Confidence Reigns Supreme

Three days before bombs fell on the House of Commons last week (see p. 42} Winston Churchill there faced the critics of his recent conduct of the war. Besides the action in Greece and Libya, the Battle of the Atlantic and the Battle of Britain, many, Britons have recently worried about the nation's war production. The Prime Minister had seen fit the week before to shift his ministerial backfield to spur production and transport (TIME, May 12), and now the British public hoped that these matters would have an airing.

Instead they heard criticism which was generally vague, sometimes piddling. It was the kind of criticism which the Prime Minister could, and did, overwhelm with one of his resonant emotional appeals. Sometimes he was almost as gay as the blue-flowered hat worn by Mrs. Churchill in the gallery. There was constant laughter and tittering at the Prime Minister's sal lies. When it was all over, the House of Commons approved his policy by a vote of 447-to-3 (the House of Lords had given him a unanimous vote of confidence), and in quitting the chamber he had to run a gantlet of cheering M.P.s.

The fact is that Winston Churchill's loyal opposition is not very large, not very vocal, and last week it was not very cogent even when it was vocal. Winston Churchill enjoys the confidence of the British people, in Government and out, in almost the ratio suggested by Parliament's vote. Aging, white-maned David Lloyd George tried to suggest the dangers of that idolatry during the debate. "I regret," he said, "that this discussion should take place on a question of confidence. . . . The House should have occasional opportunities of making its criticisms and suggestions without being fettered by considerations which are involved in a vote of confidence." But instead of pressing this point, Lloyd George spent much of his time charging that the U.S. has been a laggard in helping Britain--a criticism scarcely to be laid in toto at Winston Churchill's door.

In rebuttal Churchill observed: "It was the sort of speech with which I imagine the illustrious and venerable Marshal Petain might well have enlivened the closing days of the Reynaud Cabinet. ..." There was loud laughter at this jibe.

Onetime Secretary for War Leslie Hore-Belisha had tried to start an argument by insisting that Britain's war effort was far from maximum, that its intelligence service was inept. The Prime Minister scornfully said of Hore-Belisha: "With all good wishes, I think he sometimes stands in need of some humility in regard to the past." Mortified, Hore-Belisha rose to defend himself but was drowned out by guffaws. Churchill went on to say that Britain now produces more tanks every month than the nation owned when Hore-Belisha left the War Office. "Our intelligence service," he added, "was thought to be the best in the world in the last war and it certainly is not the worst in the world today."

Speaking of Libya, the Prime Minister candidly admitted that "technical mistakes and mischances occurred. . . . Our armored forces became disorganized. . . .But anyone who supposes there will not be mistakes in war is very unreal and foolish." Referring to Greece, he said: "Hitler has told us that it was a crime . . .on our part to go to the aid of the Greeks.

. . . Looking back upon the course of events, I can only feel ... if we had again to tread that stony path, even with the knowledge we possess today, I for one would do the same thing again. . . ." He promised to defend "to the death" Malta, Crete, Tobruch, the Suez and the Nile Valley.

Considering the Battle of the Atlantic, the Prime Minister declared: "The United States patrol . . . takes a considerable part of the Atlantic in a certain degree off our hands, but we need a good deal more help. I expect we shall get a good deal more help in many ways. . . . We can probably maintain our minimum essential traffic during 1941. . . . As for 1942, we must look to an immense construction of merchant ships in the United States. . . . It may be that 1943, if we have to endure it as a year of war, will present easier problems."

Winston Churchill ended with high fervor: "Little did Hitler know when in June 1940 he received the total capitulation of France and expected to be master of Europe in a few weeks and of the world in a few years, that ten months later, in May 1941, he would be appealing to the much-tried German people to prepare themselves for war in 1942. When I look back on the perils which have been overcome, upon the great, mountainous waves through which our gallant ship has been driven, when I remember all that has gone wrong and also all that has gone right, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, let it rage! We shall come through!"

At the end, even Leslie Hore-Belisha gave him his vote while David Lloyd George abstained. Afterward the Prime Minister laughed heartily at a hoary story told by Independent M.P. Vernon Bartlett. It concerned two rabbits who were chased into their warren by two foxes.

"What do we do now?" asked one rabbit. Said the other: "I suppose we just stay here until we outnumber them."

But after last week's debate many Britons still wanted to know a lot more about the wartime economy of the rabbit warren.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.