LONDON COMMENTARY
Graebner, Connie L.
London Commentary By CONNIE L. GRAEBNER London THE grim news from Korea has sunk all of Britain into the deepest gloom, the deeper perhaps because the English recognize as never before that they...
...But British citizens are hoping that the world next year will still be the kind of place where there can be a Festival, with or without fun fairs...
...Churchill himself, who usually scrupulously avoids the slightest criticism of the United States, has stated publicly that he disapproved of the American advance on the Yalu...
...But against the fun-fair advocates were ranged a solid phalanx of M.P.s determined "not to rob the British Sunday of its character...
...But with all this it will be Washington and Moscow, and not Whitehall, which will determine whether or not Russian atom bombs will fall on Blackfriars and Piccadilly...
...It is the Americans ultimately who will decide their fate, and though they do not necessarily feel that America will decide wrongly, their knowledge of their own helplessness adds to the general atmosphere of frustration and gloom...
...Even farther removed from the defeats in Korea and the dangers of a Chinese war have been the recent lively debates in the British Parliament on whether the fun fair and amusement park at next year's Festival of Britain should be kept open on Sundays...
...2) therefore the British must bend every effort to cement the strongest possible Anglo-American alliance...
...A clergyman M.P...
...supported them: "Surely if this nation is to be a spiritual nation," he declared, "and if we are to preserve our spirit we must honor God with a free heart and a free mind...
...Even the most diehard exponent of England's past greatness now recognizes this fact...
...He said: "We must gain time for reason...
...The British see no point in ebulliently going forth to fight a battle and thereby losing a war...
...Nevertheless the Plan has been received everywhere here with the greatest acclaim, on the grounds that one must do what one can, as long as the world is technically at peace, to keep Asia from going Communist...
...3) a strong alliance would be much easier to achieve if the Americans would only pay attention to what the British, with all the experience of their past mistakes, can tell them...
...Britain's legislators can still sleep easily, knowing that they have not given up God for Mammon...
...on, that is, not until after morning service...
...The press and Parliament likewise have lately been unanimous in tossing the ball of leadership smack into the U.S...
...With the money it is planned to increase the acreage of irrigated land by 17%, the production of food grains by 10%, and the generation of electricity by 67...
...The eminently rational...
...Many other Britons fear that the current belligerent attitude of the Americans will lead to a disastrous war with China which could and ought to be avoided, not by meek appeasement but by a resolute faO...
...Lord Far-ingdon...
...Prime Minister Attlee can rush to confer with President Truman, the Foreign Office may try as best it can to influence the State Department...
...The price of unprepared-ness has always been paid in Dane-geld [the tribute paid by the Saxons to the invading Danes...
...For the British there can be no relief in some bold and imaginative action...
...But hurt is preferable to strategic checkmate...
...Lord Salisbury suggested (this was some time before the great reversal in Korea) that perhaps the U.N...
...Winston Churchill's recent remark that the end of isolationism in America "constitutes, in my view, the best hope for the salvation of Christian civilized democracies from Communism and Russian conquest and control" brought hearty cheers from both sides of the House and praise from one of his severest critics, left-wing Laborite Woodrow Wyatt...
...The chief fact is that the Western Powers are unready for a two-front world war...
...The American policy toward the Far East in general, and China in particular, is the most indigestible potion of all for the British...
...The result of the two debates was a compromise which it was hoped would please everybody (with the possible exception of the said foreigners...
...In his weekly article in the mass circulation Sunday Pictorial Richard Crossman not only congratulated Lord Salisbury on his speech but deplored the fact that nothing similar was said by the Government's Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin...
...But one wonders if, though not too little, it hasn't now come all too late...
...Shortly before the war when he was Lord Cranborne he resigned from Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet because he could not support the policy of appeasement...
...forces...
...It is better to avoid this even if it means leaving a small area of North Korea unoccupied by U.N...
...This is strong language, bitter medicine, for citizens of what was once the world's greatest empire to swallow, but they are learning to take it in ever bigger doses, and without gagging at that...
...Paying Danegeld hurts...
...forces had advanced too far...
...Who knows, the counsels of reason and moderation may yet prevail...
...CONNIE L. GRAEBNER, formerly an associate editor of Time, is a special correspondent in London...
...Strange as it may seem, this magnificent mansion with its Gains-boroughs and Van Dycks, its billiard room, theater, and swimming pool, its plants of orchids in many of the rooms, has become a popular weekend resting place for many top men in the Labor Party...
...There is no compulsion in Christianity...
...A troop of technicians will also be sent over to place their know-how at the disposal of the Asiatic governments...
...Sir William Wakefield disposed of them: "There are plenty of very fine things," he said flatly, "for foreigners to see on Sunday, such as Westminster Abbey, St...
...The common gorge does rise, however, at the notion that because America is the strongest western nation, her judgment is necessarily infallible...
...II We spent a recent weekend at Buscot Park, one of the most beautiful houses in all of England, the home of the Labor peer...
...Lord Salisbury made a fervent appeal to the Government that the Russian move for a four-power conference should not be turned down flatly, but that some attempt should be made to find alternative proposals as a basis for a meeting...
...Britons have always prided themselves on their strict regard for the Sabbath, and the question was a ticklish one for members of Parliament of both parties, for they were likely to antagonize a goodly section of their constituents no matter how they voted...
...And they hope that Attlee's cautious reasonableness has had some effect on our American hot-headedness...
...The fun fair must be closed, but the pleasure grounds would be open to the public from 12:30 p.m...
...III Those who were for a Sunday opening defended it manfully, however, pointing out that it would help the Festival's finances, would draw foreign visitors, and in any case Sabbath-day merrymaking on the swings and "dodge 'ems" was a matter for the individual conscience...
...Lord Faringdon's other guests, most of whom were devout members of the Labor party, spent a good deal of time voicing approval of a recent speech made in the House of Lords by Lord Salisbury, the leader of the Opposition in the Upper House...
...And as for the wishes of foreign visitors, Conservative M.P...
...The Economist has been even blunter in its estimate of the situation: "In the Western Alliance, the United States is so much the strongest member that its opinions and prejudices naturally count for more than those of other members...
...It is right to accept this loyally, and to concede that if the free world is to have the benefit of active American leadership, other nations will have to be content to follow...
...Observer recently voiced the prevailing British view: "There is no escape from the logic of facts...
...Conceived early this year at the Commonwealth Conference in Colombo, and completed late this autumn, the Plan aims at the economic development of South and Southeast Asia at a capital cost of five billion dollars over the next six years, to be borne partly by Great Britain, partly by the Dominions, and partly too by the countries for whom help is designed (India, for instance, will contribute over two billion dollars...
...ing of facts...
...With a quite astounding unanimity the responsible newspapers and both Tory and Labor leaders have lately been following an identical chain of thought: 1), America is indubitably the greatest allied nation...
...Bobbity" Salisbury is a man of great courage and faith in his convictions...
...Although diffident and shy, he is one of the best speakers in public life in England, and his talent is such that he would probably be Prime Minister in a Conservative Government were he not a member of the House of Lords...
...In the light of the present depressing international occurrences, Britain's and the Commonwealth's own Marshall Plan, the recently announced Colombo Plan for South and Southeast Asia, seems rather like re-decorating a house while the roof is burning...
...The enemy's lines of communication beyond Korea could not be attacked without grave diplomatic consequences...
...Given the six years' grace, it is a generous and statesmanlike venture...
...London Commentary By CONNIE L. GRAEBNER London THE grim news from Korea has sunk all of Britain into the deepest gloom, the deeper perhaps because the English recognize as never before that they themselves have now only a relatively passive part to play in the course of events...
...Paul's Cathedral, museums, and other places...
Vol. 15 • January 1951 • No. 1
