The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-15
ENORMOUS VOTE
 BEING POLLED IN
 LONDON ELECTIONS
Conservatives Must Gain % Seats in Provinces to Stand Chance of Ultimate Victory.
Especial from United Press )

London. Jan. 15.-In 66 London provincial constituencies today an enormous vote is being boiled in the most hotly contested election ever held in England. Excitement accom- panies the voting everywhere and police reserves are held in readiness at every station in London and the provinces to suppress expected riots.
 The SC constituencies voting today are entitled to total representation of "A members in parliament
 Taking today's voting as test, political statisticians of both sides agree that if the Conservatives gain zs seats without losing any Of the seats already held by them, they stand good chance of ultimate vic tory. But without gain of this size, defeat for the Conservatives is considered inevitable. 4
 The closing hours of the campaign have brought no dlminution of. the bitterness of the struggle and claims of victory are now being. made. by leaders of both parties. These 1ead- CTS are claiming all sorts of dire dis aster if the other is elected.
 The Liberals are today started in the prosecution of the Great North of Scotland Railroad Company for al-
 
 is talk also of prosecuting Lord Rib- b1esdale for alleged violation of the constitutional prohibition against peers taking a hand in the campaign after the issuance of election writs. Lord Ribblesdale made speech for the Conservatives at Preston last night It is possible that the Liberals will suffer material losses from the ac- tivity of the suffragettes who are sup porting the Conservatives. The last administration treatment of impris- oned suffragettes, which included the forcible feeding of number of won1- en, is being harped upon by Con- Seratiye speakers. Winston Church i'll sought to relieve the situation last night in a speech at Dundee by de- claring that Home Secretary Glad stone, who ordered the forcible feed- ing of the women, did not resort to this expediency until he had first tested the method by taking food himself through a tube inserted in his nostrils. He found the method to be both harmless and painless, Churchill said, before ordering 1t The voting booths opened at 8 o'clock this morning and will close at tonight, so that the results will be known in most places between 10 and II o'clock.
 Crowds are already gathering on
  greatest throngs seen in London since the celebration of the relief of Lady smith in the Boer war, will be In | evidence. The newspapers will dis l play election returns.
 According to the statements of the l Liberals the landed gentry through- | out the districts where the voting is | in progress, are resorting to corrup- ton and intimidation and are paving the way for contest by the Liberals of the result in those districts that i go against them.
 The Liberals say they have evi- dence which if presented to the next party men, would invalidate the seats of a number of Conservatives in the
 event of their elections today.
 | Dispatches from the provinces say | the vote is the heaviest in England's | history. There is scarcity of vehi- cles in which to convey voters to the l booths and in several instances party lworkers have carried aged or crippled voters to the polls on their backs.