"Naughty Boy"

Rolling back from a long and convivial supper one evening last week, Randolph Churchill decided to pay a call on his good friend Harold Macmillan. He wanted to show the Prime Minister the huge picture album to be presented to his father and Lady Churchill on their golden wedding anniversary next day. Though his arrival was a trifle boisterous ("Don't worry, boys," he roared at the bobbies as he dumped his heavy package inside the door of No. 10 Downing Street. "There's a bomb inside"), he left 1 1/2 hours later with a message of congratulations to be passed along to his parents.

But in his Evening Standard column next day, Churchill burbled. "I was lucky enough to see the Prime Minister last night, and am happily in a position to tell the world that Britain will stand by the U.S. in the Far East." Instantly, there was a howl of outrage. Journalists complained that Churchill had violated the spirit of the hallowed rule that no British reporter may quote directly the informal statements of the Prime Minister on an important or delicate issue. Laborite politicians charged that Macmillan seemed to be committing Britain to fight for Quemoy, alongside the U.S.

Truth was that though Macmillan is not willing to join physically in the military defense of Quemoy, Churchill's words reflected accurately Macmillan's willingness to give his U.S. ally full political and moral backing in time of trouble--something he cannot afford to say with as much vigor as he would wish in the face of British public opinion. From No. 10 came a stiff statement that "Mr. Churchill's article was not authorized," that Britain had "no commitment of any kind with the U.S. over the Far East situation."

But Britons of all stripes were united in deploring Randolph's blurt. "A grave indiscretion," cried the Daily Herald in a front-page editorial. "It is perhaps apt to recall," said the Star, "that Mr. Randolph Churchill once wrote that no one was ever given corporal punishment in the Churchill home . . . Mr. Macmillan may be excused for regarding that as a major sin of omission, for Randolph has been a naughty boy . . . Bend over, Randolph."

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