The Fight for the Soul

Ever since war's end, Konni Zilliacus had been zooming and buzzing around the Labor government's left flank like a gnat harassing an elephant. Several times, the great beast had flapped its ears in protest. Last week it hauled off with its trunk and struck. Konni Zilliacus, M.P. for Gateshead, longtime Fabian and fellow traveler, was formally read out of the Labor Party.

More was at stake than "Zillie" (who retains his seat in Parliament despite his expulsion from the party). Within the last fortnight over 60 Labor M.P.s have flouted direct party orders in voting on two major issues. With the recent string of Labor defeats in local contests, and a general election looming up next year, Attlee was at last forced to discipline the rebels. As the most cantankerous of them, Zilliacus had to go first.

Zillie protested that his only crime was his search for "peace," while the Labor Party was edging ever rightward toward Churchill's own "war policy." No Communist cardholder, Zillie has persistently buzzed along with the Moscow line. Last year, on the eve of the Italian elections, he and 21 other Labor left-wingers sent a letter of support to Communist Stooge Pietro Nenni. Last month, in Paris, Zillie denounced U.S.-British policy at the Communist-inspired "Peace Congress" (TIME, May 2).

Along with Zilliacus, the Labor executive committee expelled 43-year-old Barrister Leslie Judah Solley, member for Thurrock, Essex. Solley had publicly opposed British policy in Greece, voted against participation in the European Recovery Program. Fired from their jobs, though not from the party, were five of the cabinet's parliamentary private secretaries* who had voted against the government's bill to establish Britain's relationship with Ireland. Said one of the purged, ruefully: "If you vote against the government on a 'three line whip' [direct orders from party whips to vote] you are sticking your neck out ... I have no complaint."

Konni Zilliacus did not take so philosophic a view. Last week he announced that he planned to run again for his House of Commons seat as an Independent Laborite. Said he darkly: "The fight for the soul of the Labor Party, which is also the fight for peace, has now begun."

* Members of Parliament who act as unpaid wheelhorses for cabinet ministers and junior ministers. One of their chief duties is to answer members' inquiries at question time, which means that they frequently know more about ministry affairs than the ministers themselves. A post as P.P.S. is usually considered the first step toward ministerial rank.

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