British Commonwealth of Nations: Winnie's Plan

• Share

(2 of 2)

The miners and Laborites who have not seldom hanged "Murderer Churchill" in effigy, proved so receptive to the new compromise that a slogan ran through the coal fields last week: "Churchill will fix it!" The owners, slow to relax their demands, nevertheless announced that "in deference to Mr. Churchill" they would take his proposals under intensive advisement. Finally it was apparent to all that Premier Baldwin displayed great shrewdness in letting "Winnie" turn the Cabinet's somersault.

The English will indeed take almost anything from Winston Churchill with relatively good grace. As a young man, just returned on leave from overseas service, he once exuberantly climbed a pillar in one of London's most fashionable music halls and demanded cheers for the ladies of pleasure to be found in the lobby. Theirs were, he said, the only breasts on which a roving English soldier's head was always sure of comfort and repose. . . .

Young "Winnie" did not lose social caste by this escapade. Chancellor Churchill, still winning in middle age, was thought to have gained prestige for the whole Cabinet by his acrobatics of last week.

Developments. The annual British Trades Union Congress met last week at Bournemouth and went on record by a sizable majority against future employment of the "general strike" weapon by British labor. A feature of the meeting was the announcement that Russian trades unionists will contribute 1,000,000 more rubles ($500,000) to the support of the coal strike.