MR. ARTHUR J. COOK
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your comment on this Labour leader seems a partic• ularly just one. The writer had the opportunity of talks with him just after each of his operations in hospital, and was deeply impressed with his human feeling for others and in his constructive programme which he outlined on each occasion. He seemed to have turned from the economists to practice. His energy seemed unabated, but softened in texture. On the first occasion, just after he had had his leg amputated, and he was obviously disturbed by pain on turning, he forgot all about his own worries when I mentioned that a young friend of mine had been treated for a War wound in the same hospital, and made detailed enquiries concerning this other case.
It was even difficult to get him to return to his own work which he had been so interestingly describing. He traced his illness to attempts at life-saving in the pits in the first instance and to injuries met with in this work. There is little doubt but that his future work would have been con- structive and that experience had taught him a great deal. As we parted on the last occasion, I was struck by his genial smile, and could not help thinking that in reality his great hold on his followers must have been partly due to his great
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