The results of the by-elections at Leith and North Southwark
have put the Liberals into very good heart. The figures of the Leith election, due to the resignation of Captain Wedgwood Beim, the Liberal Member who joined the Labour Party, were as follow :- Mr. Ernest Brown (Lib.) 12,461 Mr. B. F. Wilson (Lab.) 12,350 Mr. Allan Beaton (Con.) .. .. 4,607 Liberal majority .. .. 111 in the 1914 election Capt. Benn had a majority of 5,319 over Mr. Wilson, the Labour candidate. There was no l'aionist candidate at that election. It seems that many Unionists voted for the Liberal as the most certain wav of keeping out Mr. Wilson, a Labour leader of extreme views. Mr. Wilson has for a long time preached general confiscation and later modified his views, if we understand lain correctly, only because he thought that confiscation would be difficult to enforce in practice. He is one of those Labour doctrinaires whose support is a constant embarrassment to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, but whom Mr. MacDonald cannot make up his mind to repudiate. yet Mr. MacDonald really gains neither safety nor respect in this way. VVitness the break-away of the extreme Mr. Wheatley in the House of Commons, who apparently means to defy Mr. MacDonald's leadership.
Previous page
