ELECTION PROSPECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 13

ELECTION PROSPECTS.

VIEWS OF POLITICIANS. EACH PARTY CONFIDENT. PROBLEMS NEEDING SOLUTION. The views of leaders members of tho three great political parties in Britain on tho forthcoming election give a good general idea of tho main issues being fought. Sir Austen Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary, in a, recent letter to the women voters in West Birmingham, said: — Peace abroad is an essential preliminary to progress at home. The present Conservative Government has laboured unceasingly to promote * international security and to ensure tho more certain pacification of the world. At home peace in industry is equally essential to national prosperity. The Government faced and overcame tho formidable challenge of the general strike, and since tho formidable events of 1926 the years have been singularly free from industrial disputes. Tho spirit of peace in industry lias grown under the present Government. Tho Government's record of social legislation is a magnificent one. One million two hundred thousand houses have been built since tho Armistice, and of theso no less than 500,000 have been built during the lifetime of tho present Government. The Widows', Orphans', and Old Age Pensions Act is the most important social reform of this century Already 1,500,000 are drawing benefits under this Act The Government grants in aid of maternity and child welfare services have been increased by 30 per cent, since the Socialist Government went out in 1924, and infantile mortality has decreased from 75 to 65 per 1000. Conservatism or Confusion. There is a steady revival in our national trade. This improvement will, I feel confident, continue in the current year if wo can ensure the continuance of political stability. Only the return of the Conservative Government can do so. The alternatives are Conservatism or confusion. The Earl of Birkenhead, in a speech at Norwich, said he was not in the least depressed by tho results of recent by-elec-tions. Any sensible man or woman must know that any Government which had held power in the years following upon tho war could be anything but a popular Government. It was absolutely futile for ill'. George to say that in 12 months he could cure unemployment without imposing any burden on the country, and he (Lord Birkenhead) was informed that almost half the candidates who were standing in the interests of the Liberal Party were entirely opposed to making themselves parties to a claim which was transparently absurd. The Labour Party had been a little slow in its intensive campaign, and had allowed the nimble Mr. George to forestall it in tho matter of promises. There had never been a millionaire like Mr. George in the matter of promises. But the Labour Party had one advantage o\er him, for they could promise more. Liberal View of By-elections. A prominent Liberal, Sir Herbert Samuel, made the following statement in the course of an address:—The series of nine by-elections which began with Midlothian has now been completed. Of the nine seats the Conservative Party previously held seven; they now hold two, and both of them by minority votes. Their power has declined from 122,000 in eight constituencies (one having been previously uncontested) to 78,000 in nine constituencies. If these results are any indication of the future it is now quite clear that a catastrophic defeat awaits tho present Government at the coming polls.

The country is beginning to realise that the Conservative Government is certainly going out. Ilie question by which thoughtful electors are now faced is simply this —Shall the next Government be Liberal or shall it be Socialist ? All the calculations that are based on the assumption that Liberalism is out of the running are wholly illusoiy. The byelections of the last two years since the Liberal revival began show that Liberalism and Labour are running close together, both as tr- the number of votes polled (268,000, compared with 370,000) and as to the number of members returned to Parliament (nine as compared with 11).

The striking results achieved at Eddisbury and at Holland-with-Boston prove conclusively that the Liberal Party is full of vitality and does offer to the nation an effective alternative to a Labour Government. During the next two months the mind of the electorate, profoundly dissatisfied with present conditions, and anxious as to the future, will turn more and more to a Liberal Government as a right solution. Labour and Its Defence Policy. Equally confident of success are the Labour leaders. Mr. -J. H. Thomas, speaking at Truro, said Labour was the only possiblo party to provide an alternative Government, and he believed it was inevitably destined to be the next Government. He was sorry that once more they found themselves in the midst of stunts arranged for the general election. The Russian bogey on which the Labour Party was defeated at the last general election being no longer possible in view of the large business delegation from this country now in Russia looking for orders, other stunts were to be substituted. The press of the country was largely con trolled by three groups, and that press, some backing Mr. George and some backing the Government was united in trying to keep Labour out. Mr. Thomas, referring to a resolution passed by the Independent Labour Party, instructing its members that upon no consideration should they vote any wai credits, said sentiment like that was quite good and there was no one who would not join with him in saving, "We wish it were possible to do without the Army and Navy -and Air Force. We all welcome disarmament, but we are a practical people and universal disarmament cannot bo accomplished by one country disarming and leaving the rest of the world to do as it likes. So far as the Labour Party is concerned and so far as we, the trustees of responsibility, arc concerned, I say clearly and emphatically take no notice of theF-3 fresh attempts to causo mischief Our objective is for a changed foreign policy, a substitution of the peace mind for the war mind, and when we get that we shall get the necessary atmosphere for universal peace."