Mr. Bevin's Open Door Mr. Ernest Bevin's contribution to the
Labour Party's Conference raises his political stature. If, he holds, the tardy but powerful Peace Front is to yield more than a temporary respite from panic it must prosecute more than the essentially negative business of defence. Collec- tive security must go together with collective economic advance, and both must be open to all, particularly to Germany. Mr. Bevin reiterated the view, voiced strongly but vainly by economists seven years ago, that the exclusive Ottawa policy bears more responsibility for our present plight than any other factor. Equal access to raw materials is a mockery without equal access to markets— not only, be it added, colonial markets ; trade may be multilateral. This consideration lends additional point to Mr. Bevin's plea for agreements not merely colonial or European in scope but including the United States and the Dominions. His attack on the " great financial interests " is common form. They are at least as internationally minded as the T.U.C.; and indeed the chief opposition to the policy which Mr. Bevin proposes is everywhere likely to come not from High Finance but from industrial pressure groups " powerfully abetted by organised labour. It is the more important that so staunch a Trade Unionist as Mr. Bevin should be the spokesman at South- port of what is essentially the liberal view.
Previous page
