30 SEPTEMBER 1949, Page 4

On Wednesday, when Mr. Churchill opened and Mr. Harold Wilson

followed, it was the same thing, only more so. The Opposition leader was at the top of hiz form and delivered one of those speeches that only he can make. The characteristic phrases (" those disinterested loss-makers who control our nationalised in- dustries ") were in good supply. An interruption—" you'll have to sell your horse "—brought up that slowly spreading smile which always means that there is something coming. The something was " I should get a lot more for him than I gave—but I'm trying to rise above the profit motive." The refutation—by citations from Philip Snowden, Chancellor in the Labour Governments of 1924 and 1929—of Sir Stafford's charge that Mr. Churchill's return to the gold standard in 1925 meant massive unemployment and a lowering of wage-rates went right home. The general hope that the Minister of Health would take up the gage forthwith was disappointed. Mr. Wilson, who did take it up, had a task beyond his powers. * • • . *