Disappointing Change

After eight months in office, Sir Anthony Eden was plainly a disappointment. Succeeding 80-year-old Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, he had won a thumping victory at the polls. He had formed his new government in an atmosphere full of the promise of change, of new enterprises launched, of fresh young blood reaching power. But so far, the Eden government has proved itself incapable of coming to grips with any major problems. Among his colleagues, Eden used to be praised as a compromiser. More and more, the most common word in Britain for Eden is ditherer.

For months Sir Anthony had dithered about replacing the Cabinet he inherited from Churchill with a new team of his own. Last week Eden announced his new team. Unhappily, it pleased no one entirely, and some not at all. And it struck nobody as the race of eager young shock troops needed for a fresh assault on Britain's mounting problems.

The major changes:

P: Rab Butler, 53, unquestioned No. 2 Tory, was moved out of his job as Chancellor of the Exchequer (and therefore from direct responsibility for the nation's economy) and sent on to wider but also vaguer general responsibilities, becoming, in effect but not in title, Deputy Prime Minister. His official titles and duties: Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons.

P: Harold Macmillan, 61. after only eight months as Foreign Secretary, became Chancellor of the Exchequer.

P: Selwyn Lloyd, 51, the Tories' fastest-rising star, moved over from the Defense Ministry to replace Macmillan at the Foreign Office.

Weary Man. Keystone of the change was the shift of Butler from the Treasury. For most of the Tories' four years in power, Rab Butler's management of the Treasury marked the party's greatest single success. His transfer--just when Britain's vaunted prosperity was faltering under the pressure of inflation at home and a deteriorating balance of trade abroad, when his emergency budget was under fire both from Labor (for being too hard) and from financial circles (for being too soft)--could only be considered politically as a retreat and a comedown for the able man who only recently was being called "the next Tory Prime Minister."

The recent death of Butler's wife was a blow that seemed to drain him of much of his energy and ambition. He confided to friends that he was tired, and would welcome a less arduous job than the Treasury. Furthermore, he had run into disagreement with Eden. Butler had concluded that drastic measures would soon be needed to shake British labor and management out of their traditional spin-out-the-work habits, and was talking of a showdown. Eden wanted no showdowns.

In his new job, Butler will preside over the Cabinet in Eden's absence, take charge of the formulation of long-range Tory policy, and, as Leader of the House, will plan and present the government's legislative program in the House. But he will not even have an "overlordship" of general economic policy. Macmillan, the new Treasury head, understandably refused to accept such supervision.

Bitter Man. Macmillan made no pretense that he was happy about his new job. "The exact opposite is the truth." he told his constituents rather bitterly. "I have only agreed at the personal request of the Prime Minister." Even in his brief term as Foreign Secretary, Eden had found him too independent-minded ("Macmillan has never taken kindly to his master's voice," observed the News Chronicle). Specifically, outspoken Harold Macmillan was much less optimistic than Eden about the value of negotiation with the Russians, was angrily ready to cancel or postpone next spring's scheduled visit of Khrushchev and Bulganin to London after the Russians' insulting remarks in India and Burma.

Eden wants to keep his personal control of the Foreign Office, where he served so long under Churchill, and in Selwyn Lloyd has a younger man with whom he has worked closely before.

To replace Lloyd at Defense, Eden appointed Minister of Labor Walter Monckton. who had wanted to leave the government to earn more money as one of Britain's highest-paid legal brains. Five ministers who lost their jobs were consoled with the customary peerages. The total result left the Cabinet heavily loaded with Old Etonians (half of the 18 Cabinet-rank ministers).

The shift generated more dismay than enthusiasm. Labor jeered; even the sturdiest Tory supporters could manage only faint praise, and more often blurted doubts. The Conservative Daily Telegraph could see no evidence of "either wisdom or necessity." Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express deplored the removal of Butler from the Treasury at a critical time and his replacement by Macmillan--"an untried quantity as economic arbiter." Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail concluded gloomily: "We can only hope that the new team imparts to the government a drive and decision now lacking."

Lost Leader. What was worse, the inadequacy of the changes seemed to have loosed the pent-up criticisms of Eden's first seven months in office. There was dissatisfaction with the government's failure to deal with the Cyprus rebellion. Its domestic measures have often seemed halting, uncertain and blundering. "There is a terrifying lack of authority at the top," wrote Commentator Henry Fairlie in the pro-Tory Spectator. "It becomes more and more clear that, contrary to what many Conservatives said, Sir Winston Churchill was far more important as a directing, energizing, initiating force than even his colleagues realized." *

Eden's new team is yet untried, its record still to be written. But last week the Tories got a clear warning. The latest public-opinion polls, by the Daily Express and by George Gallup for the News Chronicle, both show that Labor now leads the Tories in popular favor for the first time since the election in May.

* The latest apocryphal story going the rounds: Churchill, returning from a vacation on the Continent, was asked how he felt. He replied: "Very fit. Have to be. Anthony's getting old."

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