MOODS IN BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1942, Page 3

MOODS IN BRITAIN

PUBLIC RESTIVE UNDER DEFEAT LEADERS UNDER FIRE ATTACKS ON BUREAUCRACY. DEMANDS NOT YET CLEARLY DEFINED. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) * LONDON, July 12. One outcome that was expected from] the House of Commons’ debate on Libya was that Mr Churchill would make certain structural changes designed to improve the direction of the war and prevent a repetition of disasters. Nothing has happened in the week following the Commons vote and the restlessness has been increased by a rumour that Lord Beaverbrook, who was dropped from the Government last February, may return to power. This, if it occurs, will please few, for neither his methods noi’ his results are generally admired. The Libyan defeat had the effect of causing Britain to change step in the middle of an arduous race. “Action,” was the watchword, and it still is, but it is now preceded by “Efficiency,” and there is increasing determination to see that efficiency is achieved. The nation is now geared for war, but the Government’s system has not stood up to the supreme test of the war—winning battles. The most unpopular word in Britain today is bureaucracy, which is regarded as clogging the nation’s war effort. It has produced .what has been called a “limbo of procedure” which has the effect of hamstringing the nation’s striking power. This demand for efficiency is growing every day, spurred on by a realisation of the reluctance of Westminster to deal with inefficiencies, and—as the Conservative journal, “The Observer,” points out—vested interests are at the source. If Hitler needs a victox’y for home consumption, so does Mr Churchill, for while there is still no general desire to see him replaced, yet there is increasing restiveness under the defeatafter defeat, which are tending to have the effect of seeing public opinion swing further and further to the left, where it views unfavourably the system which left Britain in the, drift, of wax’ almost unprepared, coupled with growing distrust as it fails to produce convincing results. It is the very same system which did not heed the warnings by Mr Churchill before the war, and with which he is now trying to win victory.

SWING TO THE LEFT.

This swing to the left is commented on by the prominent Labour writer and M.P., Miss Jenny Lee, who, referring to the views of people of every kind of occupation and income level throughout the country, states: “If I risk generalising on their attitude to public affairs, I would say that most of them do not want to be conservative. They have no faith in the Labour Party, and do not know where to look for leadership. They regard the Liberal Party as an historical hangover, the Communist Party as solely an instrument of Soviet foreign policy, and the Independent Labour Party as cancelled from reality by its anti-war stand.” She asks where this unanchored leftward tending of public opinion will come to rest. It is too numerous to be ignored and in no mood to be trifled with. Voicing the views of this leftward trend, Professor Harald J. Laski states the opinion that Mr Churchill and his colleagues are condemned to fight Hitlerism with the men and methods of 1914, and that with minor exceptions, the historic governing class is in full directive control of the war effort. He says that what the Government needs to do is to define a new way of life for the next age, “but actually it promises anything that may be necessary for victory accompanied by an assurance to the main beneficieries of the old order that their privileges will remain untouched.”

IJNANCHORED OPINION. There is a good deal of talk heard about the war wiping out class distinction in Britain, but it is difficult to convince with that assertion. It is probably truer that the “unanchored leftward tending of opinion” is crystallising in a determination to see improvements after the war, while the “historic governing class” is equally determined to hang on to as much of the status quo ante as they possibly can. The revelation of Russia’s great ability after the years of unfavourable propaganda has bitten deeply into the mind of a great section of the British

public and has had much to do with the leftward swing, particularly in view of the fact that the previous derision came from a system which muddled the peace and is now apparently muddling the war—at least not winning victories. It may be asked what all this has got to do with the present position, but it is a background of criticism which comes from the right equally as from the left, the right realising that it stands condemned unless it can effect some alteration. Therefore, Mr Churchill, who is still desired to be the war leader, comes undei’ two fires. This background will be important if Hitler defeats the Russian armies, and crosses the Nile and holds Suez by the end of this summer, when there will be very definite reactions in Britain.