Extract from a confidential report from Frederick H. Boland
to Seán Murphy (Dublin)
(Confidential)

The opinion of most people here is that, so far at least, Sir Anthony Eden has been anything but a success as Prime Minister. Even Conservatives admit that, ever since the general election last summer, the prestige of Sir Anthony and his government has gone steadily down-hill. It is not unusual nowadays to hear even Conservatives expressing the view that ‘Anthony won’t last’.

2. To some extent, the Conservative government’s decline in popularity is due to bad luck. Things have simply gone against them. But there is a widespread belief that a more important factor is the Prime Minister’s lack of robust health, and – perhaps in consequence of this – his inertia and difficulty in arriving at decisions. It is commonly said that, since he became Prime Minister, Sir Anthony has not made a single speech on any matter of high policy which did not consist of the most obvious platitudes; and that his lack of initiative and leadership in the House of Commons offers a painful contrast to the massive support which, even in his declining years, Churchill could always be relied upon to give his Ministers when they found themselves in difficulties in debate. The serious aspect of the present criticism from Sir Anthony’s point of view is that much, if not most, of it comes from the ranks of his own party and from sections of public opinion which are sincerely anxious to see a Conservative government continuing in power.
3. Undoubtedly, one of the principal objects of the recent cabinet re-shuffle was to counter this rising tide of complaint and dissatisfaction. Whether it will achieve this result in time remains to be seen. So far, at any rate, the reaction has been anything but encouraging. The Prime Minister’s guiding idea seems to have been to parry criticisms of his own indecision and lack of experience in the field of home affairs by giving Mr. Butler a special measure of supervisory authority in respect of that aspect of government policy and, by so doing, to leave himself more time to devote to the conduct of foreign policy – a field in which Mr. Macmillan proved a signal failure and Sir Anthony himself has all the qualities of skill and knowledge required for effective leadership. However wise and sound this general idea may be, the cabinet changes which Sir Anthony has made to give effect to it have somehow failed to make his team look any stronger or to inspire much confidence in its ability to do better in future.

[matter omitted]