University Elections The success of Sir Arthur Salter in the
Oxford University election is remarkable in its completeness, for it is doubtful whether any single person believed in the possibility of his securing an actual majority of the votes cast. Sir Arthur alone of the three candidates laid a comprehensive statement of his political views before the electors. On a later page of this issue he interprets the meaning of his victory on its impersonal side ; it is therefore only necessary to add here that Sir Farquhar Buzzard was undoubtedly right when he said generously after the declaration of the poll that Sir Arthur would make an excellent member, and that Oxford has set an admirable example in using its special franchise —in other words the second votes of its electors—to return a member who will vote and speak as his independent judgement dictates. It is to be hoped that the English Universities, which vote in a by-election the week after next will follow Oxford's example. In selecting a candidate who appears to have no previous connexion with any of the constituent universities the Conservatives are treating the seat as a simple pawn in the party game—hardly a compliment to the universities themselves, from which a dozen com- petent Conservative candidates could easily have been drawn. Of the four candidates in the field, Mr. T. E. Harvey, standing on much the same platform as Sir Arthur Salter at Oxford, has a strong claim to university, as distinct from party, support.
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