IMPORTANT BRITISH BY-ELECTION
IT MAY CAUSE A QUICK GENERAL VOTE SOON
LONDON, Feb 21 (Recd. 6pm).— On Wednesday Mr Churchill is making a tour of South Hammersmith in support of the Conservative candidate (Mr Anthony Fell) in the by-election which both parties regard as their greatest trial of strength so far. Both candidates—the Conservative (Mr Fell) and Labour (Mr W. T. Williams) —are putting their most persuasive arguments to packed meetings. Mr Fell is emphasising that th e Conservatives have no intention of slackening in their policy of full employment, and Mr Williams stressing what a rough time th e workers had under private enterprise. The belief is growing that if Labour gains a promising majority at South Hammersmith the Government may risk a snap general election.
If Labour does decide on a snap general election, as has been suggested, it may be at the end of May or early in June, as the present favourable tendencies for the Government might have disappeared by the autumn, says the "Daily Telegraph's" political correspondent.
All the Conservative successes since 1918 have been in the autumn and their defeats, with one exception, in the spring. Labour leaders think that Conservative criticism of the supplementary health estimates and food subsidy offers them as good an opening as they ar e likely to get. The Government also knows there must be economies in public expenditure, that administration of th e health service will have to be tightened up and food subsidies reviewed if rations increase. Labour members consider that if they have to do these things it will be better to do them after a successful election, with a possible live years of power ahead. There is also hope that the Atlantic Pact will soon be a reality, which will obscure Mr Ernest Bevin’s fumbling over Palestine. If victory in the South Hammersmith by-election is added tc the favourable portents it may prevail on the hesitant to support a move for a snap electiod.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19490222.2.39
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, 22 February 1949, Page 5
Word Count
329IMPORTANT BRITISH BY-ELECTION Wanganui Chronicle, 22 February 1949, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in