Evening star., 1952-02-02
Churchill and the Loborites

In It's iirst survival test since coming back
into power Prime Minister Churchill's Com
servative government with the support Of fve
Liberals has been upheld In the House Of Com
mons by vote of 500 to 278--a margin Of victory
wide enough to suggest that the Laborites will
be hard put to force new national elections for
many month to come.
But this outcome probably has not surprised
the LaboriteS For they must have known in
advance that the odds were heavily against them
In trying to bring about the governments down,
fall with 4 censure motion condemning the new
austerity -and-retrenchmen program presented
by Mr.. Churchills Chancellor Of the Exchequer.
After all, that program calling for additional
British self-denial, more cuts in non n-essential
imports, stepped-up drive to increase exports,
and modification Of free socialized medicine
and other welfare services-has been drawn UP
as one OF the undertakings that must be carried
through II the country is to remain solvent and
finish the great rearmament task 1t set for itself
when the Labor Party was in power under Prime
Minister Attlee.
In the circumstances, in pressing Tor no
confidence vote against Mr.. Churchill the Labor
ties were in poor position to present really
strong arguments without appearing to strike
at the defense program that they themselves
had set in motion against the opposition of their
left-wing minority headed by Aneurin Bevan
Thus, in the debate on the censure proposal,
they were obliged to admit that the critical
post-Korean drain on Britain's gold and dollar
reserves required exceptional corrective meas
ures-an admission which in itself tended to
weaken and contradict their contention that
additional austerity and retrenchment were un-
necessary. In fact, in taking this stand, Mr..
AttIee and his followers-still harried by the
merely to be playing the traditional role Of outs"
seeking to gain political capital from attacking
an unpleasant but inescapable policy whose
essential nature probably would be pretty much
the same If they were the "ins."
Having thus lost in their first attempt to
unseat Mr.. Churchill the Laborites are now re-
ported to be debating whether to try soon for
another no-confidence vote, this time on the
issue of foreign policy. With the exception OF
their small rebel minority, they have been In
agreement with the Conservative Party on all
basic international questions for more than
decade past But many of them together with
some of the Tories-appar fear that the
Prime Minister, In his recent talks with Presi-
dent Truman, committed Britain to support pos
sible American military action against Red
China, and they want to challenge the govern
ment on that basis. Such challenge, however,
would be likely 10 play lnGo MI. 0eVdn AAOl-
tious hands, and Mr.. Attlee and his majority
wing may therefore decide against it.
In any event, given the continued support
of the Liberals. the Churchill government, even
if it should suffer several Conservative defec-
tions, ought to be able to survive whatever new
Laborite tests may be in the making at this
stage. In short, with or without challenge
on its Asian policy, it would seem to have SUM-
cient strength In Commons to feel fairly sure
of reasonably long life. Britain's parliament
tary situation is quite different, from Frances
id that respect.