IN JEOPARDY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 51, 22 October 1931, Page 3

IN JEOPARDY

CPress Assn.-

premier's seat MR MacDONALD'S UNEXPECTED DIFFICULTIES AT SEAHAM "WILL NEED EVERY VOTE"

— Bv Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. Oct. 21, 11.30 p.m. LONDON, Wednesday. The Prime Minister's election fight at Seaham has become most interesting. Mr. MacDonald himself did not expect any difficulty in retaining the seat, but he . is I now surprised at the strength of the opposition. Durhamites are a highly critical folk and Mr. MacDonald was never their ideal type of candidate. Plis polished diction, his asceticism and dreaminess stand out in sharp eontrast to his opponent, Mr. Coxon's blunt oratory and uncompromising realism. No two candidates eould be more dissimilar. Another obstacle Mr MacDonald is facing is that his opponent was formsavouj[ s.xojs.xaijq puu quo.cte stxj Apxs the ropes. uxo.xj .x3A.x3sqo 3jrper[3.x euQ North says that the Prime Minister's return is donbtful. The figures for the 1929 election show that the combined votes polled by the Conservative and Liberal candidat,es totalled 12,087. There are no Conservative and Liberal candidates this election and therefore tbose votes should go to Mr. MacDonald. The question remains as to how many of his 35,615 Labour votes in 1929 he can now retain. It appears that he must hold one-third of these to win. This leaves Mr. Coxon 23,744, against which Mr MacDonald must have the 12,087 Conservative ancl Liberal votes, plus 11,871 Labour votes, totalling 23,958, giving him a majority of 214. Mr MacDonald's retention of onethird of the Labour votes in a constituency where the promise to restore the dole cuts means votes would represent a considerable effort.