A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
NO passage in Mr. Eden's speech on Tuesday was more loudly cheered, by Labour members equally with Conservatives, than that devoted to " the performance of the hon. Member for Gateshead (Mr. Zilliacus) and his colleagues " who have been touring Eastern Europe (in what capacity Ind at whose expense is not quite clear) in giving in Warsaw a Press conference " which is apparently devoted to vilifying the [Marshall] plan which the Government support," and in endorsing in Belgrade the Cominform declaration which attacks by name both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary. That the House so fully endorsed these strictures is an encouraging sign. That British Members of Parliament should tour countries in Eastern Europe with which they have a spiritual affinity, taking the occasion wherever they go to criticise not only their own country but the Government which they nominally support, is cause for just indignation at home and may.raise serious misunderstanding in countries where the importance of these peripatetic M.P.s may easily be overestimated. There was once, as Mr. Eden said, a tradition that when British M.P.s went abroad they left domestic controversies behind them, and certainly the great majority of Members of all parties would conform to that practice today. There is, of course, no means of checking the minority who prefer a different demeanour, and the House must be content to watch a handful of its Members aligning themselves ostentatiously with countries which are opposing British policy in every field and on every opportunity.
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