24 SEPTEMBER 1948, Page 5

It is curious how a chance phrase, even a chance

word, may affect the whole interpretation of a speech. ' That was so with the Foreign Secretary's statement on the Berlin situation in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He used the phrase "I am not saying we are committed to war and all the other things that might ensue— we have not reached that stage yet." The final word riveted the attention of his hearers, and received the most ominous interpreta- tion. Actually all the last seven words were pretty certainly a sudden improvisation, and not part of the manuscript Mr. Bevin was reading from. In any case I have the best of authority for saying that he was unconscious of having used the word "yet," and meant only to say, and to emphasise, "we have not reached that stage."

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