CAREER OF NEW LEADER

Southland Times, Issue 25737, 30 July 1945, Page 5

CAREER OF NEW LEADER

Entered Parliament At Age Of 38 (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 28. It is being said that one would have to go all the way back to Simon de Montfort to find a Parliament with so many new faces as the one which the King will open in State on August 8. All the main Labour personaliities are in the Government, but there are many newcomers. Although he occupied a prominent position during the war and previously, Mr Attlee naturally is coming in for closer public attention than ever before and his record is being carefully reexamined. It is admitted generally that, placed opposite Mr Churchill, he had a quiet and self-effacing manner and a somewhat colourless personality, and, compared with Mr Churchill’s imaginative grasp of the English language, his thoughts are expressed in austere busi-ness-like terms.

“Shrewd and business-like” is, in fact, the description being applied to him. He is also said to be passionately sincere, clear-headed, objective and precise. He is regarded as having a sound, honourable record. He is a son of a Putney solicitor and was educated at Haileybury and University College, Oxford. During his early twenties his conscience was roused by social conditions in the East End of London and he went to live there and work as a docker. He joined the Labour Party and later lectured at the London School of Economics. WAR SERVICE In the First World War he fought with the South Lancashire Regiment and the Tank Corps, rising to the rank of major, which title, incidentally, he has long since discarded. He was 36 years old when he became Mayor of Stepney and 38 when he first represented Limehouse in the House of Commons. In Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s administration he had a junior office and in 1927 he went to India with the Simon Commission. He succeeded Mr George Lansbury as leader of the Labour Party in 1931 and was Leader of the Opposition in 1939.

In Mr Churchill’s Coalition he was, of course, Deputy Prime Minister. Mi- Attlee is regarded as having a comprehensive view of foreign and Imperial affairs and a firm grasp of home subjects. He was vehement in his attitude towards the Spanish Civil War and realized it would lead to a world conflict unless the authoritarian ambitions were frustrated. The International Brigade in Spain formed a “Major Attlee Company.” He was unequivocal in his attitude to the Italian masquerade in Abyssinia, and was later a bitter critic of Munich. He hated German aggression and declared himself against all kinds of “shirts.”

Mr Attlee once said: “I am against dictatorship whether in blue shirts, green shirts, red shirts or any other kind of shirts, but I object equally when they are in boiled shirts.” He is generally regarded as acquitting himself well in the Coalition Government and is widely respected. The opinion is expressed that no more modest man ever became Great Britain’s Prime Minister. He is aged 62. NEW PERSONALITIES Among interesting new Labour personalities in the House are General Mason MacFarlane, who defeated Mr Brendan Bracken. He had a distinguished military career and was one of the last men to leave the Dunkirk beaches. Jennie Lee returns to the Commons to join her husband, Mr Aneurin Bevan, who was one of Mr Churchill’s most relentless critics during the war. Michael Foot, the well-known columnist of The Daily Herald, who 'defeated Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha, is among several journalists returned, and his future will be watched with interest. It is said that Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. Wigg, who won at Dudley, will be an acquisition to Parliament. He is an authority on education and one of the leading experts in charge of Army education schemes.

Harold Wilson, who defeated Commander Stephen King Hall, is only 22, but he is regarded as one of the great discoveries of the war and is a brilliant civil servant. ENGLAND TURNS TO SOCIALISM “Victory For Surging Tide Of Communism” NEW YORK, July 27. “Although Mr Churchill could promise blood, sweat and tears he was not good at promising Utopias with fences around them, so the electorate turned the old war horse out to grass,” says The New York Sun, commenting editorially on the election. “We wish Mr Attlee well, but we shall sorely miss the great voice which in so many hours of despondency called the Englishspeaking world to unparalleled exertions and filled it with new courage and fresh hope.” The journal American says: “England has turned decisively and enthusiastically to socialism under national leadership, which has the relentless and frank purpose of turning England ultimately to Communism. The real victory is not for anything British, but for a surging tide of Leftist totalitarianism and Communism.”