Hongkong, April 20.
The Hon, Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.c., is going to Vancouver for a holiday this summer and his departure will cause a vacancy in the Legislative Council to fill for which there is to be a contested election. 4here are two candidates in the field—Mr. A. R. Lowe, proposed by Mr. J. Scott: Harston and seconded by Mr. F. Smythe, and Mr. T. F. Haigh who has been proposed by the Hon. Mr. N. J. Stabb_ and seconded' by the Hon. Mr. P. H. Holyoak. Voting is confined to the Justices of the Peace.
Neither candidate has yet issued an election address, so that it is unknown upon what special grounds an appeal is to be made to the electorate. in all probability the result will turn upon a question of personal popularity. Mr. Haigh niay be regarded as a "safe" man, one who is unlikely to create disturbances or to attempt flights of oratory. There: will be no dramatic scenes or limelight effects as a result of Mr. Haigh finding his place in the exalted ranks of the unofficial members.
Tue Exterprisixe Mr. Lowe.
The possibilities of Mr. A. kK. Lowe as a legislator are an _un-Known quantity. Some niay, perhaps, withhold their support from him through fear that he will make a bold attempt to upset. the apple cart. His electioneering methods are enterprising—or, at least, enterprising for Hongkong. This is the second time he has stood for the Council. On the first occasion, when he was narrowly defeated by Mr. Bird, he went as far as he could towards cornering all the motor-cars on polling-day, and established a precedent by issuing broadcast a cartoon dealing with tke octopus-like tendencies of the big, business interests in a nianner which many regarded as positively irreverent.
The organized bodies of ratepayers seem to be having little to do with this election. The Kowloon Residents' Association have no official candidate. Mr, Lowe is a member of the Committee of the Constitutional Reform Association, but his proposer and seconder are not niembers of that body. Mr. Haigh, as far as I know. has never had any dealing with the C.R.A., and his seconder is Mr. Holyoak who was largely instrumental in bringing the Association into existence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.