STAFFORD CRIPPS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1940, Page 8

STAFFORD CRIPPS

A JOB AT MOSCOW Discussing the visit to Moscow of, Sir Stafford Cripps,'in search of an.' Anglo. Russian trade treaty, a Correspondent of Sydney paper wrote:— Heihasranother mission also—to. bring aimore friendly .tone into the relationship between Britain and Russia. For months past Britain and Russia have been on shouting, but not speaking -terms. Their statesmen have denounced each other across the, frontiers. Diplomatic notes exchanged between the. two capitals have been shuffled into pegeon holes or waste paper baskets. Now, at last, after many whisperings, an attempt is made to repair the break. It is a task for a, diplomat, yet -strangely the approval of the British Government has been bestowed on a iman whose language in the past has been a good deal too blunt for the British: Labour Party/ How will he fare in his new role? Sir Stafford has played many different parts in his time; a- schoolboy at Winchester, a brilliant science student, the. manager of a local Conservative newspaper, , a directing chemist in, a, Government explosive factory, a superbly successful lawyer—perhaps the most proficient in England—Sol-icitor-General, the black, (or rather, the red) sheep of the Labour Party, and now diplomat. One tiling lie is not and has never been-T | a j politician. That single oversight is his strength and his weakness. ' As a. boy, Sir Stafford spent his holidays building underground houses, bridging the pond, and’later launching out into the construction of a glider airplane. It crashed, but the inventor was not disconcerted. He took a science scholarship at New College. Such,. however, was the promise of his papers that they were sent to the great chemist at London University, Sir William Ramsay. He went to work in the labority in University College. Science gave way to , law. In 1913 he was called to the Bar, hut war came and he went to France. When peace' returned, however, he quickly made his name. ■ 1 The- combination of ' great powers of advocacy with his expert scientific knowledge was irresi. stable. In ten years he climbed to the top of the procession. • Politics were still very much in the background.''; His- father, Lord Parmoor, joined the Labour Government in 1924, and Sir Stafford’s political views appeared to change with lips Father’s. But he hail other interests. He became the treasurer of the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches. Science., -ihe Law, Religion, such was the-sequence. Not until 1928 was lie persuaded to become & Socialist candidate. Two years later lie was summoned by Ramsay MacDonald to take the post of Solicitor-General in the second Labour Government. Three years later lie was one- of the handful of ,ex-Ministers left on the Opposition Front Bench after the Socialist holocaust of 1931, a formidable candidate for the. leadership. No one would have guessed from his past that he would spend most of the mext nine years fighting his partv for what he regarded as their timidity. He denounced on the hustings the rich men who sought him so persistently as their advocate in the courts* gratified the newspapers by his fierce indiscretions, addressed huge crowds throughout the country in a legal ‘.manner (but in jlanguage far from legalmistic in its forthrightness. He has few of the arts and mannerisms of a Messiah. Into the House of Commons and on to the platform lie still carries with him the methods of the Bar. Perhaps some packed audience in the East End waits with their tongues handing out of the mouths for some light aside or mounting peroration such as Lloyd George purveys. They wait in vain from Sir Stafford. He holds in his hand a thick bunch of notes. His other fist rises and falls with faint monotony. His voice is clear resonant. Perhaps the audience waits for fireworks. They receive instead a steady, logical argument, reduced to the essential sumplicities which convince a jury. Next day they may be astonished to learn that this so obviously sober matter of fact judge of events has littered sentences which have sent Transport House into paroxysms. The same incongruity occurs in the House of Commons. This is the man so much hated by the Labour front bench and the Tory back benches. For the one he is the cuckoo in the nest; for the other the sheep who has left the rich man’s fold. Yet for all this logical capacity, for all this cold restraint in public appearances, Cripps is a prophet none the less. He has the self-confidence -if a Messiah, the conviction that lie is right when all the world appears Jto pronounce him wrong, amazing energy and powers of concentration to continue working in the face of constant rebuffs, a burning belief in the rectitude of liis cause.

It is those characteristics no doubt which have led him to dash his head against brick walls when an up-bring-ing in politics might have led him to discover the holes through them.

Certainly the ostracism with which he is treated by his party is