The End of a Controversy
The controversy, such as it was, about the change of Ministers at the War Office ended on Tuesday as it might have been hoped and expected that it would end. Mr. Hore-Belisha, who rarely fails to gauge the temper of the House of Commons, made a wholly admirable statement, devoid of any provocative word and ending with the declara- tion that war compels and unifies the whole effort of the nation, and that he trusted he had spoken in that spirit. The Prime Minister disposed emphatically and categorically of the numerous false rumours that had been current regarding the Secretary for War's resignation, but on the positive side said no more than that "difficulties arising out of the very great qualities of Mr. Hore-Belisha " had made him feel that a change at the War Office was necessary. There is little more that he could have said. The reasons for the step taken were accurately stated in this journal last week. They have been variously described elsewhere as" a clash of tem- peraments" and "temperamental incompatibility." That is not a matter that can profitably be argued across the floor of the House of Commons, and neither Mr. Hore-Belisha nor the Prime Minister, nor, it may be added, Mr. Attlee or Sir Archibald Sinclair, showed any desire to enlarge on it. That meant that the Prime Minister's judgement had to be taken on trust, but there was no tendency, except in one or two isolated speeches, to impugn it.
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