BRITISH POLITICS

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22320, 11 April 1944, Page 4

BRITISH POLITICS

MR CHURCHILL CRITICISED

OUTSPOKEN COMMENT

CREATION OF DOUBTS

LONDON, April 9 Outspo! ?n comment on Mr Churchill is made in the latest issue of the Economist in surveying the recent vote of confidence. Observing that Mr Churchill acted well within his rights in forcing the vote, and in accordance with precedent, it asks if he acted wisely, and expresses the opinion that he did not. The paper says that his professed purpose was to emphasise national unity, but his achievement was to create doubts where there were none before. “Ever since Mr Churchill returned from Morocco,” the paper continues, “he has exhibited signs of petulant temper most unlike him. He is usually the most magnanimous of men. While one moment he exhorts the nation to keep in mind the main issue, at other moments he goes out of his way to exalt trifles to an importance they do not deserve and would never have received but for his action. “The intervention of an Independent candidate at a by-election, the impatience of the public over delays in planning a policy, the Government defeat by one vote on a single clause in a bill, have nothing to do with the war effort—they are hardly worthy of notice of the Captain-General of the Nation. “Flurry of Hard Words” “To rush to them with a flurry of hard words and overstrung actions is not to convince doubters or rally waverers. It is to humiliate what should be his most cherished supporters, to irritate the unconcerned and to sadden his friends. A people like the British, in an emergency like the present, will never hold it against their leader that he insists on having his own way in big things that are essential - to the life of the nation. “It is when he begins to insist on having exactly his own way in little things, which are important in their own sphere but certainly not vital to the Commonwealth, that they start wondering whether he is quite the man he was.” The article goes on to refer to the talk of Mr Eden resigning from the Foreign Office on account of “the element of pressure,” the source of which it is not difficult to guess. It says: “It is known that Mr Eden is much disturbed by the recent growth of 3 phenomenon that is very familiar in British political history and has rarely failed to be noxious—the conduct of diplomacy from No. 10 Downing Street. “Mr Eden’s loyalty to the Prime Minister and his ability to collaborate with him are both unquestioned and of long standing. Some new element has been injected into the relation of recent months—or perhaps it is more correct to say some old element is returning with i y evigour. That element is Lord *Beaverbrook. who was with the Pr me Minister in Mogneco and is believed to have been his adviser since he returned.” New' Determination The Economist refers to Lord Beaverbrook’s peremptory temperament and adds that the re-waxing of his star coincides with a new determination on the part of the Prime Minister to exact submission from any of his followers who differ from him. •“The advice the Prime Minister has been getting is bad,” the Economist adds. “If it goes on it will finish by doing the impossible—alienating him from a large section of the country. There has probably never been a Prime Minister who enjoyed such an enormous fund of credit with the people as Mr Churchill, but he has been drawing on it recently at a very rapid rate.” It was made known officially on Friday that Mr Churchill has decided to postpone any reconstruction of his Cabinet.