7 MARCH 1958, Page 7

THE LONDON CORRESPONDENT Of the Manchester Guardian unkindly wiped my -

eye with a neat right, left and centre on Tuesday when he quoted headlines from the previous morning's papers : the Telegraph, 'No rent-split today among Con- servatives'; the Herald, 'No-split talks for Labour'; and the Guardian itself, —No split" among Liberals.' As usual in such cases, all the denials were falsified by events : the prospective Liberal candidate for Falmouth, who retracted some earlier criticisms of the new candidate for Farrington, has since blown his top again; a few f'ories did in fact abstain in the division after the Rent 13111 debate; and the 'Victory for Socialism' group is still Swingling along, too vigorously for Mr. Gaitskell's peace of mind. The Labour Party also has another split, the defec- tion of the Daily Herald on the H-bomb issue, to contend with. Having once plucked up the courage to reject the party line, anything might happen to the poor old Herald; it might even become readable. The Secretary of the Labour Party. Mr. Morgan Phillips, has written it a hurt letter of protest; yet I can think of few things more likely to benefit the Labour Party than the existence of another robustly independent Left- wing newspaper to supplement the Daily Mirror.