NEW CHARGES BY BEVAN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 7

NEW CHARGES BY BEVAN

“Churchill Gagged; U.S. Interference” LONDON, May 19. Mr Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Party’s rebellious Left-winger, today accused the United States of doing all it could to help Sir Anthony Eden in his election campaign for the Conservatives. He also alleged that Sir Winston Churchill had been gagged by his party so that the new Prime Minister could get credit from the planned Four-Power meeting. Writing in “Tribune,” the weekly organ of the Bevanites, he says that the East-West meeting is the one issue on which Sir Anthony Eden is electorally weak. “It is also the reason why the Tory managers kept Sir Winston Churchill off the air. His name was too embarrassingly associated with the notion of ‘talks at the highest level’ more than two years ago. He would find it difficult to explain why it has taken so long to bring them about,” Mr Bevan said. The United States had now “written off” Sir Winston Churchill and their new champion was Sir Anthony Eden, he said. “Once they have safely got him re-established in Downing Street it will be interesting to see how far they will let him off the leash. Or has Washington also come to realise at last that peace is obtainable if the will to ensure it is there?”

Mr Bevan said: “One thing is certain. If the negotiations with Russia reveal that it will be the West that stands in the way of a reasonable agreement, then the reaction in Britain will be profound.” It would not be less profound should it turn out that the Conservatives had won yet another period of power “by a gross deception of the British people,” said Mr Bevan.