Evening star., 1939-06-11
Right and Left Wings
Are Moving Toward
Center in Britain
Coalition Government Is
Seen in Prospect in
Near Future
By II. ]. ]. SARGENT.


cate, the political situation in this
country is just now an eHtraordi-
narily interesting one to those who
can interpret the signs. Put shortly,
the tendency on the extreme right.
that is to say on the conservative
side. is to move more toward the
center, or, in other words, toward
the left, while labor shows a definite
trend toward the center, in that
case, toward the right.
1t was very significant that, at
the Socialist party conference at
Southport the other day. an over
whelming vote of about five 20 one
was cast against resembling the ex-
pulsion of Sir Stafford Cripps from
the party. Cripps represents the
left-wing element of Socialism and
is the leader in England Of the So
called Popular Front, which is
practically synonymous with Com
munism. Lanor will rave nothing
to do with Communism in this
country-as is shown by the fact
that there is only one professed
Communist who is a member of the
House of Commons-but it was not
expected that the Southport con-
terence would reject Cripps and MS
policies by 100000 votes to 4O2 900.
Perhaps the conference was influ-
enced in rejecting the principles CT
a popular front by the disastrous
example of M Bluns Popular
Front government in France.
1r, thjc r,oNuorocy,- fro,,, ~, =
left. labor has oeen following the
line it has taken up during the
last II months. Labor has not Sc
riously opposed the heavy rearma-
ment policy of the conservative
government. and has also accepted
with little demur and with no hos
tile vote the adoption o. conscrir-
ton. The conservative policy of
this country. in fact, has had little
to fear from a center-minded oppo-
sition.
Coalition in Prospect.
Now, on the other side, it is pos
sible to detect a certain impatience
among Neville Chamberlain's sup
porters. A long time ago, I remarked
that some sort of coalition govern
ment was pretty certain to develop
in England in the near future, and
it would not surprise me if that state
of affairs were to occur rather sooner
than later. Significant of such
tendency are editorials which appear
from time to time in newspapers
whose editors are included in the
inner councils of the Tory party.
There has recently been printed
in the London Times, for instance,
an editorial bearing the heading
Tired Ministers" The writer began
his remarks by dwelling at great
length on the prolonged absence
from his post, owing to i'll health, of
Lord Runciman, who holds the po-
slIon of lord president of the
council in the cabinet, and whose
presence or absence from the min
isterial bench in the House of Com
mons is not a matter Of great
moment. Such a minister as the
lord president has no department
of state to control and is used for
all kinds of odd jobs From Runci-
man, the writer went on to en-
phasize the crushing weight of the
duties falling upon the foreign sec
retary and finally on the Prime Min
lister himself. Courteously remark
ing that it would be sheer disaster
and would create a deplorable i'm
preston abroad if there we're
changes among the two or three
men who are really guiding British
policy the Times goes on to say that
the day will come when even Mr.
Chamberlain and Lord Halifax will
have to give way to Younger men,
and not the least of their bounden
duties even at this stage is to see
that they have the widest field of
choice behind them
Dawson Great Propagandist
1t is generally accepted in this
country that Godfrey Dawson. the
editor of the Times, is one of the
very few persons composing the
inner circle of those who may be
said to govern England. He has
been called the greatest propagandist
in the country and his powers as
propagandist have been shown re-
peatedly in the past IL months. One
instance only need be mentioned. It
was the Times which first suggested
that the Sudetenland belonging to
Czecho-Slovakia might be handed
to Germany in order to relieve the
tension in Central Europe The
British government professed at first
to be Mortified by the suggestion,
and indeed the foreign office went
so far as to issue a note declaring
that the suggestion did not in any
way represent the policy of the
British government. Yet, few days
later, that very step was taken.
With this knowledge in mind, it is
worth remembering that the Times
editorial ended with the sentence,
Whatever may be thought about
Mr., Chamberlain and Lord Halifax,
1t is a patent fact that not every
tired minister is Indispensable
But still more striking fact is to
be noted. The Yorkshire Post bluest
of Tory journals and largely con-
trolled by the family of Anthony
Eden's wife, printed an editorial, two
days after the appearance of the
Times editorial mentioned above de-
scribing the present enormous gov
ernment majority in the House of
Commons as danger to democracy
and saying that Parliament itself
was out of balance. The paper
argued in favor of stronger oppo-
sition and of the infusion of fresh
blood into the cabinet If there were
a normal opposition in the Commons,
it said, it would not have been pos
sible for government to persist in
a foreign policy which events had so
discredited. The bloated majority in
the House of Commons is described
as inattentive to the counsels of men
like Churchill, Eden, Duff Cooper,
who carry less weight than the safe
party man who knows little about
foreign affairs.