It is, unhappily, becoming more and more certain that under
the present conditions millions of absent soldier-voters will be virtually disfranchised. Mr. Boner Law said at Glasgow on Monday that eighty-five per cent. of the fighting men " will have it in their power to vote " on December 14th. We fear that he has been misinformed. A London candidate, whose case cannot be exceptional, tells us that Wednesday was fixed by the Post Office as the last day on which election circulars could be sent to soldiers in distant theatres of war, but that the Local Authorities had not received from the War Office by Wednesday the addresses of the absent men. In this constitu- ency, therefore, through the action of the Post Office and the Inaction of the War Office, the electors away in the Near East and elsewhere will have no chance of recording their votes. The proxy system is generally reported to have broken down, partly through the neglect of the soldier voters themselves and partly through the indifference of their officers. It is of such vital importance to the country, and to the Government themselves, that the sailors and soldiers should be enabled to take part in the election that we hope even now to hear that new and better arrangements have been made to this end. A Government that snatched a victory at the polls without regard to the opinions of the vast body of good citizens who have risked their lives for the country could not expect and would not deserve, to remain in power for long.
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