Anxious House

Parliament reconvened in somber mood last week after a five-week recess. A dark, lowering sky turned afternoon into night, and a damp mist crept into the House of Commons. M.P.s had plenty to worry about--a coal shortage, a meat shortage, the shock of rearmament on Britain's bareboned economy. But one urgent question overshadowed the others.

Rumbled Winston Churchill: Did the Prime Minister have "any statement to make about the present position in the Political Committee of the U.N. General Assembly in respect to its policy towards China?" As Clement Attlee rose to reply, M.P.s could barely see across the chamber through the gloom. A member uttered the traditional parliamentary call: "Candles! Candles!" Electric lights blazed. During Attlee's ten-minute statement M.P.s sat anxiously silent. Churchill leaned forward intently, cupping a hand to an increasingly deaf ear.

Grave Dangers. Attlee said that Britain joined in condemning Red China's intervention "in support of an aggressor" in Korea, but "...we do not believe that the time has yet come to consider further measures." When Attlee finished, Churchill warned against the "grave dangers" that would result from "any serious divergencies...between our policy and that of the United States." Churchill was interrupted by Laborite Ellis Smith, who shouted: "We are not going to be trapped into war." Smith and many other Britons fear that "hysterical" or "angry" U.S. diplomacy might land the U.S. (and Britain) in all-out war with Red China.

The wave of anger in the U.S. at Attlee's statement alarmed and pained Britons. Supporters and opponents alike urged Attlee to do something quickly to soothe America. Three days later, at a Labor Party gathering in the London suburbs, Attlee foreshadowed Britain's new defense campaign.

"No government can escape its responsibilities," Attlee said, "and assuredly the Labor government will not seek to do so..." Attlee ticked off Russia's military might: "175 active divisions with supporting artillery...25,000 tanks...in all 2,800,000 men under arms ... an air force of nearly 20,000 planes and the largest submarine fleet in the world."

Eased Strain. Said Attlee: "A gentle Swiss philosopher who loved his fellow men summed it all up a good many years ago. He said then: 'What terrible masters these Russians would be if they should spread their rule over the countries of the south. They would bring us a pure despotism--tyranny such as the world has never known, silent as darkness, rigid as ice, insensible as bronze, decked with an outer amiability and glittering with the cold brilliancy of snow--slavery, without compensation or relief.' That is what they would bring us."*

British opinion was shifting in favor of rearmament. Said the Archbishop of York in a diocesan letter supporting rearmament: "There is no alternative unless we are prepared to be the slaves of Russian Communism. This is a time for plain speech, for there are still many who believe that fervent desire for peace is sufficient to secure it without any sacrifices."

Early this week Attlee announced to the House of Commons a stepped-up rearmament program envisioning 1) a 30% boost in defense spending ($13,160,000,000 instead of $10,080,000,000 over the next three years); 2) doubled arms production this year, quadrupled production next year; 3) call-up of 245,000 army and air force reserves for 15 days of training this summer; 4) call-up of 6,600 navy reserves so that additional ships can be commissioned.

U.S. and British relations, strained for weeks, were easing up. In spite of differences, both countries were moving in the same direction.

* The Swiss philosopher Attlee quoted was Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-81), professor of esthetics and philosophy at Geneva, whose one book, Amiel's Journal, influenced many 19th Century British liberals. Amiel was more "neutral" than Attlee's quotation indicated. Elsewhere in his Journal Amiel had this to say about Americans: "They must win gold, predominance, power; crush rivals, subdue nature. They have their heart set on the means and never...think of the end...They are eager, restless, positive, because they are superficial. To what end all this stir, noise, greed, struggle?"

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