A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
AMONG a good many aspects of international affairs calculated to create depression, there is one that justifies a high degree of optimism. That is the remarkable—and in the first instance unex- pected—firmness displayed by President Truman in his handling of both domestic and foreign affairs. His initial success, before he had been in office a week, with his effective appeal to Marshal Stalin to send M. Molotov to the San Francisco Conference after all. Another step that will undoubtedly make for amity between nations is his invitation to General de Gaulle to visit Washington. A third admirable move was the despatch of Mr. Joseph Davies to London and Mr. Harry Hopkins to Moscow as special envoys charged with cementing inter-Allied understanding. In the domestic field he has with very much sagacity established contact with the only living Republican ex-President, Mr. Hoover, and with two former Republican candidates, Mr. Alf Landon and Mr. Thomas Dewey. His grip of a situation which he never expected to have to handle is impressive, and his political influence was demonstrated by two striking victories for the Administration in the House of Representatives in the past few days. The first was the decision of the House Banking Committee, by 23 votes to 3, to " report out " (i.e., to send to the whole House for favourable consideration) the legislation proposed to give effect to the Bretton Woods decisions. On Saturday, a success no less notable was gained when the whole House voted by 239 to x29 in favour of renewing and extending the Reciprocal Trade Act—which provides for the reduction of tariffs by 5o per cent. by mutual agreement.
* * * * Mr. Justice Charles, I am glad to see, deprecates the burning of babies. He had before him at the Gloucester Assizes last week two women, wives of soldiers, who had had babies by other men and destroyed them by burning them in their fireplaces. The learned Judge told the women they had behaved very badly—in fact, that their behaviour was abominable. He urged them, "Don't do that sort of thing again "—and bound them over. I have been sent a metrical version of his observations : " You ought not to have roasted your baby, It's my duty to make this quite plain.
It was bad and unwise But there, dry up your eyes, And don't roast a baby again."
The mothers in question, it should be added, had spent a week or so in prison while awaiting sentence.
* * * * The question of fraternisation in Germany has been discussed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which has re- jected a resolution urging the Government to withdraw its ban on the practice. Therein I think the Assembly was wise. There is, of course, room for two opinions on the subject. One opinion, that of a serving soldier in Germany, is before me now. He is dead against non-fraternisation ; he could understand the ban, he says, if there were any sign of aggressiveness, or a were-wolf movement, among the people, but all of them seem to wish to be friendly. This is stating the problem a little too simply. It is not yet a month since Germany's surrender—the surrender of a collectively guilty nation. It will do the average German no harm at all to meet with a sternly correct, or correctly stern, attitude on the part of the occupying troops for a little longer than that. It may be hoped, indeed, that it will actually do him good. Every German will be disposed to protest " I was never a Nazi." It is surely sufficient to listen silently without assuring him, " Of course not ; we never thought you were." Some degree of fraternisation is bound to come in time, but for the moment there is a great deal to be said for retarding it. * * * I have before me the last issue of a remarkable publication—the last because the journal's work is done, and evidently most admirably done. It is called British Press News, and that there may be no pretence about its origin it bears under the title the Royal Arms and the inscription " British Legation, Berne." The paper was started in the summer of 1940, when Allied fortunes were at the nadir, to give the average citizen of Switzerland unvarnished news about British policy and British achievement. Of the first issue, roneo- produced, ',too copies were turned out. There was no broadcast distribution ; copies were only sent on personal application. The result was that by 1942 two issues a week, each of 67,000 copies, were being produced (still, incredibly enough, by roller)). After that British Press News took the form of a printed journal—modelled, I am flattered to learn, on The Spectatoi—in three languages. Recent circulation figures have been : English edition, 16,700; French, 34,800 ; German, 63,650, practically all in response to personal re- quests. On May 16th appeared the " Victory Issue "—and the last.
* * * Labour some time ago declared that if the time should come for forsaking the Coalition Government it would make its exit with dignity and good will. There was singularly little of either quality manifest in Mr. Herbert Morrison's interjections and interventions on his first appearance in the House of Commons as a private Member. It must be something of a record for an ex-Cabinet Minister to have to be called to order by the Speaker within forty- eight hours of surrendering his seals. The odd thing is that Mr. Morrison, all things considered, was an admirable Cabinet Minister. If the Labour Party wants to turn the Election into a dog-fight it must have its dog-fight, but that will not tend to commend it to an electorate fully conscious of the seriousness of the situation both at home and abroad.
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One of the commodities which seems to be in short, or shortish, supply is coffee. There is one rather interesting-contributory reason. Nothing is more valuable as barter in the liberated countries than a pound of tea or coffee. Pounds of tea need coupons, so they can be pretty much ruled out. But coffee is not rationed, and British or American soldiers returning from leave in England find it highly profitable to collect a tin or two of coffee and take it back to where- ever they may be quartered.
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I am sorry as a journalist to talk of journalistic jargon, but as a journalist I wish we could avoid jargon. The latest example is a " headache." The Big Five get " headaches " at the San Francisco Conference, or give the Conference itself a headache. Marshal Tito gives Field-Marshal Alexander a headache. Herrings at Stornoway give the Ministry of Food a headache. I wish writers who are fre- quently taken this way could be issued with rations of aspirin.
* * * Mr. Harold Nicolson's description of his underclothing in these columns lest week so moved a sympathetic quartette of readers that out of their combined resources they secured him a pair of pyjamas. They were doll's pyjamas, but in such matters it is the intention
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