SEQUEL TO AN ELECTION PETITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 87, 13 April 1911, Page 7

SEQUEL TO AN ELECTION PETITION.

DRAMATIC INCIDENT. ALTERCATION BETWEEN JUDGE AND CANDIDATE. Bj Telegraph ~Pr*ss Associntion.—Copyrlcfit. LONDON, 12th April. A dramatic incident occurred as Mr. H. St. Maur, Liberal, was leaving Exeter after the hearing of the election petition which resulted in his unseating and the retiirn of his opponent (Mr. H. E. Duke, K.C., Unionist) by one vote. Air. St. Maur was addressing a crowd from a railway carriage, and spoke bitterly of the result of the hearing. "When the town has been purged of the class of people responsible for the petition," he declaimed, "and when tho country has been cleared of unjust Judges, we shall meet again " At this point someone touched Mr. St. Maur i on the shoulder, and, looking round, he saw Mr. Justice Ridley, who heard the petition, standing beside him in the carriage. ' 'You have no right to say those things of me !" declared the Judge warmly "I have a perfect right to express mv opinion !" retorted Mr. St. Maur with equal vigour. Both parties were in a state of considerable indignation, and other heated words wore exchanged between them. Mr. St. Maur's supporters jeered Mr. Justice Ridley, who finally sat down, and became absorbed in a newspaper. Meanwhile, Mr. St. Maur concluded his speech. When before long he was again returned to the House of Commons, considerable notice, he declared, would be taken of the Exeter case. Mr. Duke, the Unionist candidate, in addressing the Constitutional Club at Exeter, said an overwhelming majority on both sides was determined to have clean fighting. Neither party was responsible for city men devoid of political morality. He hoped the Constitutionalists would enter any future fight with personal goodwill towards every straightforward opponent.

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