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British Labour, the Bomb and Nato

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British Labour, the Bomb and Nato THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY From the London End British Labour, the Bomb and Nato MR HUGH GAITSKELL's troubles policy on this question will only persisted in its demands to become are never little ones: they come bring discredit to the Labour leader­ an equal member of the 'Nudear in hordes and In giant sizes. When ship. The situation has, however, Club' even to the point of disrupt­ the cracks in the Central African now been reached where the Labour ing the stationing and arming of Federation came to light so glaring­ Leadership can no longer cling to Nato forces on French soil. In ly, it created a crisis not only for the old in private and be inprecise Britain, there is now the fear that British colonial policy but also— in public. the French possess the power to and a sharper one—for the British The General and Municipal Work­ force upon the United States a revi­ Labour Party. For it was the Lab­ ers Union—one of the largest and sion of its policy and to surrender our Party that first conceived of most influential trade unions in the to French claims. The widening of the idea of a federation of the Rho- country decided at its annual con­ the membership of the nuclear club desias and Nyasaland. on the now ference by a clear majority that is treated with anxiety and there la discredited doctrine of partnership. Britain should 'disarm unilaterally' evidence to suggest that even the But then, in what turned out to be with regard to nuclear weapons. It British Government is worried. Anil an adroit face-saving move, Mr is expected, indeed confidently so, there has necessarily followed a bee Gaitskell plunged into making a that the large and powerful Trans­ lief in the British Labour movement demand for an all-party enquiry in­ port and General Workers Union that if Britain, with its insignificant to the Nyasaland disturbances, and will decide upon a similar policy and contribution to the nuclear deterrent, this Immediately had the effect of for once the prospect of major up­ should renounce the H-bomb and quashing the growing plea for the heaval in that 'old horse'-—as Low, invite others to follow suit, she liquidation of the white-dominated the cartoonist, has suitably cari­ could wield greater influence by be- Central African Federation. By catured the Trades Union Congress coming the leader of a 'Non-Nuclear then, however, the unsuspecting —is presented on this important Club. In a word, the new urgency British public were treated to an ex­ Issue. given to unilateral nuclear disarma- posure of what was taking place in To Keep Out France ment in Britain possesses the quality the Kenya Hola concentration camp What is clear, as the 'Manchester of a neat piece of political oppor­ and the wilful murder of a number Guardian' recently noted, is that 'the tunism if the price of limiting the of African detainees. Mr Gaitskell. temper of the rank and file at trade membership of the nuclear club was in obvious difficulty, is now having union conferences has been chang­ a British act of nuclear renuncla- to face up to the idea of revising ing.' At least, or as the 'Economist- tion, then this may amount to a his bipartisan approach to African anxiously puts it, 'at worst', this viable policy. It is possibly along: colonial questions. movement of opinion can snowball these lines that the pressure of Lab­ Nuclear Disarmament until Labour becomes clearly com­ our opinion may cause something A no less serious problem for the mitted to full unilateral nuclear dis­ of a change in the policy of the Labour Party is now presented by armament. It has been precisely a Labour leadership. the growing success of the move­ commitment of this kind that Mr Nato Base in Britain? ment for nuclear disarmament and Gaitskell, in all his manoeuvres, There does, however, follow a a renunciation by Britain of the has refused to make. More recent­ consequence which few realise and production and testing of nuclear ly, he has pledged his Party to more which by no means alters the pat-- weapons. Originally this movement intensive negotiations with the tern of armed power now characte­ encompassed a small but influential Soviet Union and the United States rising the cold war. The purpose of group of Labour intellectuals led by for a suspension of nuclear tests, limiting membership to the nuclear Lord Bertrand Russell. Gradually, but never has he surrendered to the club is to keep out France—this is the movement spread and has se­ pleas for a unilateral demonstration clearly the point of the present cured the support of a number of in disarmament. After all, it was agitation. But this will only force trade unionists, particularly trade the Attlee administration that de­ General de Gaulle to carry out his union leaders. And having regard cided, with quiet determination, to threats and which he has already to the fact that the trade unions produce atomic and nuclear arma­ provide both the finance and what ments. There can now be little may be termed the political basis doubt that Mr Gaitskell's leader­ of the Labour Party, it is clear that ship and prestige will depend on the as a result the old compromises, and extent to which he forsakes his old the adherence to the somewhat position and succumbs to the dict­ archaic outlook that Britain's inter­ ates of the mass of his supporters. national status depended upon pos­ This, then, is Mr Gaitskell's crisis session of H-bombs, will find less of leadership which will, as well, and less support in the Labour govern Labour's chances in the Movement. Indeed Mr Bevan, the forthcoming general elections. Labour Party's shadow Foreign The demand for unilateral nu­ Secretary, perceiving this trend, has clear disarmament has been given in recent years become more equi- an additional urgency by the crisis vocal and less precise knowing full which General de Gaulle's policy has well that a clear pursuit of the old imparted in Nato. France has 301 June 20, 1959 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY partly earned out, i e, the removal from Franco of Nato air bases pos- messing U S nuclear weapons. The consequence is, therefore, this: the only other country available for the stationing of these bases is Britain. Already the U S Strategic Air Force (possessing nuclear weapons but outside the Nato command) is based in Britain, To add new Nato bases stationed In the U K with the power to use the H-bomb and simi­ lar terror weapons at the discretion of the Nato commanders and no­ body else is to truly convert Britain into an armed aircraft carrier, and so becoming the first target of any future nuclear war. It may very well be that France might escape nuclear devastation as a result of her present policy, and so make Britain the centre of the war of the future. Mr Gaitskell has already gone so far as to kill whatever views exist in the Parliamentary Labour Party on the likely transfer of Nato bases in France to Britain. He Is said to have favoured such a transfer as the price for avoiding the early emergence of France as a, nuclear power. What in fact this suggests is a possible Labour compromise which would involve the 'stopping' of British H-bomb tests, the grant­ ing of increased facilities in Britain for the armed forces of Nato and the pursuit of a policy which limits the nuclear club to what it is. Whether this compromise will meet the demand now growing in the trade union movement is doubtful: the coming round of trade union conferences and the Labour Party conference towards the end of the year will certainly prove the most testing for Mr Gaitskell's llader- ship. Up to now he has been strug­ gling hard to establish his leader­ ship. In this struggle, he has sought to be 'responsible' so as not surren­ der the wholly right wing positions he espouses. To secure his leader­ ship now, he has to convince him­ self that to call for unilateral dis­ armament in nuclear weapons is to be profoundly responsible. Credit for Assam Oil Pipeline To facilitate the construction of the pipeline from the Nahorka- tiya oilfields in Assam to the two refineries which are to be built at Gauhati and Barauni, the Burmah Oil Co and the United Kingdom Government have offered credits totalling £ 23 million to India. 802 .
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