CONSERVATIVE REBELS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—A revolt within the Conservative ranks at last! For months it has been an open secret that a considerable propor- tion—no outsider knows how large—of the Prime Minister's followers are seriously perturbed over his policy, realising the danger of further Munichs, and still more that belief in their being plotted will encourage Hitler and discourage Russia to the extent of either landing us in a war with insufficient allies or in the loss without war of Empire, honour and freedom for ourselves and what remains of it in Europe.
Yet, except that in a few specially crucial divisions about a dozen Government supporters have sat tight in their seats looking—as Mr. Harold Nicolson himself has said—like a row of angry china cows, while more slip silently away, there has been no outward rebellion. This has come at last, but on what an issue!—to prevent the deduction from M.P.'s salaries of £12 per annum to provide pensions for former colleagues of at least ten years' Parliamentary service who are threatened with destitution in their old age! And for that it was thought worth while to keep the House (or what remained of it; I confess I, like many others, oblivious of what was coming, had gone home) sitting till 8 a.m., including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, poor man, has surely enough on his mind to need what sleep his conscience allows him to take! Not Mr. Churchill's warnings during three years as to the in- sufficiency of our armaments brought revolt; not the abandon- ment to the aggressor of Abyssinia, Spain, Austria, Czecho- Slovakia and now perhaps China; not the destruction of the Jewish people and of their remaining hope of a real national home in Palestine—none of these things, but the proposed sacrifice of £52 from our own salaries, a sacrifice which young Members of the Labour and Liberal parties, who can less well spare and have little more likelihood of benefiting by it, are willing to make. No doubt the rebels have a case, and cer- tainly they included several men from whom a generous and progressive outlook can generally be expected; also it must be remembered that it is easier to feel confident on small than on great issues and that the Prime Minister himself had graciously intimated that a free vote on the occasion in ques- tion was permissible. But what an issue to fight on, when so much else has gone unchallenged!
Well, well, perhaps we in Parliament deserve what is coming to us. But do the British people in general deserve it, szeing that they have shown in every way open to them how much they crave for courage, initiative, independence of thought, and, above all, for leadership, especially from the iv embers of the younger generation, to whom these recusants for the most part belonged?—Yours faithfully, P.S.—Since writing this, another Tory revolt is rumoured —this tirn:. over the general question of old-age pensions. If so, it may show that c'est le premier pas qui conte, and that with a little more practice we may actually see a revolt on a question of honour, peace or freedom.
Previous page
