Evening star., 1941-11-18
Opposition Combine, Pressing for Soviet Aid,
Peri|s British Cabinet, but Not. Churchill

logical provocateur. 1t might well
advocate taking risks of which the
Soviet government in Moscow would
not approve. BUT the British Com
munist party-as have said-is a
minor factor in the aid-to-Russia
movement.
The British government itself is
very clearly as helpless as the little
Communist party. In the first weeks
of the war 1t patted the ald-to-
Russia movement on the head
benevolently. It's sentiments seemed
a kind of Endorsement of the Tory
party's decision to pitch in on
Stalin's side Churchill's own de-
cision to help Russia when the time
came was made at least a year
before Hitler attacked.
Rebellion Against InactiOn.
AS the aid-to-Russia movement
grew it began to become apparent
that there was more to it than
simply special pleading for diver
sion front. 1t began to sound like
an incipient nationwide rebellion
a rebellion against inaction. 1t grew
out of the impatiecce OF an angry,
frustrated people to get on with
the business of destroying their en-
emieS.
Nowhere in the speeches and
articles arguing for aid to Russia
could l find any recognition of the
harsh realities of the problem. No
one talked to who called for action
could make himself clearer than
How should know how we can
help RuSSia-that is the govern
ments Job to find out. But l know
we've got to act and act quick and
! l want TO act"
Wholly to understand this move
ment would be wholly to under
stand the British people and their
war. l make no such claim. Ali
I can supply is little evidence for
others to Judge.
1t is the army that feels most
keenly that it is called on to pay
! fol the Tory partys mistakes in the
2Os-or that it has already paid in
the humiliation of defeat after de-
feat. in the men it left dead on the
beaches of Narvik and Dunkerque
and on the desert in the Eastern
! Mediterranean. For it was the Tory
government that would not give
/ the army weapons when Its officers
! felt they knew what was coming.
Baldwin Attacked.
/ In discussing the war with British
| officers not one but dozens in diff
/ ferent branches of the British
armed forces surprised me by sud-
/ denly launching an attack on STAN
ley Baldwin. Not Chamberlain but
! Stanley Baldwin is the armys VII
| lain. They say he knew he was
wrong when he stood up in Com
mons and told the people of Eng
land that they need not be afraid.
They said he was wrong not only
| in general but in a dozen particu-
! lars. Then he sent a commission
of prejudiced British manufacturers
to America, for instance, and the
government accepted their report
that Britain would never have TO
use American production facilities
They blamed Baldwin's policies
which Chamberlain followed. for all
the things that happened at Munich
They are angrier than the Com
munists ever were about the pres
ence of men like Margesson anc
Kingsley Wood in the cabinet. They
don't understand Churchill's toll
Grating the very men whose policies
he so ably exposed and attacked
before and after Munich.
The British officer in this war is
outspoken. I remember writing
about democratic action in the
British Army last year-abouI
the pressure on its commanders from
below, from the junior ranks. to get
on with the war, to win it. remem-
ber that year ago they were gang
ing up on Intellectual senior officers
They simply criticized them out OF
their jobs in officers messes. I saw
it done-to one of the highest-rank-
ing officers in England. They told
me in November that they woulo
have him out by January and he was
out before Christmas.
The same thing was happening
again this year. only this time the
criticism was not at particular gen.
erals-it was about that bloody
Tory party that got us in the fl,
We are in now. that bloody Eder
and the mess he made last year il
the Mediterranean" and that blood,
Halifax in Washington" And, finally
it was just about those bloody poll
ticians in London.
Army May Be Political Force.
When the British Army wins ,
ma jor battle believe it will become
, an important political force.
) The politicians in London haven
had many friends and relative
killed. but almost every officer il
the British Army has. The Britisl
Army is minute and its casualtie
) in Norway, Belgium and France AM
| various Mediterranean campaign
have been comparatively high. l
blames these losses, as well as it
defeats. on the obsolete equipmen
/ with which it was sent into battle
, And it holds the Tory party respon
5 sible for this equipment. 1t ais
: holds the party responsible for wha
t it regards as its unnecessary dali