ELECTION REBUFF

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21189, 9 November 1938, Page 7

ELECTION REBUFF

RESULT OF BRITISH BY-ELECTION Echo of Crisis in Europe Important Labour Success Woman’s View of Verdict United Preus Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received November 8, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 8 Polling in Dartford (Kent) byelection resulted in the defeat of the Government candidate and a Labour gain. The polling resulted:— Mrs Jennie Adamson (Labour) 46,514 Mr Godfrey Mitchell (Conservative 42,276 Sixty-eight per cent, of the electorate voted. • Mrs Adamson said: “I won because the electors disapprove of the Government’s foreign policy and are ashamed of Mr Chamberlain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia and democracy.” Mrs Adamson is the wife of a Labour member of the House of Commons, Mr Williams Adamson. They are the only husband and wife in Parliament. The by-election was caused by the death of Mr F. E. Clarke (Conservative) who defeated Mrs Adamson (Labour) at the last general election by 38,242 votes to 35,596. Appeals of Leaders Before polling day Mr Malcolm Macdonald (Secretary for Dominion Affairs) on behalf of the Government in a message to the Conservative candidate said: “Mr Chamberlain as a man who has courage, not merely to shout peace, but actually to make peace, is a fit leader for the country. The object of the Government, he says, is world peace on more secure and just foundations.” The Opposition Leader (Mr Attlee) speaking at Dartford, said: “Appeals for national unity, irrespective of party differences rang hollow, while the “most incompetent Government in modern times” was kept in power by Party loyalty. The Government’s supporters, he averred, in former times in the House of Commons, would have revolted before the repeated revelations of Ministerial neglect and incompetence. Another By-election Mr Alexander Monteith (National Liberal) and Mr John Morgan (Labour) have been nominated for the Doncaster Parliamentary by-election to take place on November 17.