A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK A RE we moving towards a broadening of
the basis of the Government ? Unless the situation changes faster than seems likely we shall probably have to wait till Parliament meets for more light on that. In the country the step would, I think, be popular. Munich has been a revelation of the methods to which the rulers of totalitarian States are prepared to have recourse, and the deficiencies in defence revealed during the crisis have provoked an alarm which will turn to fierce indignation unless a resolute—as Sir John Simon would say, a remorseless—review of the situation results in an output of defensive armaments on a scale never yet attempted in this country. Nothing would create more general confidence than the appointment of Mr. Churchill as Minister of Supply, but the differences between Mr. Churchill (who is shortly to make his defence to his con- stituents) and the Prime Minister on foreign policy are to all appearance too great to permit of his inclusion in a Cabinet presided over by Mr. Chamberlain. That, I think, applies in a less degree to Mr. Eden too, though Mr. Eden after his recent appeals for national unity could hardly decline an invitation to rejoin the Cabinet if he received one. The statement of the Liberal Party on Tuesday that it was ready to co-operate with men and women of all parties appears to contemplate a joint effort to eject the present Government rather than collaboration with it, and the Labour Party has little to contribute that would strengthen the Cabinet except morally. A radical change in the basis of the Government would therefore be surprising.
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If the nation is really to be organised to meet an emergency the Government will, I imagine, take powers promptly to authorise it to do a good many things which it was proposing to do without any powers at all three weeks ago. We were told then, for example, that if we lived in the country we should have, without any option of choice or refusal, to give house-room to as many refugees from London or some other city as our premises would accommodate ; but no legislation that I know of has ever been passed empowering the Government or anyone else to demand that. About the billeting of soldiers I am not sn certain. Billeting was one of the four grievances which Charles I was forced to correct by the Petition of Right, that historic charter asserting that " no man is forced to take soldiers but inns, and they, to be paid for them." Soldiers were certainly billeted on house- holders during the Great War, and the legislation which regularised that may, for all I know, be still in force. But the holder of an important legal position, whose word on such a subject should be decisive, declared roundly that when a dozen Territorials and a searchlight planted them- selves and their impedimenta on a private estate (where, may say, they were made entirely welcome) they were acting without any legal warrant at all. Perhaps someone can tell me if that is so.
* * *- * The workings of the film-censorship in fields common both to the film and, to a Press which, for better or worse, is censor-free are worth watching. The March of Time fihn on the crisis has secured a good deal of valuable advertisement through the censor's operations, but it appears to have suffered considerably at his hands—which is a pity if the parts excised are equal in merit to the parts that survive. The theme, very briefly, is the success of Hitler so far in achieving all his aims without effective opposition, though his objectives—Austria, Czechoslovakia, Russia, France—have all been stated plainly in advance in Mein Kampf. There is one country, Britain, which Hitler is anxious not to alienate, and here come some shots -illustrating Britain's hatred of war and belief in the League of Nations, followed by gradual disillusionment as the Manchurian, Abyssinian (here the censor has been at work), Spanish and Austrian episodes were written into history., Britain throughout leaves the dictators free to ravish as they will for the sake of peace at any price. Then comes the crisis, with shots of the Prime Minister in his aeroplane, gas-masks, A.R.P., and the rest, and at this point, at which heavy work by the censor must be assumed, the film tails off into complete flatness.. Americans, of course, will see it in its completeness ; the wisdom of depriving British audiences of the opportunity of doing the same seems very questionable.
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The Times is a great, but in some respects a rather singular, paper, as the exposure of a bit of its inner workings this week indicates. On Wednesday The Times published a long article on the international outlook—more conspicuous for its optimism than its profundity—by the Aga Khan In its principal leading article in an adjacent column it paid warm tribute to this contribution by " a close and sagacious student of international affairs," but on the following day it gave prominence to a letter of close on a column subjecting the Aga Khan's article to an . able, searching and very critical analysis. The letter was signed A. L. Kennedy. There may, of course, be more than one bearer of that name, but the only one I know is, unless there has been a sudden change in the last few days, one of The Times foreign leader- writers. A simple person like myself finds all this a little perplexing, but no doubt it is merely a casual episode, and does not disturb the general truth that when the foreign leader-writers do agree their unanimity is wonderful.
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The following, for which I take no responsibility, has fingered down on me from heaven ; it no doubt represents a point of view : " I see that the heart-exporting trade is still very brisk, the Archbishop of Canterbury having announced that our hearts have gone out to the Czechs. I believe that the first large consignment left in 1935, when, as you will remember, our hearts went out to the gallant-Abyssinians' (our oil, of course, went out to Mussolini). Since then large deliveries have gone to Spain, Austria and China. I hope the consignees have been grateful, although it is rumoured that some of the smaller nations are whispering—maliciously enough—that as well as our hearts we have parted with our guts."
Jmus.
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