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Echo. The Economist's proposal was quickly echoed in louder fashion by London's less responsible Sunday papers. The 5,000,000-circulation, pro-Labor Sunday Pictorial ran a huffing piece by one Ralph Wilberforce: "The Sunday Pictorial was the first British newspaper to advocate that Winston Churchill should become wartime Prime Minister. But. . I bluntly state the time has come for the Old Man to retire from active politics." Eden himself, who treats the Prime Minister with the scrupulous deference reserved by Eton prefects for their gowned headmaster, discreetly lay low. But it was an open secret that many of his political friends are anxious to jettison Churchill as soon as they decently can. If Churchill stays in office for several years, Edenites fear, the rising star of Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, 49, may outshine Eden's.
The Grand Old Man, who has seen gratitude turn to grumbling before, said nothing. Friends say that his dearest wish now is to preside as Prime Minister at Queen Elizabeth's Coronation next June, before stepping down.
* Whose grandfather, as Conservative Prime Minister (1886-92), sided with the critics of Churchill's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, leading Churchill to resign his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer.