Spectator's Notebook
I HAD no joy of the result from Smethwick. This does not mean that I think Mr. Gordon Walker should be made into a hero. As Enoch Powell wro'e in the Sunday Telegraph: 'The new Foreign Secretary is not a martyr : he is much more like a humbug.' The way to justify one's views is not to run away from them. No doubt Mr. Gordon Walker was too much the 'remote and ineffectual don' for the hustings of Smethwick where, like it or not, coloured immigration is the main issue. If Mr. Gordon Walker had held to his own beliefs he would at least have won honour in defeat--as, for example, did Mr. Fenner Brockway. But Gordon Walker has no more right to expect his words and actions over immigration to be for- gotten than I have to expect my words and actions when Colonial Secretary at the time of the 'wind of change' not to be the subject of debate. They were, indeed, argued over in the general election, even to the extent of an Independent Conservative standing against me, and the League of Empire Loyalists turning out in strength to shout me down. I got no telegram of sympathy from Mr. Grimond—on the contrary, he came to Enfield West to speak against me. Quite right, too. I made no complaint, and nor should Gordon Walker. I think of the Smethwick result as I did of the crucial by-election in Southern Rhodesia between Dupont and Welensky. I did not want either of them to win.
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