27 OCTOBER 1944, Page 4

The Prime Minister's act (or gesture, as the newest journalism

would put it) in going down the floor of the House to greet Sir Wiliam Beveridge and chat with him was, it seems, sufficiently un- usual to cause a minor sensation. There was probably more in the salutation than ordinary cordiality. Mr. Churchill and Sir William are vieux copains. Thirty-five years they were associated in a notable enterprise. Mr. Churchill, holding his first Cabinet post as President of the Board of Trade, brought Employment' Exchanges—Labour Exchanges, as they were called then—into being, and Mr. W. H. Beveridge, who had found his way into the Board of Trade after two years of leader-writing on the Morning Post, was made Director of the new Exchanges, and remained there for seven years. Whether those memories were recalled or not in the conversation on Tuesday, they were worth recalling. * * * *