European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Something about England new prime minister and the labor party he belongs yank the army week september 194 by James Dugan yank staff correspondent Man who was Winston Church ills the Man who didst know he was going to be prime was speaking at the election rally in his the Lime House division of the meeting was held at Trinity Church the Only Large Hall left in the Limehouse after the Blitz and shreds of veday Deco rations still Hung from the the crowd of poorly dressed working sea undisturbed by the shun engines and suburban trains hurrying through the Limehouse slums on the great Eastern railway line just behind the the speech was elsewhere crowds were cheering or heckling Winston but in people came out and listened respectfully to Clem their member of parliament since the speaker was a Man of Middle height with a Bald head and Black he had spoken eight times that Day but he relaxed with his own they responded to the familiar chords in his extemporaneous need of people for Che bettering of living conditions in the gruesome Limehouse Friend ship with Russia and the employment and Prosperity after the Clem Attlee had been fighting the cause of Limehouse since when he came Back from the War As an infantry Clem Attlee commanded the Landing party of the South Lancashire yeomen in 1916 at Sulla where Winston Churchill authored his first amphibious Landing on the tragic beaches of in the Relief of in the mesopotamian Attlee was severely when he re covered he went to he served there in the newly formed tank the voice of the speaker on this june evening in Limehouse was he did not saw the air with his arms or beat out his sentences in a be witching he walked around a Little and made some sarcastic jokes about lord the Svengali of the tory Cam but mostly he talked about since the last Limehouse had wanted what he was talking now another War was and the people still had their patient hunger for words to come there were people in the room who remembered Clem Attlee being elected mayor of step Ney in they had heard the factual voice talking at Toynbee a famous East end settlement House before the last like Harry Attlee had once been a social Clem Attlee had believed in socialism since when he was working As a Young lawyer on the poor Law Reform with Sidney and Bea Trice famous Fabian As a Law student he believed in imperialism and Tariff re the influence of the webbs turned him to the evolutionary socialist theories of the of which Bernard Shaw was also a prominent Attlee practice Law for Only three at the outbreak of War in 1914 he was a lecturer in social sciences at the London school of after Attlee concluded his Friendly speech at Trinity Attlee drove him away in a midget his audience walked Home through the neglected churchyard with its sooty Trees stunted by Railroad smoke and stripped of leaves by flying bomb one contented elec Tor said to his quiet that quiet meeting and thousands like it throughout the United kingdom resulted in a political explosion Shook the world and put tie Quiel Man of Limehouse and a labor govern ment in Power for the first time in British his the party had been in office twice but never with a Clement Richard Attlee first entered the House of commons in 1924 election that gave Britain her original labor in which he served As undersecretary for the plat form he supported that year was very much like the one he outlined to his Limehouse voters in it called for the support of the league of merely substitute United it called for Independence for India and nationalization of the mines and and it called for a National housing the people of Lime House thought houses were a Good idea in 1924 and they still think so in the 1924 platform advocated a capital Levy on fortunes exceeding but this change was not attempted when labor got and it was not listed in the 1945 two of the 1924 planks have since been realized Independence for Egypt and recognition of the Irish free Little else has the great explosion of 1945 came from a delayed action which had been quietly accumulating Sticks of political dynamite since the last the electorate remembered Many Attlee himself typifies Many of the popular causes which were the years of conservative in 1927 he was appointed minority member of the Simon committee which went to India to report on conditions Attlee has remained an advocate of Indian self government Ever in 1929 the second labor government was elected under prime minister Ramsey Macdonald with a squeak majority of 288 seats to 260 for the in 1931 who was then serving As postmaster warned against japanese preparations for assault on he came into open conflict with prime minister whom he accused of diverting at Tention from the aggressive plans of in 1931 the consequences of the Macdonald fiasco were a defeat of labor by a bigger majority than labor won in the tories gained 470 seats to a Mere 52 for Attlee Attlee was among the labor handful elected and he was to sit in a House led by Ramsay hoho Hereward from the winners was the Post of prime minister of the conservative controlled while Mussolini was warring with Ethiopia in Attlee was urging the British government to apply sanctions against the italian the encouraged Mussolini by Means of the Hoar Laval which endorsed his Allee introduced a motion in commons in december condemning the Hoar Laval plan As calculated to Reward the declared aggressor at the expense of the destroy collective Security and conflict with the covenant of the league of the Resolution was Defeated by 397 votes to but the resulting Public outcry caused the govern ment to withdraw the Hoar Laval the Laval of this agreement was none other than Pierre the French politician who betrayed his in 1937 Attlee vigorously opposed the non interventionist policy toward Republican he said that the supposedly fair policy of for bidding the Sale of British and French arms to either to the government or to the rebel denying the legally elected Spanish government weapons it needed to de fend itself against Hitler and Mussolini War he visited the front in Spain that British and american volunteers who were fight ing in the International brigade of the Republican army named one of their ill armed units the major Attlee most of the questions Attlee opposed Asmi Jority Leader were not hypothetical there were deep party differences As Britain skidded Down the last half of this Century third decade on its Way to Attlee was the most important labor figure in the attempts to get the British government to Down on fascist he spoke against the reoccupation of the the invasion of Austria and the japanese inroads in in May 1940 the Munich Cabinet fell under the ominous threat of an immediate a general election was due that tories had ended their constitutional five years of pow no election was held due to the military and later the tory critics of came into two of labors Strong Herbert Morrison and Ernest were invited into the coalition Clem Attlee came into the Cabinet As lord privy Seal and Churchill appointed him Deputy prime min Churchill meant to insure that the Leader of the opposition had a voice in the War decisions of a True Unity but an important change did not take the same majority that had supported Munich remained seated on the red leather benches of the governmental Power passed from the House to the bold Man at 10 Downing peo ple remembered this when the 10 years were they did not repudiate Churchill they repudiated a party which Churchill himself had opposed in and for the same reasons they did not think it fit to run the country in the Churchill Cabi As Deputy prime minister and As Secretary of state for the an additional portfolio he was Given in relieved Churchill of departmental detail which would have distracted the prime minis Ter from running the British military while Attlee stayed Home As acting prime Churchill made More than a dozen trips abroad in five years aggregate absence from 10 Downing Street of eight on Attlee broadcast the eight Points of the Atlantic charter while Churchill and Roosevelt were still at sea on the Cruiser three times Attlee gave War reports to parliament in Church ills in september 1943 he was made lord president of Attlee did not make in the More than Days of War his name was in the top headlines of London papers Only a dozen or so there was no Rea son Why Attlee should have rivalled Churchill in newsprint Churchill was the desirable the fighting Captain Attlee was the quiet executive who saw that decisions were carried it was a smooth working Attlee personal life is the ultimate in Normal he has four the is a Section officer in the women auxiliary air is training As a is an apprentice in the merchant is at Attlee keeps like until recently she had no help she spent Long on3 in food like other Brit ish the slender Attlee have Prim Good they live in a Small Villa in a hum drum London where they keep chickens and a Hal Blind the modest Homes in this Community Are the storied englishman idealized and Given names like Bon repos and the the Attlee front Gate bears the name the housing plan of the new labor government is to provide thousands of new Heywood for the British who Are ill housed on a scale that makes the late Franklin Roose belts 1936 Plank on housing seem like a the englishman Castle has been crumbling since before the last War bombing and deterioration of property have lowered Home life to a desperate this was the biggest Issue of 1945 the conservatives allowed the labovites to talk housing while they were yell ing about the dark of professor an academic gentleman whom the people did not confuse with a roof Over their at the last minute Churchill talked be built by private it made no Attlee was born in in in the sheltered victorian Home of a conserva Tive in the English Legal system a solicit Churchill Churchill was a Oneman with Only Anthony Eden As a comparable because the party Churchill had embraced was without popular support fell with a deafening to understand the mild Clem on the other the makeup of 413 maps pledged to support his government must be the strength of the new government is not so much in the Leader As it is in the parliamentary labor Clem Attlee is a party the House has been altered drastically in com there Are 345 bran new the number of members who come from Labouring backgrounds and from the lower Middle class has risen to Over half the membership total of there Are 180 servicemen in the new 126 of them they Range from army privates to lieutenant most of them saw Active service in this there Are Trad Union members and journalists and teachers and Railroad men and Farmers and lawyers and doctors in the new in the representative body of what Napoleon called a nation of shopkeepers there Are Only two one one one pawnbroker and one optician to stand for the there Are 24 and the new House is a legislature of Young people the aver age age of All the labor members is Tor is a lawyers business the solicitor solicits and sets up the Case the barrister Attlee upbringing was staunchly conservative he attended Haileybury a Public comprising what in the american school system is the first Grade to the end of Junior High the English Public school is not a Public school in our but a private tuition school Haileybury is an Anglo Indian there As a boy Attlee became acquainted with the Indian Independence he left Haileybury Tor University one of the 21 colleges of Oxford University Attlee is not a Strong Man in the this House and Cabinet represent a shift in Power from the executive to the if Clement Richard Attlee becomes one of Britain great prime ministers it will be because he Best administers the will of the new and not because of any breath catching deeds of his All of his career heretofore has been As an carrying out the policies of the labor if the labor government wants to go Attlee is an Ideal labors Long Range objectives Are encompassed in a five year which is riot comparable in size or scope with the first or second five year plans Russia began in us Stafford newly appointed to the Cabinet As president of the Board of defined the plan As the orderly development of the country bringing some few of the More important industries and services under National ownership while retain ing a system of and controlled private Enterprise for the the main Reform plans of the Attlee govern ment Are the nationalization of Coal and the construction of government housing is first on the during the War no repair to a premise was permitted costing More than the build ing Industry was completely converted to War now the Industry must be demobilized on a nationwide scale to get houses the main problems Are manpower and acquisition of build ing materials and building trades workers must be discharged from the and a centralized authority set up to Lead the housing Britain is not a Home owning nation like the englishman Castle is a rented Public ownership and modernization of Coal mining have been vital issues in Britain for 40 the conservative governments have resisted attempts at during the War Young men were drafted into the mines in an Effort to keep up these apprent called Bevin boys after Laberite Ernest minister of labor in the Churchill were a rebellious most of them had had their hearts set on flying bombers rather than crawl ing through underground choking with Coal in Justice to it should be said that the mining methods were so antiquated and dangerous that there was no attraction for a Young Man to make a career of the labor government will probably move quickly on nationalizing a committee of Trade unionists and is now draw ing up a Public ownership Emmanuel Shin formerly a hard hitting labor is minister of fuel and and will have the Job of solving the Coal there promises to be an acute shortage this Winter of houses and the government will have to act briskly and show results before the cold Public ownership of railroads is not an imme Diate and the nationalizing of the Bank of England is Little More than a simple techno instead of the governor of the Bank run Ning the Chancellor of the the Chan cellar will run the object of the new government is to acquire financial control no More drastic than the Power the government has Over banking and in the Field of foreign relations the new government will be inclined to participate in the world Security organization with just As much ardor As the Churchill if not the labor government seeks the strongest ties with the and the american fears that Britain has gone red Are the Best proof of this is that the labor Victory aroused great enthusiasm in the right and Center demo cratic circles in where it was thank now Europe has a left Wing rival for the election results were happily received in Veteran Secretary of state for was Defeated in his own con which pleased his majesty Indian Attlee and his Cabinet ministers have Long been advocates of Indian paradoxically labors Victory would seem to strengthen the Bonds of the both the australian and the new zealand labor governments Are expected to be closer to labor Home Rule than to a conservative the Canadian Liberal with the Radical of Western Prairie welcomed the president Devalera of Eire want Happy about taking the View that hed rather thumb his nose at a conservative govern ment in soviet Russia showed a spectacular disinterest in the nobody in the land of communism took it As a Victory for their although la Bor is pledged to stronger Friendship with the soviet the loudest ant russian were knocked out of the House and dozens of longtime friends of the were put nobody was More surprised at the explosive 1945 election than the whatever Suc Cess the labor government May have in reconstructing there is no doubt that the people Are behind a Page 9