A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
MR. BEVIN'S lengthy speech which opened the foreign affairs debate on Tuesday seemed almost deliberately flat. The
Foreign Secretary spoke for over an hour and a half, reading every word, as is customary and almost necessary when a Minister is in effect addressing not merely the House but the world, and he was heard in almost unbroken silence. There was not a single inter- vention such as—in the form of a request for clearer elucidation— commonly punctuates such speeches, and what little occasional applause there was was as restrained as the speech itelf. The fact no doubt was that Mr. Bevin felt it essential to reply to M. Molotov, but necessary to make the reply as uncontroversial as possible. That was no easy matter, for the Soviet Commissar's last public utterance was nothing if not provocative. On the whole, as good a middle line as possible was struck, but the speech could without disadvantage have been a little shortened by the exclusion or abbrevia- tion of some of the detail about nomad tribes in Somaliland and the like. However, it adequately achieved its main object, which was to leave the atmosphere as favourable as possible for the resumed conference in Paris on the r5th.
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