, not altogether favourably. The commanding part played by tho personality oE Mr. Coates in the contest decided yesterday is beyond question. ! Thps'o simple, straightforward i utterances of his appealed to the judgment of the thoughtful voter, ! but they contained in themselves I no direct inspiration for the multiI tude. That element was supplied by the man himself, in whom the people have recognised a brave soldier, an exceptionally energetic and efliciont administrator, a downright and unconventional purEtMiulity which in both iiapacil.ioK hud shown its •nt-rcugfcb und skill

not in words but in action. It was natural: —and it was right—that the electors should attach far greater weight to the restrained and unpretentious language of such a man, even when it was not specific, than to the glib promises of others, and that they should accordingly desire to give him a chance to make good. They have certainly been unstinted in their confidence and their generosity. They have given to Mr. Coates "good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over," and even in the moment of victory he has not made the mistake of supposing that the abundance of the gift has in any way diminished his responsibility. Even more strongly and explicitly than before the election, he asks that "all sections will sink their differences and pull together for the sake of the country." It is not his two-thirds majority that will enable him to rise to his great opportunity, but the quality of the men he can associate with himself in a supremely difficult task.