GREAT BRITAIN: Defeat for the Bevanly Host

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At Margate, the breezy seaside resort 65 miles east of London, 938 representatives of Britain's trade unions last week made two patriotic decisions; 1) they voted overwhelmingly to support "the greatest possible measure of rearmament," even if that means curtailing Britain's social services; 2) they agreed, more reluctantly, to restrain their demands for wage increases, so as not to price British goods out of export markets. Both decisions by the Trades Union Congress (T.U.C.) were victories for the moderate (Attlee) wing of the Labor Party, and defeats for Communists and the followers of Aneurin Bevan, who blame defense spending—as well as the U.S.—for most of Britain's troubles.

Arms. First big issue on the Margate agenda was rearmament, denounced in two big package resolutions inspired by the Communists. They hewed closely to the Kremlin line: rearmament is warmongering; friendship with Germany and Japan is truckling with fascism; Americans in general and Dwight D. Eisenhower in particular are bloodthirsty counterrevolutionaries intent on provoking World War III.

The Bevanites offered their own package, which contained some of the Red wares but came more attractively wrapped. It was presented by Alan Birch, whose powerful union includes shop clerks and warehousemen; he carefully denied that his union was afflicted with the "Bevanite neurosis"—then deftly put the case for Bevan. Unlike the Communists and fellow travelers, he admitted the need for rearmament, but advocated sharp cuts. He temporarily swayed the congress, which gave him a lusty round of applause.

"All right, friends," said T.U.C. Boss Arthur Deakin, bluff, levelheaded general secretary of Britain's biggest union (Transport and General Workers). "Now you're going to hear from the other side." A lean Liverpudlian, Tom Williamson, boss of the 800,000 General and Municipal Workers, pitched in with the counterattack: "All over Europe, people are scared—who by? Not by Britain or her Allies, but by the Soviet Union." Mineworkers' Leader Ernest Jones chipped in with rough-hewn Socialist logic: "If British miners were called upon to rearm in the interest of American capitalism and the Tory party, there'd be a devil of commotion . . . But . . . where freedom [is] at stake . . . the British miner [will be] in the last ditch of the struggle."

That did it. The T.U.C. tossed away the Communist as well as the Bevanite packages.

Wages. The Bevanly host and its Communist outriders condemned the Tory government's efforts to cut spending and hold the line on wages, as a threat to Socialism. But dapper Lincoln Evans, leader of iron and steelworkers, while promising that moderate wage claims will get T.U.C. backing, spoke unpalatable truths: "The world doesn't . . . owe us a living. If we price ourselves out of world markets, we will automatically produce unemployment."