By WILLIE GALLACHER, M.P.

O

~What-a change for the

erstwhile overlords, for those who had come to think of
themselves as the divinely appointed rulers of the country.
How proud they were, how insolent and how condescend-

before them in all humility.

How easy everything was for
them. When ~~ they spoke,
spoke te their own, with

they
only
2 minority, of the discontented
to interrupt their
Sometimes

well-rounded

periods. we might

anger them,-but more often we
excited their disdain. Even up
to the last—to the very count-
ing of the votes, they had no
foreboding of the disaster that
awaited them. With their trump
Gard, Churehill, they were sure
of _ victory, even though the
count might be close. But their
trump card turned out to be a
deuce of the wrong suit, and
for the first time in a long, long
history, the ruling class of Bri-
tain (whether labelled Liberal
or Tory) returned to the House
ef Commons, not as overlords,
but as a disgruntled, discredited
and demoralized minority.

Now they speak in an atmos-
phere that is almost completely
beyond their reckoning. Their
pretensions are laughed at, their
posturing is greeted with der-
ision and scorn. Front bench
leaders who, hitherto, were pre-
sented as “great” men, the fore-
most of our political leaders, as
often as mot struggle to speak
against a barrage of interrup-
tions and ironic laughter. That
Sort of thing was tolerable, part
ef the business, when it was
ihiberal versus Tory, two groups
of the one class. But it is dif-
ferent now that the Libera}
Party has been absorbed by the

Tories, and the combination of
all that stands for “Free PEnter-
prise” (the right to loot the

country) is faced with the rep-
resentatives of those who re-
fuse any longer to be looted.
How can they get back?

_Theyl never get back,” de
clare the triumphant Labor ma-
jority. Let the Labor Govern-
ment Carry out Labor's program
and the Tory gang is finished
forever. There is truth in that.
There is also a warning. While
we welcome the truth we should
take heed ‘of the warning. For
all the time the enemy will seelk
for an opening through which
he can penetrate and break up
Gur forces. It may seem that
such a course is doomed to de-
feat and disappointment, never-
theless if remains the one great
hope of the Tory Party.

@n the Bank of England Bill,
they could do nothing in the
Way of direct opposition. The
Situation in the country and
throughout the world was. far
teo serious and anything like an
attempt to retain the old an-
archy in our finances could
have brought them nothing but
further ruin. Of -course, the
change brought about was more
formal than some of us desired.

those whom they patronized

as to ensure that money, which
might otherwise have gone over-
seas for the private profit of
the investors, will now go to
the building of our own indus-
tri€s, it can make a difference.
Used with courage and imagin-
ation, these changes can be a
big advantage in the fight for
full employment and high wages.
@.

Nok was there anything in the

Proposal to nationalize the coal
mines that could provide the
Tories with an opportunity. Al-
ready during the period of the
coalition, the Reid Report had
exposed the woeful neglect of
the mines of the country. This
Report, waccepted by the coali-
tion government, left but a
very short step to nationaliza-
tion, and that step the Tories
could do no other than take.
Not only se, but, on the Com-

mittee, the leaders of the Tory~

sideé were Captain Crookshanks
and Mr. Harold MacMillan, and,
Guring the proceedings, Shin-
well, who did a great job. in
piloting the Bill, was able to
quote from a book written by
MacMillan, before the war, ad-
vocating nationalism of the
mines as the only way of re-
storing the industry. :

As-a matter of fact, the only
question on which opposition to
the Mines Bill could have been
organized, would have been on
the subject of compensation to
the coal owners; and that Oop-
position was only capable of be-
ing organized on the Labor side
of the House and the Commit-
tee.. Undoubtedly, feeling was
very strong on this. The Bill
allowed for 150 million pounds
being spent to- make good the
neglect of the mine owners, and
yet in face of this glaring ne-
glect, we propose to pay them
compensation for a semi-bank-
rupt industry.

This obvious tendency to fol-
low orthodox methods in an en-
tirely new and unorthodox situ-
ation was already damping.
down the early elation of the
Iabor side of the House. It was
a vigorous, enthusiastic and de-
termined body of men and wo-
men, who, in the first flush of
victory, sent the strains of the
Red Flag resounding through
the House. But as Bill after
Bill came before them, with no
really effective step taken to
ensure their speedy passage, de-
spite the Select Committee on

procedure, their enthusiasm
could be seen to flag. :
@

UT the most serious cause of We-

pression is undoubtedly the
foreign policy being pursued by
Bevin, with the full support of
the Labor Government. Here I
do not propose to go into this
question or to discuss the dan-
ger it represents for the work-
ing class of this country and

But with control of the Bank for DEOSSISIS people ee
of England, supplemented by where. The British Labor Gov-
investments control in such away ernment, if it becomes a tool of
UDMA TUT

® Feature Section

SEE...

NO MILK

Page, == 11

“ace to the world.

Wall Street, will become a men-
All TE wiil say
is that Bevin, who is boosted
as a bluff, blunt speaker who
holds nothing back, has never
been heard, even to whisper a
blunt, bluff word to Byrnes,
however much he may have
banged the table in his encount-
ers with Molotov.

Byrnes and Wall Street are
sacrosanct. Maybe now that the
Hoan is through, we may see a
change for the better. Certainly
there cannot be a change for
the worse. We have reached
the lowest possible depths in
our cringing to America. The

line of Churchill at Fulton, Mis- _

sourt, has been the line followed
by Bevin and the Foreign Office.

But it would be a mistake to
treat Bevin and his policy as
something apart from the Gov-¢
ernment aS a whole. When the
Government was formed, its
character was clear for all to
see. Tt was a Government of
the “Right,” with not a Solitary.
representative of the ‘Left’. find-
ing a place. There were some
who had the foolish belief. that

such a Minister -as Aneurin
Bevin was of the “eft.” But a’
perusal of his speeches and

writings make it clear that he
never had any effective associa-
tion with, or loyalty to, any

_ Left-wing” grouping. His “lLeft-

ism” was a purely opportunist
character, a fact which Morri-
son and company fully under-
stood.

@
A GOVERNMENT of the Right

cannot be other than timid. Al-
ways there is the dread of stir-

ATTLEER BEVIN

.“ . . as tory as in the days of

Castlereagh.”

ring up the slumbering fires of
the class war, if they go too
far and force the ‘Tories to
come out in the open. Once
that happens, the response of
the workers will be overwhelm-
ing and beyond the control and
direction of such leaders as Att-
lee and Morrison.

it is this timidity that keeps
the ‘Foreign Office staff and
Corps of Ambassadors as Tory
as they were in the days of
Castlereagh.. It is this timidity
that has them continually pro-
testing their love! of Empire and
their desire to retain the title
of Empire at all costs. =

So we got the Mission to In-
dia, setting off with brave words,
brave words cheered by the
Tories when they were delivered
by Attlee in the House of Com-
mons, but with the obvious in-
tent of getting from amongst
the forces in India, those who
were willing to make a deal of
such a nature that would en-
sure, under another guise, the
supremacy of Britain and the
retention of India as the glit-
tering jewel in the Crown of
Empire.

“We won India by the sword
—by the sword we will hold it,”
declared Joynson-Hicks to a
cheering conference of Conserv-
atives twenty years ago. But
we cannot any longer hold it
“by the sword”: so we must try
some other way. The fraud of
talk about independence for In-
dia is manifest when we see
what is happening in Malaya

2nd Burma. There we are still
able to “hold by the sword”
and so for these territories “in-
dependence” jis definitely post
poned,

But while foreign and col-
onial policy is admittedly of a
very questionable character, on
both subjects criticism being ex-
pressed by an ever growing body
of labor members, there is a
general belief that in home
policy things are different. On
the home front things are going
very well, so we are continuaily
being told. But listen carefully.
Keep your eye on some of the
questions. Hearken to some of
the speeches and see how criti-
cal Labor members are becoming
On certain aspects of home af-
fairs. They are beginning to re-
alize that there cannot be a
progressive home policy if there
is a reactionary foreign policy.

True, there was a certain wel-
come relief in taxation fer many
workers, as well as for highest
income tax payers, but alas,
nothing else in the Budget to
raise any hope of a real attempt
to put an end to privilege and
te equalize the purchasing power
of the people. Despite all that
has been said in this connec-
tion, it is obvious to everyone
that if the controls were remoy-—
ed and rationing dispensed with,
half the population would starve
to death. The big income boys
would buy up everything. As
it is, they buy up all sorts of
luxury goods in all sorts of
Black Markets. And this de-
spite the fact that Dalton, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, is
the most robust and forceful
Minister on the
Front Bench.

TORIES
around

of all kinds circulate
the Iobbies of the
House- of Commons: Most of
them have to be swallowed with
very great care. For instance, T
was told just the other day that
Daiton had said to some of his
friends that, if he had been
made Foreign Secretary, he
would have flown direct to Mos-
cow to work out on the spot
a satisfactory basis for the re-
lationship of this country and
the USSR. This may be just
another story, but it has to be
noted, while Dalton has never
disguised his opposition to the
Communists and the Commun-
ist Party, he has never given
any indication of antipathy to
the Soviet Union, such as colors
the language and the actions of
Bevin. Here it may be said that
Dalton is a typical intellectual,
with a petty bourgeois back-
Sround, while Bevin is a trade
union leader with a working-
class background. But it has
been known before in history,
where two such men have pass—
ed one another, the intellectual
moving towards the working-
class, the trade union leader
moving away from the working-
class to find a place in the
ranks of the bourgeoisie.

But leaving such philosophi-
Cal reflections’ aside, we will get
back to our muttons.

The fact that no major change
was made in our financial sys-
tem, was evident when we got
the. provisions of the National
Insurance Scheme, This, it
should be recognized, is a much-
needed and valuable reform,but
the rates of benefit are too low
and the failure to meet the de-
mand of the old age pensioners
fer 30s per week, a moderate
sum for our industrial veterans,
was a severe blow to many Ta-
bor members, who had given
long service to the cause of the
old folks.

It has been said that Wa-
tional Insurance, like many oth-
er Government proposals, was
taken over from the Coalition

Government ~

e

One year of labor government

WILLIE GALLAGHER, MP

Government. It is true that
the~ Coalition had already. con-
Sidered such-a measure arising
Cut of acceptance of the gen-
eral line of the Beveridge Re-
port. But had a Tory majority
been returned we would have
had to wait a long time for
national insurance or any other
of the many important measures
passed by the present Parlia-
ment.

oe
have only touched on

one or two of the most im-
portant, leaving to the end the
most important of all, Health and
Housing.

Regarding the former, I am
not in favor of the regional ad-
ministration which it is pro-
posed to set up. Our health
services and our hospitals should
from top to bottom be under
democratic control: While we
insist on democratisation of our
industries and particularly so in
connection with the nationalised:
coal mines, we see the opposite
principle being applied to health
and hospitals. And it won’t work
satisfactorily. Sooner or _later
the machinery of administration
will have to be simplified and de-
mocratised, if we are to get the
best results from our services.

But housing, that is going to be
the great test for the Labor Goy-
ernment. TI believe it can come
out successful. As a matter of
facet, it will have to. We cannot
allow it to fail. That would mean
irreparable disaster.

But on top of all these tasks
and the problems associated with
them, has arisen, in the sharpest
form, the question of food—bread
rationing. Eagerly the Tories
watch for an opening. Would the
labor movement close its ranks
and balk them of all opportunity?
Bournemouth gave an answer
that filled them with delight. The
Labor leaders were determined
to keep the movement divided,
nay, to do their utmost te widen
the breach. Churchill and Co.
could ask no better. Now with
the food crisis, they think they
See their chance.

They pose as the spokesmen
of the housewives. “A bunch of
hypocrites,” as Jean Mann called
them. They will try to split the
working-class in such a way as
to tear away a section of the
support won at the General Hlec-
tion. The only answer to this un-
scrupulous campaign of the Tories
is—working class unity.

The first year of the Labor
Government has much to its
eredit. Many valuable measures,
much hard work. But we want
more than that. We want cour-
age and drive to put the Tories
and those they represent out of
business for good and ali. For
that the Communist Party is re-
quired. Despite Bournemouth,
unity must prevail.

He== i

ERIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1946