Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1926. TANGLED POLITICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 47, 25 January 1926, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1926. TANGLED POLITICS.

Ix Canada to-day an absolutely unique situation has developed in the political life of that Dominion. When Mr W. L. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister, elected last October to go to the country, in order to obtain a fresh mandate from the. people, not onlj r was he himself unable to obtain a seat in the new House of Commons, but eight other members of his Cabinet were rejected by their constituents. Further than that, his party, which held a majority of the seats in the late House of Commons, is now reduced to 102 members, in a House of 245. The Conservatives, led by Mr Arthur Meighen, hold 117. Of the remaining 26 seats, 18 are held by the Progressives, three by Independents and two by Labour members. Despite the practical defeat of his party, Mr King decided to hold on to office, and, having reconstructed his Ministry, decided that lie would await the decision of the House of Commons, before accepting that defeat as final. Himself out of the House, he had to watch the proceedings of Parliament from the Strangers’ Gallery, and, in that humiliating position, had to listen to the debate on the no-con-fidence motion launched by the Conservative leader against his Government, which just scraped through by three votes, the voting being 123 against, and 120 for Mr Meighen’s motion, in support of which it was declared that

“the continuance of the Liberals in office would be a violation of the principles and practice of British constitutional law.” Mr Meighen was right in claiming that the Conservatives secured the largest support from the popular vote and that they have the largest number of members of any party iu the House, but he does not appear to have any better prospect of commanding a majority in the House than his Liberal opponents, who appear to have had the support of the majority of the Progressives and Independents on the no-confidence motion. Without the support of these free-lance politicians, it seems certain Mr Meiglian could not carry on the Government of the country, if he were called upon to do so by the GovernorGeneral, in the now unlikely event of the Mackenzie King Ministry retiring from office. . The latter, however, occupies so precarious a position that its resignation, or a further appeal to the country appears inevitable before long. Meanwhile, the Prime

Minister is to seek a seat in tlie House of Commons for a Saskatchewan constituency, the membership for which has been obligingly resigned by one of his supporters. Politics in Canada are decidedly mixed. In Quebec Province, the Liberals hold the sway and Mr Meighen, the Conservative leader, is probably the best hated politician in the Dominion. The adjoining province of Ontario is, however, just as pronounced in its support of Mr Meiglian and its opposition to the Liberals, so that the balance is fairly evenly apportioned. Elsewhere, the Progressives have gained a good deal of support, being also known as the Fanners’ Party. On the no-confidence motion, five of the eighteen members of the party are stated to have voted with the Conservatives. That should have given _ the latter 123 votes assuming that the 117 Conservatives all voted solidly for Mr Meighan’s motion; but, as a matter of fact, only two votes (one of them probably being the Speaker’s) are unaccounted for in the division, the presumption, therefore, being' that one member abstained from voting.