LABOUR LEADER

Evening Star, Issue 23525, 14 March 1940, Page 3

LABOUR LEADER

PEN PICTURE OF MR ATTLEE Now that J have seen and talked to Clement Richard Attlee. I am glad that ho'has'dropped’his title of major, for nobody -looks less like the typical major than : the' Leader of the Opposition, writes Emrys Jones,' in the ‘ Daily Instead of being stocky and fierce, lieis.sjim and. gentle, though he talks in the’Slightly, staccato fashion of the soldier. As he talks he clasps his hands, intertwines his fingers so hard that the knuckles show white, even when he is saying something that does not touch the emotions. They are, however, good. practical hands, and 1 am not surprised when lie tells me that he does quite a bit of carpentry, mending hen coops, fences, and the children’s toys at his home in d London suburb. Whether he is as good a carpenter as Mr Churchill is a bricklayer I do not know, but he enjoys it. ‘‘lt is *a grand relaxation.” he says. .Did I mention his children—there mre four'of them? Well, in our conversation he mentioned them a dozen times. : The Leader of the Opposition is the leading family man in the House of Commons, I should say. His. private life is focused on them, and his homo means.more to .him than anything else. A* we talk politics—we’ll get to that in a minute—l get, incidentally, a picture of the Attlee family at home. There they are, seated round the fire, while Mr Attlee reads to them. What? “ Almost anything,” he tells me. “I often' read a speech from ‘ Hansard ’ to my wife.” ; My guess is that some of the Attlee family-, then,, have heard Mr Churchill’s speeches read to • them, for Mr Attlee is an admirer of Mr Churchill, the writer. He has just finished rereading ‘ Marlborough.’ ,It interests me to hoar that the leader of the most pacifist party is a student of military history and of the technique of soldiering. Mr Attlee drops his reserve'when he talks about the list war.. He speaks with affection of his old regiment, the South Laucashires. “.They were fine people to be with, most <of them from round about Wigan.’.’ Then, with a touch of pride, “ I generally see some of my old lads at my meetings in Lancashire.” ■Jfr Attlee, ex-Haileyburv and Oxford, can speak “Lancashire.” Yes, the Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party is a public school man. But is he a stern defender of the public school system? , . “No,, there’s plenty to criticise in the system. But education should bo adapted to the individual. . The public school- training might suit one boy, rdfc another.” Certainly the system did not narrow Mr Attlee’s- mind. When he left Oxford he was,a staunch, even die-hard. Tory,- but at 27 he went to lire as a resident.in a settlement in Limehouse, and that made him a Socialist. Some ■years later he was for a year secretary of Toynbee Hall,

He began his career, however, as a .awyer, and there is still some of the lawyer’s dryness about him, which is no help to him as a popular figure. Yet ho can be witty. RUSSIA AND SOCIALISM. I asked Mr Attlee if he thought the latest example of Russian aggression would have an adverse effect on Socialist opinion in this country. 1 explained that millions here on the Left: looked benevolently at Russia, and that many of the mildest of them saw in Russian Communism a noble experiment. ■ “Won’t they be disillusioned, and won’t that disillusion communicate itself even to the British brand of Socialism?” I asked. “ No,” he said. “ Neither our policy nor our methods have anything in common with Russian Communism.” So on that we disagreed.

Then I mentioned the common complaint that the Opposition had ceased to oppose, that it has become a mere ally of tho Government, and that the result is a loss of interest in Parliament.

“ That is not so,” he said. “ The Opposition still performs its functions of criticism, restricted only by the necessity for discussing nothing that will be useful to the enemy. It has already safeguarded many of the liberties of the people. No. I don’t think there’s a loss of interest in the House. There is still the same cut and thrust of debate.” “ How about after this war?” I asked.

“ There must be no dictated peace,” he says, “no revenge. But restitution must be made to the victims of the aggressors, and the Nazis must understand that the Czechs, Poles, and Jews have as much right in the world as the Germans have, and the right to enjoy the bounties of Nature. “ And if the Germans must- concede that, well, we must concede it to the Indian and to the inhabitants of the British Commonwealth.” (India is one of his great interests; ho sat on the Simon Commission.) “ Of course, there must also be a complete abandonment of aggression. War must be outlawed and the rule of law accepted. Imperialism must go, and access to markets and raw materials must be given to all equally. “ Then the rights of the minorities must be safeguarded by an international authority.” I asked Mr Attlee what he thought of Federal Union, the plan so much discussed in the United States now. “ I agree,” he remarks. “ that. Europe must federate or live in a state of continual anarchy. As I said the other day, in the common interest there must be a recognition of an international authority superior to the individual States. Of course, such a body must be endowed not only with rights over them, but with power to make them effective, politically and economically.” Will that ever come? Well, none of us knows when the dark night of war is over what the day of peace will be like.

Quitting speculation, Mr Attlee .talks, about books again, on .which,. I

think, he would rather talk than on anything else. He likes the classics, and a leading favourite is Pepys’ Diary, which he reads every night. So, if you want a picture of the Leader of the Opposition at home, see him surrounded by his family, reading Pep.ys and drawing quietly at the long straight pipe he always smokes.