Talk of Merger

While the immediate fate of the Labor government was being decided in the House of Commons, the House of Lords discussed the chance of a coalition. Said Labor's Lord Strabolgi: "Whether the King's government can be sustained or not depends upon whether a few gentlemen have temperatures which are up or down, or are perhaps in hospital, and can come and vote, if at all, only in bath chairs. That is an absurd situation."

Earlier in the week, in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill himself had mused on the possibilities of a "national coalition." Said Churchill:

"Many societies have vanished in the past and found no recorded or recognizable place in history. But never has this hideous fate presented itself more brutally to so numerous, complex and powerful a community as we are, and never has it presented itself to a victorious nation on the morrow of its triumph in saving the freedom of the world . . .

"If we go on year after year absorbed in our internal party and class fights, there may never be any chance for the might and glory of Britain to show itself again. Somehow or other we must reach firm ground again and have a government that is not afraid or unable to do things if they are in the national interest . . . I do not believe in coalitions that are formed only as the result of party bargainings. It is vain to suppose that . . . an artificial arrangement between party leaders would meet our needs . . . How deep we shall have to descend the dark stairway which lies before us no one can tell."

Actually, neither the Labor nor Tory leaders really want a coalition now. Churchill, while talking vaguely about coalition without actually committing himself, was making a shrewd play for the votes of many Britons who have a vague idea that coalition is the answer.

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