FORCES RALLIED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27499, 20 September 1950, Page 7

FORCES RALLIED

Vital Vote in House Of Commons GOVERNMENT CONFIDENT NZPA—Copyright Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 19. The Government believes it will be able to win the crucial division in the House of Commons tonight on the Opposition motion of censure on iron and steel nationalisation. The Government is making a tremendous effort to secure a full attendance of Labour members, including several who are sick and two who are hurrying home from abroad, and the Government estimates that it should have a few more votes than the highest total that can be mustered against it. The Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, who is in New York, has been paired with Mr Oliver Stanley, who is ill. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps, who has been ordered by his doctors to rest in the country, will probably return for the vote. The Government delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, which includes the Minister of State, Mr Kenneth Younger, the Solicitor-general; Sir Frank Soskice, and the Colonial Under-secretary, Mr T. Cook, will not leave until after the debate. The Opposition is similarly working ard to get every possible Conservative member to Westminster. The liner Stratheden, which is en route to Australia, was diverted yesterday to allow the Conservative, Sir George Harvey-Watt, to answer Mr Churchill’s cabled summons and rusn home for the vital vote. The liner hove-to in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar and Sir George was landed by motor launch. It is expected that all the nine Liberal members, who have been unitedly opposed to the nationalisation of the iron and steel industry, will join with the Conservatives in voting against the Government. In a House so evenly divided, estimates of voting strength can be easily upset. If the Government whips should prove to be wrong, and the censure motion is carried, then the Government will have to acknowledge defeat on a major issue. Mr Attlee would undoubtedly decide to seek a dissolution, and a general election

would quickly follow. Many Opposition members believe that, even if the Government wins tonight’s division, a dissolution and a general election will come very soon. The interpretation they put upon the Government’s decision to tolerate no further postponement of iron and steel nationalisation is that the Government intends to have an autumn election, and regard this as a convenient issue on which to put their electoral fortunes again to the test.