There is a curious story current purporting to explain the
Government's otherwise inexplicable action in committing itself to obviously unconsidered and undecided, and still more obviously disastrous, proposals for the partial—no one, least of all the Govern- ment itself, seems to' know how partial and how wholesale— nationalisation of the steel trade. According to this report, one of the largest trade unions, one closely though indirectly connected with the steel trade, was threatening to vote in favour of the Com- munist Party's affiliation with the Labour Party, and consented to cast its vote the other way only at the price of an immediate announcement by the Government on the nationalisation. This rumour may be well founded or not: I only know that it has reached me from three quite distinct and unrelated sources. All I state here is that the rumour is current. I hope convincing evidence of its authenticity or its baselessness will be forthcoming.
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