REVIEW OF RETURNS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 678, 1 June 1929, Page 9

REVIEW OF RETURNS

FEATURES AND SURPRISES GOVERNMENT HARD HIT (Australian and K.Z. Press Association) ( United S ervice) LONDON, Friday. A giant red searchlight swept across the sky, flashing each Labour gain. The streets in the city were crowded even at three o clock in the morning. .A. REVIEW of the election returns reveals many interesting features For example, Mr. Lloyd George’s henchman in the Coalition, Sir WilUam Sutherland, failed to win BarnsLabour’s first gain came when Mr. “ ea ™ lett Salford North from the Conservative, beating Dr. Haden Guest. The miners’ attitude was strikingly shown at Rotherham, essentially a coalmining constituency. The Labour majority at the last election was •4,148. Today it was 16,836. The first Conservative win was announced at 2.12 a.m. Major Thomas k?i. wo . n King’s Norton division ° Birmingham from Labour in a threecornered fight. FALL OF STRONGHOLDS A notable Labour break into Liverpool’s practically solid band of Conservatives occurred in the Everton division. There one of the most interesting contests occurred between Mr. Derwent Hail Caine, son of the Dovelist (Labour), and Miss Margaret Beavan, ex-Lord Mayor of Liverpool (Conservative). Mr. Hall Caine turned a small Conservative majority of 630 into a Labour majority of 1,667. Then came the news of the defeat of two Ministers, and later came an astonishing series of Labour victories. Among the most striking of these was at Eccles, where the Conservatives* majority of 2,025 was turned into a Labour majority of 8,237. Sir Kingsley Wood, Parliamentary Secretary for Health, had a narrow shave at West Woolwich, where there are 14,000 more voters than in 1924. His majority was reduced to 332 from 4,200. The Attorney-General, Sir Thomas Inskip, lost his seat in a straight-out fight at Central Bristol, his majority in 1924 being changed to a minority of 4,225. The Prime Minister’s son, Oliver, at his second attempt, wrested Dudley from the Conservatives by a turnover of 3,928 votes on a 6,000 bigger poll. Mr. S. Saklatvala, the Communist whose anti-British speeches have irritated Parliament and the country beyond endurance, was ousted from Battersea North and fittingly met defeat at the hand of a Labour candidate. CHAMBERLAIN SQUEEZES IN A great surprise was that Sir Austen Chamberlain’s majority of 7,643 dropped to 50. Sir Austen was elected in a straight-out fight for Birmingham West. The climax of the Birmingham collapse was the defeat of Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, Minister of Labour, whose majority of 5.342 in a straight-out fight with Labour in 1924 vanished. The Communists fared badly everywhere. The Labour victory at Blackburn was most striking, because the Conservatives and Liberals had agreed jointly to support each other’s candidate. Viscountess Astor conducted her usually vigorous campaign at Plymouth and won with a majority of 211. LABOUR LEADER PURRS Labour’s net gain of 54 seats on the first count contrasts with the same stage of the 1924 election. On that occasion the Conservatives had gained 51 seats and the Liberals and Labour had lost 35 and 16 respectively. The Leader of the Labour Party, Mr. Rainsay MacDonald, in an interview, said: ’’The results so far are magnificent. They are just what ail the signs indicated, namely, that the Government has lost the confidence of the people and Labour has won It.” UPS AND DOWNS Others elected include Colonel J. C. Wedgwood (Labour), Newcastle-under-Lyme; Countess of Iveagh (Conservative), Southend-on-Sea; Mr. George Lansbury (Labour). Poplar; Viscountess Astor (Conservative), Plymouth (Sutton); and Mr. L. HoreBelisha (Liberal), Plymouth (Devonport). , _ . , Those defeated Include Captain Haden Guest (Conservative), North Bristol ’ Sir John Marriott (Conservative), York City; Sir Shirley Benn (Conservative), Plymouth (Drake), and Sir Beddoe Rees (Liberal), Bristol South, by Labour candidates, oir Cyril Cobb (Conservative), Fulham West, was also defeated.