Labor: Tottering

"In the hospital," said Mrs. Clement Attlee of her husband, "he has spent a lot of time with jigsaw puzzles. You know, jigsaw puzzles are fine for making you forget your worries."

Last week, Britain's ailing (duodenal ulcer) Prime Minister left his hospital bed only to face another, deeply worrisome jigsaw puzzle: how to patch up the torn fabric of his Labor Party. He appointed new ministers (see box) to fill the posts left vacant by the rebellious resignations of Nye Bevan and Harold Wilson (TIME, April 30) and the death of Ernest Bevin. Then he tried to rally his followers against Left-Winger Bevan.

Upstairs & Downstairs. In a parliamentary committee room where Labor leaders faced the rebel, Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Gaitskell put aside his donnish suavity for a hard go at Nye Bevan. "He hit me hard," said Gaitskell, "so I'm going to hit him back." Though many members sympathized with Bevan's argument that rearmament should not lower Britain's standard of living, they were angered by his threat to split the Labor Party. Under pressure, Bevan finally went along with his colleagues in a pledge not to take part in any action likely to endanger party unity. But Attlee was not yet reassured.

Next day, the debate moved to Labor Party headquarters in London's Transport House. On the ninth floor sat Labor's National Executive Committee. By a vote of 22-to-4, the committee urged the country's rank & file Socialists to back Attlee against Bevan. On the second floor sat the General Council of the Trades Union Congress. Among the union bosses, Bevan had more support but not enough to win. By 13 votes to 6 (of 32 members, 13 absent), the Council stood by Attlee.

"Brilliant Buccaneering." The dispute moved on. The T.U.C.'s Scottish branch canceled an invitation to Bevan to address their annual conference. A statement on behalf of 110,000 County Durham miners declared Bevan's resignation "unwarranted." Food Minister Maurice Webb echoed: "We really cannot have Mr. Bevan's brilliant kind of buccaneering." Hugh Gaitskell, in a speech at Glasgow, hit back openly at Bevan, called for a ceiling on welfare services until rearmament is achieved. He said he was convinced that raw materials shortages, one of Bevan's big talking points, would not defeat the arms program or fatally damage the country's economic life.*

Not to be squelched, though he had entered into an uneasy peace, Nye Bevan took to the stump to rouse the country. He opened his campaign at Ebbwvale, his Welsh constituency. He warned again that rearmament meant economic dislocation. Bevan protested that he was not anti-American--in fact, said he, some of his best friends were Americans. But "It is not necessary for mankind to walk the way Russia has walked or ... the way America still walks." Sevan's red-headed ally, Barbara Castle, M.P. from Blackburn and one of Labor's left-wing firebrands, went barnstorming in Lancashire. For the time being, Attlee had saved his government. But the fact remains that Bevan. and a handful of followers, by voting with the Conservatives or by abstaining in a division in the House of Commons, could overthrow the Attlee government any time they chose.

* In Washington last week, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave assurances that the U.S. would "take full account" of its allies' need for raw materials. Economic Mobilizer Charles Wilson flew to Europe for discussion of the raw materials problem.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.