FOREIGN POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 127, 26 November 1945, Page 6

FOREIGN POLICY

MR. BEVIN'S SPEECH

SEEN AS REMARKABLE ADVANCE

LONDON, November 24,

The remarkable advance in Britain's foreign policy made by Mr. Bevin's proposal in the House of Commons yesterday of a directly-elected world assembly to control world peace, was emphasised by Mr. R. H. C. Crossman, Labour M.P., in a subsequent broadcast commentary. "If we thought Mr. Eden's speech ori Thursday was epoch-making, yesterday it was Mr. Bevin's," he said. "There has been some dissatisfaction in Labour ranks at Mr. Bevin's lack of definite policy, and Mr. Eden was considered by many within the Labour ranks to have made a speech which should have been made by Mr. Bevin. But Mr. Bevin has now turned the tables on Mr. Eden, and it is clear that he is going to be a force to be reckoned' with in world affairs. He had none of Mr. Eden's polished phrases—he was blunt and forceful—and he went far beyond Mr. Eden in his policy. "It was a long speech, and it was not till the hundredth minute that he sprang his great surprise. He then said that we must look beyond San Francisco to a world federation of States. Each nation would have to give up something of its own sovereignty, much as did the American States in the formation of the federated United States, and a world Parliament would be found of which the members would be elected by. the people of the world and not nominated by the nations." Mr. Crossman said he had once heard Mr Bevin described as a "12-minute e«g" The old transport worker who had said that had added: "He takes a long while to cook, but when he s cooked, he's hard." "When Mr. Bevin began to talk or future world affairs and world peace I got the impression that his egg was only about five minutes cooked," said Mr Crossman. "He seemed to me to be thinking aloud and hoping that he would persuade other world leaders to think with him. "Mr. Bevin's oolicy on Greece has taken a long while to cook. He was content to face criticism from his own rank and file while it conked. But he now has a strong policy, and he was blunt and hard about it. He told the Greek King it was about time he stopped throwing a spanner in the machine. He showed just how hard.an egg he can be."