A LABOUR VICTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 11

A LABOUR VICTORY

SMETHWICK BY-ELECTIOH. MR MOSLEY’S LARGE MAJORITY. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, December 22. (Received Dec. 22, at 8 p.m.) The Smethwick by-election resulted as follows: Mr Oswald Mosley (Lab.) 16,077 Mr J. M. Pilse (Con.) .. 9,495 Mr Bayliss (Lib.) .. .. 2,600 —A. and N.Z. Cable.

At the General Election in December, 1924, the polling was as follows:—Mr J. E. Davison (Lab.), 14,491; Mr J. M. Pike (Con.), 13,238. Mr Oswald Mosley entered the House of Commons in 1918 as a CoalitionUnionist, and was re-elected as an Independent in 1922. Finally, in 1924, he joined the Labour Party. His wife is Lady Cynthia Curzon, the second daughter of the late Marquis Curzon. She is also a convert to the doctrines of Socialism.

SPEECHES BY CANDIDATES.

MR MOSLEY AND THE PRESS. LONDON, December 22. (Received Dec. 22, at 10 p.m.) The crowd, while awaiting the result, sang “The Red Flag’’ and Christmas carols. Mr Mosley claimed that personal abuse in the capitalistic press had increased his majority. The election meant a triumph for Labour over “Pressocracy.” He declared that a large number of his supporters had been secured from the middle class. Mr Pike said that the election showed the beginning of the conquest of the Labour Party by, wealthy aristocrats. Labour had .lost its claim to bo a real working class party, which had been the basis of its strength. The Mayor, after the declaration, denied the allegations of hooliganism made in a section of the London press. The police, he said, had not received a single complaint. The Liberal candidate, Mr Bayliss, forfeits his deposit of £l5O, as he failed to poll one-eighth of the > votes cast. —A. and N.Z. Cable.