Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill

摘要

The first act of William Hague on becoming foreign secretary in 2010 was to remove from his resplendent red leather office the small bust of Ernest Bevin, his predecessor between 1945 and 1951. It would be an interesting parlour game for retired diplomats to rank British foreign secretaries over the last century and see where Hague and Bevin would feature. By almost any yardstick, the role of foreign policy in the tumultuous years after 1945 placed the Foreign Office and its head at the heart of government activity in the last great period of British world influence. When Ernest Bevin sank his ample frame into the foreign secretary's chair for the first time, he said to his private secretaries: 'I never knew who my father was, and left school to work as a child. I bet you've never had anyone like that before sitting in this seat.' 'I don't know Foreign Secretary,' came the Old Etonian reply. 'I think you'll find Cardinal Wolsey might fit that bill'.