to fit with the priorities of the voters, who increased Aird's majority. 1906 Aird was in his late-sixties after the 1900 general election. At the end of 1902, a rumour circulated that he would not be contesting the next election, and that the Paddington Conservative Association had in mind a South African millionaire as their new candidate. Aird denied the rumour, but in July 1904 aged seventy; he announced that he would give up the seat owing to growing inability to perform his duties. After a committee was appointed to find a candidate, on 12 December 1904 the Executive recommended Lionel Phillips to a general meeting of the Association. Phillips was duly adopted on 21 December. However, Phillips' active business interests (he was a Director of several South African companies including the Central Mining and Investment Corporation Ltd and the Village Main Reef Gold Mining Company Ltd) left him no time to nurse the constituency and in August 1905 he gave up the candidature. Initially, the Conservatives invited John Aird, son of the sitting MP, to contest the seat, but as Aird had already been selected for Southampton, he declined. Finally, the Conservatives selected Arthur Strauss, a metal merchant and former MP for Camborne, although a minority group at the adoption meeting preferred Herbert Jessel, 1st Baron Jessel: Strauss prevailed by 70 votes to 28. Without difficulty, the Paddington North Liberal Council selected Leo Chiozza Money, an economist and journalist who was a rising star in the party nationally with some degree of fame. His fight to finally win the seat for Liberalism attracted attention outside the constituency and Liberal headquarters assisted by prioritising the seat. Money was aided by Dr. Clifford who had become nationally famous for leading passive resistance to the Education Act 1903 (refusing to pay taxes, among other protests). The fact that Leo Chiozza Money was from Genoa and Strauss was Jewish led to the establishment of a committee of local electors led by Col. Stewart and Alfred Darch who declared "the present position of the voters in the division has been rendered intolerable by the action of the Liberal and Conservative Associations, each having made the grievous mistake of failing to nominate an Englishman as a candidate for the constituency". With a general election imminent in December 1905, they signed a requisition to Sir Henry Burdett to stand as an Independent Unionist candidate. Burdett accepted,