第3巻第3章 トラファルガー広場
10月7日までに,われわれは一緒に運動を継続するのを認めるということで意見の一致をみるにいたった。そしてその趣旨の声明を新聞に出した。しかし,私がCND委員長と一緒に仕事をする必要のあるCNDの総裁の地位にとどまることができなくなったこと,またCNDそれ自体が協調を保ちながら運動を進めるためだけだとしても,私は総裁を辞めなければならないということが,間もなくあきらかになった。そこで私は,委員長に手紙を送った後,新聞社へ手紙を送り,CND総裁を辞任した。
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v.3,chap.3: Trafalgar Square After the announcement in the Evening Standard of the proposed mass movement of civil disobedience, it was necessary to hurry through our plans. But the event caused a great uproar. The chairman of CND made statements to his friends and to the Executive Committee and to the press which, in effect, charged me with starting a new movement behind his back and one not permissible within the rulings of CND. During the first week of October, I met with him daily for many hours at my house in Hasker Street to try to work out some modus vivendi. He brought with him to these meetings a friend who was not an upholder of methods of civil disobedience, to put it mildly, so I asked a member of the CND Executive Committee who professed then to be in sympathy with me, to come as balance. At my insistence, because there had been so many allegations as to what I had said and not said, a tape recording was taken of these meetings, a copy of which was sent to the CND offices for the chairman and the original of which I kept. By October 7th we had come to an agreement which would permit us to continue to work together and gave a statement to that effect to the press. But within a short time it became evident to me that I could not continue in my position of president of the CND, which necessitated work with its chairman, and that, if only to preserve the harmonious working of the CND itself, I must resign. This I did in a letter to the press, following a letter to the chairman. The result of all this was, for me, a shower - a storm - of letters and visits from upholders of the CND throughout the country, expostulating with me and, most of them, accusing me of causing a split in the CND. This surprised me, as I had no intention of doing so. Nor do I think that I did. Moreover, I observed no weakening in its work owing to my action. It seemed to me that the CND would get on better if it had officers who saw, at least broadly, eye to eye than it would do under the leadership of those who patently did not trust each other. I had no intention, as I said and continued repeatedly to say, of withdrawing my support of much CND work. I sent statements to the various branches of the CND explaining this and the reasons for my actions. So far as I know, these statements went unread. At the CND Executive Meeting on November 5th, my resignation was accepted. One member, I was told, wished me to be sued for libel because of something I had said or written. He was persuaded not to proceed - which was perhaps, for my personal reputation, a pity. I continued to speak at meetings of the CND at which I was asked to speak, and I remained at the head of the Welsh CND. I withdrew only my interest in CND policy-making and any responsibility that, as its president, I had for the actions of its officers. |
(掲載日:2010.2.1/更新日:2012.6.7)