15 DECEMBER 1923, Page 1

The other party which has suffered heavily is, of course,

the Conservative : of Cabinet Ministers they have lost Sir Montague Barlow, Minister of Labour, and Sir Robert Sanders, Minister of Agriculture. Of these it must, perhaps, be recorded that, had the Unionists retained a majority in the House, these two -particular defeats would have been by no means irreparable. More serious, if less spectacular, defeats were those of Captain Elliot, the Under-Secretary of Health for Scotland, and Mr. Davidson, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, two of the younger and more vigorous members of the party who can ill be spared. The only serious loss of personnel suffered by the Labour Party was that of Mr. Arthur Henderson, their Chief Whip, who failed to secure election at Newcastle-on-Tyne. But perhaps the greatest surprise of all was the complete failure of the promised subsidy to farmers to influence votes in agricultural constituencies. Our agricultural correspondent comments and draws his conclusions from this failure in our leading columns. Here we can only say that, never enamoured of this project, we weep few tears at its extinction.