The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (10 page)

Sunday 2 December

Today was the third conference of the Movement for Colonial Freedom. It was held in the Bonnington Hotel in Southampton Row and was a much smaller conference than before. This, however, was itself a good sign. Only the representatives from area councils and nationally affiliated trade unions had been invited. So that everyone who came carried weight. The Fire Brigades’ Union, Electrical Trades Union, National Union of Railwaymen and the Miners from South Wales and Derbyshire of course represent hundreds of thousands of members. Our total strength is over five million and there are 109 Labour MPs amongst them. Jim Callaghan, who has just been appointed Shadow Colonial Secretary, sent a message of good wishes and this was very much appreciated. In short we felt that we were a going concern, as indeed we are. It is a fantastic achievement that less than three years after our foundation we should be so well established and so influential.

The greatest change in our policy statement this year has been the decision to urge the summoning of a conference from all the colonial territories as soon as a Labour government is returned to office. With these representatives we should work out a specific timetable for our withdrawal and the transfer of power. This will achieve a psychological revolution and set the people free to work towards its realisation.

After some discussion we passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. We, above all people, were entitled to do this, and it was supported by John Horner, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigades’ Union, and other ex-Communists.

Saturday 8 December

This afternoon I went to the Hanham Labour Party children’s party and then looked in at the old people’s Christmas sale at Memory Hall. Neither of these was really planned, but being in Bristol it was very nice to be able to get to them.

Saturday 15 December

Travelling to Bristol by train I found myself in the dining car with Sir Walter Monckton. After I had eaten he beckoned me over and we had an hour’s talk. He was extremely cordial and most indiscreet about Eden.

Monckton had not seen him since Eden got back from his holiday in Jamaica but has heard he was still rather jumpy, ‘which is bad news’. Monckton made it perfectly clear that Eden would have to go although the problem of the succession was a tricky one. Macmillan speaks of his retirement and Rab has behaved so oddly in the last two months that no one trusts him. He agreed that an Election was a remote possibility early in the New Year, though he said he would urge very strongly against it. ‘If I were your boys I should prefer next summer as a large number of chickens will have come home to roost by then, and I don’t just mean the Suez ones.’

He made his opposition to the Suez policy very plain. Evidently from the start Eden knew what his view was and when he wrote in September and said he wanted to resign the Ministry of Defence, Eden asked to see him and arranged for Head to come half an hour later so that a successor was planned from the outset. Monckton said he told Eden, ‘I don’t want to dodge this enterprise (presumably the Egyptian attack) but I thought it better to go now rather than later.’ He resigned as Defence Minister and was made Paymaster-General.

He quoted one incident in the Cabinet during a Suez discussion. ‘Paymaster-General, you are very silent,’ said the PM. ‘I am, Prime Minister, but I have heard that lawyers should only speak when they know that what they have to say will get a fair hearing and is likely to help their case. I am not sure of either of these things now.’

He spoke a little bit about Clarissa Eden, who is apparently a powerful force in politics and has a great influence on Eden. Monckton says that now she knows he opposed Eden she won’t have anything to do with him.

I asked about Winston and whether Monckton saw him. He said he saw him quite often but the old boy has had another stroke and said rather pathetically, ‘I still have the ideas, Walter, but you know I can’t find the words to clothe them.’ He never will speak in the Commons again, partly because he just couldn’t stand up to make a speech. I asked what Churchill would have said of Suez. Monckton replied, ‘“I wouldn’t have had Anthony’s courage – or his recklessness.”’

Monckton said he had been happiest at the Ministry of Labour under Winston. ‘Winston wanted industrial peace at all costs and even thought on occasions that I was too tough. He once sent for me at 10.30 in the morning during a strike. He was in bed and he asked me what I proposed to say in the Commons that afternoon. When I had finished he said “Walter, you’re handling this all wrong. You should give them the money. I can’t have strikes.” He then developed this and finished up by saying “Are you going to take my advice or follow your own reckless course?”’ Monckton said he
would obey an order but would still prefer to keep the offer in reserve, at any rate for the present. ‘All right, my boy,’ said Winston, ‘you pursue your foolish course and I shall have the satisfaction of being able to say I told you so.’ Eden apparently was much tougher than Monckton and on the famous occasion in May 1955 when he said in his broadcast that the railwaymen must go back before negotiations could start, he did it on the insistence of Clarissa and against the strong and urgent advice of Monckton himself and all the civil servants.

Finally, the train drew into Bristol and he went off to his meeting and I to mine. I was naturally most flattered that he should have been willing to talk so freely and I was delighted to get an inside glimpse of what is going on at his level in the Government. However, it’s a great mistake to think of Monckton as a fighter. He has hawked his conscience round quite a number of people the last three months but I very strongly doubt whether under any circumstances he would have resigned from Cabinet altogether.

Wednesday 19 December

At lunchtime a group of us (Fenner, Barbara Castle and others) went to South Africa House to present a letter of protest to the High Commissioner about the Treason Trials. He refused to see us but we left our message and there was a certain amount of publicity which is good for the MCF and helps to focus attention on what is going on. Our great scoop was to interest the Labour lawyers including Gerald Gardiner in the trials and through them the Conservative and Liberal lawyers. Finally all three associations approached the Bar Council who decided to send Gerald as an observer to the preliminary hearings. He is on the point of leaving and his influence should be considerable.

Monday 21 January 1957

The first working day at home after my visit to Germany. It certainly was extremely interesting though an exhausting visit. I am glad I went. There was a little cyst or boil of anti-German feeling in me which was lanced as a result of seeing the country. The bomb damage was phenomenal. The scale of the reconstruction was also interesting. The shops, hotels and petrol stations were so modern and impressive that the visitor might think the country better off than we are. Yet no doubt millions still live in very poor conditions. Berlin was particularly tragic. The total destruction was enormous and the division of the city pathetically obvious.

Now Parliament meets again tomorrow and we enter a new political phase. The resignation of Eden has thrown everything into the melting pot. In a few months one will know whether it really was health or not. The leading articles certainly regarded it as a minor factor compared with his monumental failure over Suez. Macmillan has shown just the right quality of drama in his opening days at Number 10. His government is bold and his
television performance was evidently a very dramatic one. His call for an ‘opportunity state’ has created interest and discussion just when things looked so soggy in his own party. If he succeeds in making an impact it will call for great skill by the Labour Party to make a successful challenge to him.

Sunday 10 February

For some time Geoffrey de Freitas has been bothering me to take an interest in defence and particularly the Air Force. It’s not at all my line but as an ex-RAF pilot I suppose I must be one of the very few in the PLP who knows anything about the Air. My reluctance to take the Air job on is heightened by the fact that Geoffrey recommends it as a sure way to get office in the next Government That he should think that this argument would convince me is intensely irritating and much as I would like office, the thought of the Air Ministry depresses me beyond belief. However, I promised I would watch it for the next few months and I have been attending the various committees.

My dreams of being efficient have been brought a little closer by the purchase of a beautiful four steel drawer cabinet and a suspension filing system to go in it. With all the lovely coloured plastic tabs I think it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Everything now has a place and I find that there is no more enjoyable relaxation than standing looking at it with its drawers proudly pulled out and all the things I ought to do neatly filed away out of sight.

Monday 18 February

Caroline went to the hospital today. The baby is now two weeks late on the most cautious estimate. They have decided to bring it on on Wednesday.

Wednesday 20 February

Slept fitfully and called the hospital at 5.20 fully expecting to hear the good news. Alas, the contractions had stopped and Caroline was sleeping and would be pushed along the road as planned at 12 o’clock. The same story at 7.50 and 10.15. However, they let me go there from 11–12 and I sat beside her for an hour in a white coat and mask. The contractions began again – and it looked as if she still had a sporting chance of doing it unaided. As dawn had broken she saw the lights go on in the cells in the Scrubs opposite and the prisoners looking out through the bars at another cold, clear morning. However, when I left at 12 things were well on their way and I expected news by tea time. As it was, I rang at 1.50 for an interim report and heard that Melissa Anne had been born at 1.35. Caroline was delivered by Sister Tweddle, the Sister in charge of the Labour and Delivery ward. After sending off all the appropriate telegrams and messages, I was allowed to see them both at 3 o’clock and Caroline was looking wonderful.

March

I was forced to miss the annual meeting of the Party in Bristol by the arrival
of Melissa and I gather there has been some criticism there of the rarity of my visits. This is partly my fault and partly theirs. However, I shall have to devote more time to the constituency than I have been doing.

18 April – 8 May

Dick Crossman’s party was on 1 May and we went along. No one quite knows what his political position is at the moment. Ever since he parted with Nye he has been a Gaitskell fan. He denounced the ending of the H-bomb tests and has now come out against the H-bomb itself. I’m afraid it has ruptured his personal relationships with other members of the Party but we seem to be on his ‘new friends’ list. He had a different crowd of guests than before but we enjoyed it very much. He told me afterwards that the little group who had stayed for a talk had voted Caroline ‘the best wife for a leader of the Labour Party’.

Tuesday 21 May

A Party meeting this morning on the new National Superannuation Pensions Plan. Dick Crossman introduced it with all the lucidity that he commands. It is such a complicated new idea that it will take weeks for the Party to understand it and years for the local Parties and the general public. It is certainly the most exciting thing that has happened since the Beveridge Report. Dick Crossman will undoubtedly be the first Minister of Pensions after the Election and will find a haven for his talents after the storm since 1945.

This evening Nye Bevan spoke to the Commonwealth and Colonies group of the Party. It was a joint meeting with the Foreign Affairs group and he kept us enthralled for fifty minutes. He described his talks with Nehru and the significance of the Communist victory in Kerala. The brilliance of the word-spinner captivated the audience, who listened with rapt attention. But on reflection I was more than disappointed with what Nye had said and the way he had said it. As in his speech in the House last Thursday night, he took a much more anti-Egyptian line than is reasonable and became an advocate of
realpolitik
with a certain zest. The doctrine that backward countries could not nationalise their industries for fear of losing foreign credits was, I thought, a very dangerous one. Nye will have to be watched for fear that he become not only the darling of the Tory Party – which he is already – but that by his speeches and actions he deserve that title.

Saturday 25 May

This evening to Tony Crosland’s party. His divorce came through two days ago and this must have been some sort of celebration. I only knew two people there – Hugh Dalton and Roy Jenkins. The rest were a sort of rootless crowd of nondescript men and rather sulky women between twenty-five
and thirty-five. Tony is, of course, a very unhappy person. I’ve known him for eleven years and at one time we were very close friends indeed.

The main trouble is his strict Nonconformist background. His parents were Plymouth Brethren and against them he has been in constant revolt. His years in the war gave him the excuse for thinking that his youth had gone and he has been trying to catch up since 1945. At thirty-nine it is rather silly. But he is in fact a very kind man. He taught me economics as a favour in the evenings and we went to the cinema together. Without his recommendation I should never have got Bristol SE and without the redistribution in my favour he would never have lost South Gloucestershire. He is unusually gifted as an economist and has a very clear mind with a very great faith in the power of reason. But the proof of his unhappiness is his curious death wish, which he showed when in the Commons, and which now takes the form of affecting to be bored with current politics. If he gets back into Parliament he will get high office. If he does not, then his life could be a very tragic one.

Friday 31 May

This evening Caroline and I went to Hampstead to a party given by the Gaitskells. Adlai Stevenson was the guest of honour and he had been there for dinner. It was very crowded and we stayed from 9.30 until about 1.45. It was amusing to see who had been invited. Nye was not there but most other members of the Parliamentary Committee were. The only trade union leader was Frank Cousins with his wife.