BRITISH ELECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25853, 25 May 1945, Page 5

BRITISH ELECTION

POLLING DAY ON JULY 5

MR CHURCHILL’S TASK

"CARETAKER” GOVERNMENT

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, May 23. „ Following the dissolution of Parliament on June 15, nomination day for the new Parliament will be June 25, and polling day will be July 5. The results will be declared on July 26 and 27. It was announced from No. 10 Downing street that after accepting the King’s invitation to form a new admin. stration Mr Churchill asked the King for the dissolution of the present Parliament. The King empowered Mr Churchill, in accordance with ’’the special arrangement announced in the House of Commons on January 17 and agreed to by the leaders of the parties forming the Coalition Government, to state that his Majesty will be pleased to dissolve the present Parliament by Royal Proclamation on June 15. Mr Churchill’s “ caretaker ” Government is unlikely to be announced until Sunday or Monday. . The Ministry of Economic Warfare will probably be incorporated with the Foreign Office | and the Ministry of Production either | allowed to lapse or be incorporated with the Supply Ministry. The Ministry of Home Security will be disbanded. The Ministry of Information will continue, though Mr Brendan Bracken is likely to be transferred to the Admiralty or another service Ministry. Over 1500 Candidates There will be at least 1500 candidates in the forthcoming election, writes a political correspondent. They will be fighting for 640 seats in the House of Commons—2s more than in the present House, owing to the recent splitting up of unwieldy constituencies. The Conservatives will have nearly 600 candidates in the field, and Labour well over 500. The Liberal Nationals, who support Mr Churchill, the Common Wealth Party, and the Communists will each have between 20 and 30 candidates. The Independents will number a dozen or so, and the National Labour, Scottish Nationalists, and Welsh Nationalists will be represented. There will be about 50 women candidates as against 66 last election. Lady Astor, the first woman M.P., will not be a candidate for the first time- since taking her seat more than 25 years ago. “The National Government has been a great Administration,” says The Times in an editorial. “ Its strpnet.h at a time when, without a strong Government, the nation might have perished was derived from a virtue not always found in coalitions—that it has’ really coalesced. Its members have worked together in harmonious co-operation and mutual loyalty to a degree never surpassed and seldom approached in the history of any Coalition Governments that have held office in England. The Labour Ministers,, who are now withdrawing have heightened their reputations in their service to the Coalition.” Constructive Work

The editorial refers to the constructive work mapped out for many year? ahead, and says that, whether Conservatives or Labour, or a new combination of parties be called to office in the new Parliament, they can do no other than carry on the great work of what has been a truly National Government.

“ Mr Churchill’s resignation ends the Coalition Government, which will always be known as one of the greatest and most remarkable Ministries in our annals,” says the Daily Mail. “ These five years have been a time of deadly peril, but also of mighty achievement. It would be ungenerous to deny a tribute to the Labour and Liberal Ministers for the part they played. They will be missed, for they have done their work well. It is a pity that they have not been willing to continue in office until the unconditional surrender of Japan. “All the main parties are In fundamental agreement on most of the great issues of the day. Proposals for the rebuilding of Britain and the introducing of social reforms were actually worked out by the Coalition Government. The difference lies not m the aims, but in the method of achieving them. When the Socialist leaders say: ‘We cannot erect a new world upon rotten economic foundations, they forget that our victories and the war effort were built upon a magnificent partnership between free enterprise and the State.”