Mr. Attlee as Prime Minister will continue to display the
sincerity and good sense which he has always displayed ; what will be interest- ing to observe is whether he also retains his attractiv: diffidence. I have seldom seen a man to whom modesty came so simply, and without any hint of sensitiveness or affectation. Mr. Bevin will prove a formidable,. and it may be a practical, Foreign Secretary. Mr. Morrison, as leader of the House, may be able to replace by his gift of humour the suavity which rendered Mr. Eden so superb a manipu- lator of his intricate task. I am glad indeed that Mr. Arthur Greenwcod, whose conduct while in the wilderness was so fine an example of dignity and unselfishness, shoulo now again be among the leaders on the Government bench. It may well be that the jun:or Ministers, and especially the Under Secretaries, will not at first have acquired the evasive deftness which the ideal Parliamentary Secretary should display. It is to be hoped that His Majesty's Opposition will not seek to embarrass them until they have found their feet ; it is certain that from the Civil Service they will obtain that loyal and unstinted assistance which it is the tradition of that great profession to provide. And it may well be that as the months pass the country as a whole will realise that the Labour Government is not merely a party, but also a national, Government ; and that the large majority it has won, in that it will provide a degree of confidence between the Government and the governed which no small Conservative majority could have offered, will in the end prove of comfort and benefit to the community as a whole.
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