Thorneycroft RESIGNATION OVER A FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 10

Thorneycroft RESIGNATION OVER A FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE

ISpeeioUv written for ” The Pros* ”1

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DAVID GOLDBLATT]

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When Sir Winston Churchill assigned Thorneycroft to the Board of Trade there was many a malicious snigger. A declared Free Trader was put on the spot: as a manoeuvre it reflected Churchill as imp and schoolmaster. If the President of the Board of Trade failed, then his sting was drawn. .If he won through he would have proved himself, for the contest was played out with so much against him. There were many who' felt unfairly passed over for a saucy pusher with an overdose of ambition. and the Beaverbrook press, under their lord’s express direction, made Thomeycroft the butt of criticism and ridicule. Colonel Blimp and his lady were roused to fear and anger lest their Empire were lost to them by this somewhat subversive intruder who was so very difficult to understand and so very unorthodox—the ultimate crime. The Minister survived both ill will and assault. He occasionally shocked by his frankness and his heterodoxy. His charm, his shrewdness, his courage, and his understanding were joined to principle as declared in “Design for Freedom.” There were signs that he was not prepared to buy his future at the price of recanting. At a moment he might well go to the stake for his belief.

Meantime there were stirrings elsewhere. For the Liberals the 1945 election had brought near extinction. Despite a voting strength of some 10 per cent, of the electorate, and that the rump of a much larger number who had voted in despair for an alternative against another and worse menace, the elected members numbered 1 ner cent of. the House of Commons.

In dire straits a new movement was brought into being. John McCallum Scott was new to politics but carried the tradition of a father who in his day—pre-1914 had sat in the House of Commons, a fervid Liberal and an ardent internationalist. The son, in conviction and filial piety, convened a meeting well attended by Liberal candidates, many downcast but none unwilling to respond to such a call. Here and then “Liberal International" was formally resolved into life. The chairman of the meeting was a New Zealander, Sir Percy Harris, whose long career in British politics had brought him few honours but great satisfaction. A lifelong Liberal, he was tempted neither by the prospect of place nor preferment. He died in his boots and to the end retained the chairmanship of the British group of "Libera] International” Pan-Europa is Born

The movement spread first through free Europe, including exiles, and then into America and Asia. It attracted the patronage and participation of world figures. The first president of the West German and Italian Republics joined. European exiles led by Mr Madariaga, of Spain, covered every satellite State, and the West European Liberal parties affiliated. Three French Premiers offered their services, the Vice-Chancellor

of West Germany and the Italian Foreign Minister led their delegations. Scandinavia participated. Switzerland gave enthusiastic support. Belgium supplied its reigning President Among its distinguished exiles was Count Couden-hove-Kalergi, a name of consequence and the progenitor of a movement about to alter the course of history.

Condenhove - Kalergi sprang from a goodly mixture in which the doumess of Holland intermingled with the Europo-Tartar perception, wit and fiery pride of .Hungary. Centuries had conditioned such issue to appreciate and value the free movement of human bodies, ideas, and goods. On trade the Dutch had established themselves. In the hegemony of the Austro-Hungarian empire many peoples had benefited in culture and standards of living. To Kalergi there was prospect for peace and progress in Pan-Europa. A united Europe was nothing new. On and off it had been tried and failed over a period of 1100 years, but this new scheme was not a political union or confederation but a customs free area. Like most movements it had to pass through a prolonged gestation. A generation had to die and circumstances change. Nor was the scheme adopted as a whole. When, some 30 years after publication, Pan-Europa was tried, the ground was well chosen, the field of operation' limited. In two world wars Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg had been the first to be suborned by the invader. They had suffered heavily and were ripe for an experiment which entailed no open surrender of national prestige. The driving force in Belgium was Senator Motz, a forceful enthusiast and keen thinker who had never been imprisoned in the ivory tower of academics—the same Roger Motz who presides over Liberal International. The concordat was called Benelux, and created a customs free area covering the three countries, but interfering in no way with laws or currency or anything specifically national. There was a host of predictions of failure, but despite teething troubles the arrangement worked well and Western Europe watched with interest while Liberal International as a whole and in every country urged that this experiment, now proven, should be extended.

Their influence was great, for they carried many of the high offices in the Strasburg Assembly, a post-1945 innovation with something of a European tang about it and the joint body which dealt for the coal and steel cartels of Western Europe. As small as might be its elected representatives, its nominees in co-opera-tive effort were considerable in numbers and predominant in influence. And there was still more to help the cause. Battle of the Giants Western Europe was disturbed. It was the obvious field of battle for two giants, the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. In the cold war it shivered at the prospect and resented being treated as a poor relation. Such a mood made Western Europe receptive to any proposals which might restore "noralr and renew independence. Benelux was an inspiration and a pointer which joined in a conference at Messina its representative* to those M Wert Germany. France,

and Italy. There was proposed and agreed in principle the setting up of a greater Benelux in a “European Common Market” of the six Powers. Other meetings followed, certain details agreed, and a scheme drawn up which allowed for a start on January 1. 1958. and a period of 12 to 17 yean during which, in the light of experience and evolution, the plan could take its final form. Pan-Europa was in being. Couden-hove-Kalergi had arrived. Liberal International had played a significant part and gathered confidence and prestige. Western Europe had realised that in concert it could match its neighbours in population and resources and outweigh them in culture and know-how.

Round these six countries were 11 others in which there were immediate repercussions. Scandinavia, the Northern Mediterranean lands, the land-locked countries, and the British Isles dare not find themselves barred from this great customs tree region. which was a traditional and important market It they were not founder members they must be associates. Representations first and then negotiations ensued. There were difficulties enough; but for Britain there were a host of complications. Head of a Commonwealth mainly of autonomous Dominions, she was pressed to bring in the family. Her chance rested in persuasion and nought else, and this was complicated by the Ottawa Agreement, which had for 25 years reoriented her trade and weakened her commer-

cial relations with the outside world. By bitter experience, Britain had learned how succinct and how rightly apt were the French in insisting. “C’est le premier pas qui coute.” That first step—Beaverbrook's great triumph —had cost much and might yet cost more.

But the nettle needed grasping. Thorneycroft was at the Board of Trade, the key post, but the integration of Britain into the European Common Market demanded whole-time attention, tnd a new appointment was made. Reginald Maudling, a signatory of “Design for Freedom,” young, bright, and accommodating, was promoted from junior rank into the Cabinet and given the task of ushering his country into the new association on the best possible terms. He was somehow to align Britain to serve fairly conflicting interests: protect her primary production under the watchful and suspicious eye of the Tory-ridden farming community; propitiate a Commonwealth inside the strait-jacket of the Ottawa Agreement; bring Britain first and her family eventually inside the new dispensation; and through it all maintain the Sterling Bloc, for that alone can retain for Britain participation everywhere and so guard her material well-being. 'nt Une «f Serrrsriia

The decline of Eden brought Tory participants of "pesign for Freedom” into most of the highest offices of State. The Prime Minister had had his moments in "The Middle Way” and in the wilderness. Perhaps he had a fellow-feeling for quondam rebels. Certainly they were well placed. Amory, Hailsham, Maudling. Wingfield Digby. Thorneycroft comprised a solid phalanx just below the summit with age on their side. In the line of succession. Peter Thomeycroft was all but the declared heir in his new appointment a* Chancellor of the Exchequer. Through Treasury he could intervene when and where he deemed necessary. Nationalisation had made him master of former private controls which he could gear to the Budget to buttress currency or conjure with credit A Free Trader, he had to use the machinery of a controlled economy which he disliked and suspected. It must have been anathema to be faced each quarter with the problem of balance of payments, the nightmare of modem finance, which has forsaken the subtler readjustment of the gold standard era in favour of statistical computators and professors of economics. These experts are forced to fight the battle of the next quarter on the wholly irrelevant figures of the past In such an era we live without respite from crisis and fear, and the lot of the financial head of Government is sorry indeed. Into these troubled waters swam yet another barque of complications. The "European market empire” embraced nigh a quarter of Britain's total market for manufactured exports and reexports. It was impossible to exist without it and yet it might, in certain circumstances, be impossible to live inside it, for inflation was gaining pace, increasing production costs, and weakening foreign confidence in sterling. If that went, then came the deluge.

The Chancellor was too well grounded to succumb to the nonsense of physical controls. He took the stern way of credit squeeze with a difference. In the past the screw had been unfairly applied. It was assumed that while the small private trader could be cut down, the Government outgoings were immune. In the long run. often, even, in the short run, this inequality of treatment had defeated the measures taken. This time the exception was only to run as to increased estimates. Public expenditure was nowhere to exceed the preceding year—at least a step in the right direction, though obviously Thomeycroft wanted to bring authority under the same ban as private enterprise. Joined to a penal bank rate, sterling recovered. Maudling's task was by this much eased. Then came the announcement of the resignation of the Chancellor and his two aides, Nigel Birch, the fair-headed boy of the City, and Enoch Powell, economist and previous boffin of Tory headquarters. An open break at this juncture was certain to being stricture. It occurred on the eve of the Prime Minister’s departure on his Commonwealth tour and must have been made only after much searching of heart and mind. It may. for all three, write finis on their political careers, for they have cut across “good form.” an unforgivable action in their circles. Two are old Etonians, among whom some things are just- not done. Thprneycroft has erred for the soeond time. Ha is an

old offender. I* there so arotit milk of human Madness in ndr political party? - - X Tke Al illgiltt I The revealing element is fl* naivete of the official apologists. ! - Hailsham, as party panjandrum, and Heathcoat Amory, TTrussi croft’s successor, were the pointed accusers of their comrade of 1946-47 and confrere in 185158. They just cannot see the need - for fuss over a trifling Inn'sate r of 1 per cent in estimates aad have overlooked the frauiwlrj with which expenditure uiuiaM estimate. They claim the privilagt for government-to be outside MS - own decrees. They have tesspararily laid aside their belirf fa equality in the sight of the law, an essence of freedom, to sasg their task and. they hope, regsifl popularity tor a party wen ta ’ decline. As an excuse their apr proach may impress; as a dtdSaea it is febrile. Peter Thorneycroft is ambitious and able. He would not ligbtl? throw away the chance of flit Premiership in hi* middle flfttet Nor would his adjutant* have ’ lowed suit if the issues were att of ultimate concern. For Britain confidence in her sterling is *■> that stands between her peopl* and decline, if not disaster. Tb* part-author of “Design for Fret'; dam” has shown how well h* understands this and that whes the choice rests between his advancement and his country’s aad the Commonwealth's weR-belag he can decide against himself. Per the moment he retires into obscor* ity. Perhap* his fate is to tenia there for as long a* he car** te T continue as a member of his present party. His sometime friend and partasr ' in "Design for Freedom” darts ' to counsel him from th* Antipodes A hundred and twenty years ago another Tory spoke for a Britain in the throes. He turnsd to men who understood Ms language. He led them and hi* land ' to renewed prosperity and world pre-eminence. It was no easy task—old ties broken, old pleasant , ways discarded, much appro-. brium, and many sct-backs. Hf>tory tells all these, but it record! success and a name written in letters of gold. May Peter Tfcorneycroft mark that story and follow such example. (Concluded.)