WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 299 



Hereford S. Box 3,730 



Hitchen (Herts) R. Green 5,66i 



Epsom (Surrey) J. Chuter Ede 4>796 



Farnham (Surrey) J. Hayes 3.534 



Guildford (Surrey) W. Bennet 5,078 



East Grinstead (Sussex) Major D. Graham Pole 6,208 



Chichester (Sussex) F. E. Green 6,705 



Lewes (Sussex) T. Pargeter 4.164 



Westbury (Wilts) Captain E. N. Bennet 3,537 



Camborne (Wilts) G. Nicholls 6,546 



Kings Lynn (Norfolk) R. B. Walker 9,780 



Norfolk (South) George Edwards 6,536 



Stroud (Glos) Captain Kendall. 8,522 



Though none of these were elected, Mr. Walker came 

 within an ace of election, whilst Mr. R. Green, who had only 

 a fortnight in which to conduct his campaign, scored aston- 

 ishingly well. It is remarkable, surely, that Mr. Plummer, 

 who consented to stand only two hours before the time 

 for nomination, polled 5,771 votes. Very few, if any, of 

 the candidates possessed any shred of political organisation, 

 or an agent, before the campaign started, and most were 

 in desperate financial straits to meet the 150 necessary 

 for the Returning Officer. At the Wrekin by-election, 

 February, 1920, Mr. Charles Duncan, the secretary of the 

 Workers' Union, though not elected, polled very heavily, 

 and easily beat the Coalition candidate. Mr. W. R. Smith, 

 the President of the National Agricultural Labourers' 

 Union was successful, but he stood for a constituency which 

 cannot be called rural. Mr. George Edwards, in delicate 

 health, made a splendid fight of it for a man of sixty- nine. 

 Unfortunately, Mr. J. Pile succumbed under the stress of 

 political warfare waged in all weathers without adequate 

 transport service, and died on the day the poll was declared. 



In January, 1919, Joseph Arch passed away at his cottage 

 at Barford at the advanced age of ninety- three. The King 

 paid a graceful tribute to the whilom champion hedge-cutter 

 of England by sending expressions of regret to his widow. 



The New Year opened with a strike at Chatteris, which 

 lies in the centre of the fen district of North Cambridge- 

 shire. A minimum rate' of 305. a week had been fixed 

 for Cambridgeshire, in spite of the fact that the wages of 



