Potter's Pother

A bull cavorting in a china shop was nothing to the stir raised last week when a china merchant lumbered into a bull pen. The china merchant was big, bluff Colonel the Right Honorable Josiah Clement Wedgwood, great-great-great-grandson of the Josiah Wedgwood who founded Britain's famed pottery works. The bull pen was Congress.

Beetle-browed, 69-year-old Colonel Wedgwood is no fancy-pants. He fought for Britain in the Boer War, in World War I was wounded and won his D.S.O. Like the first Josiah, who got himself well hated for championing the cause of the upstart American colonies, Colonel "Josh" is a fighting progressive. For 35 years (first as Liberal, then as Laborite) he has been a Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme.

One day last month Colonel Josh landed in the U.S. He had every right to be there --for 90% of the business of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd. (whose managing director is the Colonel's son Josiah) is done in Canada, the West Indies and the U.S.

At first nobody paid much attention to the Colonel's spirited but discreet lectures. Then a reporter for Hearst's International News Service got an interview with Colonel Wedgwood in Boston. According to Hearst's man, the Colonel spoke out in forthright terms against U.S. inaction. Said he: "The trouble with you Americans is that you're afraid to assume responsibilities. Your President has assumed a large share of responsibility, it's true, but why haven't you got a sensible Congress? . . . After all, this is your war and you are in it up to your necks."

Touchy Congressional isolationists jumped a mile. Snorted Representative Paul Shafer of Michigan, a member of the Military Affairs Committee: "You, Colonel Wedgwood, are one of the principal cogs in Great Britain's propaganda machine. . . ." Said Montana's bull-like Senator Burton Wheeler: "I resent a member of the British Parliament coming to the United States to criticize the American Congress. . . ."

But worse was to come. Back in Manhattan, Colonel Wedgwood was told what Burt Wheeler had said. The peppery old Colonel exploded. Said he: "Tell Wheeler to go soak his head. Who is he, anyway? He's from Montana, I understand, but what nationality was he originally?" In calmer tones the Colonel added: "We have had years and years of these wretched appeasers like Wheeler in England, doing nothing and hoping for the best. . . . At the very kindest, I say such people are misled. . . ."

A newsman in the Senate gallery sent these words down to Burt Wheeler. Cried Senator Wheeler: ". . . There is not a drop of blood flowing through my veins except English, and my people came here from England something like 300 years ago. . . . Think of the gall . . . the insolence . . . . A man such as Wedgwood should be run out of the United States.

Too late, Colonel Josh saw his error, wrote a letter to the New York Times. He denied that he had meant to insult Congress or said it was not sensible: "Of course I said quite a lot, but not that. . . . I am known in England as a very independent Member of Parliament. The present Government . . . were reluctant to let me come over, fearing a certain frankness of speech which I am now unable and unwilling to cure." To newsmen he admitted that he was sorry he had said what he did about Senator Wheeler. But he added: "I take none of it back."

A chastened Colonel Wedgwood was preparing to sail for Britain this week, after being closeted for two hours with officials of the British Information Service. Said the gruff old potter, sadly: "I am afraid the British Government will never permit me to return."

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