Foreign News: Two Sick Men

London papers last week broke out with a rash of black headlines forecasting changes in the Churchill government. The News Chronicle: CABINET RESHUFFLE ON THE WAY. The Daily Mail: CABINET CHANGES COMING SOON. The factual foundation for the stories was that Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, apparently recovered from the slight stroke he suffered in June, last week had moved back into his official residence, Chequers, and was seeing a lot of prominent Tories for luncheons, and whisky & sodas.

Churchill was working five or six hours a day, eating heartily, and doughtily disregarding the advice of his doctors to stay on the wagon. Among the visitors: Tory Chief Whip Patrick Buchan-Hepburn (usually consulted on Cabinet changes), Housing Minister Harold Macmillan, and Labor Minister Sir Walter Monckton.

Torydom’s other distinguished invalid, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, was convalescing on the Mediterranean from a gall-bladder operation and two follow-up sessions with the surgeons. As evidence of his recuperation, it was officially announced that either Eden or Lord Salisbury would head up the British delegates to the U.N. Sept. 25. But many among his supporters wondered whether Eden could regain the strength necessary for a full-time Foreign Secretary—or Prime Minister.

All this, plus the normal need to promote the successful juniors and discard the weaker ministers after two years in power, promised some changes before the Conservatives’ annual conference in October. Churchill sometimes talks of quitting, but it is not the talk of a man who has a date in mind. A likelier possibility, which many powerful elements in the party urge, is that Eden will give up the Foreign Office and concentrate on being deputy Prime Minister. This would enable Churchill to stay in office, to shuck some of the routine responsibilities, and to insure the succession of his loyal deputy. But Eden is reported not to look with favor on this plan: he does not like doing only routine jobs; as an old officeholder, he dislikes a title without a department to go with it. Furthermore, he fears that the foreign secretaryship might go to his chief rival in foreign affairs in the party: Harold Macmillan, 59, of the book-publishing Macmillans, and personal friend of Churchill and Eisenhower. Another possibility for Foreign Secretary: Sir Walter Monckton, 62, the sturdy former Solicitor-General who has done an outstanding job as Minister of Labor. The difficulty is that he would be hard to replace, for one of the key requirements for Tory success is that the powerful trade-union movement cooperate loyally with the government, and Sir Walter has seen to that.