ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 7

ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

LIBERAL DESERTIONS.

THREE-CORNERED CONTESTS. SPEECH BY EARL CAWDOR. By Telegraph.Pre?* Association.Copyright. . London, December 23. The* Middle-class Defence Organisation and the Imperial Maritime League have issued a joint manifesto against' growth of confiscatory legislation and the inadequate, provision for defence. - Owing to the Budget and Home Rule question, Mr. Edward Johnson Ferguson (chairman of the Liberal party of Dumfriesshire), Mr. Joseph Jonas (chairman of the Attercliffe division), Mr. Hobson (chairman of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce), and Sir John Swinburne (Northumberland) have withdrawn'their support from the Government. Mr. Balfour is suffering from pulmonary catarrh. The only unopposed candidates were fifteen Conservative Unionists, ' One Liberal, and one Labour candidate. Triangular contests are threatened in 54 seats unless the Labour Party Conference, sitting in Manchester, decides to withdraw candidates. Earl Cawdor, speaking at Leeds, said if Irish Home Rule was the only way to prevent a 'German fleet occupying Belfast, the people of England were not blind enough to allow Belfast to become a German dockyard, and the base of the German fleet. Mr. Mulliner, who had made charges against the Admiralty, was a man of high standing, whose statements demanded explanation from the Government. Referring to tariff reform, he said if Britain refused it she undertook the chance of seeing the colonies entering into preferential arrangements with America, Germany, and other countries. (Received December 21, 11 p.m.) ; London, December 21. Mr. J. Caird, a Dundee jute manufacturer,' has given the Budget League £10,000 in token of gratitude for Mr. Winston Churchill's recent speeches.