Evening star., 1924-10-31
LABOR TO CONTINUE
IN OFFICE PENDING
SOVIET PLOT PROBE
Macdonald Will Vacate in
Few Days After Incident
Clears Up.
REDS PLAN TO AVENGE
ALLEGED FORGED NOTE
Warn Britain of Reprisals to Come
Conservatives to Hold
400 Seats.

Iiy the Assoc .ated Press.
LONDON, October 31.-The Labor
ite cabinet, headed by Premier Mac.
Donald, after a two-hour session this
morning, is understood to have decid
ed to remain in office a few days and
then resign before the assembling OF
the new Parliament.
II is expected that the cabinet Will
resign next week rather than meet
the new Parliament and be turned out
upon the Kings address.
The desire on the part of the gov
ernment to remain in office a few
days longer is due to the necessity OF
clearing up departmental business
Meanwhile Mr.. Macdonald will spent
his last week end for long time
perhaps forever-in the prime minis
terial official rustic retreat al
Chequers.
Another cabinet meeting is set fol
Tuesday, but it is understood the
members of the cabinet have left the
premier free to decide upon their res
ignation before then if he SO de-
SlreS.
To Study Red Letter.
An official communique was issued
announcing that the cabinet had ap.
pointed Il committee to examine the
question of the authenticity of the
Zinovieff letter.
1t is believed that one of the chief
reasons for the decision to hold in
allegiance the resignation of the cabi-
net members is the desire to carry out
Mr.. MacDonald's promise to probe to
the bottom the incident of the al
legged Russian letter and the subse-
Quent British and Russian exchange
OF protests
The King will return to London
from Sandringham next Monday to be
on hand should the necessity arise foI
his receiving Mr.. Macdonald.
Had Macdonald resigned forthwith
and the king sent for Stanley Bald
win. new government could be COM
pleted before parliament meets, 1t
was declared at conservative head
quarters. Mr.. Baldwin is leaving to-
day for short holiday in the coun-
try in preparation for the strenuous
duties which await him.
Returns Nearly Complete.
With the exception of a few out
standing returns from the universities
and Scotland, the results of the cleo
tions are now complete, showing the
composition of the new Commons to
be as follows: Conservatives, 39S;
Labor, 149; Liberals, 40; Independents,
4; Co-operatives, 5; Constitutionalists
3; Communists, l. Total, 500.
The full membership of the house
is 615, and it is expected that when
the returns from the universities are
received the Conservatives will mus
ter 400 or more seats.
The returns to date show that the
Conservatives made net gain of 153;
the Liberals net loss was Ill and the
Laborites' Al
The sensational reduction in the
Liberal repre- sentation is the subject
of much remark, and facetious COM
mentators in the press point out that
the entire Liberal parliamentary par
ty Will now be able to go to the Com
mons in a single London omnibus
Total Eclipse Doubted.
The assumption by some that the
historical party, successor of the
eighteenth century Wings, is bound
to disappear permanently is not taken
for granted everywhere, however. It's
elimination would be welcomed by
those of it's opponents who desire a
return to the two-party system, since
the third party, Labor, has evidently
come to stay, but many believe that
the eclipse of the Liberals is only
temporary.
Former Premier Lloyd George last
evening laughingly refuted the sug-
gestlon that his party was dead
hatTdead"' he exclaimed. why
it has just polled 100000 votes"
Ihe Times. which is among those
encouraging the belief in the party's
vitality, says: The election was
fought under circumstances particu-
larly unfavorable to the Liberals and
nobody acquainted with the situation
lmagines for a moment that the q
$4,000 votes they polled represent
anything approaching their perma-
nent strengthen the country.
Hold Check Temporary.
1T cannot be doubted that manv
thousands of Liberals voted Conserya-
tive as the only way to keen the
Socialists out. This chacl +o
a great party may be merely tenn
porary. and the normal play of poll
tics doubtless in due time will bring
oack Asqulth and many of his former
supporters"
The Liberal newspapers also uree
the favorable position of the party
from an analysis of the polling fig
ures, and do not fail to score what
they term the anomalous and unrep-
resentatiVe character of the British
electoral system. They point ont
that thu combined Liberal and Labor
votes exceeded 100000, and elected
fewer than 200 members, while the
100000 Conservative votes returned
400 members.
This argument, however, obviously
works both ways, the Conservatives
say, as on previous occasions they
have suffered similarly from the lack
of proportional representation
One outcome of the election was to
make Northern Ireland's representa-
tions in the British Parliament
wholly Conservative, the polling in
SFermanagh and Tyrone having re-
suited in the return of two Conserv-
atives by huge majorities.
These seats were held in the last
Parliament by Nationalist and q
Sim 'Feiner.
The Soviet chief of publicity, Karl
Radek, writing in the newspaper
Pravda, warns Great Britain to expect
reprisals for the Zinovief letter incident,
according to the Moscow correspondent
of the Daily Express. Radek is quoted
as declaring that Premier Macdonald
knew that the letter emanated from
the same officials who falsified the
documents which formerly served as
the basis Of Lord Curzons note.
Asserting that the consequences
will be grave, Radek adds: THE
CONTINUED on Page 8, Column g.