So It's Dulles Ditchwater

MR. JUPP: We welcome as our speaker today Mr. H. Napier Moore, who is well known to this audience because of nearly 20 years' residence in this city. Everyone was sorry when he left here in 1954 to take up residence in the Bahamas and we hope that his return visits will be frequent.

Napier Moore was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne and dwelt there just long enough to take his first job as a reporter before going west-far west-to British Columbia in 1912. If at that time he dreamed of a great career in journalism, it is doubtful whether his imagination rose to the colourful experiences he was destined to enjoy. First he was a reporter in British Columbia when Vancouver was only 25 years old. He then moved to Montreal and became a city editor. New York Correspondent for Canadian, Australian and English newspapers came next. The MacLean-Hunter Publishing Company must have been very much on its toes when it lured Napier Moore from the newspapers and brought him to Toronto to become in due course, Editor of MacLean's Magazine, and Editorial Director of the Company.

Retirement in 1954 was fortunately a manner of speaking only. Apart from stupendous jobs of organization like Press Chief for a Royal visit to the Caribbean, Napier Moore writes a column regularly in The Financial Post, under the title, "Scratch Pad", and I am sure that few Empire Club members, and few of our radio audience failed to note two weeks ago that "Scratch Pad" had an announcement to the following effect: "We have a date on October 11th to gas to The Empire Club." Many of you will have noted an item in the Toronto Telegram under the heading "Flash Backs"-50 Years Ago-October 5, 1906: "F. E. Smith, M.P. for Liverpool addressed The Empire Club here. Better known later as Lord Birkenhead, F. E. Smith spoke on "Mr. Chamberlain's Policy and its Prospects". The Northwest coast was heard from and now from the Northeast we have a guest, equally eminent in his field, to speak on the subject, "So It's Dulles Ditchwater". Mr. Napier Moore.

MR. H. NAPIER MOORE: Yesterday, passing through Montreal I was invited to have lunch with an old friend of mine. He took me to a very swagger Club and spent the entire time sitting in front of the television set, looking at the World Series.

About the only thing he said to me was, "Did you hear about Jose, from Mexico?"

So I said, "No."

"Well", he said, "Jose was a Mexican who came all the way up to New York to see the World Series. He could not get a seat. He was desperate. Finally, he got in touch with one of the officials and explained that all his life he had wanted to see a World Series game, and that he had travelled all the way from Mexico to see it, and couldn't they get him in.

"The official said, `Well, we haven't a seat left in the stadium but it so happens we have just finished painting a flag-pole, and the painter's chair is still on the rope and if you don't mind being hoisted up to the top of the flagpole, we will be glad to do that so you can witness the game.

"So Jose was hoisted up to the top of the pole. He was thrilled by the whole thing and when the game was over he sat down and wrote a letter back home to Mexico, in which he told of this wonderful experience he had had, and he said that the thing that thrilled him more than anything else was when the entire gathering in the ball park rose to its feet and sang to him, `Jose, can you see?' "

Now, Jose's difficulties in getting into that ball park were nothing at all compared with my difficulties in getting to this Club today. I spent three days on board the Cunard liner, Ivernia, in a dock in Liverpool harbour. Everything was lovely excepting that she didn't move. We were penned in by gales and I finally went to the Cunard Line representative and said, "Look, I have got to get to Toronto by Thursday to speak to the Empire Club."

He was overwhelmed by this. He said, "Unfortunately, this thing is beyond us. We can't get the ship out of the dock. We have tied up five other liners. I don't know what we are going to do, but I think the best thing is to get you off the ship and see if we can get you a flight back to Canada." On the way up I had my colour camera stolen out of the boat train. When I got here this morning I found that my policy covering it had expired two weeks ago.

We took off from London airport and battled gales all across the Atlantic, arriving many, many hours late and coming into Dorval Airport we had to take evasive action in this mighty stratocruiser to avoid running down a little private plane that was coming in at the wrong time from the wrong direction, as the result of which I saw more of Lake St. Louis and Pointe Claire and other points than I ever want to see again and I arrived here late last night. On top of which I have the worst cold I have ever had, and all together this occasion, while it may be extremely pleasant for you, it is not for me.

But I do want to say how pleasing and happy it is to be back at the Empire Club, because in these days, even in England, on the part of a great many people, and in other parts of the world, the word "Empire" has almost achieved the connotation of a naughty word. It is also good these days to be a Canadian in England. There never was a time when there was more warmth of feeling and more respect in the Old Country than there is today in so far as Canada is concerned.

I should, I suppose, explain the title of this address today-how it came about. When the Suez crisis broke, the British press, which was supporting the government's policy of a firm, quick action, came out very strongly indeed for such action. Then came Mr. Dulles with his restraining hand, and the subsequent conferences and talks, and talks, with the result that the British press coined the phrase that the Suez Canal had become Dulles' Ditchwater.

Actually, so far as Britain is concerned, the crisis has been anything but dull. Today in Llandudnow in Wales, there opens the Conference of the Conservative Party, and Sir Anthony Eden's prestige is at stake. I read in this morning's paper that some groups may snipe at the Prime Minister for failing, as they say, to keep Britain and United States policy on Suez solidly in line. Just how Mr. Eden and Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, the Foreign Minister, could have kept in line with the Washington policy which has been somewhat like static on television, I don't know.

But I do, I think, have an answer to the question that is being asked, the question, what of Eden's action in mobilizing armed strength and rushing troops, warships and aircraft to the Mediterranean. Was it wise?

It is the opinion of very well informed persons with whom I talked just before leaving England, that such action was vitally necessary-necessary to awaken the world to the urgency of the situation, that without it, it is extremely unlikely that the Eighteen Power Conference would have been possible.

In April when I was here speaking to the St. George's Society on St. George's Day, I quoted those lines from King John, which you remember:

"Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them; nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true."

The unhappy truth today is that events, both externally and domestically, have made it difficult for England to be true to herself. First, of course, and all important, there are the events precipitated by Egypt's Nasser, and I do not know to what extent the knowledge exists on this side of the Atlantic, as to what Nasser really means. He has, like Hitler, written his Mein Kampf. There is a booklet called "The Philosophy of the Revolution" in which he tells that as a child he used to gaze at the sky when he saw planes pass by, and say, "Oh God Almighty, may a calamity befall the English." His hopes, his objectives are made quite clear in this booklet. Oil gives power, therefore, control oil. Keep it away from Britain.

Africa? We are part of Africa. We cannot stand aside from the sanguinary and dreadful struggle now raging there. What he sees is a fusion of non-Christian forces, 370 million Muslims in Indonesia, China, Malaya, Siam, Pakistan, the Middle East, Russia. He visualizes them all united in one faith and he says: I have a great consciousness of the tremendous potentialities that cooperate among them all can achieve. A tremendous power.

The question of Israel. Much more than shipping tools are involved in Nasser's grab of the Suez Canal and always behind it is the shadow of Russia, the Kremlin's object being, as you know, the foothold in the Mediterranean and domination of the Middle East.

I was in the House of Commons that August day when -, Eden first spoke on the Suez. We walked through crowds of demonstrators who had come to London. By some mysterious agency there were even creches for children established near Victoria Station, where the demonstrators; would leave their young and Leftist labour groups were besetting the Houses of Parliament, trying to get interviews with M.P.'s, and so forth. These demonstrations always seem to be from labour groups. You never see a group of chartered accountants or newspaper editors or advertising salesmen lined up, attempting to get hold of Members of Parliament.

The scene in that House was memorable in the extreme. There was a tenseness, a sense of drama, that will long live with me. The place was packed and Eden in stern tones stated that under no circumstances would Britain tolerate control of the vital life-line by a dictator. And, sitting down by courtesy on a front bench, that old warrior, Winston Churchill, now very deaf, leaning forward with his hearing aid, and giving a deep-throated, "Hear, Hear".

That was the day that Mr. Gaitskill, the Leader of the Socialist Party in the House, supported the principle enunciated by the Prime Minister, and of Nasser said, "We have seen this pattern before", and he agreed that military precautions were in principle, necessary.

One had the feeling that here was a united nation, working in concert and in tune with France, determined, not to see a repetition of 1939. And the visible effect that all could see on the British people was Reservists hurrying to join the Colours, leaving their homes, their wives, their children. Great activity at naval bases and air force stations, on the highways sand-painted tanks trundling along or being moved by trucks. Preparation being made for gasoline rationing, threat of increases in the cost of commodities that would have to be brought by a longer route, and everybody taking it in good part. You had the feeling that people in all walks of life remembered what appeasement had done for them just before the last war-a feeling that this was the time for action and firmness.

Then came the first London Conference. It did have value in that eighteen nations subscribed to the policy against the dictator control of an international water.

I went down to see the delegates coming and going, all with determined looks upon their faces, all conscious of the responsibilities that fell upon them. It was interesting to see people like Krishna Menon, a strange man ... not many people realize that in his youth he was brought up and educated in England and served for a time on a County Council . . . now trying to be the great mediator, with a leaning toward Nasser and, of course, Russia.

Parliament brought back from its recess, and then the most astonishing turn-around on the part of Hugh Gaitskill, a turn-around that came as a shock not only to Britain but to the French Government-a Socialist Government, bear in mind. Why did Gaitskill reverse himself? Politics. Confronted by insurgence of the left wing element in his own party, fearful of the growing dominance of Aneurin Bevan, and a possible alliance between him and Frank Cousins, the newly elected head of the Trade.

Union Council, who snatched political leadership of the main unions, with decisive leanings toward the left, this resulting in a lamentable division of the House . . . lamentable because it was unnecessary, and because it did not reflect any such sharp division of opinion throughout the land.

And then, above all, came what the British people felt, and I am just reporting, a let-down by the United States . . . a feeling that unity was being sacrificed because of the Presidential election.

Forgotten for the moment was the fact that in Britain herself the Socialists had sacrificed national unity for political expediency. But there was wide-spread bitterness and resentment, sharp criticism in the press. Wasn't the United States pressure behind the lack of determination in Abadan? Wasn't it United States pressure that caused Britain to evacuate the Canal zone? Weren't the Oil interests and some State Department officials deliberately undermining Britain in the Middle East?

You had men like Ted Leathers, the Conservative Member of Parliament, a man who has worked all his life for unity between the United States and Britain, coming out with the definite statement that Eden had worked incessantly and placed himself and his Government in a most precarious position, in order to meet with the United States' aims, and that on three occasions in a matter of eight days of doing so, Mr. Dulles had double-crossed him. It still exists, this resentment against what those people in Britain regard as a let-down by one they thought would be their ally.

There are other problems for this Llandudnow Conference. There is the credit squeeze which has hit industry hard, particularly the automobile industry. Private building, real estate is barely moving, house owners who want to sell can't find buyers, and buyers who want to buy can't find any money.

Trade problems. The loss of trade to Germany and Italy. Late deliveries due to strikes and unrest in labour circles. A feeling of anxiety over the suggested European Free Trade Bloc. There aren't many businessmen in England with whom I talked who have any use at all for that plan.

You have the charge that the Conservatives have failed to go far enough in reversing the trend resulting from Socialism. And I am here to tell you that a great many of the ills that have overtaken Britain spring from the Socialist regime - the lack of incentive, the feeling that the Government is going to do everything for everybody, at somebody's expense. It is taking a long time to overcome that. The nationalized services, the railways, coal mining, still limping. People still being pushed around after being accustomed to stand up in queues for that privilege.

Yet, in spite of fierce taxation at home, and trade competition which is felt to be unfair, the British working man is still better off today than he was five years ago. The average earnings of the workman today is eleven pounds, five shillings, and in 1951 it was eight pounds a week-a forty-five per cent increase. The cost of living has gone up by twenty-five per cent, so the average worker is thirty-five shillings a week better off than he was five years ago.

The spectre of Socialism is still present and the Blackpool Conference and the ascendance of Bevan which menaces Gaitskill's leadership, is worth watching. Perhaps you have read their platform-half pay for everybody when they retire, nationalization of all landlord owned houses, at a cost that would be ruinous, and goodness knows, today the middle class is just about wiped out by today's taxes, more nationalized health service, and the cost of national health is staggering. Last year it cost $1,386,000,000-all paid for out of the taxpayers' Pockets. There were 226,500,000 prescriptions issued under the health scheme last year, at a cost of $137,500,000. Governments are getting perturbed about this and now are cracking down on doctors that prescribe expensive drugs like terramycin, cortisone, and things like that. They fined a doctor $150 the other day for not slackening up on expensive prescriptions.

Apart from politics it is a changing England that one sees, roaming around the country. There is an astonishing United States influence, particularly on the younger generation. You see young children galloping around with Davy Crockett hats and cowboy outfits, which doesn't seem to go with the English countryside. Teenagers have gone mad with Rock 'n Roll, to the point that there were riots in every town where that particular movie was shown.

You have U.S. programs on radio and television . . U.S. movies, big stage musicales in London, nearly all American. You even had CBS and NBC trying to buy into one of the United Kingdom television stations. You have 48,000 U.S. Air Force personnel stationed in England, all getting more money than the neighbouring community in which they are posted.

You get criticisms now. The other day there was a very prominent United States industrialist who stood up and said that British factories were turning out shoddy goods at excessive prices. Everybody is taking a belt at the Old Land, and there need be no wonder that the over 40s are perplexed, baffled, wishing they could come to Canada, wanting to send their sons to Canada.

And yet it is not by any means a doleful picture all round. Travelling around, and I have done that for four months, meeting all kinds of people in every kind of place -in the villages, in the industrial towns and in London you still get the feeling that behind it all England is England.

But, telling the story about the man who after making a round of the pubs, being a little wobbly, got on a bus. He hadn't been there very long when a lady got on and immediately he jumped up and gave her his seat and spent the rest of the journey swinging on the strap. When he got off he said to the conductor, "Did you notish me get up and give my s-s-seat to that lady?"

The conductor said, "Yes".

"Well", he said, "you know why I did th-that? I did th-that to demonstrate th-that the d-d-days of ch-chivalry are not over."

And the conductor said, "Well, I was wondering why you did it because there were only the two of you on the bus."

Well, the days of chivalry are not over. It is a joy to run into kindnesses and courtesies all over the country. There is still a contentment with the way of life that is being shaped over many centuries, offsetting the teddy boys who are a nuisance.

I was in Albert Hall for the last concert of the Henry Wood Series the other Saturday night. It is a thrill. You can't forget these youngsters that stand in line from early in the morning to get in to stand throughout the concert, and then they stand in queues to get buses to stand on going home. The enthusiasm, the delight, the bursting of balloons and the honking of automobile horns and the ringing of bells and the cheering-all to subside in a solemn hush the moment the conductor raises his baton.

The popular program in which this vast audience joins in singing the old sea shanties. To hear that audience sing "Land of Hope and Glory"-it does something to you.

There is still the respect for law. I don't know how much the papers have been carrying about Nina, the discus thrower, but Nina was pinched on a charge of stealing five hats from a departmental store and when she didn't show up in police court a warrant was issued for her arrest, whereupon the entire Athletic Meet was cancelled by the Russians. They went home.

The famous Bolshoi Ballet from Moscow cancelled its appearance at Covent Garden after people had sat and slept on the pavement for three days and three nights to get tickets. Every pressure was brought to bear by the Russian Ambassador-if they would dismiss the charges against Nina and let her go home . . . she was tucked away in the Soviet Embassy ... everything would be all right and the Ballet would come.

They went to Lord Reading, they went to everybody, and they were told that no British Government had the power or the inclination to attempt to interfere with the course of British Justice. They weren't to be moved by this, and it is a great feeling. You know if you walk across the grass when you shouldn't you have had it.

There is a writer in London called John Gordon who wrote a piece the other day. He said: "The Bolshoi boys and girls have made Covent Garden at last, (because they did come). Nina of the five hats is still in coy hiding. Diana Dawes is coming home to us, having discovered that all is not gold that glistens in Hollywood. Marilyn has kissed Sir Larry. Liberace has lifted us to ecstasy and joy and Gilbert Harding tells us he doesn't approve of the Sunday Express. Bless 'em all! How can you say life has little joy in it with so much cream in our coffee."

There is still the feeling of light-heartedness about, even in the most nerve-racking crisis.

You remember the lines that Swinburne wrote:

"All our past acclaims our future; Shakespeare's voice and Nelson's hand,

Milton's faith and Wordsworth's trust in this our chosen and chainless land,

Bear as witness: come the world against her, England yet shall stand."

That, I believe to be true.

(Applause-prolonged.)

THANKS OF THE MEETING were expressed by Sydney Hermant, a Past President of the Club.