MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
T may seem belated, after so much has happened since, to refer I to last week's Non-Confidence Debate in the House of Commons.
Yet if we are for ever to be hustled onwards in the dust-storm of day-to-day events, if we are never to draw breath or to consider patiently the proportions of any past occurrence, then our minds will begin to pant painfully—a process which is bad for lungs and heart and brain. For in truth the controversy which raged on Wednesday into Thursday of last week implied something more than a dramatic occasion and raised issues more permanent than the temporary issues of strategy or equipment. Implicit in our discussions was the fundamental problem of the function of Parlia- ment in war-time. On the one hand it will be widely admitted that it is the duty of the House of Commons to call attention to deficiencies, to examine failures, and to force the Government to explain to the country the causes of disaster. On the other hand, it may be felt that such criticism in a time of emergency distracts the Government from its immediate pre-occupations, undermines confidence at home while creating exultation abroad, and may induce in those responsible for action a mood of hesitation which is inimical to the taking of gigantic risks. It can be argued that at moments of danger the House of Commons should become not the amplifier of the nation's anxieties, but the reservoir of its calm. It can be argued also, and with compelling truth, that in such debates the scales are inevitably weighted in favour of the critics: they base their argument upon an ascertained failure and upon facts which are already known to the enemy ; whereas the Government are faced with the cruel alternative of either leaving many criticisms un- answered or else of shifting responsibility and disclosing information regarding future resources and intentions which the enemy would dearly love to know. The more responsible Members thus tend to preserve silence, whereas the less responsible Members may convey to the country the impression that Parliament is a less balanced assembly than it is. All this is unfortunate ; but is it wholly unfortunate?
* * * * I confess that when I first read the terms of Sir John Wardlaw- Milne's motion of Non-Confidence, I was shocked to feel that • while the enemy were battering at the gates of Alexandria the elected representatives of the British people should be chattering in the House. I do not question Sir John's sense of responsibility. He has all the manners of an elder' statesman, nor is it an exaggeration to say that he has for long been one of the five or six outstanding back-benchers who sit below the gangway on the Government side of the House. The effect of his speech was marred by his strange Hanoverian suggestion that a popular Royal Duke should be appointed Commander-in-Chief. This proposal sent a gust of embarrassment hurtling through the House ; it was, if I may crib a quotation from Petty Officer Herbert, " Like the thirteenth stroke of a clock, which is not only in itself discredited, but which casts a shade of doubt over all previous assertions." Vet it was a tribute to Sir John's recuperative powers, as well as to the esteem with which he is widely regarded by his fellow-Members, that he recovered from this silly sally with such dignity and speed. It was unfortunate also for Sir John that so many of the few Members who supported his motion should have been discredited by their own activities or inactivities during the remote or immediate past. Yet as the night wore on the mist of doubt which had at first assailed me began to melt away. It is a stimulating experience in war-time to hear the Government assailed with a vehemence as brilliant and courageous as that with which Mr. Aneurin Bevan hurled his darts, or by arguments as incisive and well-ordered as those of Mr. Hore-Belisha. For as the debate proceeded one became aware that above the cloud of bitterness and indiscretion which obscured the arena there hung a shining symbol of freedom. As usual, the Prime Minister expressed, better than any of us, the unformulated thought which was in all our minds. " What a remarkable example," he said in winding up the debate, " what a remarkable example this has been of the unbridled freedom of our Parliamentary institutions in time of war! I am in favour of this freedom, which no other country would use, or dare to use, in times of mortal peril such as those through which we are passing." A freedom, assuredly, which no other country would dare to use.
* * * * Before the opening of each sitting day the House of Commons joins in prayers. The Chaplain at the table reads out the lovely and accustomed words, and the Members gaze with bowed heads upon the backs of the benches upon which they are about to sit. We pray for many things, but among them we pray to be freed from " all partial affections." I am not a party man, but I confess to two partial affections which are deeply embedded in my soul. I have a partial affection for Mr. Winston Churchill, upon whom I gaze, as Grattan said of Charles James Fox, " with tenderness and wonder." There he sat, hunched and sombre, wearing his bull-dog mask. It is noticeable that since Dunkirk the thrust of his chin and lower lip has become more pronounced, the truculence of his really alarming gaze more pugnacious. Yet under and over this pugilistic mask ran little tremors of feeling ; little gusts of amuse- ment, boyishness, mischief and sorrow. It is amazing to me that anyone so tough can be so sensitive, that the qualities of fighter and artist should be so curiously commingled. And when at the end he rose and faced the assembly, standing there stockily with his hands thrust deep in his pockets and his Victorian watch-chain glinting against his sombre clothes, the rest of the House seemed suddenly reduced to purely numerical proportions. I am not at all surprised that the whole force and ingenuity of Dr. Goebbels' machine should be concentrated upon shaking our confidence in Mr. Churchill. For they know, over there, that if the whole world were to crash around him its ruins would strike him unperturbed. They know that he is the embodiment of the country's will-power ; our fortress against fear.
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If I have another partial affection it is for the House as a whole. I am sensitive to the fact that when the Mother of Parliaments behaves foolishly her momentary aberration is patent to all th world, whereas her underlying wisdom, although permanent, is als' b obscure and dark. There were many things said last week which a ought not to have been said and which will be used by our enemie with damaging effect ; yet there were many other things whi ought to have been said, which were said, and which it was good t hear. The intemperances of individual Members cancel each othe out ; the abiding temperance of the House as a whole remains, a I have said, the reservoir of the nation's calm. The British peopl enjoy washing their dirty linen in public, and the House of Common furnishes an excellent laundry. I do not believe that the effect abro is as damaging as some suppose, since for every foreigner wh exclaims, " Look! What filthy linen! " there are three foreigne who say to themselves, " What a lovely wash! " Nor do I feel tha in the end these public discussions and disclosures diminish con fidence among the Forces or the population itself. Mr. Lyttelton, is true, made many damaging admissions, and with a lack Parliamentary technique which caused momentary disturbance. B the House always welcomes amateurishness on the part of its novice and the ultimate effect of Mr. Lyttelton's speech was to convin us. that a man whom we knew to be extremely able was al extremely sincere. It was useful also that so many Service Membe should have contradicted each other upon Service matters, thereb proving that the issues were by no means so simple as the uninitiat had been inclined to suppose. When the debate opened I dread lest the proceedings should bring the House of Commons into di repute ; looking back upon it today, I feel that they have had excellent cathartic effect. And in so far as the immediate issue concerned, we should be grateful to Sir John Wardlaw-Milne f demonstrating, by what was perhaps an impulsive motion, ho very few Members desire to replace Mr. Churchill by someone el
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