LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
A SOCIALIST DICTATORSHIP ?
SIR,—" Janus," referring to the alarm of " Atticus " of The Sunday Times lest the appointment of Sir Arthur Street to the vice-chairmanship
of the National Coal Board should lead to some sort of spoils system in the Civil Service, does not think that the danger is serious, though he realises that it is present. I invite him to disabuse his mind on this point. The danger is not only present, but is grave. If he will study a work which has received far less attention than its threats deserve, Problems of a Socialist.Government, which was published by Commissar Victor Gollancz in 1933, he will find in it ample cause for alarm. The book is a symposium by ten Socialists, including the Prime Minister, Lord Addison, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. G. D. H. Cole. Its editor is Sir Stafford, who advocates the extension of Parliamentary life for " a , further " but unspecified " term without an election," should the normal life of a Parliament not be long enough to enable the Socialist Government to do all it wants to do. When the Parliament meets, it will have placed before it an Emergency Powers Bill, and will be told to pass it " through all its stages on the first day. This Bill will be wide enough in its terms to allow all that will be immediately necessary to be done by ministerial orders. These orders must be incapable of challenge in the Courts or in any way except in the House of Commons," but, as the House of Commons will be rendered impotent, even this safeguard will be abolished. Its members, political geldings, will receive their orders— and will take them or! . . . Opposition will be "quelled by force," trays the pacific Sir Stafford. " The central feature of Socialist legis- lation must be the Planning and Finance Bill for the year. . . . Once this Bill is passed little other legislation by Act of Parliament will be required. . . It will be made impossible, by appropriate resolutions, to re-discuss the merits of the plan once the plan has been decided upon " by the Cabinet and passed by its collection of yes-men members. " Such secondary legislation as arises out of the plan will be brought before Parliament for a short second reading stage which will be on the floor of the House, and one final stage, during which Govern- ment amendments alone will be dealt with."
That's a forecast of tyranny by Sir Stafford Tappertit, but it is not the end of the scheme. The Civil Service is to be carefully rigged. Let your readers, let " Janus " and " Atticus " peruse the following passage, taken from pages 63-4, in which Sir Stafford tells us how he proposes to marshal the administrative services. " Of course," he says, " if a newly taken-over industry were to be subjected to the sort of control which the present Treasury would consider right it would inevitably fail.
" That is because the present Treasury officials have been brought up in a tradition which abhors State enterprise and which therefore concludes that it is bound to fall. There will no doubt be a great opportunity in the new departments for young and progressive Civil Servants who will set out with the intention of making a success of their job. The old departments will still have full scope for their activities, and it is, I hope, unlikely that even so complete a Change in administrative outlook will necessitate the retirement of many Civil Servants or their replacement by persons of known Socialist views."
Mr. Cole makes no bones about his tyrannical intentions. He has always been an ill-tempered, bossy fellow, but he has also been candid ; and we cannot complain if, having allowed him and his sort into power, we find ourselves Simon Legreed. Accolding to him, Parliament, having conferred on the Government the powers demanded by Sir Stafford Cripps, shall " meet only as often as it is needed for some dearly practical purpose, leaving the Socialist administrators," all of them smart, ambitious young chaps who have taken care to suck up to Sir Stafford and to secure the sacking of dissenting servants, " to carry on with the minimum of day-to-day interference. There will be no time for super- fluous debating while we are busy building the Socialist commonwealth." So says Tappertit's twin brother, who elaborates a scheme for dominating all authorities by Socialists, and securing " that Socialists are in the key positions among their staffs of officials." Mr. Attlee is no less emphatic.
This, Sir, is a plan for corrupt and tyrannical government, as corrupt and tyrannical as any that has ever issued from the mind of man. " Atticus " did well to warn us. " Janus " will do better to take heed of the warning. What will our prospects be in a country which is administered by Orders in Council and officials who have been bribed by promotion?—Yours faithfully,
[Thus the theorists of thirteen years ago. But a Labour Government with a majority of close on 200 over all oilier parties is not in fact behaving much like this.—En., Spectator.]
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