The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1924. TURNING TO THE BIGHT.

Southland Times, Issue 19388, 31 October 1924, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING, Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1924. TURNING TO THE BIGHT.

The figures so far available indicate that the election in the Old Country is going against Labour with greater emphasis than was generally expected. Estimates by the three Parties in the field showed that while the liberals were expected to have a severe set-back, both the Conservatives and Labour looked forward to gains, but while the middle-of-the-road Party has been heavily punished, it looks as if the most modest of the Labour hopes will not be realised. The election fight was full of interesting moves, but the overshadowing question all along was Russia. Mr Baldwin’s most serious danger was the Imperial Preference issue which sections of the Liberals did their best to drag to the front. Mr Baldwin himself toyed with this dangerous material for some little time, and then gave an undertaking which removed the tariff from the fight. For Labour the gravest misfortune was the Zinoviev letter, not for what it contained, but for the manner in which the Prime Minister dealt with the situation its publication created. Russia was the prime issue in the election battle, with the Workers’ Weekly as an offshoot, and the attitude of Zinoviev was fairly writ known, but all the while there was the suspicion that the hidden extremist section was exerting a strange influence on the Government, and so the appearance of these letters, though published by the Government, was a heavy blow at the Labour Party’s chances. The story of the eleventh-hour settlement of the Anglo-Russian Treaty has been told in several ways, the radical elements making no secret of their claims to have forced the Government’s hand, a claim similar to that made in connection with the withdrawal of the prosecution against Campbell of the Workers’ Weekly. Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s most serious blunder, however, was his attempt to foist the blame for the pub-

lication of the letter on to the shoulders of the staff of the Foreign Office. The allegation that the Conservative headquarters had the -letter before it was issued was a stupid attempt to raise a smokescreen, and its defeat by the unequivocal denial by the Conservative Party served to intensify the effects of Mr MacDonald’s error. His explanation read like that of a man who was endeavouring to make his hearers believe that the Foreign Office had betrayed him, although the facts arrayed in his own speech showed that at most the staff of the Foreign Office through no fault of its own had accelerated publication by a few hours. Mr MacDonald admitted that he intended to publish this letter, without any pressure from outside, and so the actual appearance of the missive was really his own work. Its effect on the election, however, was momentous, and the Labour Party’s handling of the situation served to increase the public suspicion that there was more in the business than the Labour Party had disclosed. The broad issues being determined by the electors seem to be fairly clear. In Britain the weight of public opinion has turned again to the right, now that the tariff issue is out of the way, and there is an emphatic objection to dealings with Russia on terms which mean a retreat from the position all along taken up by Britain.—that repudiation of the State’s indebtedness cannot be tolerated. The Labour Party went into power with a marked deficit in voting strength, and the Liberals who kept Labour in office have paid heavily for their actions. Mr Asquith’s defeat at Paisley is a surprise, but it is significant—as a political force he has ceased to exist. Mr Henderson has gone back for Burnley, but with a markedly reduced majority which gives some indication of the way the voting has gone. Complete figures are not yet available, but, so far as New Zea]and is concerned, it is already possible to read one thing from the returns—the electors do not want the “middle-of-the-road” Party.