At the same time the extent to which the prestige
of the Govern- ment depends on two men, Mr. Bevin and Sir Stafford Cripps, neither of whom enjoys particularly robust health, is rather alarming. The Foreign Secretary remains as irreplaceable as ever, and recent events have given a rather sardonic significance to the fact that the two persons most commonly spoken of as possible successors to him have been Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. Dalton. As to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he overtops his colleagues increasingly. His in- tellectual capacity commands no less respect than the integrity of his character, and, good party man though he is, there is confidence in all quarters that in everything that concerns the crisis he will not merely put the nation always first and the party second, but refrain, as his predecessor sometimes failed to, from dragging bits of party propaganda into speeches on grave national issues. Rarely has a greater responsibility been laid on the shoulders of a single Minister.
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