CAMPAIGN OPENS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1922, Page 5

CAMPAIGN OPENS.

STRENGTH OF THE PARTIES. MENACE OF SOCIALISM. UNITY TO DEFEAT IT. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright; Received Oct. 26, 12.30 a.m. London, Oct. 24. Candidates have opened the campaign throughout the country. The following numbers have already been adopted: Conservatives (all varieties), 415; National Liberals, 200; Asquithian Liberals, 300; Labor, 400. A general understanding has been reached under which Unionists agree not to oppose National Liberals, subject to the local associations’ consent. It appears likely that Glasgow will be the touchstone of the election, as were Birmingham in 1900 and Manchester in 1906. This is significant, Glasgow’s associations, as in 1918. leaving Unionists free to vote for any supporters of the Coalition.

Official Unionists are making the campaign one against Socialism. The country is flooded with posters urging “Safety First!” “No Hands Up to the Reds!” and “Socialism is the All Red Route to Ruin.” Independent Liberals were the first n the field with an official manifesto which closely followed Manchester and adds democratic reform of the licensing system and proportional representation. It declares the four years’ alliance between Mr. Lloyd Georgs and the Conservatives dominated the affairs of the nation and left behind it an unex ampled record of extravagance and failure. It must be remembered that both wings of ♦he Coalition are equally responsible for its misdeeds. Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues spent as they pleased. Their peace treaties are impossible of fulfilment, and they have been equally incapable of securing good understandings abroad. The nation demands a complete change—conviction instead of compromise, and economy in place of extravagance. The manifesto concludes: “Liberalism, is not Socialism; it repudiates warfare against private enterSir Robert Horne, interviewed, emphasised that although he would open his campaign on the same platform as Mr. Lloyd George, he was still a Unionist and he was likely to agree on every point of Mr. Bonar Law’s policy. Sir Robert Horne believed that the Scottish Unionists, like himself, strongly disapproved of ending the co-oper-ation with the National Liberals, and he believed a continuance of a similar alliance with moderates to face Socialism was still necessary to ensure government on safe and constitutional lines.