Protest for Democracy

There was to be a by-election at Eddisbury. A routine but necessary preliminary was a motion in the House of Commons, authorizing the Speaker to issue a writ for the by-election. Last week, when this motion was put, Sir Richard Acland popped up and made Eddisbury's by-election a national topic.

Turbulent Sir Richard is a British combination of Eugene V. Debs and Billy Sunday. He is also the evangelist of Britain's tiny but active Common Wealth Party. Said Sir Richard: "I rise to oppose this motion. I am aware that such a motion has never been opposed before. . . ." Sir Richard then denounced the condition of the voters' register at Eddisbury, said it should be rejuvenated to give the vote to all over 21, including soldiers, who have lived in Eddisbury for the past six months or longer.

Protested Sir Richard: "It is the young and the members of the forces . . . who cannot vote because the register is out of date. It is those who have been mentally and physically dead for at least three years who stay in one place and thus can vote. Consequently the results of these by-elections are distorted. ... If you can register people for chocolates, if you can register them for fire watching, you can certainly register them for democracy."

The House voted down Sir Richard's protest, 178-to-12. But that did not erase facts which cause quiet but deep concern. The present Parliament was elected seven and a half years ago, and new M.P.s elected to House vacancies in by-elections are virtually selected by the Government, handed to the nation by Britain's three top, trucing parties. Britons are even more disturbed by the fact that an estimated 7,000,000 voters cannot vote in these by-elections.

Winston Churchill this week postponed both revision of the register and a general election until after the war. But Sir Richard's protest had a point. It proved once again that in Britain--even in a Britain enmeshed in war--there will always be someone freely calling for more democracy.

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