The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990

by Benn, Tony

  It is impossible to see how this can now end without far graver disasters. But the impending aggression by Britain has touched a very deep chord in the hearts of every member of the Labour Party bar one or two. This is the same old struggle of collective security versus naked power politics. It has united Phil Noel-Baker and Konni Zilliacus who for twenty years have diverged so enormously since their joint struggles against Hitler.

  Wednesday 31 October

  I rang the Movement for Colonial Freedom and asked them to book Trafalgar Square for a rally on Sunday afternoon. This they did at once and the meeting was handed over to the Labour Party the same day.

  The character and volume of the public protest now developing is most interesting. It has rallied round informed people of every political allegiance. The Manchester Guardian provides the intellectual leadership in the country and the Churches, leading figures in science, universities and among professional people are coming out solidly on this. For example, David Butler – normally most conservative – rang me urgently from Oxford to describe the horror with which the news had been received, to confess his feeling of helplessness and to give support.

  Thursday 1 November

  This morning’s news of the bombings added additional tragedy to the situation. The news contained an item that Egypt was contemplating withdrawal from the UN because of the failure of the UN to help her. I decided to ring the Egyptian Embassy at once to urge them not to do this. I spoke to the Ambassador’s Private Secretary and explained that the veto cast yesterday by Britain and France was not the end of the matter. Today the General Assembly meets and its decision is a foregone conclusion. I asked the Secretary to ask the Ambassador to send an urgent message to Cairo to get this decision reversed. I also added these words: ‘Please convey this message to the Ambassador and add to them an expression on behalf of the vast majority of the British people of the feelings that he must know we all have.’ The Secretary took this down verbatim. No doubt the telephone was tapped, which is why the exact words should be recorded. At any rate, very late tonight the Egyptian Government announced that the reports of its intended withdrawal from the UN were quite without foundation.

  This afternoon, after Questions, the Prime Minister made a statement. Gaitskell asked him whether we were at war with Egypt. Eden would not reply. The House burst into uproar. I have never seen Members so angry. I appealed to the Speaker to act for us in ascertaining the legal position. It touched the Royal Prerogative and he was the spokesman of the Commons against the Executive. Silverman asked about the status of our troops if captured. Eden would not reply. The rage and passion reached such a climax that the sitting was suspended.

  Friday 2 November

  Kenneth Younger drove me to Cambridge for a meeting on Suez and we went at once to the Union where the Committee was waiting. By now sixteen different clubs had united to sponsor the meeting. I sat with the Arab Society officials – two of them Egyptians. One of them, a graduate student of my own age, was crying through the whole of the dinner. He did not know what had happened to his family as all news had been cut off. It was a most awful occasion and I could not convey the shame and disgust that I felt.

  The Union debating hall was absolutely packed tight with crowds round it trying to get in through the windows and jamming the entrance thirty deep. We struggled to reach our places. The UN flag had been stolen and there were wildly noisy scenes and shouts. Great posters hung from the gallery reading, ‘Support Eden, not Nasser’ and ‘We are now committed and must support our troops’. The crowd of students laughing and screaming for war gave me an icy hatred of them. The uproar and noise and silly funny remarks when the world was on the brink of disaster were completely revolting, disgusting and shameful.

  Sunday 4 November

  Bought all Sunday papers. Nutting, a Minister in the Foreign Office, has resigned on principle. Russia is crushing Hungary and has issued an ultimatum. A tragic, heartbreaking day with news flashes every moment that brought us all near to weeping. The last day of freedom in Budapest and the agonising goodbye to Mr Nagy in his dramatic appeal to the world. Then the Hungarian national anthem and total, total silence.

  To Gaitskell’s house at eleven where he was sitting at his desk beginning to think of his broadcast. Woodrow Wyatt joins us. For an hour we talk to straighten our ideas and work out a plan for the speech. The news is coming in so fast that it is necessary to have someone watching it for us. At my suggestion Gaitskell agrees gratefully that my brother Dave should be asked to go to the Daily Herald office and sit by the tape machine. This he does, phoning with news whenever it comes in. A wonderful service and greatly helpful.

  By 12 we had sorted out the order for the broadcast. While we made arrangements to get a secretary to him, Gaitskell began dictating on to his tape machine. Woodrow and I talked and read the papers and I answered the phone calls that were flooding in. I really felt that at that house at that moment one was in the centre of the world. By 2.30 Gaitskell had completed his dictation and Woodrow and I lunched with him in the kitchen. Mrs Gaitskell cooked and fed us and washed up. It was a friendly and amusing meal: for 15 minutes we could forget the job.

  After lunch we altered the script and recast it until there was a veritable pile of flimsy carbons with unrecognisable scribblings and scratchings upon them. At six we had finished. Woodrow went off and while Gaitskell changed I went on ahead by car to the studio.

  Gaitskell arrived at 6.30 and we went straight on to the set. Gaitskell said a word to the assembled engineers, thanking them and apologising for their long frustrating stand-by.

  We began together re-dictating the whole script with two secretaries and two reporters from the Daily Herald to take it down. Finally, at 8.27 we had a script and were ready to go to the studio for a run-through.

  It was a most impressive rehearsal. Absolutely solemn and obviously moved, Hugh went through the whole thing. What he had to say was so compelling that all the technicians stood completely silently and listened to every word. What a contrast to their usual lolling and whispering and hurried glances at the sports news from the evening paper.

  At 9 o’clock that was over and we had to cut five minutes from the broadcast. This was done by striking out a single passage completely and it was most certainly the right thing to have done. At 9.501 took the completed script and sat beside Hugh while he was powdered and brushed, in the long chair. The whole thing had an eerie unreality about it. At 9.55 he began reading it through to check for mistakes. At two minutes to 10 he sat down at the desk in the studio before the camera with the pages in front of him and just time to draw a breath before the red light flashed on.

  I watched from downstairs in any easy chair. It was a very good broadcast, I thought, though I knew that I was far too involved in it by then to be able to judge. Certainly it set a precedent in every sort of way. It was the first ministerial broadcast which ever had a reply. It was the first time the Leader of the Opposition had demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister on the air and it was the first time that we had been able to test our capacity to put out a message to the nation with about 11 hours’ notice. Afterwards we sat and talked for a little while and then dispersed. Hugh autographed his script for me inscribing it, ‘A thousand thanks’.

  Monday 5 November

  This evening I did three meetings in Gravesend. They were not very big and rather confirmed what I had suspected: that ordinary people are not yet moved on this issue. Part of the explanation too may lie in the fact that every British soldier who has ever served in Egypt hates the Egyptian people.

  Tuesday 6 November

  A really useful day – made possible by the fact that my secretary, the incomparable Mrs Small, was here all the time. She is going to be here all week, which is an enormous comfort.

  This morning’s news of a Russian near-ultimatum has made the situation far more grave and we could be within a few hours of a third world war complete with the hydrogen bomb. Very, very, very depressed
as a result.

  To the House of Commons at 7 pm where the Lobby was full of excited chattering members, talking about a cease-fire. I do not believe it – it is too incredible. Two other members confirm it. It must be true. It is true. Feel like jumping in the air and cheering. Am engaged in a mild caper when spot Bessie Braddock. ‘Bessie, I want to kiss you,’ I said. Bessie, with a huge smile, replied, ‘Not now, dearie, with all these people about.’

  Home at 8. Happy and very exhausted. But couldn’t go to bed till 2 for trying to think out what all this means and what the lessons are. Will try to set down some first reactions tomorrow.

  Thursday 8 November

  Today the Tory Party is breaking up, as I suspected it would. Jacob Astor, Alec Spearman and other Tory MPs spoke against the Government. The biggest news of all is of Edward Boyle’s resignation from the Treasury. Reggie Paget saw him this afternoon and said a friendly word, at which Edward actually burst into tears in the corridor and Reggie had to stand very close so that three Tories going by wouldn’t notice.

  Therefore when I saw him after the vote it was with some trepidation that I clasped his arm and said, ‘I don’t want to embarrass you with my support, but I felt I must say one word.’ He was terribly friendly and suggested we have a drink. In fact he came to talk to David, Caroline and me for almost an hour. He said he was sure history would prove him right and he felt a great sense of relief that it was all over. He decided to do it a week ago and was glad the announcement came after the cease-fire to prove that success or failure of the operation could not affect his judgement on it.

  He confirmed – very tentatively – what I suspect may happen. Eden, feeling betrayed by his colleagues, may resign and carry the Parliament with him to an Election. It was a most charming talk with Edward who is an old, old friend, but who in the last year or two I have not liked to worry because he has been so busy.

  Thursday 15 November

  David Butler who came to our party last night asked to see me urgently alone and so we came to the office for a talk. He has seen William Clark who was, until his resignation a few days ago, the Prime Minister’s adviser on public relations. He’s an exceptionally able man but an appalling name-dropper and snob. His story, as told to David Butler, was this.

  Eden’s personality underwent a complete change towards the beginning of the Suez crisis. Clark dates this at about the time that he collapsed with a fever when he visited Lady Eden in hospital. He is, said Clark, and I quote, ‘a criminal lunatic’. Knowing what a middle-of-the-road, moderate, wishy-washy man Clark is, I was very surprised to hear such strong language used. However, he had more to say in confirmation. Evidently the Government themselves were not kept informed by Eden and various people were taken off the secret list for documents as the plan progressed. Clark himself was sent on leave (which he did not want) the day after he had explained to the PM what the likely public reaction would be to the use of force against Egypt. Clark thought that only an inner group of Cabinet Ministers had been told the plans Eden had made. Clark thought that there was no doubt about the charge of collusion with the French PM, Guy Mollet, and Ben-Gurion. He said that the final proof would come from the State Department in Washington. Apparently when the Israelis were building up for their attack a news blackout descended on London and Paris and consultation with the US came to an abrupt and sinister halt. However, the State Department intercepted and decoded messages passing between Paris and Jerusalem and discovered what was afoot. These messages are likely to leak out from the State Department and destroy the whole basis of Eden’s case. Far from claiming the credit for putting out a small fire, he will be charged with having incited the Israelis to start it. This should surely produce more resignations from the Government and alter the whole position once more.

  As Hugh Massingham said in Sunday’s Observer, ‘Meanwhile the little time bomb – the charge that there was collusion between Britain, France and Israel – ticks quietly on. If it goes off one day, a lot of beliefs and favourite figures will disappear in the ruins.’

  Other items from Clark’s story are these:

  First, Mountbatten opposed the attack as did Sir Norman Brook, the Secretary of the Cabinet. Sir Roger Makins, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, first read of it in the newspapers. Finally, the dirtiest thing of all was when Eden told Clark to tell the newspapers privately that Nutting’s resignation was not on principle but because of personal difficulties he was in. Clark says he replied, ‘If you want that put out, you must put it out yourself.’

  One final titbit from today which might be worth following up. Shirley Catlin of the Financial Times said that The Times itself had been secretly briefed of the Israeli attack and the British intervention four days before it took place. I wonder.

  Thursday 29 November

  Our Party meeting at 6.30 ended with a most touching little scene. Gaitskell announced the new Shadow Cabinet appointments under which Nye Bevan takes over Foreign Affairs from Alf Robens who is looking after Transport, Fuel and Power. Alf got up to say that he wished Nye all good luck and felt no bitterness at what had happened. Nye responded with a graceful little speech, contrasting our present happy unity with the acrimonious discussions of the past. The Party cheered itself silly in delighted relief at the formal recognition of the final end of all our splits.

  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.”’