Foreign News: Democracy in Pawn

The hour for putting British liberties temporarily in pawn as a means of strengthening the kingdom’s effort to snatch victory from the jaws of Blitzkrieg struck in the House of Commons last week. For reasons of high politics Winston Churchill was not there. This greatest of Conservative orators knows when it is more fitting to let others speak. An airplane had hustled the Prime Minister to France for a meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council.

Up in the House of Commons rose the Prime Minister’s Lord Privy Seal, Socialist Clement Richard Attlee. Leader of the British Labor Party. As usual Mr. Attlee looked like a small, nervous, underpaid schoolteacher who is falling behind in his rent. He clutched a single sheet of paper which contained the whole of an Emergency Powers Defense Bill just drafted by the Churchill Cabinet. The greatness of the hour gave unimpressive, often quarrelsome Clement Richard Attlee stature in the first really big moment of his career.

“A great battle is now proceeding,” he began. “Our men at sea, on land and in the air are fighting with splendid devotion and spirit. The Government is convinced that now is the time that we must mobilize to the full the whole resources of this country. . . . It is necessary that the Government be given complete control over persons and property—not only over some persons, but over all persons, rich or poor, employer or worker, man or woman. . . .”

The Bill which Parliament was about to be asked to approve was technically an extension of one passed Aug. 24, giving the King wide powers to govern by decree in wartime—on advice of his Privy Council (Cabinet members and others appointed by the King). Practically, it gave the Cabinet control of every British asset in toil and treasure to fight the war. Socially and politically it withdrew from the British people the rights of person and property they had wrested from King John at Runnymede 725 years ago, and from the British working class the hard-won reforms of the past two centuries.

Everybody Satisfied. Only two M.P.s spoke against the Emergency Powers Defense Bill, extremist Laborite David Kirkwood and Communist William Gallacher, who called it “deliberate attempt on the part of the ruling class to conquer the working class.” Cracked back orthodox Laborite David Gilbert Logan at Red Willie, “It is about time that a voice like yours was silenced under Emergency Powers.” Liberal Sir Richard Acland said he specifically hoped to see the Government “sending to the homes of people like myself and taking away valuable picture’s, such as portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and other Old Masters, and selling them in America to pay for airplanes.”

“At this time,” continued Mr. Attlee, “everything for which we stand is in jeopardy—our political rights, our industrial rights, everything will go if we do not defeat the enemy. Everybody knows what is at stake, and, while these powers are necessary, the real force behind us today is the will and determination of a free people.”

The House of Commons shot the Act through the required three readings by a series of acclamations without recorded ballots. The House of Lords moved even faster. Exactly 163 minutes after being introduced by Socialist Attlee it was signed by King George VI and promulgated. Same day Parliament supplemented the ancient Treason Acts by passing a streamlined Treachery Bill, and under its drastic provisions Home Secretary Sir John Anderson was soon blitzing fifth columnists (see p. 35).

“Totalitarian.” News cables from London soon gave the world an impression that Britain was on a totalitarian par with the Nazis. The Emergency Powers Defense Act simply authorized the Government, which remains in power only at the will of Parliament, to take almost any desired action by Orders in Council, in which all three of the great British parties are now represented. There was no totalitarian suppression of all parties but one, no totalitarian exaltation of one man as Dictator, no wiping out of the established British press or creation of rubber-stamp Government organs, and no abolition of the trade unions as in the Nazi Reich.

Specific powers which were to be immediately required under the Emergency Powers Defense Act, according to Lord Privy Seal Attlee:

1) The Minister of Labor would “direct any person to perform any service required” and be “able to prescribe terms of remuneration, hours of labor and conditions of service.” Under this provision plans were laid to send thousands of unemployed Britons, who have never in their lives mined coal, to the pits. In addition, some 65,000 women in Northwest Britain were to become munitions workers. The latter would be billeted in nearby homes, housewives mobilized to cook for them.

2) British industry was to be conscripted in toto. All munitions and war material factories were nationalized, “excess profits” (e.g., above peacetime normal) appropriated 100%. All records of all businesses may be demanded by the Government, which may then determine whether they should be converted to war purposes, let alone or suspended, in which case “they must have adequate remuneration. . . . Destruction of property here and there would also be cause for remuneration.”

“Work Like Hell!” That the British people wholeheartedly approved of the Act and its requirements was full proof that for months they have been far ahead of their Government in desiring an all-out prosecution of the war. From the upper classes, who had long foreseen that the war would make the most drastic demands on Property, came no complaint. From the stoic middle classes, whose small holdings were likewise doomed, came none either. Labor’s spokesmen were downright enthusiastic. For labor had nothing to give but its toil, for which it would be paid. Intellectual labor pointed out that socialization of industry was one of its historic aims, and the Act came close to bringing this about.

Jubilated Liberal Pundit Harold J. Laski: “The three pivotal economic positions in the Ministry are held by Labor [War Cabinet’s Greenwood, Supply’s Morrison and Labor’s Bevin]. Behind their occupants is the solid support of the trade unions. These are gains of an immense kind. They mean that Labor dominates the economic organization for the conduct of the war.”

To tough, one-eyed Herbert Morrison, popular Leader of the London County Council (in effect “Mayor of Greater London”), a Socialist of the same practical stamp as Bevin who keeps in his office a small, framed portrait of Nikolai Lenin, went the job of Churchillizing the new setup. This he did by putting British war industries on a 24-hour production schedule, with twelve-hour shifts, such as are being worked in France and Germany, and sounding off with gruff eloquence: “There is time for nothing now but an intense, concentrated effort of muscle, mind and will. . . . The peace and civilization of the whole world depend on the effort we make now to produce arms and win the war. . . . If we waste a minute at our desk or bench we sacrifice a life.”

“WORK LIKE HELL!” was presently adopted by Trade Unionist Ernest Bevin as the slogan of the Ministry of Labor and he soon rivaled Socialist Morrison with a ringing radio declaration: “Machine tools and instruments of production are now more valuable than gold. . . . I want another [sixth] column in Britain—a National Service Column resolved to win, and to win quickly! . . . It will deal drastically with anyone who seeks to hinder us in our crusade.”

“Napoleon” Churchill. Nazis and Communists throughout the world opened immediate propaganda fire on the Defense Bill. “We are mildly surprised that the British Government found itself compelled to introduce a measure such as has never been considered in Germany,” sneered Nazi Broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw, describing “Churchill’s attempt to make himself a Napoleon.” Said His Lordship: “There are a number of people in lunatic asylums who . . . have quite as much chance of saving England as Mr. Churchill has. But now that Democracy [in England] has received the last kick of farewell, what is the war aim which will justify mourning in every English home?”

In Manhattan the Communist Daily Worker synchronized with Nazi propaganda that “the servile labor leaders and the fawning press” of Great Britain last week supported “the destruction of democratic rights.” In an exclusive dispatch from London, the Dally Worker quoted Communist Gallacher: “We shall carry on.”

“Brain Trust.” Meantime, Prime Minister Churchill took no more Napoleonic action this week than to bring No. 10 Downing Street the added drive of three longtime personal advisers and experts.

War Science Adviser Frederick Alexander Lindemann, a tall, ascetic Oxford vegetarian who often works until 4 a.m. at a laboratory in the Admiralty (given him by Churchill when First Lord last year), is credited with discovering the secrets of German magnetic mines and how to beat them. Dr. Lindemann, whose friends call him “Prof,” was a pioneer advocate of the present London balloon barrage, years ago vainly urged the Air Ministry to build fleets of robot planes which would be sent up by radio control to crash head-on into enemy bombers.

War Industry Adviser Major Desmond John Falkiner Morton, broad-shouldered, black-mustached, was A.D.C. to Field Marshal Earl Haig during World War I, and since 1936 Director in the Department of Overseas Trade, where he built up what amounted to an economic secret service. Much of the data on the terrific secret strides Germany was making in war preparations with which Mr. Winston Churchill M. P. used to startle the House of Commons from time to time reputedly came from Major Morton, whose home is a cottage near Churchill’s Westerham Manor.

War Politics Adviser Brendan Bracken, jerky, bespectacled, carrot-haired, is chairman of the London Financial News and an intimate of Lord Beaverbrook. As such he replaced Economics Adviser Sir Horace Wilson, Chamberlain’s Man Friday and chief traveling companion on the great appeasement junkets. A scathing critic of Munich, Mr. Bracken since break of war used his Financial News to harass the now ousted Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon—created Viscount Simon last week—for not spending fast enough on British armament. Conservative Party whips used to call Brendan Bracken “The Red-Headed Beast,” last week found him suddenly installed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister.