CAMPAIGN CLOSING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 252, 23 October 1937, Page 9

CAMPAIGN CLOSING

AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS LABOUR’S “CANARD” GOVERNMENT’S CHANCES SYDNEY, Oct. 22. The Commonwealth election campaign, closing to-night, has been relatively dull and devoid of*" the bitterness which has characterised former campaigns, due, it is thought, to the intensive use of the broadcasting station by the party leaders where they are sheltered from hecklers, questioners, and the customary factions. Little heat has been engineered in the past few clays by the wealth of Labour propaganda warning wives and mothers that the Lyons Government if returned was certain to conscript the nation’s youth in the event of Britain being embroiled in the war which seemed imminent. The Government forces who blame Mr Lang for this “dastardly canard” are obviously much concerned about the effects of the bogey on women voters on polling day, to-morrow. Ten days ago the Prime Minister was supremely confident that the Government would again triumph at the polls, largely owing to its own record and the public antipathy to Labour’s “isolationist ‘ defence policy.” To-day, however, the position is obscure. The feeling on the Stock Exchange is that the . Government will go back with a reduced majority, which is at present 18. Labour’s campaign directors, on the other hand, now declare that they will win at least 13 additional seats, six of which will be in New South Wales, two each in Victoria and Queensland, and one each in South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Labour requires to win ten seats in order to gain a majority in the House of Representatives. The party strength in the last Parliament was: United Australia Party 31; United Country Party, 15; Labour, 28.