Evening star., 1938-06-30
Is Chamberlain Through?

40 NAAoAAAOCAAdAA AuTOuSus
So far the Chamberlain government
has survived all efforts to bring it down
on the issue of its "un-British" refusal
to prevent Spanish Insurgent air piracy
which has been responsible in recent
weeks for the sinking of threescore
OF merchantmen flying the Union Jack
and the killing of dozens of British
seamen. The Prime Minister'S ex-
tenuation Of his reluctance to vindicate
Britannia's proudest traditions and use
her mighty navy for that purpose is
twofold.
The realist Of Downing Street pleads
I'd that the freighters in question are
running Frances unrecognized block
ade purely for the pelf obtainable from
that venturesome trade, and have no
right to expect for 1t protection which
might embroil Britain in war, and co
that war would inevitably ensue with
the relationships if British forces
cleared for action against Frances
IS,
Downing Streets policy, even in the
face Of provocation, both acknowledged
and humiliating, is safety first-peace
at any price.
Although the parliamentary oppo-
sition has proposed successive votes of
censure, mainly of Labor origin, as a
protest against Chamberlain's turn-the-
other-cheek program, his overwhelming
Commons majority has showed these
hostile moves under as regularly as
they were made. Last spring, by
elections went against the government
on the issue Of its nabby foreign policy,
but latterly the Conservatives have held
their own in divisions contested with
Chamberlain keeping-us-ou = of war
tactics as the Tories chief campaign
material. So keen an observer of the
British scene as Ambassador Kennedy
has been quoted during his present visit
to the United States as believing that
public opinion in Britain, by and large,
sustains the Prime Minister'S do-nothing
attitude.
Latest London news suggests an i'm
pending breach in the hitherto i'm
pregnable wall Of Chamberlains sup
port. Four prominent Conservatives
former Foreign Secretary Eden, the
Duchess OF Athol, Viscount Cecil of
Chelwood and Duncan sandys, Winston
Churchlll's son-in-law-have openly re-
pudiated him. Other Tory adherents
manifest resentment by demonstrative,
abstention from voting on questions in
volving Frances defiance of British
shipping rights. While there is as yet
no ground for suggesting that the gov
ernment Is tottering to fall, it is certain
that Indignation is rising within the
Conservative party as well as in the
country.
Labor and its Liberal allies, like
Lloyd George and his slender but mill
tant cohorts, apparently feel that the
hour Is not quite ripe to force the Tories
from office. Some opposition leaders con-
slider Chamberlainism is automatically
On the way out, and that If given rope
enough, on such issues as the mount
ing gorge Of the man in the street over
insults to the merchant flag in the
Mediterranean, the realists will hang
themselves. Current allegations that
German-1nsurgent artillery now menaces
Gibraltar and that Britain's home air
defenses leave perilously much to be
desired are not designed to bolster the
shattered prestige of q regime which
evidently no longer holds with the
ancient theory that "Britons never,
never, never will be slaves" Nor is the
ignominious spectacle of British prime
minister begging Italy to help him pro-
tect British shipping likely to fortify
Mr.. Chamberlain's crumbling fortunes.