13 AUGUST 1937, Page 18

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, —If the Labour Party

is in an unsatisfactory condition, as Mr. Frank Pakenham himself admits, surely the main cause is to be found in the embarrassing fervour of recent converts like himself. Working men would like their leaders to secure for them a greater share of the. national income and greater security in their employment, but most of them have no desire for " rending changes " or a complete transformation of the social order. This point was admirably made by Mr. John Scanlan in an article referred to in a letter which you published on July 16th. Doctrinaire Socialism, which_ Mr, Pakenham curiously seems to identify with Christianity, is as uncongenial to most members of the working classes as it is to the bourgeoisie. " Class differences " are not always based on inequality of income, but just as often on similarity of' tastes and interests, and it is not only in 'the upper classes that many would regret their disappearance.—Yotirs faithfully, G. H. STEVENSON. UniveriitY college, Oxford. "

[A review-on "Thy Prospecis 19` LabOur," by R. C. K. Ensor, -- appears on p. 282.1