Frederic A. Ogg

British Parliamentary Elections.

British Parliamentary Elections. War-time conditions joined with a new and revolutionizing electoral law to give the British parliamentary elections of last December many novel features. The national electorate, including six million women, was twice as large as ever before; balloting, except by soldiers and other absentees, was confined to a single day; votes were allowed to be sent in by post, or to be cast by proxy; the usual party contest was replaced by a trial of strength between a coalition government which found support among practically all political elements and a number of groups whose physiognomy would hardly have been recognized by an antebellum observer. The first important question was whether there should be an election at all; that is, whether before the peace treaty was signed. The adoption of the Representation of the People Act a year ago set up a presumption that Parliament would be dissolved reasonably soon. Military reverses in ensuing months discouraged any plans in that direction. But by mid-summer the situation on the various fronts was again well in hand, and thenceforward there were increasing signs that the coalition government meant to make an early appeal to the electorate for a fresh lease of power; and its purpose in the matter was definitely announced in the early autumn. The old-line Liberals, led by ex-Premier Asquith, roundly opposed the plan. They said that notwithstanding the arrangements contemplated in the new electoral law, a large proportion of the three million soldiers on foreign soil would be unable to vote. They urged, too, that no election was needed to enable Mr. Lloyd Georges government to go to the peace conference with the mandate of a united people; this government had won the war, and no one disputed its right to make the peace. The Labor party also objected, avowedly because of apprehension about the soldier vote, although in reality because the machinery which the party has been building up in the constituencies since its reorganization a year ago was as yet incomplete. 108