MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1924. The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. THE TORY TRIUMPH.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9852, 3 November 1924, Page 4

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1924. The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. THE TORY TRIUMPH.

The triumphal results for Mr Baldwin's party in connection with the British elections will Hot cause sur- ; prise in the Overseas Dominions. It could hardly have been anticipated, except by purblind Socialists, that the minority Government led by Mr MacDonald would have any chance ot emerging from the polls with the largest individual party, far less a majority, That it did as well as the figures show may even be regarded as unexpected generally. In cold truth, the Socialists had, of course, a great deal of luck in being allowed to remain in office as a minority Government for the few months they have been iii power. But nobody "will regret that they were given a chance to prove themselves, albeit that they had to be content to attempt to legislate under Liberal restraint. 4 hoy have been weighed in the political balance and found to he badly wanting, despite all their previous claims that they alone could straighten out the Homeland’s problems. It will probably also be agreed that no sympathy need be Belt for the Liberals in their dire plight. Despite what may he said to the contrary, never before has there been a time when Britain was in such need of a virile Government —a Government which, whilst watchful as to the Empire’s foreign interests, should prove itself much more solicitous as to the needs of the Overseas Dominions. And it is at such a time that British sentiment invariably turns to the Tory party. Unhappily for the Liberal party, the latest appeal to the country has cost it the political lives of many of its members and of some of its most trusted leaders, including its chief, Mr Asquith, who, having been numbered amongst the “slain,” will, however, not retire from public life altogether. His defeat—and it proved a. heavy defeat—may he attributed, for the most part, to Labor’s concentrated attack upon him by way of penalty on account of his action in having precipitated the election. In discussing the drastic change in national feeling that has to he recorded, the great success of the Tories will he held to have been due chiefly to two causes. in the first place, it is quito plain that they .were not, on this occasion, hampered, as was the case last year, by what is known as the ‘Dear Food” cry. That they did so well, comparatively speaking, in the industrial areas, is proof positive of that assertion. But Mr Baldwin’s side must have been helped, to a much greater degree, by tho fact that the. MacDonald Government’s foreign poliev had created a tremendous amount of uneasiness. We believe, indeed, that the Socialists’ wretched dealings with Soviet Russia helped the Tories a very great deal more than did even tho very unpleasant disclosures, suggesting tampering ; with Justice, in the Workers’ Weekly case. The results of the polling, putting, as they do, the Baldwin party again in tho ascendancy by an 1 overwhelming majority should be heartily welcomed in the Overseas Dominions. What may be expected to happen is that the attenuated liberal party' will now be prepared to give the Tory leader more useful assistance than that which was so grudging, but also so inadvisably, given by that party under Mr Asquith to the Socialist Government.