The Lord President Speaks
Mr. Herbert Morrison follows a distinguished tradition of British politics in making important speeches on policy in the country as well as in the House. He has not been without success in this medium and he has now extended the sphere of his ambulatory activities to America. So long as his speeches maintain the high level and humane tone of his broadcast of last Saturday he will continue to add to his own stature as well as that of his country. He made in the very best manner the points for continued and close Anglo-American co-operation which have been suggested by the experience of the past six years. The points are not new—the many ties formed between American Service men and British civilians, the willing assumption by this country of great risks and burdens in the common cause, the necessity for close understanding in the field of international trade in the interests of both countries. The American public never minds being told again what it has been told before, and, such are the ways of British publicity, there are still vast numbers of American citizens to whom the forcible arguments used by Mr. Morrison have never struck home. There will be fewer now. Mr. Morrison's Canadian experience was at times less for- tunate. His rather frequent contacts with the representatives of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, Canada's party of the Left, did not go uncriticised. Nor were his remarks on nationalisation particularly well received. These facts serve to emphasise the delicacy of his position as a visitor. The making of political speeches outside the borders of Britain is an activity which has its pitfalls as well as its prizes, its obligations as well as its opportunities. Wherever Mr. Morrison speaks he speaks for the British Government, and when he speaks of economic organisation he, will do well to remem- ber, mutatis mutandis, the latest dictum of another traveller to America, Mr. Churchill: "I never criticise the Government of my country abroad. I very rarely leave off criticising it at home."
Previous page
