LONDON: Under the heading “Churchill must go”, H.G. Wells, in the Socialist weekly “Tribune”, describes the British Prime Minister as a “would-be British Fuehrer”. Mr. Wells says “Churchill’s ideology picked up in the garrison life of India, on the reefs of South Africa, the maternal home and conversation of wealthy Conservative households is a pitiful jumble of incoherent nonsense. A boy scout is better equipped. He has never given evidence of thinking extensively or of any scientific or literary capacity. His ignorance of contemporary social and physical science is conspicuous. He has served his purpose, and it is high time he retired before we forget the debt we own him. We want him to go — now — before he discredits us further, for his own sake as well as ours, and if he takes all the royalties in the world with him — so much the better for human hope. The matter is urgent”.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Calcutta,] The Government’s proposal to increase the salary of members of the Legislature from Rs.150 to Rs.200 per month from January 1 next and the daily allowance from Rs.10 to Rs.15 with retrospective effect was discussed in the Legislative Assembly today [Dec 14].

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2019