ANTHONY   EDEN
other hand, was always underlining the necessity of filling
in the details of Anglo-American appeasement, and steadily
building up the reputation that was to make him, in terms
of American opinion, perhaps the most popular of all our
Foreign Secretaries.
Eden had made the most of a limited opportunity. With
the exception of his shrewd blows at Lloyd George his tone
was conciliatory, and as for Lloyd George there were no
doubt advantages in seeking a vendetta with him.  Certainly
it was an easier task to attack than to defend Chamberlain.
For Eden's chief heralded his return to health and duty
with   a very  unfortunate   speech.    At  the  beginning  of
December he was about to attend the League Council, but
before doing so was pressed by Labour to state his views on
the Rhineland evacuation. He replied that Germany in law
could not press for evacuation, not having fulfilled the stipu-
lations of Versailles on reparations; but practical politics,
he hoped, would not stand in the way of withdrawal. There
was general alarm that Chamberlain had seen fit to link up
reparations with the evacuation from the Rhine, as but a few
days previously Churchill had stated that they were distinct
questions.   L.G. thundered against the Government, pour-
ing out a wealth of resonant rhetoric against our subservience
to France. At Manchester he cried that * the nations of the
world are heading straight for war, not because anyone wants
it, but because no one has the courage to stop the runaway
horses in the chariots of war.'
This violence moved Eden to send his first letter to The
Times. ' Mr. Lloyd George *, he wrote, ' enjoys extrava-
gance. He subsists upon superlatives. At the moment he is
actuated by an animus against the French. The Government
of his own country offends but only incidentally by being
on friendly terms with the Government of France.' L.G.
168