THE NEWCASTLE BY-ELECTION.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—May I with all deference protest against your analysis of the voting in the recent Newcastle by-election ? You assume that if it had been a straight fight between a Labour and a not-Labour candidate the not-Labour candidate would have polled the exact sum of the votes actually obtained by Major Barnes and Captain Gee. But are you sure that ail Liberals would choose a Conservative rather than a Labour candidate ? I am personally convinced that a considerable section of the Liberal Party would prefer to be "progressive" at all costs—more especially as the foreign policy of the two progressive parties is almost identical. But in any case it is surely evident that a very large percentage, if not the majority of Liberals—I mean, of course, Asquithian Liberals—would simply abstain from voting rather than support either a Conservative or a Labour candidate. In the same way, too, how many Conservatives would be willing to vote Liberal simply out of hostility to Labour ? Not a large number, I think.
My object in writing, however, is not merely to dispute a matter of figures, but to deplore the standpoint from which you seem to regard the Labour Party. You look upon it as the common enemy of Conservatives and Liberals ; and you try to divide the country into two parties, Socialists and Anti-Socialists. But in actual fact the country cannot be justly divided into Socialists and Anti-Socialists any more than it can be divided into Conservatives and Progressives. The Labour Party is on precisely the same political footing as the other parties in the State, and the only result of trying to build a barrier between it and the rest will be to embitter feelings on both sides—a result which must at all costs be avoided. When the Coalition was on the point of expiring, the " Labour Peril " was the principal argument of those who tried to keep it alive. At that time you, Sir, along with the majority of Conservatives, rightly rejected it. It is indeed surprising to find you ready to use it now.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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