Word: bevans
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...same time that Anthony Eden made Britain's commitment toward German sovereignty and rearmament, Britain's most reckless statesman made a last-ditch effort to exploit the fears and emotions aroused by that issue. Aneurin Bevan did not conceal his purpose: to wrest the Labor Party's leadership from the temperate hands of Clement Attlee...
...arena was the seaside town of Scarborough, where delegates sharing among them the proxies for more than 6,000,000 members of the Labor Party gathered for their annual conference. Nye Bevan's followers were loud and vociferous; only two weeks before, at the Trades Union Congress, they had come close to carrying the day on the German issue. At Scarborough, they expected to be stronger, felt they had Clem Attlee hanging by a thread...
...platform, Attlee glided into the battle calmly, like a confident parson addressing his flock. The party executive had approved German rearmament only with "serious misgivings," said he, but "I know from experience that you do not get a response from Russia by conciliation." Behind him. Bevan glowered shaggily. Up hopped little, beady-eyed R. W. Casasola, head of the foundry workers, to make the Bevanites' move-a resolution to reverse the Labor executive's position and condemn any sort of German rearmament. Shouted Casasola: "Give the Germans arms, and you are on the sure road to World...
...with the negatives of the Bevanite resolution. By stressing the need of executive freedom he asked, in effect, for a vote of confidence in the present leadership. The Attlee motion passed, but by the slim majority of 248,000 out of some six million votes, while Gaitskell heavily defeated Bevan for treasurer...
...Bevanites and the labor agreement in principle to a rearmed Germany has given the present government an added strength in making military commitments to the French. Further, by endorsing German arms, the English socialist party will undoubtedly strengthen those Continental socialists who have favored the plan. Already, as Bevan's influence is declining in Britain, the French socialists have started a vigorous housecleaning of the party rebels who opposed E.D.C. a month...