The Question at Holborn

What is the use of being a famous race and nation . . . if at the end of the-week you cannot pay your housekeeping bill?

--Sir Winston Churchill

In little more than two years of power, Sir Winston Churchill has led Britain from the edge of bankruptcy to an upward slope. Pledged to free Britain of her Socialist shackles, the Tories have ended a lot of controls. Britain's gold and dollar reserves are up; rationing is all but ended, and in the shops there is meat for all. But taxes are still so high as to discourage initiative, and Britain's economy is still essentially planned and subsidized. And its cost of living has gone steadily up. There is a new form of rationing for the average British worker, who earns less than $30 a week: low-paid Britons call it "rationing by purse." Sir Winston has just proposed that landlords be allowed to raise their rents if they repair their property. How would the voters take all this?

In a parliamentary by-election last week, the question was submitted to the voters of Holborn and St. Pancras, a London constituency ranging from smart residential streets to slums. The Socialists won Holborn narrowly in 1951. Holborn, said Tory Chairman Lord Woolton, "is a sort of political barometer."

"Meat, Red Meat." Sir Winston wrote to Tory Candidate Tim Donovan: "By electing you, Holborn and St. Pancras will strike a blow which will resound through the land, and will increase our influence the world over. It is not often a single constituency can strike such a hefty blow for our island home."

When the Tory Party took over in 1951, Sir Winston continued, Britain was "going from bad to worse . . . in spite of the millions the Socialists had got from America." But now the housewife could "pick and choose . . . meat, red meat." As for rent increases, "The tenants will be safeguarded fully at every stage."

The Socialists sent two potent artillery weapons--Herbert Morrison and Aneurm Bevan--to help out their candidate, Mrs. Lena Jeger. Clement Attlee told the voters that Churchill "believes in giving opportunities of profitmaking to private individuals; the general good is only a byproduct." From the London Zoo to the British Museum. Socialist loudspeakers dinned one slogan through the fog: "You Can't Afford the Tories."

Signifying Apathy. On election day, Candidate Jeger, seeking to take her late husband's seat in Parliament, won for the Socialists--with a gain of 2% over their 1951 majority. The turnout was less than in 1951, and Lord Beaverbrook's Tory Evening Standard claimed that the defeat "signifies only one thing: apathy." But the Socialists had increased their relative strength against the Tories by this same 2% in two other recent by-elections in Lancashire. Recent public-opinion polls also report an average 2% gain in Socialist popularity. In a general election this would be enough to give the Socialists power, and a 15-seat majority in the House of Commons. Holborn, reported the Times of London, was "something of a jolt for the Government."

Tory Chancellor "Rab" Butler's answer was tight and uncompromising: "We carry on as before." But Holborn's lesson, well understood by vote-minded Tories like Lord Woolton, was that further relaxing of controls would be a gamble. TIME'S London Bureau cabled: "In Britain there's a feeling that decontrol has gone far enough, that more might endanger the security that a planned economy and a welfare state seem to have produced. The old urge for safety in work, wages, prices, rents and pensions is strong. The British people don't want to be led into too great freedom if it seems to endanger their security. The real question which Holborn modestly poses is this: In this age when the seats of power are transferred from private fortunes or inherited privilege to the unions, to the political parties and to leaders who can organize voters, can a socialized democracy like Britain ever travel the road back?"

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