BRITAIN CONFIDENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1941, Page 6

BRITAIN CONFIDENT

UNDER MR OIURCHILL’S LEADERSHIP TREMENDOUS GRIP ON PUBLIC. PARTY POLITICS ABANDONED. While the Englishman, even in the heat and fury of battle, refuses to surrender what lie regards as his traditional privilege to grumble about the Government, there is not the faintest doubt that the majority of the people of Britain are solidly backing the Churchill Administration, writes a staff correspondent of the "Sydney Morning Herald.” In fact, it is justifiable to say that one of Britain’s greatest assets in her war effort is that she is governed by the most popular Government she has had in modern times. There appear to be two reasons for the Government’s popularity: — (1) The tremendous grip Churchill has gained on public imagination, and the unbounded confidence he has inspired in the people. (2) The people's belief that their representatives in Parliament have abandoned party politics in the interests of the nation, and that all sections of the community are represented in the National Government.

Probably the major factor is the people's faith in Mr Churchill. Stormy petrel of English politics for nearly two generations, he could never have become a peace-time Prime Minister. His qualities are too forthright for the conventional methods which are used when the machine is running smoothly. These very qualities, however, are those which in war time have given him such an enormous sway over the British people. BEST LOVED MAN. There is no better loved man in England today. The people recall the superb manner of his assumption of command when the nation's fortunes were at their lowest ebb. They recall his courage, his fighting qualities, his imagination, his drive, his oratory, and his magnificent leadership. They believe that, if they are to survive in this fight for. existence, he is the man to lead them.

Their confidence in him is eccontuated by the direct measures he took to eliminate what they had realised by the lime he took command were enormous defects in the Government's machine. They were impressed by his dismissal of those members of the Government whom the people generally were blaming for their desperate plight, and to whom they referred bitterly as the "old gang.” Wherever he now leads the people will follow. The creation of a National Government has reinforced this confidence. All sections of the community feel that they arc sufficiently represented in the Government to exercise some say in the conduct of the war. This particularly applies to the mass of the working people, who see in the appointment of Labour representatives to the Cabinet an appreciation of their rights. This feeling among the people is reflected in official Labour circles, members of whicli have just published a pamphlet epitomising Labour’s main aim in the words, “Go in and win.” SOLD OUT? A section of Labour, or. to be more explicit, some groups that have been linked with Labour, contend that when Labour leaders joined the Government they "sold out” to their political enemies. Their views, however, are taken. by and large, rather as a matter for academic debate than as a matter for practical politics. It is difficult for* people who see their homes crumbling about their ears, who see their businesses blasted and who see their relatives and friends killed or injured, to find any interest in ideological arguments. The only objective they can see is the defeat of Fascism and the end of the war. and they are as disinterested in any movement which aims at social upheaval as a Domain crowd listening to Sunday afternoon spruikers.

Criticism that the Government has had to face since Mr Churchill assumed control has been criticism of method or system. Defects, sometimes serious defects, have been revealed in war-time organisation, and have caused public annoyance. ' These in the main have been due to the fact that Mr Churchill has the faults of his virtues —he sees only the spectacular, dramatic side of war, and is the strategist in the grand manner. He is prone to overlook the fact that, as background for this strategy, there must be an ' enormous amount of internal organisation involving tremendous administrative detail. LORD BEAVERBROOK. To a substantial degree, however, this criticism has been silenced by the decision to hand over to Lord Beaverbrook the internal conduct of the war. Beaverbrook, who is now virtually Churchill's chief lieutenant, showed his capacity to produce results in his vast speed-up of aircraft production, and the public feels that with him in the position, virtually, of director of the internal Avar machine, weaknesses which were apparent will disappear. Lord Beaverbrook, incidentally, was described recently by a leading Australian statesman as the most significant member of fhe War Cabinet, next to Churchill.

The only chink in the Government’s armour it Avould appear is that, because of the dictatorial powers it has had to assume to conduct the Avar, some intellectual groups are raising a cry that England is facing the danger of some form of Fascism. The Labour Party answers this suggestion in its pamphlet, in which it states categorically:— “While the party is co-operating in the Government, Labour members have not given up their freedom to criticise in Parliament. It is the essence of the democratic Avay of life that freedom of thought and reasonable expression of opinion should be maintained even in Avar time. We demand economic as well as political democracy.”

Labour leaders whom I have interviewed emphasised that this expressed their attitude, and they said numerous industrial and social advances had been gained for the workers since the war began. They contended that, if there was anything in the suggestion of a Fascist tendency among any section of the Administration by remaining within the Cabinet they are in a better position to deal with it, and that, in any event, the first problem of Labour is to defeat the threat of Nazi Germany. “Anything beyond that,” one of them said, “wo regard as a post-war problem.”