MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
THOSE who, in their passage through this intricate life, have had opportunities to observe the working of the adeninistra- tive machine, are aware how small is the part played in human affairs by planned intention. The historian is presented with ascertainable results, and is therefore inclined to attribute these results to ascertainable causes. He is tempted to under-estimate the effect on human decisions of the unascertainable, the imponder- able or the fortuitous ; to elevate the spasmodic impulses of Ministers into deliberate acts of volition and to attribute to such acts the generic and somewhat meaningless title of "policy." . In this process the historian is aided and abetted by the explanations furnished by our eminent statesmen ; they also strive to represent that what happened was what they wished to occur and to suggest that their foresight at the time was as lucid and potent as their hindsight has become. Yet I have noticed that the occasions when even the most powerful statesman knew what he wanted are less frequent than those when he had no idea at all ; and that the influence upon " policy " of the chain of circumstance—or even of such fortuitous interventions as vanity, prejudice, deafness or physical lassitude—is more constant than the historian would recognise or the statesman choose to admit. Not that I should con- tend that the destinies of mankind are at the mercy of the impulses or delirium of individual politicians. The weather of a statesman's mind may be variable, but the climate thereof is reasonably constant. He may be quite justifiably uncertain, in a set of circumstances, what is the right thing to do ; but if his character and intelligence be averagely stable, he will have an instinctive sense of how to do it. The muddles occur when a statesman, in moments of confused decision, knows more or less what he wants to do, but fumbles in his execution. It is at such moments that he is in danger of skidding and may act out of character. Something of this sort, I suppose, happened to Mr. Chuter Ede.
* * * * I have always regarded, and still regard, Mr. Chuter Ede as the most balanced type of Social Democrat. Were Mr. Ernest Bevin to resign from the Foreign Office, it is Mr. Ede whom I should wish to see in his place, since he would never place ingenuity above intelligence. In so far as " policy " was concerned, Mr. Ede's attitude towards the Second World Peace Conference at Sheffield was undoubtedly correct. He realised from the out- set that it was a potential danger. He recognised the project as a bulky Trojan horse, packed syith many foolish and a few malignant persons, and introduced by the Cominform into one of the bastions of our industry for the purpose of creating doubt and shaking confidence. Nor did he under-estimate the effect upon weak minds of the Soviet peace slogan. In the old days, before the perfection of the-means of mass-communication, it was assumed that the opinions of the majority were formed by processes of reason. It was felt that the only way to treat new and startling ideas was to expose them to the open air : if they were false ideas they would wither in the light of the sun, if they were true ideas they would strike firm roots into the soil. But today, when ideas can be propagated with such rapidity, even the most noxious weeds can gain a foothold. To those who are accustomed to think logically it seems absurd to represent Russia with her vast armaments and Incessant provocation as the beacon of peace. But the majority of mankind do not think logically ; they long only for some release from apprehension. And if it is still not possible to fool all the people all the time, it is certainly possible to fool them for sufficient length of time to render impossible their recovery or escape.
* * * * The dread impact of the Russian peace propaganda derives from the fact that it contains a distorted truth. It is true that if the whole civilised world were to surrender to this Asiatic hurricane ; if the barriers and breakwaters were removed and the flood allowed to pour over Asia, Africa and Europe ; if America retired to her
continent in sullen isolation ; then assuredly Russia would be enabled to make a desert of all our freedoms and call it peace.
How difficult it is to convince the proletariate that this Pax Scythica would be worse than war. I regret, indeed, that we should have been so unalert as to allow the Soviet Government to get away with this potent slogan and that we failed to grasp it first ourselves. I should be glad, indeed, if the dove of Pablo Picasso had been forestalled by a fatter and more bourgeois bird designed by Sir Alfred Munnings. But we have missed that opportunity, and I sympathise with Mr. Chuter Ede in disliking the serious dis- advantages that have ensued. I believe also that he was right in refusing to ban the Conference. This would have entailed legisla- tion and an inyidious debate in Parliament. Moreover, had he done so, he might have been led by insidious steps to declare the Communist Party an illegal organisation ; and that, assuredly, would be an illiberal and injudicious thing to do. I am thus in entire agreement with Mr. Chuter Ede in the general attitude he adopted and in the " policy " he framed. But when it comes to execution my agreement dwindles. He acted out of character, and much con- fusion, irritation and unfairness were the result.
"His Majesty's Government," said Mr. Ede in the House of Commons, "are satisfied that they have not departed from the great tradition of this country in the matter of free speech and free assembly." This satisfaction is not generally shared. The flood of British freedom has not, on this occasion, flowed "to the open sea of the world's praise." One may discount the vituperation of the Cominforni 'wireless and newspapers, and smile at the remarks about Britain's iron curtain or the "visa terror" of the British Foreign Office:- One can be amused by the assertion of Pravda that "this openly Fascist act has exposed Mr. Attlee as an ordinary policeman in the hire of the American aggressors." We may laugh at such expressions as being a delectable instance of the pot calling the kettle black ; but the fact remains that many people in this country do not like behaving like kettles. It is all very well for Mr. Chuter Ede to contend that he did no more than to separate the shepherds from the sheep ; we have but slight confidence in the ability of our passport officials, our immigration officers, or even the back-room boys of M.I.5, invariably to distinguish sheep from shepherds or shepherds from sheep. We do not in the least enjoy the spectacle of elderly foreigners being turned back in hordes to face again the rigours of a Channel passage and thereafter being transported as triumphant victims behind the other iron curtain decked with wreaths, chocolates and flags Nor do we relish the fact that what may have been a sound governmental decision was executed in a manner suggestive of a governmental trick. It all seems to us, as the Spectator remarked last week, "a very unattractive game."
I do not know what were the influences, whether central or regional, that induced Mr. Chuter Ede thus suddenly to act out of character. I concede him the chain of circumstance and the intru- sion of the fortuitous. Yet it is unfortunate to assert a principle and then to violate it by indirect means. I remind him of the words of Curran, spoken more than one hundred and fifty years ago: "1 speak in the spirit of British law, which makes liberty commen- surate with and inseparable from British soil—which proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment that he sets foot on British soil, that the ground which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of universal emancipation." I doubt whether the strangers who were turned back from our ports on landing derived much sense of holiness, consecration or genius. In resisting some- thing which was admittedly fraudulent we have conveyed the impression of fraudulence in ourselves. How- far better to have allowed this vapour to exhaust itself upon the Sheffield air ; how
sad that it should have been condcnsed. '
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