(2 of 2)
Limited Indictment. Next day, in the House of Commons, the Laborites disowned Jagan and all his works, stoutly endorsed Lyttelton's pronouncement: "Her Majesty's government are not prepared to tolerate the setting up of Communist states in the British Commonwealth." Attlee added his bit: "It is quite clear that [P.P.P.'s leaders] speak the language of Communists and feed on Communist literature." Attlee approved the sending of troops and the firing of Jagan, questioning only whether it had been necessary to suspend the colony's constitution.
The Opposition was worried that Lyttelton's "sledgehammer" tactics might give the Reds in other British colonies a new rallying cry. "Wouldn't it have been better," asked Attlee, "to charge Jagan & Co. in a court of law, or ... dissolve the Parliament and have fresh elections?" Attlee's conclusion: "We have no dispute whatever about the danger and about the need for action. Our indictment is that there were other methods."
The vote sustained Lyttelton, 294 to 256—"a highly satisfactory majority," commented one Tory. Jagan and Burnham, who had watched the performance from the Distinguished Strangers' Gallery, noisily stalked out. At a London rally, they told their Communist friends: "Bullets have replaced ballots."