BRITISH ELECTION

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 5

BRITISH ELECTION

OVER 1350 CANDIDATES. POSITION OF THE PARTIES. INTENSE' EXCITEMENT. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT (Received Oct. 18, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 17. There are at present over 1350 candidates standing for election. Probably 43 will be returned unopposed, including 26 Conservatives, 8 Liberals and 8 .Labourites. There will likely be 203 straight-out fights between Labour and Conservative candidates, as compared with 99 last year, 40 between Labour and Liberal, compared with 55, and 84, between Conservative and Liberal, compared with 106. The net reduction of £91,773.155 in the national debt during the last financial year was recorded in a\ speech at the Constitutional Club. Lord Birkenhead,- after alluding to the Premier’s “shifty evasiveness,” attacked the Russian Treaty, and described as insolent the threat in a speech at Hammersmith wherein the Attorney-General said a bloodv. revolution might come if the Conservative Party .was returned at the election. Mr MacDonald had a lively passage while motoring to-day from Birmingham to Abeiavon, passing through the hostile territory at Worcester, where he declined to make a speech, saying that his voice had gone, and wanted a r ®?t. . He was greeted with cries of “Traitor!” at Malvern, while at Ledbury a huge Union Jack was held over the car amid shouts of “Down with the Bed Flag!” The Premier had an enthiisiastie reception at Newport and Cardiff. —Reuter.' MACDONALD’S MOVE. LONDON, Oct. 17. To-morrow is nomination day, and the lists were never so eagerly awaited /before. All parties -are making last hour manoeuvres for position. The Daily Chronicle says the lists will dispose of the assertion that more Liberal candidates have withdrawn than Conservatives. ' \ Perhaps the most striking feature yesterday was the appeal of the Premier (Mr Ramsay MacDonald) to the Liberals. He is evidently alive to the possibility hinted at in many quarters that Labour would benefit from a’ refusal of some Liberals to vote Conservative where Liberal candidates are standing in order to allow a straight fight, and vvould gain even by the break-away in three-cornered contests of Liberals who resent any sort of alliance of their party with the Conservatives. The Daily Telegraph says that Mr MacDonald had a great reception from 15,000 people in Smitbfield Market, Birmingham. He said: “The name of' Chamberlain is still one to conjure with, but don’t those of you who stand lor that name feel that the old things are passing away ? Where do you stand to-day?- My Liberal friends, is Liberalism to-day a mere register -of what your fathers stood for? Political parties j like individuals, grow up, become vigorous, live a. useful life, grow old, and pass away. I aDpeal to you Liberals, seeing the change that is taking place, to move on and come away from the wreck.” .It is announced, that the Conservatives and the Liberals are . joining rorc-es in opposition to two Ministers, Mr Arthur Ponsonby (Brightside, ShefttE+v an - L- Shirwell (Linlithgow Lord: Carson has written to Mr Winston Churchill, stating: “I am not enamoured of the coalitions, hut feel that we must rely on such an arrangement in order to obtain a stable, progressive Government.” The Morning Post says that as a result of the arrangement it is believed theie will be straight-out fights against the Labourites * u Ml the 15 divisions of Glasgow. Tliere is some difficulty in sealing the pact in one or two divisions, where it js thought the Ulster boundary question might prevent the Conservatives from supporting the Liberal candidates, but' ultimate.lv candidatures were arranged in accordance with the views of the Whips. headquarters explain that the drop jn the number of their candidates compared with/ last year' is due to the desire to concentrate where there is prospect of success. There is no disposition on the part of the Liberals locally to waste efforts on forlorn hopes. Apart from last minute surprises, §■?, Conservatives, 16 ' Labourites, nine Liberals, and one Independent canclidate will be returned unopposed. It is officially stated that Labour is running 500 candidates, including 41 miner candidates. ’ " In contrast with, the difficultv in hearing Mr MacDonald’s broadcasted speech on Monday, hundreds of thousands, of listeners throughout the country clearly heard Mr Stanley Baldwin (leader of the Conservatives), who addressed directly a microphone at the London broadcasting headquarters. He. appealed for national unitv instead of class hatred, and said the Conservatives made no wild promises or alluring'claims. They were not patent medicine vendors. The countrv needed a Government with a sufficient majority to avoid annual elections. The Ulster Government has forbidden De Yalera to come into Ulster for electioneering purposes. He will he arrested if he attempts to*enter.