The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : No .
one could have been more surprised than Mr. Lennox-Boyd himself at the reverberations of his speech at Biggleswade in which he observed that a pledge to guarantee the frontiers of Czechoslovakia would be absurd and that he was sure the Prime Minister would never give one. On Monday evening he made an ample and graceful apology, and although there was a feeling in some quarters that he had been let down light by the Prime Minister, it is safe to predict that his ministerial career will not be impaired by this initial blunder. The Opposition, however, were not inclined to accept the explanation and leave the matter there. Their attitude was not entirely due to the importance of the speech itself, which can scarcely have had such a marked effect in the Chancelleries of Europe as Mr. Noel Baker seemed to suppose. Mr. Lennox-Boyd is undoubtedly an able young man, and no one has questioned his personal fitness for his new appointment, But ever since he entered the House he has identified himself with the extreme Right, and in particular in the last few months he has been con- spicuous as a sympathiser with General Franco. When, therefore, he was singled out for promotion from all the promising young men on the Government benches, the appointment was not without significance.
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