ELECTION COUNTING

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 July 1945, Page 5

ELECTION COUNTING

NEXT GOVT.’S DUTY MORE CANDOUR WITH PEOPLE (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Rec. 9.45 a.m.KLONDON, July 25. “At no time has the State possessed so detailed a knowledge of the every day life and affairs of the nation: at no time has it been less disposed to share its knowledge with the sovereign people,” says ‘lhe Times,” in a significant leading article on the eve of the announcement of the election results. It declares that no single duty imposed on the new Government is more urgent and more important than the collection and dissemination of facts upon which public policy must be based. “The present undoubted restiveness among many sections of the community has its evident inescapable causes,” states the article. “Ttie war in Europe is over, yet the dearth of civilian necessities and severance of families which accompanied the war remain in peace. There is legacy of fatigue, and often, with the urgency of fighting gone, of grievance, but the sense of frustration which inevitably followed as the reaction to five years’ unprecedented national and individual effort is certainly multiplied by the continued disinclination of the authorities to publish all the available information about the issues which are naturally troubling the public mind. . The immediate consequences of this reluctant attitude can quickly be rectified. For the Government to take the nation fully into their confidence, for instance, about the present manpower position would db untold good. But there is a longer term and more lasting implications. The policy in future must rest more than ever upon the widest and freest interchange of information between the Government and the community whose interests they exist to serve, and it is imperative that the wartime habit of official reticence should be promptly and completely abandoned.” The article adds that since 1939 publicity and secrecy have been used as instruments of governance on a scale unsurpassed in previous British history. Never before has the nation been told so persistently and so extensively and in so many ways what the authorities wish it to do and to believe. Never before has there been such an outpouring of official publicity, associated with so thorough a parching up of sources of factual information. “There are still military reasons for official silence on many topics, but for the greater part of missing information this excuse is fast losing all validity. The black-out must be lifted and the windows opened.” COUNTING THE VOTES LONDON, July 25. While Messrs Churchill, Eden and Attlee were flying back from Berlin electoral officers to-day, in closelyguarded rooms, began the task of sorting the votes cast in most of the electorates on July 5 and in other electorates on July 12 and 19, and service votes in preparation for the count to-morrow. They separated the forces’ votes from the rest. They made sure that the members of the services away from home have not voted twice, by post and by proxy. Service members were advised to vote both ways, and make sure they did not miss their vote. When it is found thal a member of the services has voted twice, his proxy vote will be destroyed, and his postal vote kept for counting. When this checking is completed the boxes .will again be locked until 8 a.m. to-morrow, when the count is due to begin. Candidates and their agents will be allowed to be present when the checking is done. It is expected that so much preliminary work will be completed today that the earliest results may be known, by 9 a.m. to-morrow, and that announcements of results will be in lull flood by 10 a.m. The trend of the voting should be clear by 11 a.m., and the Government’ s fate known definitely by 3 p.m. MR. CHURCHILL'S RETURN RUGBY, July 25. Following a meeting with Mr. Truman and Marshal Stalin this morning, Mr. Churchill, with Mr. Eden and Mr. Attlee left Gataw airfield, Potsdam, after lunch, for London, states a Berlin message. The Prime Minister, wearing civilian clothes arrived at London at 3.20 o’clock this afternoon and drove straight to Downing Street. Mr. Churchill later drove to Buckingham Palace where he was received by the King to whom he gave a personal account of the progress of the Potsdam conference. ,

UNIONS AND CONSCRIPTION. (Rec. 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 25. Trade union leaders at a meeting of the General Council of the T.U.C. in London, by a substantial majority made a surprise decision to support conscription in Britain, as a permanent feature in peace time life, even, after Japan has been defeated, says the “Daily Express.” The recommendation is contained in one of a series of reports which the meeting approved for submission to the T.U.C. annual conference at. Blackpool in September next. The T.U.C. wants accelerated “democratisation” of the forces, and a fairer system of promotion, improved rates of pay and allowances. Nevertheless, there may be substantial opposition to the proposal at the annual conference because trade unions have been traditionally opposed to conscription in peace time.