It is a mistake, I should suggest, to draw a
profit and loss account between Mr. Eden's vast knowledge, and Mr. Bevin's com- parative ignorance. I should not myself define the actual knowledge which Mr. Eden possessed as the most important of his many 'assets ; higher than this I should have placed his patience, his integrity and his imagination. There is no reason to assume that Mr. Bevin will not also, although in a different guise, be able to manifest such qualities. Moreover, as Mr. Francis Williams pointed out in last week's Spectator, Mr. Bevin does possess a range of knowledge of a highly specialised and useful kind. From his advisers at the Foreign Office he can always obtain such factual information as he requires ; but he will bring to his conduct of foreign policy certain angles of information and of knowledge of which the staff of the Foreign Office are themselves unaware. He is not an un- travelled man ; he has had frequent experience of international con- ferences ; and he has established many contacts abroad which will prove an illuminating addition to those relationships which the pro- fessionals have for long maintained between each other. His per- sonality, moreover, will compensate for any deficiencies in his equip- ment ; bluff and cautious, trenchant but not inhuman, direct with- out being clumsy, forthright without indiscretion, the forceful shape of the man will in the end impose itself. It is perhaps not unfortu- nate that at a time when our physical power is only comparative, we should have as our representative at international conferences a man whose personality is a force in itself. Mr. Bevin would not, perhaps, have been a very subtle appeaser ; as a defender of our rights and interests he will prove himself formidable indeed.
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