Evening star., 1951-04-24
Revolt Against AttIee

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The sum of Aneurin Bevan's position is that
it is more important for Britain to enact social
benefits than to rearm against the pressing
menace of Soviet aggression. So, breaking with
the Attlee government, he has resigned as Labor
Minister and taken the lead-followed by such
ike-minded colleagues as Harold Wilson, presi-
dent of the Board of Trade-in left-wing revolt
that can hardly fail to hasten a new national
election which winston Churchill's Conservatives
seem fairly sure of winning.
OF course, ever since its skin-of- the teeth
parliamentary victory in February of last year,
the British Labor government has been on sfaky
ground. Wholly apart from being seriously
handicapped by its razor-thin majority in the
House Of Commons, 1t has grown increasingly
unpopular with the people at large because some
of its socialization projects have been dsilluson-
ing in the extreme and because it has stirred
up lot of grief for itself with policies like
the one that has sharply reduced the meat
ration. Above ALL Prime Minister Attlee-who
has been in anything but robust health and
whose efforts to hold his party together have
been seriously set back by Ernest Bevin's death
and by the earlier resignation Of the ailing Sir
Stafford Cripps-has been having mounting be-
hind-the-scenes trouble with the left-wing
Laborites over the rearmament program
4A&V tADuO4C 4dS AlO" UCCu UEOuSUG 70
head by the revolt led by MIR. Bevan. Reversing
the nonsense of some Americans who charge
that the White House is dominated by London,
Mr.. Bevan has given voice to the equally absurd
accusation that the Attlee government is letting
Washington lead 1t around by the nose in the
free worlds effort to counter the Soviet threat
AS II such threat did not really exist, as If 1t
were imaginary, as If 1t could be met with
piddling half measures, he has made clear that
he and his followers in the Labor Party are
against the scale of the arms expenditures ad-
vocated by Mr.. Attlee. They want butter before
guns; they want defense without austerity or
belt-t tightening; they insist that under the pro-
gram of socialized health British patients,
instead of being asked to pay so per cent of the
cost, must be given false teeth and eyeglasses
entirely free, gratis and for nothing. In short
rather than cut a penny from governmental
handouts in order to help finance an absolutely
imperative rearmament program, they take the
position that Britain can be a kind of neutral
Third Force" between Russia and the United
States and that military preparedness must
not be allowed to interfere In any way with
starry-eyed Socialist experiments aimed at put
ting pie in the sky bye and bye for everybody.
Besides being bleakly reminiscent Of the kind
OF thinking that prevailed In France prior to
Frances downfall in lS40. all this adds up to
striking example of how completely unrealistic
o doctrinaire radical can be. Fortunately Mr..
Bevan's views represent only the left-wing
minority Of the Labor Party, but they neverthe-
less threaten to split that party wide open, and
they undeniably can be used to good effect by
demagogues (not to mention Communists) in
terested in exploiting the British peoples natural
desire to put an end to their long years of auster
ity. OF course, as far as Brtain's domestic polit
ical realities are concerned, the Bevan revolt can
serve only to give the Conservatives near
future opportunity to return to power. As for
the international realities it can scarcely be re-
garded as anything but a move expressing q
stubborn refusal to recognize the existence of
grave danger against which the United King
dom and all other free countries must unite and
arm If they are to remain free and enjoy any
social progress whatever.
Accordingly, since Mr.. Bevan and his group
thus have made 1t inordinately difficult for Mr..
Attlee and the moderate majority Of his party
to lead the country in united rearmament
effort, the time would seem to be about here
for new national election. If the overwhe1m-
ing mass of the British people would show
plainly enough in such an election that they do
not share the views of the left-wing Laborites,
Britain could then carry out its urgent task Of
preparedness without being distracted by blindly
4doctrinaire politicians who seem to think that
free false teeth can be more effective than guns
In dealing with the threatening Kremhn.