Browning Chief

ELECTION:
Britain's Choice

In a little less than a month Britain's voting populace will make an elective decision on the issue of whether to continue with socialism, state planning and nationalization of industry under the present Labor government or to return to free enterprise with Winston Churchill's Conservative party.

In setting February 23 as the date for the general election, Prime Minister Clement Attlee must have been acutely aware that this will be far and away the most bitterly contested and momentous election in modern British history.

Britain's 33 million voters will elect a new house of commons, with the party seating the majority of candidates getting the right to form the government.

Speculation was high as to whether defeats within the past two months by the Labor parties in both Australia and New Zealand could be taken as a straw in the wind, insofar as the outcome in England is concerned. Most informed opinion had it that it would be dangerous to predict a downfall of Atlee's government on the basis of the "down under" elections.

Chief reason for this thinking was that the Labor party very recently had been able to show signs of substantial gains in Britain's fight to overcome poverty.