Quid Pro Quo
'Nevertheless, Mr. Attlee must have foreseen that the trip would put him and his colleagues in, at times, an equivocal position, for only a booby could have failed to foresee this. He did not undertake it lightly or for selfish reasons, and although at the moment the whole episode appears contro- versial and mildly ridiculous, I suspect that in the long run some good may accrue from it. Slapping backs, though not in my view one of the highest forms of human activity, is on the whole a more fruitful one than slamming doors; and the courteous vehemence with which the Chinese indulged in it, though of course it commits them to nothing, will make it slightly harder for them to continue to be evasive or intran- sigent over old issues or to pick quarrels over new ones. They may only make small concessions, but they are almost bound to make some; and if they do the fact that Mr. Attlee has bowled the cartoonists a series of full pitches to leg ought not to obscure the fact that he will have done some good.
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