THE POINT OF THE VERDICT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18972, 25 March 1924, Page 4

THE POINT OF THE VERDICT

Apart from the somewhat spectacular defeat of the brilliant but mercurial Winston Churchill, the significance of the verdict recorded in last week’s election in the Westminster Abbey Division is to be found in the emphatic anti-Socialistic pronouncement of the electors. There were four aspirants for the honour of representing the Abbey seat in the House of Commons; but from the outset of the contest it was made clear that one of them—-the Labour candidate —was not expected to win. While, of course, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald and his supporters would have been pleased had the party’s nominee been able .to slip in between the divided forces of his opponents, the leaders frankly allowed it to be known that they would be satisfied if they succeeded in keeping Mr. Winston Churchill out. To that extent, then, Labour will be well pleased with the result. After what was evidently a most strenuous and exciting campaign, Mr. Churchill found himself ‘‘outed” by" a narrow majority, with his Conservative opponent at the top of the poll, Labour’s nominee a rather poor third, and the Liberal candidate a hopeless last. At the general election Mr. Churchill stood as a Liberal in a

three-cornered fight; but as the result of party discussion he faced the Abbey electors in the role of a semi-independ-ent and an avowed anti-Soeialist. In his opening statement he declared that his candidature was “in no way hostile to the Conservative party, and that on the contrary, he recognised that that party had now become the main rallying ground for the opponents of the Socialist Party.” His attitude as a fusionist, however, pleased neither his old party nor the Conservatives. The Liberals chose another champion to carry their discredited colours; and Mr. Baldwin, ignoring Mr. Churchill’s diplomatic overture, stepped into the fray with a plea for “whole-hearted support” for the official Conservative candidate. It says something for Mr. Churchill’s personal status, especially in view of the decadent and chaotic circumstances to which the party to which so recently he gave allegiance has been reduced, that he should have been able to rally so many supporters to his banner. Nevertheless we do not think his defeat will occasion much heart-burning beyond the ranks of his personal following. What really mattered was that the seat should be won by a representative of the strongest of the old constitutional and anti-Social-istic parties, and that has been done. Labour’s satisfaction in Mr. Churchill’s defeat must be tempered by the knowledge that the constituency reflected the feeling of the country in an overwhelming anti-Socialistic vote. That is the point of the Abbey verdict.