MR. ATTLEE CONDEMNS MR. CHURCHILL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 167, 22 July 1946, Page 5

MR. ATTLEE CONDEMNS MR. CHURCHILL

PARTY BANKRUPT OF THOUGHT-OUT POLICY Recd. 5.30 p.m. London, July 20. • The Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, in ! a speech at Durham at the lirst i miners’ gala since 1939, accused the I Conservative Party of being bankrupt, of any thought-out policy. i He deplored “the irresponsibility i which had overcome the Tory Party from Mr. Churchill down.” He claim - ed that if a turn of fate made Mr. Churchill Prime Minister to-morrow he would not know wbat to do. Mr. Churchill in office had talked of a five-year plan which contained many good things which the Labour Party had made better. “The tragedy for Mr. Churchill is that the Labour Government, in 12 months, has put through the major items of his five-year plan, which had been prepared by the Coalition 1 Government, and now, finding himself without a programme, he ceases to pursue the path of a statesman and goes in for a series of stunts, attempting to exploit immediate grievances and make party capital of national necessities.’’ Mr. Attlee gave as an example the campaign against bread rationing—“an ' attempt to use the difflcultv of the > transitional period to gain some support for the Conservative Party.” The Minister of Health, Mr. Aneurin Bevan, in a speech after Mr. Attlee, attacked the coalowners as the most; backward, most reactionary and most malignant collection of property owners in history. He added that the Coal Bill marked the end of a black era and the beginning of a brighter one, in which it never again would be possible for a young miner to fear unemployment and victimisation at the hands of the capricious coal owner.