The Speech

People were beginning to call Henry Wallace's remarkable performance The Speech, in much the same way that they had called the atom bomb The Bomb. And, in its impulsive way, The Speech (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) had done what it could to vaporize the firm U.S. foreign policy which Secretary of State Byrnes was at long last on the point of achieving. It also released a ripple of verbal radioactivity in the European press and, more guardedly, in European foreign offices and chancelleries.

Said London's conservative Daily Telegraph editorially (after quoting Wallace on the necessity of convincing Russia that the Americans are not out to save the British Empire): "Bees in bonnets have seldom buzzed louder. To the British reader, who may well be bewildered at such language from a minister of the power with which we have the closest relations at the present time, it is worth explaining that Mr. Wallace is notoriously emotional and notoriously independent of many of his colleagues. . . ."

Said the Times in its lead editorial: ". . . The speech . . . was the perilously distorted caricature of what might have been a reasonable plea for two-way traffic in international cooperation. . . ."

"America's Baby." Said the liberal News Chronicle: "American policy toward Russia may be right or wrong or--since, judging by the reception of Mr. Wallace's speech, it is highly confused--a little of both. Right or wrong, Britain is not responsible for it, and Mr. Wallace's picture of the United States in leading strings is quite fanciful. We have had to hold a lot of other people's babies in the last year or two; we are not holding this one."

Said the Laborite Daily Herald (in a front-page headline): WALLACE SPEECH JUST A BLUNDER. It suggested that Secretary Wallace acquaint himself with the British withdrawal from India.

Said the Communist Daily Worker: "The Roosevelt spirit came to life on Thursday. . . . Speaking with the authentic voice of American liberalism, Mr. Wallace has called halt to the forces making for war and has thrown down the challenge to the atomaniacs who are screaming for war against the Soviet Union."

Lewd Delight. In Paris, peacemakers were astonished by the Wallace outburst. Said one: "Imagine the glee at the Soviet Embassy"--reminding an observer of Poet Ralph Hodgson's poem Eve:

Picture the lewd delight

Under the hill tonight--'Eva!' the toast goes round,

'Eva!' again.

In the Russian press Wallace rated 26 words, Senator Pepper 760 words, mostly quotes.

But innocence abroad, even about the unpredictable political behavior of Americans, is possibly less than is supposed by some innocents at home. What perhaps shocked Europeans as much as the immediate political implications of The Speech was the complete lack of grand style in the official conduct of the world's No. 1 power. For greatness of responsibility implies greatness in performance.

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