MR. ANTHONY EDEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 27

MR. ANTHONY EDEN

STATESMAN IN THE MAKING

Youth does not go altogether unserved in modern politics, remarks a "Times Literary -Supplement" reviewer of "Anthony Eden," an account of that statesman's early life by Alan Campbell Johnson. The careers of Mr. Anthony Eden, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Mr. Oliver Stanley, and Mr. Hore-Belisha would all provide materials'fqr short but engrossing essays in the art of political success; but the rise and fall—-or rather, temporary setback —of Mr. bEden, bound up, as they were, with swiftly-moving European events, is the most remarkable tale of all. It is not surprising that at the age of forty-one he has now found an "unofficial" biographer. and it: is entirely proper that this should be a I twenty-five-year-old Liberal who comI mends or condemns the rulers of his country with all the assurance of an elder statesman.

The Edens were one of the many families which (like the Churchills) emerged from obscurity in the reign of Charles 11. William Eden, first Lord Auckland, was the Eden of. the Anglo-French commercial treaty unpropitiously concluded on the eve of the French Revolution. Sympathetic to the "labouring poor"—who, born in County Durham, could fail to be?— but not themselves under the necessity of earning a living, conscious of the call of social duties, the Edens were born to legislate, if they chose.

If he was conscious of this destiny Anthony Eden appears to have kept it within himself. According both to his mother and a college servant at Oxford* "he was always the quiet one," After- serving with distinction in the war he went to the university with reluctance. "What, go back to school, mother?" he said. v But he went. He

could afford to ignore the Union and other political avenues open to the parvenu. Instead he concentrated on obtaining a First Class in Oriental languages arid later by travelling gained a reputation as,'ari expert on the Near "and Middle' East. In 1923 a society wedding at which he married' the daughter of the part-owner of the "Yorkshire Post" was an interlude in his first successful election campaign at Leamington. His maideri speech in opposition "to the first Labour Government was on the need for a larger Air Force/ But he soori made his'name as a conscientious, hard-workirig, and well-informed student of foreign affairs.

Mr. Johnson shows from Mr. Eden's early speeches in the House of Common's as well as' by excerpts from Mr. Eden's sole (and better forgotten) excursion into literature called "Places in "the Sun" (based ori a visit to Australia on behalf of the "Yorkshire Post") that the future Foreign Secretary was a typical Conservative Imiperialist, -earnestly concerned about British prestige, Empire settlement, and preferences on tinned fruits. He could make pokes at M. Litvinoff and Mr. Lloyd George with the best. Indeed the chifef interest of this book is the, picture which it gives of Mr. Eden in his salad days.

From 1926 to 1938 Mr. Eden was officially concerned with foreign affairs and his history merges into that of Europe. Here Mr. Johnson gets on to treacherous ground. The bare bones of his work are, of course, Mr. Eden's speeches, the files of "The Times" and the annual "Survey of International Affairs." It is eked out by Mr. John Gurither, and'the gossip columns of the London evening riewspapers. Events like the Saar plebiscite have to be described in a page or two, and there is much over-simplification and ingenious guessing about personal responsibilities. Although the narrative is brightly written one cannot escape the suspicion -that Mr. Johnson, unlike his subject, is not really an expert on foreign affairs. One notices no mention of the equality of status declaration of December, 1932, and some of the apparent statements of fact are simply Fleet Street guesses. But Mr. Johnson can write extremely well and has a clear point of view. First, he describes Mr. Eden's "climbing to power upon the broad backs of the diehards"; secondly, he shows Mr. Eden's opinion hardening against the dictators;, in one of his last speeches as Foreign Secretary he said, "We offer co-operation to all but will accept dictation from none"; thirdly, it is argued that from 1935 Eden "never had a full initiative," and that his resignation thus became certain. All these are statements which will only be substantiated to the satisfaction of the historian in the dim future. ' The dust-cover of the book states that Mr. Johnson is able to.throw light on Mr. Eden's career from the inside. But, entertaining though the book is, tha% is the one thing which he is not able to do.

According to Moscow statistics, 228 editions of Turgenev's works have been published in the Russian language since 1917 and 109 editions in thirty-seVen languages of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. The number of copies of all editions amounts to over 9,500,000.