BEFORE HE TOOK SILK his progress from chambers to the
Law Courts was a stirring sight. At a canter, arms flailing, booted and bowler-hatted, he would be seen discoursing loudly to his retinue, which consisted of two clerks and four or five pupils of varying race and size. who were usually unable either to match his speed or to follow his argument. When he took a header off his bicycle while doffing his hat to a judge in Putney High Street, an Indian pupil showed his gratitude to him by offering him an elephant as a safer means of transport, but the offer was declined, as it was thought the Bar Council might consider elephant riding to be advertising. It is odd that he has not been given a Cabinet post. Two of the things most con- spicuous about this Government are the failure to give the im- pression that there is someone of massive intelligence brooding over our affairs, and the absence of someone able to sing songs —to explain what the Government is trying to do so that people will listen. These two deficiencies Hailsham could to some extent have supplied had he been in the Cabinet. As he has been left outside it, the Navy will have the full monopoly of his talents and energies. It should find them bracing.
Previous page
