Evening star., 1951-09-25
Mr.. Bevon's Buried Hotehet

Aneurin Bevan has done the politically
expedient thing in announcing that he and his
left-wing followers regard it as their duty to
close ranks with the right-wing Labor majority
and work for the defeat of the Tories with
all the power we possess" With Britain prepar-
ing for crucial national election on October
25 they could hardly have chosen otherwise. For
If they had decided to maintain their intra-party
rebellion against Prime Minister Attlees leader
ship, the decision would have greatly increased
the possibility of a big comeback victory for
the Conservatives led by Winston Churchill
As matters stand, the British equivalent of
the Gallup Poll-whch was remarkably accurate
in predicting the outcome of last years general
election-indicates that if the voting took place
right now the Conservatives tthe Tories would
win cear-cut majority. Accordingly, if Mr..
Bevan and his fellow rebels among the Laborites
spent the next few weeks continuing to feud
with the right-wingers in the party, the party
might be hard put to escape defeat of land
slide proportions, with the result that both
warning factions would be on their political
upperS for an indefinite period OF months or
years to come during which the victorious op-
position would have the power to reverse the
Socialist trend in Britain.
So it is not surprising that Mr.. Bevan has
suspended his rebellion and that a spokesman
for the right-wing majority has happily an
nounced that Mr.. Attlee and the whole Labor
Party are going into the battle "as one team,
with one captain, one plan of campaign and one
policy" That is what they must do if they are
to win at all. There are some pessimists among
them who feel that there is nothing that can
be done now to prevent Conservative victory,
but if anything can, if they still have chance
to stay in power, they must put up at least the
of q ted rOl1t nair
mon political enemy. Being a practical man,
Mr.. Bevan probably has figured that he would
have much more to lose than gain if he failed
to bury the hatchet and the Attlee government
were voted out of office in that circumstance.
The hatchet burial, however, is not likely
to be permanent. If the Labor Party wins again
on October 25 Mr. Bevan will almost certainly
return to the line he took last spring when he
broke with Mr. Attlee and resigned from the
cabinet. Although lone" Laborite policy may
be decided upon for electioneering purposes, the
fact remains that the left-wing faction, though
relatively small minority, has strongly COM
mitted itself to the idea that the British should
try to be kind of fl"third force" between Russia
and the United States and that the countrys
defense effort should be subordinated to a
butter -before-guns social-welfare program. The
idea is altogether vague and unrealistic, but it
has potential popular appeal, and the ambitious
Mr.. Bevan can be counted upon to revive it
In the future.
AS a matter of fact, regardless of what
happens on october 25-whether the Attlee gov
ernment wins or loseS-the chances are that
Mr.. Bevan will do his best to build up his
left-wing minority to point strong enough for
him to bid for leadership of the Labor Party.
Meanwhile, having buried the hatchet in favor of
united front for the election, he has put
himself in position where he can claim that
his making action helped to save the day
in case the tAbortes are voted back in. 'On the