in may 1914, the country party won two of four contested seats in the legislative council—one in east province and one in central province. at the assembly elections on 21 october 1914, they contested 16 of the 50 seats in the legislative assembly, winning 8 of them. five of these seats had liberal incumbents (beverley, greenough, irwin, pingelly and york), while two had been held by labor (avon and nelson). alfred piesse, the liberal member for toodyay, joined the country party and faced no contest for his seat. james gardiner was selected as the first leader of the country party. the labor government was returned with a one-seat majority, but could not always rely on its own members, and gardiner told the assembly on 8 december 1914 that there should be a "legitimate truce" and that the country party would support the government for the benefit of the state. during this time the government enacted a number of financial aid and other relief measures with country party support. however, gardiner's willingness to work with labor to achieve country party aims on the land alarmed conservatives on the fsa executive, and on 12 march 1915, at the first joint country party-fsa conference, the decision was made to appoint a new leader. gardiner resigned six days later, and francis willmott became leader of the party, which became increasingly dominated by monger. the party had to act carefully, as labor had committed to an agricultural relief programme and the executive was wary of upsetting the radical eastern wheatbelt branches. the status quo was cautiously backed at the party's august 1915 conference.