Labor Dutifully Meets

By last week's end Labor had finished the business of its annual convention, and delegates wearily shuffled out of London's ugly Central Hall. For two decades Labor's grey old bosses had muddled their Party into a complacent rut. And at this convention, the Party's grey old delegates neither produced a new, popular leader who would battle for the demands of Labor's rank-&-filers, nor did they adopt policies that would win new support to Labor. Labor's convention, in fact, not only assured Britain a coalition government for the war's duration, but forged no new Labor weapons to prevent victory for Winston Churchill's rejuvenated Conservatives in the postwar election.

After voting to continue the Party truce with the Conservatives (TIME, June 21), the delegates supported (1,950,000-to-712,000)* their Executive Council's position against allowing Communists to affiliate with Labor. Summing up for the Executive Council, Minister of Home Security Herbert Morrison spoke Labor's continuing distrust of Communists: "The Communists still believe in revolution by violence. . . . You cannot mix our policy of government by persuasion with a party which fights elections and prepares for violent revolution at the same time. The trouble with the Communists is that they have dual-purpose minds. They tell you one thing and mean another. If they really agree with our policy, I cannot see any need for their separate existence. If they do not, they are humbugs by applying for affiliation." Whether Morrison's estimate of Communist policy was correct or not, his speech showed that top Laborites strongly prefer coalition with Conservatives to unity with Communists.

Only surprise of the convention was the election of amiable Arthur Greenwood over nimble Herbert Morrison to the post of Party Treasurer. Though Morrison is perhaps more leftist with words, Greenwood is further to the left in action. As a member of the War Cabinet, Morrison stoutly defends the policy of Winston Churchill's Government. Laborites generally support Churchill and Coalition for the duration, but they feel that in the coalition Tories pay little attention to Labor's demands.

Many a Laborite refuses to forget how Churchill's Government, last February, flattened the revolt of irate Labor MPs by putting up Laborite Morrison to defend the Government's lukewarm stand on the Beveridge social security report. In that debate Arthur Greenwood supported the rebellious Laborites against Morrison.

*Each delegate votes for huge blocs of Laborites.

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