dated April 26, 1950: Churchill attacks Attlee's Government:

Veteran British Conservative leader Winston Churchill announced that the Opposition in the House of Commons would vote against the Labour Government of Mr. Clement Attlee on two of the latter's Budget proposals. It was assumed that defeat on either of the proposals would cause the Government to resign and force a new General Election. The issues on which votes were to be taken were the increase in petrol tax, and a new tax on lorries.

``Not to vote against them would mean abrogating the rights of Parliament, out of fear of precipitating an appeal to the public,'' Mr. Churchill said, and added that the Labour Government had itself raised those provocative issues. He contended that the new taxes were directed towards forcing the travelling public and industry to use the nationalised railways and to offset the impending rises in railway freights and passenger fares.

Mr. Churchill also criticised the way in which œ800 million a year was being spent on Defence, and said, ``I am sure there never was a time when we got less value in fighting power for the immense sums which Parliament has voted. Our foreign dangers, which seem to be sharpening, will not be warded off by wasteful and ineffectual expenditure of money. Britain cannot exist permanently in an election atmosphere, but here we are in the supreme crisis of our history watching each other like cat and mouse. Somehow or other we might reach firm ground again. But I myself do not believe in coalitions formed only as a result of party bargainings.''

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