THE BRITISH WAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 114, 16 May 1941, Page 7

THE BRITISH WAY

SWEDISH COMMENT

FREEDOM OF CRITICISM

RUGBY May 14

Interesting comment on the recent House of Commons debate on the war situation is made in the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheteiv' which says that .it is characteristic of the British that, though Parliamentary criticism was stronger than ever previously during the life of the present Parliament, a practically unanimous vote of confidence was passed.

"This is the British custom when faced with a life or death struggle." says the paper. "A strong difference of opinion regarding methods and unswerving unity as to "the end in view appear to some people such a curioiis phenomenon that they cannot grasp it —yet it is a fact of fundamental importance in the present world crisis." The paper points out that the debate also had a definite psychological importance—Mr. Churchill was not criticised for being too brutal, but because his methods were not ruthless enough. This was also characteristic of the British and could not occur elsewhere. The British people had gradually been awakening to a realisation of the threatening catastrophe, yet after .all this time it was stated in the debate on Cyrenaica and the Balkans "that Britain has not by a long way exerted her full military or industrial potential."—B.O.W.