Aneurin Bevan (From Our London Correspondent)

THE passing of Aneurin Bevan ferences and yet he only applied sought and quickly found an enthu­ has left a deep void. It is this power to causes over which he siastic group of supporters around difficult to visualize British parlia­ was to create dismay and disillusion­ him. The issue leading to his resig­ mentary politics without having him ment in the rank and file. His nation was the inroads made into in mind. He was the moat exciting, tragedy lay in the fact that he the free Health Service by the then colourful and impressive of British emerged above the trammels of daily Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr political figures. Indeed, he and party controversy much too late in Gaitskell. He widened the dispute he alone injected life and contro­ life, indeed only in the past two with his leaders by attacking the versy into politics. In many ways years. Bevanism was a cult and a burden of the rearmament pro­ he gave Parliament the quality of factional movement which virtually gramme, and, in doing so, he got debate and argument which it lacked expelled Bevan from his group. In two other Ministers to resign with generally in the post-War years. He fact he was never the real leader of him. This was the birth of was the trouble-shooter of the La­ this movement. His towering and Bevanism. in many ways attractive personality bour movement — argumentative In March 1955, the acuteness of and his hold over the Labour rank and individualistic — always com­ the controversy within the Parlia­ and file was clearly greater than manding attention and brilliantly mentary Labour Party ranged over a that of Mr Gaitskell. And yet when persuasive in the enunciation of wide and fundamental series of a new leader was being chosen, policy. issues : German rearmament, pro­ he was by-passed and forced into Bevan never hid his class origin: duction and use of the Hydrogen a position in which his political it was in fact an ever-present Bomb and East-West relations. The future was made dependent on his factor in, his political struggles. Parliamentary Party under Mr This had a rare merit. The afflu­ acceptance and propagation of poli­ cies against which he had rebelled Attlee's leadership attempted to re­ ence! of the present day has influen­ solve the dispute by withdrawing ced many away from the doctrine of in the first instanee. In a word he was 'fixed'. the Whip from Bevan, The Labour the Labour movement, indeed to the Party executive then discussed his point of wanting to scuttle Clause 4. The political rise of Bevan was expulsion from the Party. Mr With Bevan, the class character of just short of the meteoric. He came Gaitskell was particularly forceful in contemporary society was the start­ from a humble home with little for­ advocating expulsion. The threat of ing point of political anaylsis and mal education. He entered the coal expulsion saw Bevan wavering for thought. He did not always draw mines at an early age and quickly the first time. He agreed to abide the correct conclusions: this frailty sensed the class character of the en­ by the Party's constitution. i.e., to was to remain with him to the end. vironment in which he lived. There stop carrying on factional activi­ He combined the advantages of the were two nations in Britain — the ties. He might have yielded then humble origin with a critical search rich and poor —- and Bevan was in the interests of Party unity but, for knowledge in politics, economics born into the latter. The poor were as was to be seen later, he gave in and the fine arts. He was thus able subject to the indignities and suffer­ on all the policy issues. And by to achieve the rare distinction of ing that came from mass unemploy­ 1956, he had forsaken the Bevani- being understood both by the work­ ment, and this made a permanent ties. ing-class man and the intellectual. imprint on Bevan's outlook. He The final rupture came at the fate­ Bevan was certainly the most stimu­ quickly took to trade unionism ful 1957 Labour Party Conference. lating figure in British politics of which schooled him in working-class By then Bevan had made up with the recent decades. politics. He participated in the Mr Gaitskell. the leader, and accep­ All these virtues, however, cannot Hunger Marches of the early 1930's make up for what turned out to be and entered Parliament, represent­ ted the role of foreign affairs a tragic fact about Bevan's political ing a constituency in the Welsh spokesman for the party. He was life. He was not a 'fixer' as Ernest mining valleys till the end of his requested by the Party executive to Bevin had proved to be in his time. life, oppose a composite motion before He lacked the art of political the conference demanding unilater­ manoeuvre and conspiracy which This background was to make al renunciation by Britain of nuclear are essential elements in the equip­ Bevan implacable in his hatred of weapons. For long he was treated ment of a successful politician. His the Conservative Party. He des­ with a certain antipathy and suspi­ political tactics were often wrong cribed them as 'vermin' and in other cion by trade unions. Now he had and at times disastrous. He did not vitriolic terms. There can be no their support, and without the have political instinct — the ability doubt that he did cultivate a deep slightest notion of his own possible to decide upon the right course of philosophical basis for his Socialism dilemma, he let loose his powerful action at the right moment. When and anti-Toryism. And yet there mastery of words to attack the he rebelled, he did so for causes was the demagogue in Bevan, As unilateralists. He castigated the that were already lost or were by his one-time close colleague, Mrs motion as an 'emotional spasm' no means new. He rebelled in cir­ Barbara Castle, has put it 'he had which, if carried, would leave a cumstances which naturally thrust to express what was in him at the future Labour Foreign Minister hhn into political isolation. He moment'. He demanded loyalty but 'naked in the conference room'. possessed a compelling personality seldom gave it. When he resigned Last year saw a different Bevan. sufficient to sway Labour Party con­ from the Labour Government, he His participation in foreign affairs 1151 July 23, 1960 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

debates in the House of Commons Durgapur Steel Production steel. The first consignment of fame to be marked by a mellowed finished steel in the form of billets THE second 200-ton basic open style and a certain passivity. He left the Steel Works on June 27. hearth furnace of the Durga­ adopted the technique of offering Durgapur Steel Works which pur Steel Works went into produc­ thoughtful contributions. He was will produce one million tons of in­ tion on June 30. Production of less aggressive. However, he never got steel annually will have seven lost his artistry of expression. The steel started on April 25 when the 200-ton and one 100-ton open 'Times' has commented in a memo­ first open hearth furnace was com­ hearth furnaces. The latter will rable obituary that "at times his missioned. So far, this furnace has turn out special steel for the Wheel speeches were imbued with a melan­ produced about 11,000 tons of ingot and Axle Plant of the Steel Works. choly foreboding about internation­ al events evolving 'with all the inevitability of an ancient Greek drama" The passing of Bevan has created a huge problem for the Labour Party and Mr Gaitskell. There is hardly anyone in the leadership with so captivating a personality and so appropriate an origin to win the confidence of a working class, now influenced by all the abundance of contemporary capitalism. The fact that such a serious problem should now arise is in itself a tribute to the importance of Bevan in the Bri­ tish Labour movement. His loss is for the moment irreparable.

Cotton Textile Incentive Scheme Extended GOVERNMENT has extended the Cotton Textile Incentive Scheme upto March 31, 1961. Introduced in October 1958, the incentive scheme provides for the grant of licences for the import of coal-tar dyes, textile chemicals and gums against the ex­ ports of cotton textiles and handloom fabrics by mills and handloom co­ operatives. From April I this year the rate of import entitlements for handloom and handprinted fabrics has been raised from Rs 10 to Rs 15 for every one hundred yards exported. For exports by weight the rise will be from Rs 7.50 nP to Rs 10 per pound. Mills earning import entitlements under the incentive scheme, will be permitted to import certain types of dyes, of course, other than those now banned for import. The dyes and chemicals so imported shall be utilized by the mills only for their own consumption and not sold to anybody else. The basic period for calculating the import entitlements of mills, which have newly entered the export field, has been fixed as July 1. 1959 to June 30, 1960, or Rs 2,000 per loom, whichever is higher. 1152