THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, May 13, 1940. MR CHURCHILL TAKES OVER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24296, 13 May 1940, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, May 13, 1940. MR CHURCHILL TAKES OVER

Political dissension in Great Britain has been resolved with characteristic thoroughness and despatch. It might have been thought that the Chamberlain Government, finding itself confronted by a major military crisis in Europe, would have preferred to postpone the composing of domestic differences while it got to grips with the larger issue. Hitler, it may safely be assumed, was himself influenced by the outcome of the momentous debate in the House of Commons in choosing the moment to launch his great offensive against the Allies. He may have counted, as a factor .likely to operate to the advantage of German strategy, on a condition of political disturbance in Britain, itself affecting British morale. If that were indeed the line of his reasoning, he showed himself once more to be incapable either of understanding the workings of the British mind or of appreciating the uncompromising directness of the British approach to vital national problems. What he should have known was that his action in striking at Britain and France through Belgium and the Netherlands must hasten rather than delay the political reconstruction deemed necessary by Parliament for the more effective prosecution of the war. He should have known, also, that such reconstruction would be contrived swiftly and without cavil, while not affecting in the slightest degree the operation of the Allied plans for countering the blow that it was realised must fall in the West. In the event, Germany has been engaged with all the concentrated military force of the Allies on the fronts involved, while in London, overnight, the Government was changed almost entirely in character and personnel. As a consequence the war will go on with its military direction unaffected by the dramatic events of Friday and Saturday, but with its political control, more particularly on the side of Great Britain, revitalised by a consolidation of political forces formerly divided on party lines, and by the compression of energy that must result from the creation of a compact inner Cabinet virtually relieved of all irrelevant administrative responsibilities. The machinery of democratic government has demonstrated once again its resilience and adaptability. As was the case when Mr Lloyd George formed his “ Cabinet of Victory” in December, 1916, Mr Churchill has assumed the leadership of the nation at the stage of war demanding foresight, energy, and high courage, and requiring also that these qualities should find their reflection in the reaction to danger of the entire nation. In every sense the new Prime Minister is equipped for the task that he is undertaking. Politically, he-has an incomparable background of experience, gained in and out of office over a period of more than three decades, during which almost the only high position that did not fall to him was that to whiph he has now succeeded. But in more than one sense will the leadership of an allparty war-time Government crown for Mr Churchill an extraordinary political career. His special genius has been described as the genius of action, and the nation has never had greater need than at the moment of that capacity in the head of the Government. Mr Churchill is being given the opportunity to fulfil what even some of his critics have suspected to be his destiny—to act positively in opposition to those revived pan-German aspirations long expounded by him as the gravest menace to the world’s peace. His War Cabinet is compactly constituted, after the pattern of that conceived by Mr Lloyd George, with its national character boldly asserted. In it, the nation will be relieved and gratified to note, the services of Mr Chamberlain are retained. Nor should the part played by the retiring,Prime Minister, in striving to save the world’s peace prior to last September as in his handling of the subsequent involved policies of action, be dismissed without due recognition Mr Chamberlain held stubbornly to his own political course while he deemed it to be soundly advised, but with instant and unselfish decision made way for “ his friend and colleague ” when circumstances compelled the surrender of personal opinions to a wider judgment. Mr Chamberlain’s pre-war efforts were an expression of both his temperament and his talents: the different task of the present calls for different talents and a less arbitrary mental approach. The retention of Lord Halifax at the Foreign Office will be welcomed as another sign of the rightness of Mr Churchill’s judgment, Avhile the inclusion in the War Cabinet of Mr Attlee and Mr Greenwood, brought fresh yet well-equipped to a great task, provides evidence not only of national unity but also of national concentration on the winning of the war. Outside the War Cabinet in the reconstituted Ministry are Mr

Eden, at the War Office, Mr Alexander at the Admiralty—a post formerly held by him as a Labour Minister —-and Sir Archibald Sinclair, as Minister for Air. The choice of Mr Eden as War Minister is not surprising, and should capture the public imagination because of the emphasis that it gives to the need for vigour and the younger outlook in what, in time of war, is a key executive post. The wheel of political fortune would seem, in this development, to have turned full cycle for Mr Eden, since, in 1938, he voluntarily interrupted a promising Ministerial career because of his inability to reconcile his own views with the European appeasement policy of Mr Chamberlain. Mr Alexander and the Liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, bring both competence and experience to their new duties. -In all, Mr Churchill seems to have chosen a Cabinet team of the greatest promise—one which may be expected to plan with imagination and act with speed and certainty. The central reform, of a War Cabinet that will be, in effect, a compact committee of action, has been achieved. That result, in the light of recent criticism, ought to be reflected as much in the spirit 'of the nation as in the conduct of the war itself. And it is not without significance, as indicating the very intimate collaboration existing between Great Britain and France, that M. Reynaud has met the requirements of the new’ situation in his own Cabinet. The strength of the Allied association could hardly be better illustrated.