OUT FOR POWER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 106, 17 February 1950, Page 3

OUT FOR POWER

AIM OF LIBERALS CONFIDENT OF VICTORY (N.Z.P. A—Copyright) (Rec. 10.33'Ti.m.) LONDON, Feb: 16. Mr Edward Martel!, deputy-, .chairman Of the Liberal Central Association, said the Liberals were not interested in holding the balance of power in the new Parliament. “We are in this election to win. We are out for power,” he declared. Two of the most significant features of the election so. ,far were that the Liberals had nominated enough candidates to form , a Government, and for the first time the Socialist Party was on the defensive, said Mr Martell. He added that there was certain to be a big increase in the aggregate Liberal vote, and the party was confident it would win thei election. -Election meetings were being well attended, and so much enthusiasm for the Liberal cause had not been seen since 1929. “Our candidates are now concentrating on three main issues—conscription, which we are pledged to ablolish, local housing, which ,is a paramount domestic issue, and nationalisation, which we are pledged to ab’olsaid Mr Martell.

One of the first tasks of tlfe Liberals, if returned to power, would be to seek jhe views of all Commonwealth Prime Ministers on the question of atomic weapons, said Mr Clement Davies, leader of the .Liberal Party, to-day. “Our next step would be to confer with President Truman, and then approach the free nations of Western Europe with the object of getting as much general agreement as possible in the hope that this would ultimately lead-to talks at the highest possible level,” Mr Davies added. Mr Attlee said to-day: “I am' very confident 4 we are going to .win.” At the same time Lord Woolton, chairman of the Conservative Party, told Conservatives in London that s reports from constituencies were good. “W T e are going to win,” he declared.

CAMPAIGN NEARING CLOSE MR. ATTLEE ENDS TOUR (Rec. 12.2) LONDON, Feb. 16. Mr Atlee to-day ended a 1000-mile campaign tour in which he addressed about 100,000 people. Most listened in silence, ’broken by occasional bursts of applause. . . . His approach to the election issues was calm and quiet. It was only in the last two days of the tour tha~ he turned temporarily from pro? grammes to personalities, and attacked Mr Churchill. , The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Herbert Morrison, referring to Mr Churchill’s proposal for a new approach to Mr Stalin, said, “This was hardly the time for soapbox diplomacy.” He spoke of Mr Churchill s*• “vague and irresponsible intervention in .the field of foreign affairs,” adding: “Labour is as keen as anybody to bring about a general and lasting settlement in the interest of the whole world. Our Foreign Secretary has not and. will not lose an opportunity to that end, and no really useful suggestion will be spurned.” The Liberal Leader, , Mr Clemen,. Davies the first of the three mam party leaders to make a “winding-up election broadcast, told listeners: “Socialism is un-British. The Government not .Only had devalued the pound but, by conscription and direction of labour, they had devalued personal liberty.” v ' _ . Mr Davies said the Liberal Party was the enemy of dictators, of privilege, of • injustice, poverty, suffering and war. y : The recent poll has shown that 13,000,000 people would prefer a Liberal Government. , The people do not want extremes.”