in
Eden And His New Thinker
THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1954.
WHERE DOES THE POWER LIE?
By ROBERT BLAKE
NEW man sits behind +ITIZEDE
one of the most im- smR IVONE KIRKPATRICK has
How do matters stand today?
are more than
All the causes which a cen- portant oficial desks taken up his post sa permanent tury ago enhanced the power of London. Sir Ivone head of the Foreign Office at Lord Hammond Kirkpatrick, after a distin- the age of 56. From 1950 he ever operative now.
was our High Commissioner in Kuished
in the
Germany. He was Foreign Service, succeeded lain's Interpreter
Interviewed Sir William Strang ng Per- manent Under-Secretary at the Fereign Office.
Career
pre even tess they can do little gather information
Ambassadors Chamber- at Munich; Important:
when
he more than the and, puppels on a
Whitchall
Ati Irish string, transinit the decisions of 24 years, the Foreign Offee.
flew to Britain Auring war. Kirkpatrick is man. with
for married
доп xnd • daughter.
The growing complexity of
dimeult than ever for a Foreign by his
Indeed, for a period favour the Secretary, encumbered political head. For 10 years polilcel duties, to study his own Lord Salisbury combined the subject adequależy,
Prime Minister and offers of Foreign Secretary.
like
ما
the have concentrate only
In theory, British foreign policy is controlled by the 2÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷++++++ foreign policy has made it more Foreign Secretary and the Cabinet--that is, by poli- ticians responsible to Parlia ment and hence to the na-
politicians Few tion. But theory and prue-
about the courage tion under the British Con-
Opinions differ seldom, stitution
Lloyd George, that they corres merits of his polley, but there upon the broad issues, to admit, pund. For 100 years part, can we no doubt about the effee have never heard of Teschen," ve control which he exercised
demand, like Sir Winston His effective power has lain In
over his own department. the hands not of the Secre geral views on the civil ser- Churchill, a brief summary
mot recondite problems taries of State who viet-he is actually referring to
Foreign Secretaries are over- possessa its outward trap- the Admiralty were admirably upon half a sheet of paper. Mos! too much conscientious, read pings, but of their silent, crystallised in a letter:
And themselves in the The experts-the pedants and soon unobtrusive, conscientious,
much power. They hands of their own experts. hard working subordinates, have too
dvisers and sub- What are
the reasons for ought to be
ordinates," this change?
tors were
the
It began in the middle of the last century shortly after (usmissal of
Lord Palmerton
who was the greatest British OVIT to br Foreign
intensely
Secretary.
know He leigeable, very industrious, and He had years of experience. kept all the strings of power in
own hands. But his im
Auccessors medtate
were, comparison. nonentities,
of them held office
Bone
very long.
Too powerful?
by cl
for
But Lord Salisbury's Succes
Jess strong willed, ntul. D'1 the whole, less long lives.
The balance of power ercated **(- by Lord Hammond
20th In the incir. asserted century policy was once again determined by the civil servants acting through their permanent head.
The clash
TN the history of diplomacy
IN
ما
the
The phantoms
URING the last four years
Secre
successive Foreign
use Dis- tartes have been-to raeli's famous description of an early
Prime XIXth century
more thon Minister little
and embarrassed transient phantoms."
too
Mr Bevin, whatever his earlier B. Mr vigour, was morially Morrison
for six held office months, and was very incom- petent. Mr Eden, though now happily recovered, was seriously For brief intervals, Sir if ever it were to be pro- Winston Churchill and Lon perly written-the names of the gallsbury have been at the head
under secretaries, OR the next 20 years the real permanent
power at the Foreign Office Lord Hardinge, Lord Camock, of the Foreign Office.
be at
These conditions must in- tay in the hands of a new al Sir Eyre Crowe, would
least as important as those of most wholly forgolten ägure
and evitably have concentrated great Balfour. Curzon
Into the hands of Sir Hum- Grey. Lord) (later Edmund
Macdonnki who were their power
Strung, Williams
who bas 10 from 1853
Permanca! been User nominal supertors,
throughout Permanent
Hend of the Office.
Fon
mond,
1673
who was
The
Secretary,
WHS
Through sheer continuity his influence
estotinuus. He Inaugurated an important pro- whereby all cedural change papers came through his hands
received
231
ART ce
By the 1930s the position of the Permanent Under-Socretary
Future historians will, if the had become so powerful that a
between his evidence
survive", deelde wow and those of its political whether or not that
power has supertors could only resuit in been widely used. No one can comments, deng'ork. his
tell today. But it is quite clear before they reached the Foreign
in the Imine The full story of Sir Robert that conditions Secretary.
future are not Jikely to conflict In 1937 dlate
of his diminish the importance
and
The Livention
of the tele- Vansittart's graph had in any euse greatly with Mr Chamberlain and, to reduced he independence of lesar extent, with Mr Edien har post, ambassadors and enhanced the ever been told.
Omee. power of the Foreig It depended largely upon accident of politics whether that be exercised by power would the political or the civil service hend of the department.
At the end of the nineteenth
century
{BAY
circumstances
Parasitic skin disease, itching
gema etc
'Mitigal'
CIL & ORIENT
»Bayer « LEVERKUSEN GERMANY.
THREE
Key figure
suece ser,
in- It will one day, be an the
foresting chapter in the history Foreign Office. But of the
whose in 11 to be HIS
terests and background though is known for clear that a real deadlock on the question of appeasement are remarkably similar to those towards Germany could only be of Sir William Strang, will re- did, rerolved by
the removal of main for some time a key figure. Vansittart (presumably with Mr It is to Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, Eden's approval) to an ap- rather than to whoever no. fact minally stands above him, that parently higher.
Chief the public should attribute powericas, Diplomatic Adviser to the Oor important decisions of the next emment.
few years.
position
but in
08
the
Commonwealth Finance Ministars
MIRAGE IN AUSTRALIA
Expansion DIVERSIO
US
World Trade
SURPLUS
1. b
World Copyright by arrangement sotth the Manchester Guardian
New Light On The Crimean War
Someone Blundered At Balaclava
0
N October 25, 1854. the Light Cavalry Brigade, 700 all ranks of the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, the 8th and 11th Hussars and the 17th Lancers, the finest light horsemen in Europe and disciplined to perfec- tion, rode in beautiful order into the narrow pocket of the North Valley in front of
Crimean port
By PETER LOVEGROVE
and
to
go on half-pay. Though he had done no service, he had become a captain, which qualified him Was It Captain Nolan, his as completely as if he had done they had ridden clear the ranks
ebullient Irish- 20 years' servico to buy his losed again and the lines swept AD.C.,
Italian cavalry offler, who next step as major in another on. They overran the guns at
regiment. the end of the valley, and the delivered the fatal message, and, regir # regiment went
When but misreading it, mistakenly pointed were slaughtered, gunners
of the wealthy sirong
forced to the North Valley instead of India, most counter-attacks
the officers went on half-pay; when them to retreat and the retreat of the correct objective,
the Tegiment returned, the Causeway Heights and the re- was worse than the advance.
The shattered, exhausted rem- doubts with the captured British Indian duty officers dropped out and the smarter set took their nonis somehow dragged them- guns?
Was It Lord Lucan, the con- places. selves back in confusion; and only 195, most of them wound- scientious,
ruthless Although the War Office had irascible,
of the Cavalry laid down an official tariff for ed, eventually reached the safety commander
of commissions, The
purchase British positions. of the
Division, who knew that cavalry
were in- It was a deadly three-alded 13th Dragoons could muster only charging guns in such circum- additional payments trap from which there was two officers and eight men: the stone would be annihilated, but variably made. Thus the com-
reduced to 17th Lancers were
had no commonsense and was mand of a regiment had been £8,000, but Lord no escape. The mass of the 37
troopers: 500
horses were accustomed to enforce every law listed at
Lucan (at the age of 20) bought Russian cavalry with a bat- killed. And the whole engage and order to the letter?
17th coloneley of the brother-in-law and the Or tery of guns was awaiting rent lasted but 20 minutes."
Lancers for £25,000, and Lord mals furiously Jealous "C'est magnifque,
rival, the in- its end:
Cardigan pald £40,000 for the them head on at
те n'est pas la guerre.“ ce
experienced Earl of Cardigan, Russian batteries and rifle-
marked the French General the Light Brigade commander, 11th Light Dragoons (later the
11th P.A.O. Hussars). domineering, quarrelsome, ostentatious, obstinate, conceited
the
Balaclava.
men
of
en- strongly were
Bosquet.
trenched on the steep walls Who To Blame?
steeral, hated by his officers
and the British people, who had bought his way up the Army?
Or was it the defects of the
the
The Defects
THE dufects of the system were not glaringly apparent during 1815 WILS
of the 600 feet high Cause-
Heights and the HO was to blame for sending way Folioukine Hills, to their W the Light Brigade to its doom?
and 1854 when Was It Lord Raglan, the 67-year- British military system, which right and left.
old British Commander-in- was to be co drastically reshaped Chlet,
urbane, soon after?
was ex-
The British cavalry posed to crossfire of the most
subtle
charming, diplomatist
but
no
frightful and deadly kind, to soldier, who had never pre- Fantastic Story which it had no possibility of
and who issued ambiguous replying. Though tor to pieces, viously led troops in the field, the Light Brigade continued to orders which to the trained Mis
officer
THEY DESERTED FRANKIE LAINE
IF
FOR
London.
TF what some sociologista believe is apparently true, cso 2,000 or 80 yaungsra should not have been where they were,
AFRICAN
the
the long period between Britain
in involved
but
not
war,
when
peditionary
3 major the EX- salied Army
to
ranka.
thin
Indo-China Thrust
And Parry
By James Wickenden
THERE is still no sign of
THER
a sweeping Communist victory in Indo-China, des- pite Ho Chi-minh's lighten- ing moves aimed at dazing the French.
It is already clear that the march of his troops across the
country is of small Importance. Few of his main forces are in this thrust and the one jungle route he has cut is of littlo strategic value.
The issue of the war has always lain in vital econo- mic regions, connected by sea and air. Ronds are com- paratively unimportant. The con- main strategic area tinues to be the Red River delta, where the French are more secure than they have been for years.
The fact is that General Navarre's success in break. Ing up Communist prepara- tions to attack the delta during the last three months has forced Ho Chi- minh to seek a less direct method of achieving the initiative.
LEARNED LESSON
But, however Ho's plan develops, the last thing he is likely to do is to launch a sustained attack on either of the two French strong points in the nows,
Seno and Dien Bien Phu, if the French succeed in reinforc- ing them.
The Vietminh learned at the hands of France's great soldier, the late General de Lattre de Tassigny, that they cannot tackle the French once they are con- centrated in position.
And if Ho had intended to take Seno, just south of where he cut across Indo- China, he would not have betrayed his plans by first attacking a small outpost some fifty miles to the north of it.
Clearly this was a feint to induce the French to fly reserves to Seno, so that
war in the Crimes the qualifica- there would be less avail- able to strengthen Dien tions for command were rank, Ceell Woodham-Smith,
influence and privilege, and all Bien Phu, which Hes on who a few years ago wrote a the men who had had real ex- Communist supply routes machine-like staff with advance
seem of today
to the Thai man or horse vague, obscure, the work of an splendid blography of Florence perlence of fighting held junior from China precision:
sat out to in dropped, the riders on each side amateur and an invitation to Nightingale,
facts of
It was a system which under country and Laos. He may vestigate Boon as disaster? of him opened out; as
fantastle story. She was given a genius es Wellington might even have hoped the French access to private letters and still have worked, but the Duke would weaken Dien Bien diaries, dispatches, and War had died in 1832, and the Phu to reinforce Seno. Office correspondence and law British Army was to experience files of what it was like to fight under reports; she pored over
the system but without the newspapers and privately printed
The result is "The Duke. The results were some- pamphlets. Reason Why" (Constable, 188), times fareical, most often tragic
description
was ali
on the ex- a magnificently vivid of the engagement and thedraordinary qualities of events leading up to it, the British troops -and the reckless
and the characters involved.
the officers. bravery of Victorian some whole youngsters that
depressing
Herein, undoubtedly lay the blame for the Belaclava headline-happy "Sociologists" Ecene.
"Untrained untried She dwells at length on the disaster. might try writing about for &
To do this, he needs to free notorious
of careers
the officers
in charge of his supply route through Dien change.
brothers-in-law, on the almost divisions and brigades in the Bien Phu, although a failure to And just look at some of the subjects they listened to and dis incredible lack of organisation field; the staff were ignorant of take it will not be very serious cussed constitutional develop in the field-when problems of their duties and quite unable to
translato and Intelligence were supply West Africa,
white ment
an East chance and pattern of partnership in
FEDERATION
By YORKE HENDERSON
Johnny Ray and Frankie Laine.
Instead they were perched
And not just for a few hours, or a day. But for a whole week.
Not in school-time either.
mas holidays.
British
wene
His ultimate intention appears to be to re-enter Laos which he invaded last March,
and where the Communist organise- tion is in neod
of a moralo boost. Also from Laos he can get more of the opium he finds so useful in trading with China for guns.
the Commander-in-for the Communists as they
have alternative routes.
inex- the Commander-in-Chief him-
They should have been on the edges of their seats It was during their Christ. supremacy in South Africa, the ignored and transport loft to Chief's wishes in clear language, "creeping" round a dance in the Central Hall, West-
floor or maybe propping up a milk bar, debating the rival merits of
SILENT
minster, hanging on the words of a panel of African Messrs experts.
SALESMEN
***
Tdk Largest Morning
Circulation
Largest Afternoon',
Circulation
Largest Sunday..
Biroulation
They were there from all over the country, at their own free
the
Africa, Central African Federa-perience and prejudice of the self, upractised and Inexperienc
commanders.
tion.
ed in active. command, was fatally ambiguous," comments Miss Woodham-Smith.
}
Į
STALEMATE AGAIN.
more
down again to its
The purchases system, under
It is likely that there will be .soveral Strong meat for young minds,
apparently bo- thrusts, will to answer "The Challenge you might think. On the con- which a man first bought his
wildering moves and commission and then paid for dis- Those teenagers
They Saluted of Africa" issued by the Cowell tray,
each subsequent step in rank,
coupled with increased guerilla better grasp of the and which enabled a rich man for Education in World Citizen- played a ship, a UN body
subjects than many adults. And to buy the mand of a WHEN one recalls the meticu activity in the data, before the
Imus planning, the precise stalemate the questions they asked show-
over the regiment
heads of
with the French the careful
Ho budgy-ed they did not intend to
'delta • and efficient officers, in care reconnaissaisee, more
holding the" briefing and the therough train pluging through the jungle swallow everything they were fully analysed. told without analysing it.
This system was born out of landing on the European cont ing that went into the seaborne
.. In these acrobatics the the excesses of the Cromwelllan
tinent in 1943 and 1944, It French will hope, as before, to milltary dictatorship. After the makes strange reading to learn bring Ho to battle, and Ho, will Restoration, nation and Parla how the Crimean landings were hope that at some point he will
determined that undertaken. After
cach
werd had ment speaker finished, members of the young never again should the Army The majority of the boys were audience rushed to queue bo be in the hands of adventurers beafy youths who looked as if hind the questioners' micro-likely to bring about a military Bulgaria before it was settled unguarded,
Teacher's pels and browed form lenders, you say?
If they were, then the breed has changed remarkably since my efforts made a nuecession of masters wish they'd joined the Foreign Legion instead.
they were no strangers to a rugger scrannI,
Sheer
Sheer Nylons
Rushed To Queue
catch the French off-balance The Army sailed from with one of their main porta
where it was going. The point at which the invasion was to
Gravely Abused take place was by no means
phones unially to ask for revolution,
But no situation that arizon further information, but often
can be of lasting importance, to to tackle the platform" about
egized. Some wooks earlier a the Communists unless it leads Dot that did some argument seem to bo justified But not TAMOUS victorios were won staff officer had salled along the to a Communist victory in the for a moment did they cease to by the British Army while ikely bay through field-glasses, a "peace treaty",
delta, either by force or through Crimean coast and picked out a
! As for the girls-the number be courtesy itself.
was officered by purchase, and of "gy" (unles and this black stockings
the araten Bad the whole but he was notoriously short- could have been Typical of the questions was hearted support of the great dered the bay too small.
sighted and the French con- counted on a couple of hands. one directed at two MP from Duke of Wellington. But, by
nylons, stylish costs, opposite sides of the House of the 19th century. It was gravely So the fleet walled while the dresses and up-to-the-minute Commons: ***Why don't the abused and
by French and British commanders manipulated by hairdos prevalled.
Conservative and Labour Par
Half-pay tles have a joint body to tackle mess of wealth and high birth, personally examined the court. Their ship Balled so close to If gian was being chewed colonial questions Instead of
on which went, Sebastopol that Russian officers anywhere in the nail it was approaching
temporarily not re- could be soon in front of their officera from them
quired, was used as a means of bastening promotion and avoid looking through the out dos quiet fog and i'm pre You, Indeed, my heart goes ing distasteful overseas service, belgiasser at the generals in
uniforma çon ? deck. Ania. If there is a treaty, then pared to bet one of the two out to any Communal pro- A young man would buy a The Brittani officers thereupon will be the fluid to regard, the.. thoatand packed a costi.
pagandist who triesito in vacant captaincy in a regiment saluted, "which courtesy, was anti-Communiststructed No, they were just two doctrinate British youth If three in which he had no intention of returned with an air of restriin» | Indo-China and GMA | Chousand -- honest-to-goodname X arw Ward (typically
Derving, and next day would ed formality,”
entering a' fateful phase,po
being done so circumspectly as to partisan point of view?" go unnoticed. ¡No one nipped
So far the Communist moves do not seem to have bluffed the French. They have been in Indo-China foo long for that."
Unfortunately, they ...... have been in Indo-China" too long, also, for their ability to make continued mcrifice in men..That
is the mounting opportunity to Communist expansion in East
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