Mr. W. W. Wood, Justice of the Peace and a corporation employee deserves the honour due to one who leads a forlorn hope, He tackled ihe borough of Hastings in the Labour interest m 1985 and although he increased the Labour poll from 4,983 in 1931 to 9,404, he had to mit defeat by a margin of 11,501, Undismayed he has again wooed that very Conservative constituency which has been called upon to elect a successor to Lord Eustace Percy whose sixteen years' representation has been terminated by his acceptance of the appointment of Rector of the King's College at Newcastle, The result shows that Mr, Wood again increased the Labour vote and reached five figures with 11,244 but Mr, Holy-Hutchinson, bearer of a famous name, duly maintained the Conservative integrity of Hastings with 18,428—a drop of over 2,000 on the poll made by Lord Eustace in 1935 but good enough. Even Liberals have found Hastings impervious to their blandishments, so Mr. Wood has reason to be satisfied with the modified joy of reducing the Conse: ive majority to 7,184 or 743 less than the previous lowest in 1929, If, however, Mr. Wood has firm aspirations to enter Parli ment as a Labour member he probably would do well to suggest to his Party's organizers that, having proved his mettle in assaulting the impregnable, he should be given a chance with a seat which has different traditions than those of Hastings, After all, the white cliffs of Dover not far away would be inclined to crumble with a terrible shudder if the inhabitants of the shrine of the Norman Conquest were to fail in their duties as Conservatives.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.