FIVE BY-ELECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 390, 26 June 1928, Page 9

FIVE BY-ELECTIONS

BRITISH SEATS VACANT CONSERVATIVE FORTS British Official Wireless RUGBY, Sunday. Five Parliamentary by-elections are now pending. Little interest is being shown in those to take place in Epsom. Holborn, London, and Hallam, Sheffield, owing to the substantial majorities by which the Conservatives have held these seats in the past. At Halifax no election has taken place for some years, as Mr. J. H. Whitley, the Liberal member, has been returned unopposed ever since his appointment as Speaker of the House of Commons seven years ago. Three candidates are now contesting the seat. There are also three candidates for the seat at Carmarthen, which has been rendered vacant by the elevation to the peerage of Lord Melchet, formerly Sir Alfred Mond, who was returned as a Liberal at tho last election, but who later joined the Conservatives. Three of the vacancies, at Epsom, Holborn and Carmathen, were caused by the elevation to the peerage of Sir Rowland Blades, last year’s Lord Mayor of London, Sir James Remnant and Sir Alfred Mond. The Conservative member for the Hallam Division of Sheffield, Major-Gen-eral Sir Frederick Sykes, has been appointed Governor of Bombay. The Halifax seat has been held by a Liberal, the late Speaker, Mr. J. H. Whitley, for 28 years in succession. Sir Alfred Mond, now Lord Melchet, won the seat as a Liberal at the last two elections in August and October, 1924, his last majority being 9,328. He joined the Conservative Party in January, 1926.