THE NEW CHAPTER
SIR,—In your leading article "The New Chapter," you refer to the "limited degree" to which Mr. Ernest Sevin possesses a working know- ledge of international affair's. But is this true? From my own knowledge of Mr. Bevin I should say the exact contrary is the case. He goes to the Foreign Office with a knowledge of world affairs different in kind from that of Mr. Eden, but hardly less extensive. No one would deny Mr. Eden's great knowledge ; certainly no one who has at any time worked with him. But it is of a kind largely comparable to that possessed by the permanent heads of the Foreign Office, Sir Alexander Cadogan, for example. Mr. Eden is a superb diplomat, but his training, his experience, his contacts and his specialised diplomatic knowledge are all very much akin to those of the last Foreign Office officials.
Mr. Bevin's knowledge of international affairs—a very wide and pro- found knowledge as I know from past discussions with him—is of a different kind admittedly, but no less valuable for that. It was acquired in the first place through much experience of international trades union and Labour movement affairs, but it has been added to greatly by study and travel. Because of his reputation in other fields these interests were apt to be overlooked in the past, but they are of easy understanding. I well remember a few years before the war persuading him to talk on international affairs to a small group of newspaper men and others. He had then just returned from 4 world tour. At the end of the meeting an American journalist said to me "I never remember meeting a man who gave me such a feeling of seeing the world as a whole and as a practical statesman."
In a book of mine "War By Revolution," published five years ago, I wrote, after urging that Mr. Bevin should be appointed to the Foreign Office in the National Government: "With that vision of the people's place in world affairs which he so greatly possesses, and that understanding of world problems which he so frequently shows, he would bring to the Foreign Office a new and authentically democratic inspiration, combined with a toughness in negotiation admirably adapted to the needs of the day." I think that now, five years later, time will very quickly prove the
correctness of that judgement.—Yours, etc., FRANCIS WILLIAMS. 3 Essex Court, Middle Temple, E.C4.
Previous page
