GREAT BRITAIN: Four Major Powers

In the House of Commons His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition have about 185 votes. Last week on the issue of Neville Chamberlain’s new foreign policy—rapprochement with Italy and Germany, the issue which caused Anthony Eden’s resignation (TIME, Feb. 28)—the Opposition voted 167 strong against the Government. They won over to their side just one Conservative, Mr. Vyvyan Adams, an official of the British League of Nations Union.

But the opposition vote did not show the extent of the crisis. About 100 M. P.s who normally support the Government abstained from voting. Among them were Anthony Eden himself, Lord Cranborne (Eden’s undersecretary who resigned with him) and Eden’s prominent Conservative supporter, Winston Churchill. The Cabinet was finally upheld by a safe margin, 330-to-168.

“Shocked,” “troubled,” “stunned,” “puzzled” were the adjectives used by the press in describing British reactions to the crisis. Popular, young (40) Anthony promptly went forth to address his constituents at Leamington. Some 1,300 pack-jammed the hall cheering, while an overflow meeting of 400 was arranged.

“Do I look like a sick man?” asked Mr. Eden, in answer to rumors that his resignation had been caused by ill health. “I resigned because no other course was open to me! His Majesty’s Government believe that their new policy, while risky, must ultimately succeed and mustcontribute to the peace of Europe. Unhappily I cannot believe this—indeed I believe exactly the opposite—so how could I recommend such a course to the House of Commons? If I had done so. I should have been a hypocrite.”

Repeating his accusation that Mussolini had told Britain she must enter negotiations “now or never,” Eden continued. “Is it to be ‘an agreement, when you can get it, negotiated on a solid basis’ or is it to be ‘an agreement, if you can get it, regardless of the basis?’ ”

But it soon became apparent that he intended not to desert his party but to criticize its policies from within. Said the Conservative Party’s great idealist who may one day make a popular Prime Minister: “It is with the Great Democracies of Europe and America that our natural affinities must lie. We must stand by our conceptions of International Order, without which there can be no lasting peace. … It is the duty of His Majesty’s Government at this time to be vigilant and to be firm. The decision is made. The Government must then go ahead. I most sincerely wish them success.”

Vigilant & Firm. Meanwhile Grade A taunts were hurled at the Prime Minister in the House of Commons:

Lloyd George: “You have got rid of the one man in your Cabinet who would stand up to the Dictators!”

Labor Back Benchers: “Resign! Get out of it, you dirty dog!”

Winston Churchill: “In the United States our many friends there aredismayed. The millions of our enemies there now are armed with this to mock us. They will make out that we are all the same as the people of the Continent—tarred with the same brush!”

Herbert Morrison, Laborite “Mayor of London”: “Eden was stabbed in the back with an Italian stiletto!”

Steadily maintaining that “nothing that has been said on behalf of the Italian Government would justify anybody in saying that they have used threats,” Neville Chamberlain explained that last year he “put aside ordinary diplomatic formalities” and began exchanging personalcommunications with Premier Mussolini. These have now led to “the Italian Government’s acceptance of the British Formula concerning the withdrawal of foreign volunteers” from Spain. Under this formula the Prime Minister continued: “When a certain proportion of volunteers on both sides have been withdrawn, there should be granted belligerent rights [to Rightists and Leftists alike]. . . .”

“I count myself as firm a friend of France as my right honorable friend [Eden] !” cried Mr. Chamberlain. “I have always taken the view that the question of formal recognition of the Italian position in Ethiopia was one that could only morally be justified if it was found to be a factor—an essential factor—in general appeasement. . . . The peace of Europe must depend upon the attitude of four major powers—Germany, Italy, France and ourselves. … If we can bring these four nations into friendly discussion and into the settlement of their differences we shall have saved the peace of Europe for a generation.”

Showing he intends to himself discharge the functions of Foreign Secretary, so far as the House of Commons is concerned, the Prime Minister last week made permanent his tentative appointment of Viscount Halifax as Foreign Secretary. As a peer, Halifax cannot enter the Commons, but Labor peers taunted Halifax in the House of Lords: “You are afraid of Italy.” Asserting that Britain would win any war “as usual” he retorted: “I am not afraid of Italy or any other country!”