Mr. Attlee in Congress Mr. Attlee must have felt the
mantle of his predecessor heavy upon him when he faced Congress this week ; and his audience must have wondered how his speech would compare with the monumental eloquence of Mr. Churchill. Mr. Attlee wisely did not attempt to compete with the incomparable ; his address was a plain and sober attempt to explain to the American people as represented in Con- gress the aims of his Government and the spirit that inspires its policies. Wisely also he insisted that its " Socialism" was not the Socialism of a sect or even of a party ; it is an attempt, which any Government of any colour would have had to make, to overcome by wise planning and control the difficulties and the scarcities which face this countrii as the result of the war. At the same time he emphasised that the party which he leads is traditionally associated with measures not to restrict but to extend personal liberty Of his Government can carry out its policies in the spirit in which Mr. Attlee. expounded them it will be able to justify his claim that it represents i
not a class but the broad mass of the population. But no doubt, apart from a natural curiosity to hear the British version of Socialism, hi; audience was chiefly interested in Mr. Attlee's exposition of foreign and especially commercial policy, and perhaps, since they consisted of Congressmen, he might have been wise to assure them that what- ever measures of internal reorganisation the Government may carry out, it is no part of its policy to impede the flow of trade between this country and America. Indeed, he might have emphasised that, given our present difficulties, the responsibility for freeing the channels of trade must fall largely on the Americans themselves.
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