A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE daily papers, or some of them, are suddenly developing a lively interest in Mr. Winston Churchill's future. According to the gloss put on one cryptic announce- ment Mr. Churchill is to get the O.M. and also Sir Thomas Inskip's job (which is not at present available, but might become so if there were a vacancy on the Woolsack). It may be so. As to the 0.M., many worse awards have been, and will be, made. As to the gain to the Government and the country of harnessing the Member for Epping's ability and energy to the task of carrying rearmament through in the shortest possible time, to the point where the ruinous race becomes futile and all competitors are ready to talk about disarmament instead, there hardly seems room for two opinions. Since Sir Austen Chamberlain's death Mr. Churchill has occupied a unique position in the House of Commons and one that it would be a sacrifice to relinquish. But he finds himself, I believe, in complete sympathy with the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden in matters of foreign policy, and he is more con- vinced than any member of the Cabinet of the urgency of the need for speeding-up the rearmament programme. Having been in his time First Lord of the Admiralty, Secre- tary for War, Secretary for Air and Minister of Munitions, he can speak—and could act—with unique experience in regard to it.
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