A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK S IR JOHN SIMON as Foreign Secretary may
have his critics. Sir John Simon as after-dinner or after- luncheon speaker can have none at all. Indeed in that role—leaving out of account the professional after-dinner humorists—he has hardly an equal in the country. His speech on the abolition of slavery at the centenary luncheon on Tuesday was a model for clarity, compact- ness,' feeling and stimulus, while the neatness with which he linked his opening sentence to the Chairman's closing words, spoken some ten seconds earlier, testified to a characteristic swiftness of improvisation. It was worth noting, by the way, that Mr. Speaker, who presided, claimed to be the spokesman as well as the representative of the House of Commons. That, no doubt, is just, and may be some compensation for the fact that the Speaker is the one member of the House who can never speak except outside it. Perhaps a conse- quent lack of practice explains his decision to read his speech on Tuesday from manuscript.
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