BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 929, 10 December 1910, Page 4

BRITISH ELECTIONS.

London, Dec. 8. The election returns so far announced place the position of parties as under: — Govt. Oppo’n. England 120 156 Scotland ... ... 15 3 Wales 11 1 Ireland (Redmondites)... ••• 34 9 Ireland (O’Brienites)... ••• 4 Total ... rBO 173 The total number of seats now returned is 353, which leaves 217 remaining seats. The above totals show a gain of 15 seats for the Government Party and 19 seats lor the Opposition. The pollings in the majority of the Boroughs close to-day. ELECTION NOTES. London, Dec. 8. Sixty-seven Unionists, thirtyone Liberals and Labourites, and thirty-four Nationalists were returned unopposed. Pollings up to the present are 78.88 per cent, of the electors compared with 87.67 for the same seats in January. Yesterday’s results were the best for the Unionists to date. They held their own in Sheffield, Sir H. King’s (Unionist) majority in Hull was increased and the Liberal majorities in other divisions of Hull were decreased. Chester was easily held.

The Unionist vote in London was 270,034, and the Ministerial 243,774. but London’s 62 seats are equally divided between the Liberals and Unionists. The Liberal majority at Eccles was increased to 79:, but the Unionist poll was a thousand above January’s. The Liberal majority at Accrington was increased to 791.

The Unionist majorities increased in Liverpool and the neighbourhood, retaining their traditional opposition to the Liberals. All the Liberal majorities in Manchester were narrow and were dependent on the Irish vote. In reply to a heckler, who asked : li the Lords are the dominant issue to-day, what measures will the Government provide for ascertaining the electors’ approval of Home Rule ? Mr Asquith replied : The electors know exactly the measures likely to be carried it the Liberals are successful.

The changes so far are largely attributable to personal factors. Those at Sunderland were due to the boilermakers’ lock-out, Mr Storey's (sitting member) absence, and the fact that a thousand unemployed electors were seeking work in other parts of the country. There is little change in Birmingham, and elsewhere the Liberal majorities are often reduced. There is a general reduction ot their majorities in Scotland.

Mr Haldane, at East Lothian, said he was against an independent Parliament for Ireland. The Imperial Parliament must be supreme, and by an Act exercise a veto over Irish legislation.

Mr Asquith, at Newport, East Fife, said that if returned to power the Liberals would grant Ireland a measure ot Home Rule in accordance with the general character outlined in his Albert Hall speech. London, Dec. 7.

Mr Balfour, in a speech at Wrexham, said the question of tariff reform should not be sidetracked, but should be submitted to a referendum, making the policy more certain and permanent than an}' other method.

Referring to the Navy, Mr Balfour implored the Government, if it should be responsible for the next Estimates, to do its utmost to restore the old undoubted high seas supremacy of Britain, promising to give his hearty support. The speaker feared that unless the Government seriously considered the matter of colonial preference, the great self-go', erning dominions would, in a few years, declare that they must treat the Motherland as it treated other nations, and consider Britain not more necessary to them in their commercial interests than countries such as Germany and France. He asked free-traders, as practical men, if

they disliked the solution of difficulties and dangers proposed by the Unionists, to suggest some other. However the election ended, Mr Balfour declared that it was perfectly clear that the Radical party was not sufficiently strong to carry its own policy, and was indifferent to its allies’ demands. Before long the electorates would again be asked whether their destinies should be entrusted to the Unionists—a homogeneous party, knowing its own mind, and having its own policy. Mr Balfour, telegraphing to Mr Waldorf Astor, Unionist candidate for Plymouth, said that under the referendum there would be no plural voting, and the gross inequalities due to the size of constituencies would be avoided. Lord Selborne, at Tavistock, referring to the Lords'power of veto, said the Government proposed to leave the House of Lords only the barren, useless power of saying “No’’ three times in two years. Such a proposal was purely childish.

London, December 7

The Times declares that it is obvious there has been uo distinct movement of opinion in either direction since January, and this election is going to rivet Mr Asquith’s dependence on Mr Redmond. “It is all very well for Sir Edward Grey and Mr Birrell to proffer reassuring hints on the subjects. They do not settle the form Home Rule is to take. That is Mr Redmond’s business and he will doubtless attend to it. If the English electors are living and voting—or rather voting—in a fool’s paradise, the fault is not Mr Balfour’s.”

The Daily Chronicle states that the failure to win has been transformed into a Tory rout. The Earl of Selborne, who was a member of the last Balfour Ministry, speaking at Tavistock, Devonshire, asked whether the nation could afford the risk ol making Ireland a separate country. If the Protestants resisted Home Rule it would be this country’s duty to shoot them down.

Mr Winston Churchill, Home Secretary, and Mr J. S. Lloyd, the Conservative candidate for Dundee, had a spirited debating duel before 5000 Dundee electors.