I SEE THAT Tribune is indignant about Mr. Sel- wyn
Lloyd's answer to Mr. Philip Noel-Baker's complaint in the Commons that he had not known of Britain's changed relationship to the International Court until it was revealed by the Spectator. Mr. 'Lloyd, it will be remembered, jumped up to say : 'I know at least one of the right honourable gentleman's right honourable friends who was discussing the matter with me weeks before that.' Tribune has good reason to be angry at Mr. Lloyd's fatuous irrelevance in using a private conversation as an excuse for breaking a constitutional convention, but it is not, I think, justified in complaining of the Labour ex- Minister's failure to tell his colleagues about it. I understand that the ex-Minister concerned was Sir Hartley Shawcross. Sir Hartley's reticence may have been imposed upon him by the Foreign Office; but if it wasn't, it would be sufficiently explained by his notorious' inability to get to Westminster and by a very understand- able reluctance to use the telephone.
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