ult to
imagine any real sort of Liberal who is not really an independent
Liberal. I am quite certain I am not a Tory or a Socialist.

He was defeated at this election by Winston Churchill who got 864
votes to 593 for G.K. and 332 for Mrs. Sidney Webb. He was again
defeated at Aberdeen in 1933, coming second to Major Elliott, the
other candidates being C. M. Grieve and Aldous Huxley. At one stage
of the contest the _Daily Express_ writes: "The Huxley supporters are
smarting under the surprise attack made by the Chestertonians at the
Huxley concert at the week-end and are preparing reprisals."

The following letter is G.K.'s reply to the first proposal from the
Aberdeen students:

25th October, 1933

I can at least assure you that the delay in acknowledging properly
the most flattering compliment which you have paid me was not due to
any notion of neglecting it. It was due to the practical necessity at
the moment of discovering and deciding on a fact which may, for all I
know, save you the trouble of further consideration of the matter;
and it is for this reason that I mention the practical difficulty
first. I now find that I shall almost certainly be obliged to be out
of England (and Scotland) for about three or four months, or
conceivably a little more, beginning about the middle of January. I
do not know what preliminary formalities would be demanded of me as a
candidate, or when the demand for them would arise. But I was so
strongly impressed with the honour you have paid me that I thought it
my duty to find out the facts on this particular point, so that you
might act on it in any way you think right. In any case, if the delay
thus involved has placed you in any difficulty, I need not say that I
shall fully understand your finding the project unworkable; and I
shall be quite content to remember the compliment of the request.

There is another consideration which would help the practical side
of the case; and for that I fear I must make the practical enquiries
of you, as people understanding the circumstances. You do not mention
the Party you represent; and though I am, like most of us, long past
attaching a horrid sanctity to the name, I hope you will forgive that
much curiosity in a poor bewildered journalist, who has been
exhibited in many lights and cross-lights. I was put up as a
candidate at Glasgow as a Liberal, which is re