20 MAY 1966, Page 9

Out of School The present Government's foreign policy—that is, in

so far as it has one at all—is so de- pressingly sterile that I can't forbear to raise a cheer at the remarks made out of school by Lord Chalfont to the Anglo-American Press Associa- tion in Paris the other day. Calling some of General de Gaulle's long-term aims `altogether admirable' (even though his tactics were ill- advised) the Minister for Disarmament was re- ported as saying that the NATO problem would not be solved by regarding it as a defensive alliance organised and directed against a purely military threat. Instead of sticking to cold war postures, the real role of the alliance was as a basis for negotiating with Russia and her allies about the shape of the world in the 1980s and beyond. Mr Stewart, please note.