Loyal Opposition

Winston Churchill made his first full-length speech as Opposition leader. He spoke briskly, triumphantly, a little challengingly on eight main points:

THE END OF THE WAR WITH JAPAN--"Our duty is to congratulate the Government on the very great improvement in our prospects at home which comes from complete victory over Japan.. . ."

THE ATOMIC BOMB -- "There were those who considered that the atomic bomb should never have been used at all. I cannot associate myself with such ideas. ... I am surprised that very worthy people--but people who in most cases had no intention of proceeding to the Japanese front themselves--should adopt a position that rather than throw this bomb we should have sacrificed a million American and a quarter of a million British lives. . . ."

THE U.S. POSITION -- "The United States at this minute stands at the summit of the world. I rejoice that this is so."

GERMAN SELF-GOVERNMENT--"I . . . most strongly advise the encouragement of the assumption of responsibility by trustworthy local German bodies."

DISPLACED GERMANS--"I am particularly concerned at this moment with reports reaching us of conditions under which the expulsion and exodus of Germans from new Poland have been carried out. Between 8,000,000 and 9,000,000 persons dwelt in these regions before the war. . . . Enormous numbers are unaccounted for. Where have they gone and what is their fate? ... It is not impossible that tragedy on a prodigious scale is imposing itself behind the iron curtain which at present divides Europe in twain."

POLAND'S WESTERN FRONTIER -- "I must put on record my own opinion that the provisional western frontier agreed upon for Poland, comprising as it does one quarter of the arable land of Germany, is not a good augury for the future."

PROFESSOR HAROLD J. LASKI--"What precisely is Mr. Laski's authority with regard to all the statements he is making about our foreign policy, and do his statements involve the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs? We know Mr. Laski as chairman of the Labor Party Executive [Committee] which has the right to describe their own party as they wish to do. But this is a very important body. I have been told that it has the power to summon Ministers before it. Evidently Mr. Laski has great power and evidently he is keen to assert it. ... Broadly speaking, it is better that declarations about foreign policy should be made by Ministers of the Crown responsible to the House of Commons...."

Premonitory Voice. The most important part of Winston Churchill's speech was that in which he resumed his old role of Britain's premonitory political voice. Almost alone, he had warned Britain before World War II against the dangers of Naziism. Now he warned them against the dangers of Communism in the form of the police state:

"I cannot conceive that any element of new conflict exists in the Balkans today. Nevertheless, not many members of the new House of Commons will be content with the situation prevailing in those mountainous, turbulent, ill-organized, warlike regions . . . for almost everywhere Communist forces have obtained or are in the process of obtaining dictatorial powers.

"At present a family might be gathered around the fireside enjoying the fruits of their toil when suddenly there is a knock at the door and heavily armed policemen appear. It may be that the father, son or friend sitting in the cottage is called out, taken away into the dark, and no one knows whether he would ever come back again or what is his fate. . . .

"There are millions of humble homes in Europe--Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia--where this fear is the main preoccupation of family life. . . . Freedom from fear.--but this has been interpreted as if it were only freedom from the fear of invasion by a foreign country. . . . That is not the fear of ordinary families in Europe tonight. Their fear is of the policeman knocking at the door. It is fear for the life and liberty of the individual. . . .

"Democracy is on trial as it never was before, and in this island we must uphold it as we did in the dark days of 1940 and 1941, with all our hearts and all our vigilance and with all our untiring and inexhaustible strength."

Scowls & Love. Twelve minutes after Churchill began speaking, Ernest Bevin shuffled in. Churchill stopped, cast a radiant smile across the aisle. Said he: "I am very glad to see the new Foreign Secretary sitting on the front bench opposite. I would like to say with what gratification I learned that the right honorable gentleman had taken on this high office." Bevin scowled. Few can pay compliments so gracefully as Churchill; few can receive them as gracelessly as Bevin. Later, when Labor members teased Bevin about his fondness for Churchill, he growled: "But I love him. I love him."

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