21 SEPTEMBER 1945, Page 4

. In the General Election of 19oo the newly-formed Labour

group returned only two candidates—one of them was Keir Hardie. Today the T.U.C. must look at the Labour Cabinet and at Labour repre- sentation in the Commons with something of a parent's thoughts when the children begin to set up house and go their own ways. Moreover, the Labour Party itself owes its present success largely to the fact that it has ceased to be defensive only of the interests of a single class and has brought forward a policy for the country as a whole. This broadening of the party appeal must ultimately affect the relations between the T.U.C. and a Labour Government. The weakest point of recent years in the debates of the Congress has been the treatment of foreign policy. There has been too much emotion and too little recognition of hard facts. Nevertheless, up to the present, the Minister who has won the greatest measure of approval in the country is the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who, as everyone knows, is a trade unionist.

* * *• *