Spectator's Notebook
Hmom( will will always find it remarkable that when, after 1945, the West had to face a Communist challenge whose nature and size Were then unknown to it, the leaders of the two greatest Western nations were Mr. Truman and Mr. Attlee. History will also, I think, find it reassuring_ that these two extraordinarily ordin- ary men should have been the free nations' answer to Stalin. Lord Attlee must be finding on his eightieth birthday that the warmth of the good wishes reaching him is almost uni- versal. He has always had very much his own way with men and issues. Perhaps my favourite true story is of the occasion in the Labour Cabinet when the possibility of allowing Turkey to become a member of NATO was being discussed. The discussion went to and fro on military, economic and political considerations, Aneurin Bevan, specially, speaking with con- siderable force, and at considerable length. At last the moment came for Mr. Attlee to reveal his own opinion and collect the voices. 'Fought against the Turks at Gallipoli,' he said abruptly, `and would prefer to have them on my side than against me.' There the Matter was ended.
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