30 MARCH 1945, Page 4

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

THE comparison drawn by Field-Marshal Smuts on Monday evening between Earl Lloyd George and Mr. Churchill as war-leaders is one on which history may more fittingly pronounce than this generation. But it is hard to think that anyone surveying their careers and all the background can put the two men on a level. The present Prime Minister enjoys not merely, as General Smuts suggested, the advantage of previous experience of war, but the advantage of a far wider and deeper knowledge of history, and a personality that commands universal confidence. That was not so with Lloyd George. Dr. Thomas Jones, speaking just before General Smuts, said that Lloyd George inspired admiration rather than affection. It may be added, and it needs to be .added, that he never inspired general confidence and trust as Mr. Churchill so conspicuously does, nor did he establish comparable relations with the Allied leaders,—though that may be partly due to the ' difference between the Allied leaders in the two wars. And when General Smuts emphasised the fact that Churchill has a united ;Country behind him where Lloyd George had a divided one, he surely passes a decisive, if unconscious, iierdict. For the essential , fact is that Churchill is himself responsible beyond any other man for the unity, while Lloyd George was himself most responsible for the division. There are no doubt some who will dispute that judgement, but the facts tell their own story. But this at least is certain: Lloyd George may become in the right hands (whosesoever they may be) the subject of one of the greatest biographies ever written. The analysis of that diverse, stibtle and fascinating character, and the framing of estimates based on the analysis, is a task worthy of the most discerning and judicial craftsman in the world of letters. If there is a book that beyond any others I would like to live to read, it is one that would be entitled "Lloyd George, A Character Study," by Winston Churchill.

* * * * It was, I suppose, inevitable that Mr. Churchill should go not merely to the Rhine but across the Rhine, and no doubt his presence there did substantially hearten the troops—for news of it would reach thousands of them who 'never actually set eyes on the Prime Minister. But when I see in Monday's newspaper the heading: SHELL JUST MISSES CHURCHILL I am bound *to wish, as I have wished before, that the Prime Minister would balance possible gain more nicely against possible loss. The troops, after all, stood in no particular need of heartening, and if they did, that is a tonic which Field-Marshal Montgomery has always shown himself peculiarly capable of administering. The shell is alleged to have fallen into the river less than 50 yards from the. Prime • Minister. . Even assuming that the reporter had reduced the distance a little for the sake of effect, it was quite near enough. The country will need Mr. Churchill for many years to come. He should really come some way towards recognising its claim.

* * * , The " fraternisation " problem is a difficult one.. Decent men— and no one is more uniformly decent than the British Tommy, nor does the American G.I. differ fundamentally from him—instinctively give a biscuit or a bit of chocolate to a hungry-looking German child of three or four, who can hardly be deeply imbued as yet ...with Nazi doctrine. Nor will all the reminders of Nail bestialities in Russia or France or Poland make much difference to him. The case against fraternisation was put as well by Field-Marshal Mont- gomery on Saturday as it has been anywhere. So far as can be seen the whole German nation, with a few individual exceptions, applauded Hitler's victories while he was victorious, and acclaimed him as a national leader. There is every reason to believe that the bulk of them, cowed though they may be today, would act again precisely as they acted in 1939, 1940 and z941. Nothing would encourage them more than any attitude on the part of Allied troops which suggested that the Allies were ready tolerantly to let bye- gones be byegones. There can be no thought of that. "Stern justice" must be the byeword far years to come, and for the moment it is the sternness that must be emphasised. There is, moreover, as Montgomery points out, the soldier's point of view. He is, among other things, an elector;-and in the choice of policies offered for his support he must not let his judgement be warped by friendly contact with people whose proclaimed expedient in defeat is organising sympathy.

*. * * * It was Voltaire, I fancy, who said that in England there were a hundred religions and only one source. Fifty per cent, confirmation of the first part of the statement is provided by Dr. G. C. Field, of Bristol, who in his extremely interesting little book, Pacifism and Conscientious Objection (Camb. Univ. Press, 3s. 6c1.), Mentions that applicants before the tribunal of Which he is a member included representatives of fifty-one religious bodies. Whether there are any official figures on the number of sects in Great Britain I am not quite sure, but a little investigation brings a good many curiosities to light. Mudie Smith's Religious Life of London, published between forty and fifty years ago, unearthed most of them. Work- ing over part of the same ground for a special purpose a few years later,I found that most of the more unusual bodies—Christadelphians, Seventh Day Adventists and so on—were for the most part domiciled in Islington. There may have been some reason for that. More probably it was just chance.

* * * *

We hear a great deal nowadays about monopolies and the need for controlling them, but not very much is heard about the labour monopoly which is in many ways the most tyrannous of any. Escape from that will mean a new freedom for thousands of house- holds of businesses. I mean, of course, households or offices at the mercy of some comparatively junior underling Who has to be wheedled or flattered or bribed lest he or she should "simply walk out on you." I mean the shop assistants who appear to rejoice in• the opportunity for insolence to customers, and who can never be rebuked for that, or for much more serious misdemeanours, because if they were they would "simply. walk out on you." The war has taught us much in the way of uncomplaining endurance, but if it had had the -effect of driving hoinel the national virtue, to say nothing of the Christian virtue, of civility and considerateness, even in adverse circumstances, the sum of human happiness would be substantially increased.

* * *

More Unanimity- - "The Secretary of State for War, with the approval of the Prime Minister, has consented to make available a distinguished soldier, General Sir Frederick File". (Cheers).—The Titries.

"There were no cheers. The silence in which the announeernent Was -received was due possibly to the lack Of any definition of Sir Frederick Pile -powers."—News Chronicle.

JANUS.