"NO SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 126, 30 May 1944, Page 6

"NO SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE"

"The results of the municipal elections are interpreted by Mr. Holland as a clear indication of coming changes," said the Acting Prime Minister (Mr. SullivanX, commenting on Mr. Holland's statement.

"It would seem that such changes as the Leader of the Opposition sees are entirely political, although all the Citizens' associations declared from platforms and in the Press that they had no relation to party politics, indeed, they deplored what they described as the introduction of political issues by the Labour candidates. "Now we find Mr. Holland revelling in the 'political significance' of the results of the local elections. A wiser man than Mr. Holland would curb his optimism about the trend of public opinion. He should be reminded of his own soothsaying in May, 1941, when he exuded optimism on the municipal election results at that time. Events proved that the so-called municipal landslide against Labour did not smother the Labour Government in the General Election in 1943. The municipal position in 1944 is very similar to what it was in 1941, and there is no greater reason today to believe that the results of the municipal elections have any special significance for the Parliamentary elections two and a half years hence. "It may be observed that Mr. Holland himself has some doubts behind his optimism, because he says that his Party must not lose a day or an hour in the next two and a half years in its task of preparing for the great opportunity of Government."