Son Defended

On the House of Commons calendar last week Question No. 45 had been put down by Welsh Laborite Aneurin Bevan, who delights in baiting the Churchill bull. Question No. 45: "To ask the Prime Minister whether he is aware that a letter appeared in the Evening Standard . . . written by a serving officer attached to an intelligence unit in North Africa. ..." The officer: Winston's only son, Major Randolph Churchill.

In the letter, hot-headed Randolph Churchill denounced the "pharisaical attitude" of "certain French elements in London" (i.e., Fighting French). He also deplored "the widespread tendency to assume that any Frenchman who had occupied an official position under the Vichy government must be a traitor or possessed of a Fascist mentality."

Winston Churchill, entering the House for the first time since his recent recovery from pneumonia, early rose from the Ministers' front bench, squarely faced the opposition, lowered his taurian head and snorted: "This question should normally have been addressed to the Secretary of State for War, but since the Honorable Member, no doubt from those motives of delicacy which are characteristic of him, has preferred to put it to me I will answer it myself. ... I am advised that it [the letter] does not fall into the restrictions ... of the King's Regulations as it deals with political and not military matters. . . . The only comment which I have to make upon the letter is that it appears to express a perfectly arguable point of view and one which is shared by many responsible people, American, British and French, in this theater of war."

Bevan leaned from the charge and planted a banderilla in the bull's shoulder: "Does the Prime Minister realize that we are broadcasting to France every night asking them to sabotage, and this officer commends those who shoot Frenchmen who are obeying our instructions?" The bull never even turned his head; no one could tell whether he even felt the sting.

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