Ersatz M.P.s?

Last week brought fresh incidents in the political battle which has been clanging in Winston Churchill's ears since midwinter :

Too Much Party. The bitterest fighting was over the political truce which keeps the Conservative, Liberal and Labor Parties from contesting Parliamentary by-elections, hands the seats by default to the party which won them in the last (1935) general election. Snapped Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard: "The result is a steady procession of ersatz M.P.s through the portals of Westminster. . . . They would have a valuable function to perform in a Fascist Grand Council where suitable and spontaneous cheers are required to intersperse the leader's broadcasts to the world. . . ."

Since the Conservatives are rapidly falling into disfavor, all the advantages of the truce go to the Conservative Party. It therefore enraged Liberals and Laborites when Winston Churchill blandly asserted to Conservative leaders: "The Conservative Party in the end will prove itself the main part of the rock on which the salvation of Britain was founded and the freedom of mankind regained."

This was too much for Laborite Arthur Greenwood, who had helped bring down the Chamberlain Government but lost his War Cabinet post in the last shakeup. Said he: "Mr. Churchill is not only the leader of the Conservative Party. He is the Prime Minister of a nation united in a great purpose, but to make major claims for his party in its share in victory before victory is won may shake belief in our fundamental unity and give comfort to the enemy."

No Party. Conservative prestige reached a wartime low last month when Churchill's friend, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore, was defeated in a by-election by William D. Kendall, an unknown Independent (TIME, April 6). This week another friend of Churchill's, War Minister Sir James Grigg, is standing for Parliament. Fortunately for Mr. Churchill, Sir James is not a Conservative. No politician, he has spent most of the last 30 years in the Civil Service, but when Mr. Churchill made him War Secretary last February he was obliged to become an M.P. Sir James decided to run as a "nonparty" candidate in the East Cardiff by-election.

Shrewd Political Warrior Churchill, knowing that a resounding Grigg victory would be viewed as a victory for himself and the Government, jumped right into the middle of the campaign with a message to Sir James-a message which was calculated to erase his indiscreet boast for the Conservatives. "I am glad to know," said Churchill, "that at this grave moment in our history you are appealing to the electorate ... as a nonparty member. I hope and believe that they will emphatically endorse your appointment as Secretary of State for War, realizing that to play party politics at such a time is to strike a blow at national safety."

Actually, Churchill could well afford to stake the prestige of the Government on the election because Sir James's victory was a foregone conclusion. Independent Labor Party Secretary Fenner Brockway, the only candidate opposing Sir James, scarcely made an appearance until the end of the campaign. And for the first time since the truce went into effect the Labor Party Executive decided to support a non-Labor Government candidate. Said the News Chronicle: "It is no contest at all. The people of Cardiff are about as much interested in the affair as they might be in the election of a mayor of Chicago."

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