The Timaru Herald MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1942. BRITAIN’S NEW CABINET

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22204, 23 February 1942, Page 4

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1942. BRITAIN’S NEW CABINET

Although Mr chm-chni was able to command an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons during the recent debate, he was not able to silence criticism outside the House. Changes in the British War Cabinet show he has not been deaf to these fault finders. The motive behind this criticism is the same motive which has impelled these Cabinet changes—a grim realisation that conference resolutions and Parliamentary debates do not win battles. In Mr Churchill’s famous phrase, this war can only be won by “blood and toil, tears and sweat.” These Cabinet changes are therefore indicative that the people of Britain feel that a new spirt is needed, and that it must “start at the grass roots and travel up through every phase of our life.”

They are realising that the quality needed to win this war is action—immediate and aggressive action. People are learning the hard lesson that a purely defensive attitude against modern mechanised armies, exploiting to the utmost the “panzer” technique of warfare, is doomed to failure. The Maginot Line, Greece, Crete, Singapore—all have the same sorry story to tell—they remained on the defensive. 'l'he most revolutionary change in the British Cabinet —the appointment of Sir Stafford Cripps as Lord Privy Seal and Leader ol the House of Commons —is indicative that there is a realisation of what is wrong. Sir Stafford Cripps has long been urging more action, and in his first broadcast speech after his return from Russia he told the nation that they “must all pull their weight in the fight now going on.’ He said: “It seems to me that there is a lack of urgency in the atmosphere in Britain. It is almost as though we were spectators instead of participants. We are still too much cluttered up with the old conceptions of party politics and peacetime organisations, also with the idea that we must run the war according to a set of rules which must preserve a rigid balance between the competing interests.” It is somewhat ironical that part of Sir Stafford’s new duties will be. the defending of actions of men he has so ably criticised in the past. But he is sure to have given this aspect some thought, and it can be taken for granted that he himself will have a good deal to say in the shaping of the affairs of State, lhe chief criticism levelled against the new Cabinet is that it lends to be Leftist. But the Leftism of the Labour Party is not the Leftisrh of Sir Stafford Cripps. It is now some years since he was expelled from the Labour Party for urging a united front of lhe Socialist League, the Independent LabourParty and the Communist Party. He was a bitter opponent of the National Government and he told England that “we must get rid of Chamberlain and his pro-fascist forces if any of the decencies ol our civilisation are to remain.” With lhe passing of the years, this new Leader of the House of Commons has somewhat mellowed his views, but there has been no indication that he is not in favour of radical changes in the British social system. That he is in favour of revolutionary changes in the conduct of the war there is no question, and the.influence of his dynamic personality in the Cabinet will go a long way in silencing opposition. But it must not be thought that all criticism will now be silenced, particularly the criticism of Mr L. Hore-Belisha who has resigned from the Liberal Parly “in order lo lake an independent critical attitude of the Government.” Ever since he was relieved of his post as War Minister, Mr HoreBelisha, in his syndicated newspaper articles has been almost continuously antagonistic to the Government policy. For months past he has been an advocate of a direct assault upon Germany in the theatre of war where “we can bring a preponderance of force to bear.” Whatever may be the policy of the new British War Cabinet we may be assured that it will be a policy of action. This is heartening news to Australia and New Zealand, and we hope that there will be early indication of that action. The United States alone is' producing 2000 aeroplanes a month —a few hundred of these planes dispatched to Java might well turn our defensive warfare against the Japanese into an Allied offensive.