A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
T is a pity that there should have been a difference of opinion I between the Prime Minister and Mr. Churchill on so ceremonial an occasion as the Vote of Thanks to the Armed Forces on Tuesday, but in all the circumstances it was not surprising. There is much to be said for Mr. Attlee's contention that grants of money to vic- torious commanders are not in keeping with the spirit of the times. In any case, the grants have been diminishing steadily since the days when Marlborough got the Manor of Woodstock and had Blenheim built for him by Queen Anne ; since Nelson's clergyman brother got an earldom and an annuity of £5,000 to accompany it (this apparently has cost the country some £700,000 so far) ; and Wellington got first one grant of Doo,000 and then another of £200,000. After the last war £too,000 each was voted to Haig and Beatty, and lesser sums to a number of other commanders. From the decision to abandon the donatives altogether this time—on the principle that the leaders, great as their services were, simply did their duty like any private— there will be little dissent, but in such a vote to mention not a single name, not even Montgomery, not even Alexander, and to vouchsafe no word of recognition of the incomparable achievement of Eisenhower in welding two armies into one, and making them an irresistible instrument of victory—that omission could hardly fail to strike all who heard or read the Prime Minister's statement as most unhappy. Mr. Churchill might, no doubt, have kept silent about it, but that would have been asking a great deal.
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