Those who know Mr. Bevin intimately are agreed that he
possesses three outstanding qualifications. He is a realist, in that he believes that facts are more important than theories and that policy should be governed by circumstances as much as by ideas. He would not, for instance, be tempted to subordinate vital British interests to some ideological conception of party sympathies or dislikes. Being a determined patriot, in the sense that he is convinced that the British Commonwealth and Empire have a valuable and independent part to play in world affairs, he would not be inclined to adopt any foreign doctrine, whether of the right or of the left, as being uni- versally valid. He would find himself in this respect in accord with the long tradition of our great Foreign Secretaries, in that he would believe that the furtherance of British needs is something more than enlightened self-interest, and that, if rightly appraised, the require- ments and standards of our own island and Empire are not incom- patible with the peace and prosperity of the world at large. In the second place Mr. Bevin possesses a truly amazing power of assimila- tion. Few men can read papers as quickly as he can or separate so rapidly the essential from the unessential. Better than most men he can absorb a brief accurately and possess himself with speed and lucidity of the information which he requires for his argument. And in the third place he is able in conference to expound his point of view with the most cogent pungency and force. Mr. Bevin is not the type of man who, from a desire to be agreeable to those with whom he negotiates, will evade unpleasant points of controversy or seek to leave his antagonist in a!y doubt as to the scope and direction of his own intentions. It may well be that Mr. Bevin will not at first be able fully to penetrate into the recesses of the foreign mind ; but one thing is certain :—whereas he may fail to understand what is at the back of their mind, he will leave them in no doubt whatsoever regarding what lies at the back of his own mind. And this in itself is a powerful asset in all negotiation.
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