A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
THE House of Commons debate on what Mr. Driberg, who initiated it, called " The Buchmanite Intervention," was not an edifying occasion. Mr. Driberg, who had given notice some weeks earlier that he would take the earliest opportunity of calling attention to the activities of " this soapy racketeer," found his opportunity last Friday. He opened on a high moral note, as of one impelled reluctantly by his conscience to undertake a painful duty, formulated a series of charges against Dr. Buchman and the movement generally, and by speaking thirty-five minutes out of the maximum of forty-five available before the Home Secretary was due to wind up the debate ensured the absence of any comprehensive reply to his allegations. However, Mr. Quintin Hogg managed to say a good deal in ten minutes—the derisive laughter elicited in one quarter of the House by.his striking affirmation of his belief in spiritual values was unpleasantly significant—and Mr. Clutter Ede in "the quarter of an hour that remained struck firmly and impressively the note of tolerance and fairmindedness traditional in the British people. The subject, at any rate as treated by the opener, was obviously unsuited for discussion by the House of Commons. As it was, the debate plainly did the Group Movement more good than harm, as the result of an attack that completely over-reached itself.
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