It was just the kind of argument on which Sir
John Simon, who, in the absence of the Prime Minister, was in charge of the debate, might be expected to score heavily, and brilliantly he handled it. " I have here," he said, " the News Chronicle for Friday which published an article headed ' Duff Cooper's Alliance Speech,' which speaks, in an editorial, of Mr. Cooper's advocacy of an immediate and apparently isolated alliance between France and Great Britain, and asks the rhetorical question, ' who authorised Mr. Duff Cooper to make this public plea for an Anglo-French Alliance ? ' The answer is extremely simple—Nobody, and he did not do it." When that had been disposed of there was really very little left of the Opposition case and the Government supporters went into the lobby to vote down the motion without any of the doubts and hesita- tions that some of them have experienced recently when the Government has been directly challenged. On the whole, however, the Opposition conducted themselves well on an occasion that demanded con- siderable Parliamentary skill. But it is a pity that Mr. Attlee so often spoils his speeches with gibes that are rather humourless and in questionable taste. It was distinctly unfortunate that with all London placarded with the news that the Prime Minister was suffering from insomnia he should have chosen to jeer at the Prime Minister as a sort of " little Boy Blue away at Chequers, fast asleep, while the sheep were all over the place."
Previous page
