THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1924. THE BRITISH ELECTION.

Wairarapa Age, 31 October 1924, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1924. THE BRITISH ELECTION.

The returns of the British general election which wo publish to-day arc not by any means complete, but they embrace a sufficient proportion of the 615 seats to indicate an emphatic victory 4 for the Conservatives. In fact, it appears almost certain that Mr Baldwin will enjoy an independent majority and so bo able, if ealled upon, to carry on the government without the help of the Liberals. The volte face achieved by Mr Asquith in less than 12 iffonths from the time when he refused to help Mr Baldwin to keep Labour out of office has been tragically fatal to his own fortunes. Differing from the shrewder Mr Lloyd George, he agreed to throw in his might to secure a Conservative victory at the polls by eliminating three-cornered fights. The result was a foregone conclusion. The Liberal Party is well nigh wiped out. It stands to-day where Labour stood in 1912, a miserable, shivering fragment. The House of Commons has indeed practically returned to the two-party equation, but Liberalism is not one of the two. Mr Asquith himself is defeated, but that is a detail. The prospect for Mr Lloyd George or Sir John Simon in attempting to resuscitate the fortunes of the party of Bright and Gladstone is not a very rosy one. As for the causes of Mr Macdonald’s defeat, it is clear that the rapprochement between the two old parties profoundly impressed the electorate, apart from the uneasiness of many moderate people regarding certain phases of the foreign and Empirie policy ?f the Government. If the returns still to come in are in the same direction as the first half, Mr Baldwin can scarcely be denied an independent majority, and in that event Mr Macdonald will no doubt tender the resignation of his Cabinet without waiting to test the feeling of the House.