Fare being held pub tie next few are being held in the next few

are being held in the next few weeks at which Ministers are to “report back” to their supporters on the Government's achievements so far. Last Friday’s meeting at Hampstead Town Hall was addressed by Stephen Swingler, Douglas Jay, and local candidate Jack Cooper; nearly 300 attended. Cooper, speaking first, drew his first applause when he admitted his “one disappointment” to be Labour’s policy over Vietnam, The Government had abandoned its principles over this issue, he said. A resolution calling on the Government to dissociate itself from American actions in Vietnam, had been distributed by some Labour Party and CND members at the door of the meeting. Ralph Miliband attempted to move it in question time. The Chairman ruled it out of order, despite vigorous protests from about a third of those present. The meeting then alternated between questions on Vietnam, and on home policy. The former received a strange response — Douglas Jay contented himself with saying that one could not support everything the Americans did, without specifying what he did, and did not support. Most striking was his reluctance to put forward the Government’s policy of support for the Americans, enunciated by Harold Wilson and Michael Stewart in the Commons only the day before. The chairman was induced by the feeling in the hall to make clear that Hampstead Labour Party GMC had three times passed resolutions criticising American policy in Vietnam, and had sent telegrams of protest to Wilson going further than the proposed resolution in condemnation. He recognised that the resolution had “a sizeable body of support” in the hall, and reverted to the subject yet again in his closing remarks. Vietnam was the live issue in this meeting, hanging somewhat ominously over everything, and creating obvious conflicts of loyalty. But an effective protest was made, and could usefully be repeated at the other public meetings.