"Red Kitty"

Of the eight parliamentary by-elections held in Britain since the Munich Deal of three months ago, the most exciting was staged last week in the backward Scottish agricultural constituency of West Perth and Kinross. There Her Grace, the wealthy, 64-year-old Duchess of Atholl stood for re-election on a straight platform of 100% opposition to Prime Minister Chamberlain's policy of dealing with dictators. Long a sharp-tongued critic of Mr. Chamberlain's foreign policy, the Duchess, one of the brainiest women in British politics, has been tagged with such sobriquets as "Red Kitty" or the "Red Duchess" because of her support of Loyalist Spain and other causes unloved by Mr. Chamberlain's Conservative Party.

The West Perth and Kinross Conservative club, whose successful candidate she had been since 1923, had repudiated her, and the Duchess, backed by her wealthy, landowning husband, was seeking re-election on an Independent ticket. To assure her of Liberal and Laborite support, both those parties persuaded their candidates to withdraw. Her sole opponent was a well-to-do Perthshire farmer, William McNair Snadden, solidly backed by Chamberlain Conservatives.

When the ballots were counted the vote stood: for Conservative Snadden, 11,808, for the Duchess, 10,495. (The Duchess polled 15,000 as official Conservative candidate in 1935.)

Mr. Snadden said modestly: "The result will be a great encouragement to Mr. Chamberlain." The Prime Minister needed encouragement last week, for a few days before the election the British Institute of Public Opinion (Gallup Poll) revealed that while 60% of British opinion was behind the Chamberlain program of appeasement shortly after Munich, that majority last week had fallen to 55%.

Earlier in the week the Prime Minister had taken a severe tongue-lashing at the hands of shaggy-maned Liberal Lloyd George, Britain's Wartime Prime Minister. Supporting a Labor motion of "no confidence" in the Prime Minister, 75-year-old Lloyd George, one of the best showmen in the House of Commons, had the M.P.s rolling in the aisles when he twitted the 69-year-old Prime Minister about his age and lack of courage. Of Mr. Chamberlain and French Premier Daladier at Munich, Lloyd George declared: "They both ran away as hard as they could from their obligations, but our Prime Minister, in spite of his more advanced years, kept well ahead. What a magnificent old sprinter he is!" Conservative Party whips got busy and the "no confidence" motion was beaten off by the usual 340-to-143 vote.

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