A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK N O one, so far as I have
seen, has commented on one aspect of the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Duke of Windsor at Washington. Yet in both it must have awakened almost poignant memories. In those last tense days at Fort Belvedere in 1936, before the abdication was decided on and announced, Mr. Churchill was King Edward VIII's closest friend and adviser ; it was commonly thought that the farewell broadcast bore some traces of a Churchillian touch, though I have never had any reliable evidence of that. What does seem difficult to believe now is that serious politicians believed seriously that Mr. Churchill had compromised his political career beyond repair by the ardour of his defence of the King. He was, in fact, all but shouted down in the House of Commons, and a lengthy and argumentative question which he put to the Prime Minister evoked, according to The Times report, "Loud cries of ' Speech ' and 'Sit down,' and general interruption." But it was characteristic of Mr. Churchill that, just as after opposing the Government of India Bill fiercely in the previous year,. he announced that his opposition ceased the moment it became an Act, so in this case he put himself completely right with the House by explaining a week later, on the day the actual abdication was announced, that his actions and words had been due to affectionate loyalty to a friend of twenty-five years' standing. All that was more than six years ago, and now the two men meet again, for the first time, in the American capital. The careers of both have under- gone almost revolutionary change in the interval, but it cannot be doubted that all the old loyalty on the one side, and all the old appreciation on the other, are as strong as ever.
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When one Madrid newspaper, the Catholic Ya, advocated on Monday the abolition of bombing from the air, it was possible,to assume that it was actuated by purely humanitarian motives. When on Tuesday its contemporaries A.B.C.- and the Falangist Arriba took up the cry there was clear evidence of concerted action. Whence the inspiration was derived can be only a matter of specu- lation. I recall no impassioned protests from the Spanish Press about the bombing of London and Coventry and Bristol and Plymouth, which long preceded any action on a similar scale against Germany. I do on the other hand recall vividly that it was Germany which began the bombing of civilians in the last war ; I recall the Italian bombing (accompanied by poison-gas) of helpless Abys- sinians ; I recall vividly the German destruction of Guemica- undeplored by Falangist newspapers=and no less vividly the slaughter of thousands of miserable civilians on the roads of Belgium and France by German Stukas in 1940. Whether the Madrid papers recall these sinister precedents or not, to ask for the cessation of bombing at a moment when the Ruhr industry is well on the way to being put out of action altogether is to display an intellectual capacity which arouses serious misgivings about the state of Spanish journalism generally.
* * * * There can be little doubt that Lord Linlithgow will definitely cease to be Viceroy of India in October ; by that time he will have served seven and a half years instead of the usual five. Again, there- fore, as before the last extension of his term of office, the question of his successor is being canvassed. Much the same names present themselves as then, and those, notably, of Lord Cranborne; Sir John Anderson, Sir Roger Lumley. Sir Stafford Cripps is less talked of, for he is well set in an important executive post. One
new name, that of Mr. R. G. Casey, is mentioned a little sur- prisingly. The fact. that Mr. Casey is an Australian should not tell against him ; rather the reverse. But this is no time to take risks over a post like the Viceroyalty, and Mr. Casey has not been adequately tested yet on that scale. My own view is today, as it was six months ago when the question was last in issue, that Mr. S. M. Bruce is as likely to make a success of an almost bafflingly difficult post as anyone else available (assuming Lord Cranborne to be no longer available). He was for six years Prime Minister of Aus- tralia, he acquired considerable experience in international affairs as Australian delegate to seven League Assemblies; and he has been long enough in this country as High---Inmissioner to grasp its political outlook in every aspect. Personally he is genial, con- ciliatory, and possessed of a quiet commonsense and openminded- ness which are perhaps- as useful qualities as any in a Viceroy whose supreme task will be to steer a united India into the harbour of Dominion status or full independence.
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I am glad the Minister of Information is going seriously into the question of foreign newspapers published in London. It would be useful if some M.P. would ask for a list of these publications, for in some cases the number of journals published in a particular national interest is inordinate ; paper-consumption is obviously a question to be considered in this connexion. A clear distinction, moreover, should be drawn between foreign papers published in 'a foreign language to supply the needs of the foreigners now domiciled here in considerable numbers—obviously a most legitimate purpose—and foreign-owned and foreign-directed papers in English. There is clearly a case for a limited number of these—like the Belgian Message, La France Libre (partly French, partly English) and The Norseman—as a means of establishing and maintaining understanding between Englishmen and citizens of the country concerned. But in the case of.softie countries there is reason to think the thing is considerably overdone. It would be interesting to discover what genuine sale the various publications have, and how far they are distributed free as propaganda.
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A notable literary critic is lost in Dr. Ernest de Selincourt, a member of a striking trio of brothers. Too little has been said in such obituary notices as I have read of the de Selincourt family history. The father, Charles Alexandre de Selincourt, was a French • Protestant who came to England and became one of the heads of a large firm of mantle-manufacturers. He was a fervent evangelical and regularly conducted services m a mission-hall which he built near his factory in Pimlico ; his wife, Miss Bendall, was a prominent member of Westminster Chapel during the ministry of Dr. Henry Simon, Lord Simon's uncle. One of the sons, Basil, married Anne Douglas Sedgwick, the novelist. Another, Hugh, is well known for his novels, stories (particularly A Cricket Mateh) and plays. A daughter, Agnes, was Principal of Westfield College at Hampstead. And Ernest was the most distinguished of all. A good testimonial to the possibilities of an Anglo-French entente. • * * * It has been left to a young person in New York, whose age has not yet reached double figures, to revise, to the point of finality, President Roosevelt's four peace-aims. What the world needs (as the President only partially realised) is Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, Freedom from Religion, and Freedom from Speech. All previous versions cancelled. Indus.
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