As It Happened. By C. R. Attlee. (Heinemann. 16s.)
Mn. ATTLEE'S autobiography reveals no secrets about the Labour Party or about the Governments of which he was a member from 1940 to 1951, first as Deputy Prime Minister and from 1945 as Prime Minister. ; Moreover, Mr. Attlee's prose styleconic and at times inadequate to express variations in mood.9 had an interesting time," he writes," at the Suvla evacuation as I was in command of the rearguard holding a perimeter round the evacuation beach." Many of his comments on people suffer from this tightness of language, but there are passages in the book—notably his evocation of school days— in which the delights of memory have been conveyed vividly to the reader.
In a sense, therefore, this is a slight book, but it contains clues to an elaboration of the picture of Mr. Attlee's character and mode of thought that has already been given by others; and it explains some- thing of the Labour Party which he has led now for over eighteen years. Mr. Attlee asserts rather than argues a case. As a young man he preferred to join the ILP, with its interpretation of Socialism based more on the Bible than on Marx, rather than the Social Democratic Federation which was Marxist, and throughout his career he has shown a dislike for intellectuals and theorists. He notes that the recommendations of the Simon Commission on India, of which he was a member, did not satisfy Labour opinion, but "actually they were realistic recommendations." He says of the German Socialists in 1932 that they were strong on theory but weak in action. And his account of the spirit in which Labour Ministers toOk office in 1945 is summed up in these words: "It had always been our practice, in accord with the natural genius of the British people, to work empirically. We were not afraid of compromises and partial solutions." His life-long hostility to Communism is evident. During the Second World War he met Signor Nonni in Italy and warned him that the Communists would be sure to stab him in the back—"a prophecy which was abundantly justified." Minister in maintaining conscription is a logical consequence of his attitude to defence. Mr. Attlee's empiricism, his sense of the long growth of the British Political system, and his incapacity to lead with a flourish have inevitably exposed his leadership of the Labour Party to attacks.
mentions two of them—one when he was in a nursing home in
• 39, and another in 1945 when "Laski had tried very hard to sub- stitute Morrison forme as Leader of the Party in the General Elec- tnnt.” The first, says Mr. Attlee, got little support and the second T.1,9ne. He mentions too the 'differences of opinion' that arose in "le Government when he was in hospital in 1951 and which led to the resignation of Mr. Bevan, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Freeman. Mr. tttlee's sick-beds do not appear to have been particularly easy, but e dismisses these discomforts as though they had been of no more Consequence than a dose of bitter medicine.
FRANCIS BOYD
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