THE "VICTORY ELECTION."

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1919, Page 7

THE "VICTORY ELECTION."

PACIFISTS SWEPT AWAY, HUGE LLOYD GEORGE MAJORITY. London, December 30. By a majority never exceeded by any "lie party m the 20 general election* that have taken place in Groat Britain since 1532, Mr Lloyd George's Coalition Government has beer, returned to P'Aver, and no man may to-day question his Government's possession of an emphatic mandate for the coming Peace Conference. Most men whose perceptions were not wholly obscured by personal rancour or the old party cobwebs, were fully assured in their minds that Lloyd George would "come back'' with •i fairly substantial majority, but the actual result of the election is a far greater triumph, than his most sanguine supporters ever anticipated In no fewer than 25 constituencies Lloyd George's men ihow majorities or' over 12,000, and a -.;■ ' of 108 have given majorities of Ml., and upwards. Nothing can materially affect the significant!; of facts like these, especially when they are coupled with the rout of tho "Asquilhian" party, and the, very complete overthrow of the Pacifist element, led by Ramsay Macdonald and Philip Snowden, and the practical extinction of the so-called "Independent Liberals," ot whom C 1' Trevelvnn, Ponacuby, Outhwait and Arnold Lupton were the "'shining lights" Th'i ladies who sought the Ivimr of election were most ungallantly treated. So in.-- ai Ori'at Britain was concerned not one of the lfi women '•".ndida'ies made successful jippeal to the electors In Ireland, that "stormy petrel," the Oonutess Markieviei, stood in the Sinn Fein interests for the St. Pi-trick's Division of Dublin, and was returned- The Irish elections, however, have little bearing oa the gTi-at issues, for there local issues predominated, and resulted in the tragic obliteration of the Nationalist party, of which ,only seven members remain. Even Mr Jdhn Dillon was defeated, and the Sinn Feiners swept the board. They could in ihe new House of Commons muster a strength of 73, but in as much as they will not take the oath whbh would enable them to sit in the House, their appearance at Westminster is seemingly out of the question. Even with the Sinn Fein brigade, the Opposition to the Coalitionists could only muster 229—without th-m the antiLlovd George tally is reduced to the miserablj .figure of 156, for ihe Georgites have won no less than 477 Meats. More* over, many of the 3-2 non-Coalition Liberals who have been elected, at least a couple of dozen have failed to disclose any serious points of difference with the Lloyd George programme in their election speeches and addresess, and are just as likely to prove supporters of the Premier on the main points of his policy as antagonists.

For the first time in the history of general elections —one has to introduce a good many statements in connection with this particular general election in this form —all the Ministers who sought election, and there were over 40 of them, have been elected, and most of then, by verv lar.Te majorities.

This unprecedented success of members of the Government gives further point to the significance of the general verdict. These Ministers invited the judgment of the electors in every part of Groat Britain, and from town and country. Highlands and Lowlands, Celtic Wales and Saxon Kent, the result was the- same—Ministers who had served with and. under Mr Lloyd George found favor with the electors, and as a rule won bv thnnvoing majorities Mr Lloyd George and Mr Bonar Law beat their opponents in hollow fashion, their majorities beins 12.5)02 and 12,017 respectivelv, whilst Mr Winston Churchill fairly "snowed under" his rival, his supporters nnmberinir over 15,300 more than those who voted for the other fellow Other Ivnsre majorities were those secured hr Sir G. Hewart (VI 327), Mr Forster 112 601), Major Astor (11.757). Mr Pratt (11,821), Mr Long (0313), and many other members of the Ministerial "fnmilv" secured majorities of from 4000 (o 7000.

If ever a Government, received a vote of thanks and of confidence from the nation, the present Government unmistakably has. Just as all the ex-Minis-ters, with the exception of three of a subordinate rank, have been defeated. The country has failed to simply the Front Opposition Bench with Liberal occupants, for two of the three minor exMinisters who have succeeded in netting hack repeatedly insisted during the election on their friendliness towards the Coalition, and, having been elected on that ground, are not l ; kelv to be hostile A CLEAN SWEEP. This clearance of the front Opposition Bench is most remarkable. Mr Asquith has lost Fast Fife, after holding it at every election since ISBO, and all his lieutenants who broke with the Coalition m December, 19ifi. have shared a like fate. They are:—'Mr MeKenna, exChaneellor of the Exchequer, Mr Runcinian. ex-President of the Board of Trade, Mr H. Samuel, ex-Home Secretary, Sir John Simon, ex-Home Secretary. Mr McKlmion Wood. ex-Secretary for Sootlard, Air >H. J. Tonnant. ex-Under-Sec-of the tfnuse of Commons. Tt may be retary for War. Sir Charles Hobhouse, ex-Chancellor of the Duchy. Tt is a clean aweep—too clean, some people are inclined to think, for the best interests «o. but there are just as many who rei"ice <it this "wiping out" of the "Old Gang," though they fully recognise the, ■Trent abilities of Messrs Asquith, MeKenna. Samuel, Simon, and Company. Gver Sir John Simon's fate, however, no one seems to liavo a torn to shed. r-I's attitude at critical periods of the war was never satisfactory to any Englishman outside the pacifist crowd. LABOR'S DISAPPOINTMENT. On:; of the many surprises of this election to the average man was the poor showing made by the Labor candidates. It was confidently anticipated ! '.v th-s lea<t. optimistic of the party's prophets that 100 would be the minimum of Labor's reprenentatlvees in the new Parliament, whereas the full tallr Is 02. This Js certninly a gain of 20 on the 1010 election returns, but it is « woeful disappointment for the Labor party nevertheless, and opponents of the Government are already making it a wound of complaint thai some of the Coalition memlvrs have been returned without the vote? of the majority of the electors m their constituencies.' A elance throucch Hie returns shows however, that the same may be said of other parties, mid that Labor candidates have ga'ned considerably 'in some Instances bv 'the splitting' of the opposing votes among two or more candidates. A 50 PER CENT POLL. Accord in t to pi-nilnVp official figures >,thu rotal electorate ui England, Soot*

liuid and "\Vule3 aggregates about 1M,377,000, ami as the total of those who took the trouble to record their votes was, roughly speaking, 0,068,000, it will be seen thav barely oO per cent of the '•free and enlightened" were able and willing to exercise the privilege of the franchise in this, "the most important election ever held." We have yet to learn what weight our soldiers on active service and our sailors on the sea were able to. throw into the voting scale, and we have yet to learn how many of the 6,000,000 women voters called into existence by the recent extension of the franchise exercised their newly acquired right. Recent letters from the front do not suggest that our soldier", made any special effort to make their votes effective, and also these samp, missives suggest that the machinery erected for ascertaining the political view of oar fighting men actually on foreign soil broke down- badly in parts, even in those areas which are only a few days' post from the Old Country. Still, it would be fatuous to question the reality of Mr Lloyd George's mandate because we are not in possession of the full facts regarding the soldiers' and sailors' vote*, and are still in the dark concerning the extent to which the ladies went Co the polls, or because only 50 per cent, of the electorate voted. All the concurrent testimonies are too various, too representative, too universal, too eij>pliatic, to leave room for any justification for asserting or believing that If 100 per cent, had voted the verdict would have been different,

A SINISTER INCIDENT. Ireland, like Great Britain, lias been swept almost from end to end, but by Sinn Fein instead of by the Coalition. The only woman elected to the House of Commons is from Ireland, and is a Sinn Feiner. The largest single party elected outside the Coalition is from Ireland, and is Sinn Fein. If we do not know what Sinn Fein means to do there Is no excuse for us, for we have been told plainly enough in hundreds of speeches and in dozens of newspapers In .Ireland for the last eighteen months. The Sinn Feiners are Republicans, and (hey do not mean to come to Westminster and take the oath of allegiance and their salaries as M.P.'s. They intend to meet in Dublin and pass resolutions with such authority as their elections—by overwhelming majorities, be It noted—may have given them with their people. Whatever its causes for congratulation on this side of the Irish Channel, the late general election in this one aspect of it is as sinister an insideat as thu ganwatioit lias kaovfii,