WINSTON CHURCHILL THE ERA AND THE MAN

109599

Winston Churchill

THE ERA AND THE MAN

By VIRGINIA COWLES

The Universal Library

GROSSET & DUNLAP
NEW YORK

WINSTON CHURCHILL: The Era and the NIan
Copyright, 1953, by Virginia. Cowles

<g) by Virginia Cowles, 1956
Printed, in the United States of America

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TO THE

ENDURING INSPIRATION
OF MY MOTHER

FLORENCE JAQUITH COWLES

FOREWORD

IN THIS book I have attempted to tell of Mr. Churchill's early days, the
influences brought to bear upon him as a young man, and to present, as
objectively as possible, an account of his prodigious career. I have not
tried to draw a veil over the less successful periods nor, I hope, have I
withheld praise and admiration for his great contributions.

Mr. Churchill stands out as a titan among his fellow men. Consequently
his mistakes and triumphs are often intermingled on a grandiose scale, and
his personality seldom fails to draw a challenge. As a statesman he moved
through four decades of tumultuous events before he reached the grand
climax of his life. But in retrospect his political misfortunes seem provi-
dential, for without them he might not have been set apart, or 'spared', as
Mr. Attlee once put it, to lead his country in the stirring days of 1940.

When I saw Mr. Churchill at the French Embassy in 1950 and told
him I was planning to write his biography he growled good-naturedly:
'There's nothing much in that field left unploughed.' However, he did
not tal into consideration the unusual fertility of the ground and I hope
the reader will not be disappointed in the harvest I have been helped by
the innumerable biographies and memoirs to which I have given acknow-
ledgment, by the newspapers and magazines of the last fifty years, and
by information gathered from people whose paths at one time or another
have crossed those of Mr. Churchill.

A number of friends were kind enough to offer comment and criticism
on the finished work. Although I do not pretend to reflect their views
in the interpretation I have given, I would like to thank Mr. Leo Amery,
Mr. Robert Boothby and Mr. William Deakin for reading the book in
manuscript form.

VIRGINIA COWLES
Kingsbridge,
Steeple Ckydon,
Buckingham.

A CKNO WLEDGMEN TS

GRATEFUL acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for some

of the selections reprinted in this volume:
Christophers Ltd. (London): Incidents and Reflections by J. B. Atkins
J. ML Dent & Sons, Ltd. (London): Certain People of Importance } Pillars of

Society and Prophets, Priests and Kings by A. C. Gardiner
Doubleday & Company, Inc.: Life of Lord Fisher by R. H. Bacon and

Politicians and the War by Lord Beaverbrook
Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc.: The Economic Consequences of Mr.

Churchill by J. M. Keynes and Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and

Afterwards by Lord Riddell

Henry Holt & Conpany, Inc.: A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Houseman
Houghton Mifflin Company: The Second World War by Winston S.
Churchill

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.: My Diaries by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
Little, Brown & Company and Lord Beaverbrook: War Memoirs of
David Lloyd George by David Lloyd George

Little, Brown & Company: Memories and Reflections by the Earl of Ox-
ford and Asquith

Longmans, Green & Company, Inc.: Our Partnership by Beatrice Webb
William Morrow & Company: Life's Ebb and Flow by Frances, Countess
of Warwick

Nicholson & Watson, Ltd. (London): C. F. G. Masterman by Luch
Masterman and War Diary by Lord Riddell

Odhams Press, Ltd. (London): Lord Randolph Churchill by Winston S.
Churchill

3. P. Putnam's Sons: Great Contemporaries by Winston S. Churchill and
Anglo-American Memories by George Smalley

Charles Scribner's Sons: The Aftermath by Winston S. Churchill; Amid
These Storms by Winston S. Churchill, in footnotes referring to the
British tide: Thoughts and Adventures; Marlborough by Winston S.
Churchill; A Roving Commission by Winston S. Churchill, in footnotes
referring to the British tide: My Early Life; The World Crisis by Winston
S. Churchill; Fighting in Flanders by E. Alexander Powell

CONTENTS

pap

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

List of Illustrations xiii

PART ONE

THE PRESENT

Chapter

1 AN INTRODUCTION 3

PART TWO

THE MAKING OF A MAN

2 His BACKGROUND 15

3 His SCHOOLDAYS 28

4 CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 42

5 FAME 57

PART THREE
PARLIAMENT

6 BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 71

7 BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 89

8 THE RADICAL MINISTER 106.

9 IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 121

PART FOUR

WORLD WAR I

10 PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 151

11 ANTWERP 173

12 DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 186

13 SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 207

xii CONTENTS continued

PART FIVE

THE AFTERMATH

14 WAR AND PEACE 229

15 BACK TO THE TORIES 244

16 CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 257

17 INDIA 276

PART six
TIME FOR GREATNESS

18 THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 285

19 THE BALANCE OF POWER 298

20 PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 311

21 THE BIG THREE 328

PART SEVEN

THE WORLD OF TO-DAY

22 LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 353

23 PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER 368

INDEX 377

CHAPTER ONE

AN INTRODUCTION

DURING THE Festival of Britain in the summer of 1951 Winston
Churchill visited the Dome of Discovery and was taken up in a lift to
a telescope where, he was told, he could view the outer spaces. He
viewed them, and said: Take me down. I am more interested in what
is happening on the earth.'

The earth has had the benefit of Mr. Churchill's attention for over
half a century; and the fact that as a boy he heard Mr. Gladstone
speak might be said to join his hand with another half a century.
To-day past eighty with the authority of fifty years of Parliamentary
experience behind him, with the mantle of Fame wrapped securely
around his shoulders,' and with an ardour for life as fierce and fresh
as ever, he continues to serve Britain in the role of elder statesman.

His career was not only spectacular for its triumphs but also for the
long, intense struggle before he achieved his ambition as His
Majesty's First Minister. Now that the colours of the canvas are nearly
complete they offer a sharp and surprising contrast. His dazzling gifts
were acknowledged from the very first, yet it took him forty years to
reach his goal. He is one of the great orators of the day, yet while in
politics he lost more elections than any other politician. His career
culminated as leader of the Conservative Party, yet he spent three-
quarters of his life fighting Conservative Party leaders. He has been
deeply distrusted by each political party in turn, yet he was unani-
mously entrusted in 1940 with the life of the nation.

Winston Churchill has had to fight for everything he has got. No
man has aroused more heated opposition, or been more bitterly hated
in his time. Recently Mrs. Churchill reminded a friend that in the
days of the Lloyd George Budget and the House of Lords Reform,
'Winston was as ostracized as Oswald Mosley is now/ Three times his

4 WINSTON CHURCHILL

political career has ; lain in ruins and three times he has made an apparently
impossiHeliome-back.

His stormy passage has been the natural result of his own fierce partisan-
ship. To Mr. Churchill the excitement of life has always lain in the clash
of wills and the dangerous struggles which have fashioned the outline of
history. Hejgs never played for safety. Endowed with a highly emotional
nature, he usually acts on impulse and intuition rather than on calculation
or even logic. He is incapable of assessing a situation dispassionately, but
once he has taken a stand he has never been at a loss to find closely reasoned
arguments to support it. Thus on paper he appears to be a cool and highly
rational being, while on the political stage he often seems rash and
impetuous. This apparent contradiction has always perplexed his con-
temporaries, who regard him as the most incalculable figure in public
life.

Yet there is one constant note in his character which is the very
essence of his nature and of his genius as well. That is his Romanticism.
It may well be that in the years to come historians will describe him as the
last great Romantic that England produced. Mr. Churchill is incapable of
seeing life in terms of monotones. Whatever subject his mind touches is at
once transformed into shimmering lights and colours.
. Just as when he paints he has little use for the dull browns and greys,
as a politician and a writer he feds compelled to reach out for the vivid
hues. He does not see life in any other way, for every subject his mind
touches is at once transformed into a brilliant drama. His world is a world
of good and bad, of righteous causes and shining swords, and of dark and
evil foes. There is always a hero and a villain, and the fact that Mr. Chur-
chill never fails to cast himself in the leading role not only annoys his
opponents but often irritates his colleagues as well.

Although Churchill's Romanticism undoubtedly is the natural conse-
quence of a brilliant fancy and a highly emotional nature, it was bred in
him as well Blenheim Palace, where he was born, kindled in his mind the
splendour of military exploits, and his father's sensational career opened
his eyes to the fame that awaits the orator. Of the two careers, soldiering
attracted Hm the more. Surprisingly enough, until he was nearly forty he
dreamed of glory on die battlefield. That is why in the 1914 war he
begged to resign his office as First Lord of the Admiralty to take charge of
Antwerp; that is also why, when he joined a regiment in France a year
later, he was bitterly disappointed not to be allowed an important field
command. Throughout his long Parliamentary career he has never lost his
interest in the science of battle. Of over thirty published volumes to his
credit, twenty-five deal with some aspect of war. And the two books he

AN INTRODUCTION 5

would like to have written, had rime allowed, are the life of Napoleon
and the life of Julius Caesar.

Although Mr. Churchill left the army at the age of twenty-four, first
to earn a living, and second, because in those peaceful days it seemed un-
likely that Britain would ever again become embroiled in a world-wide
conflict, he brought the smoke of the battlefield with him to Parliament.
From the very first he was a natural storm centre. He never failed to take
a stand and he usually took it in the most provocative way possible.
Consequently the House of Commons always crowded to hear what he
had to say. This was a triumph, for as a young man he was not an accom-
plished orator. Although he could write a compelling speech, his delivery
was poor and the cut and thrust of debate did not come easily to him.
Indeed, Arthur Balfour once taunted him with the remark that 'the Right
Honourable Gentleman's artillery is very powerful but not very mobile*.

Churchill was determined to master the art of debate and spent long
hours practising his speeches out loud, pausing for interruptions, and think-
ing up appropriate and acrimonious retorts. Gradually, by sheer effort, he
developed a facility for impromptu intervention, and to-day he has few
equals, ffis^opgonents are forced to recognize him as one of the greatest
Parliamentarians England has ever produced.

When he comes into the Chamber you fed a stir in the galleries as the
whole atmosphere electrifies. He sits on the front Government bench with
his shoulders hunched, his bulldog head thrust forward, straining to catch
every word. There is not a trick of the trade which he does not know.
Quick to strike and quick to defend, few opponents score off him. Often,
when he rises to speak, he begins in a deliberately low voice to command
attention. Once when he was Leader of the Opposition there were cries
from the Labour benches: 'Speak up! Don't be afraid.' He paused and
surveyed them critically. The House grew still in anticipation. Then in a
whisper which could be heard from one end of the Chamber to the other,
he said: 'I find I speak quite loud enough to silence any of you when I
like/

No one has a deeper respect for die power of the House of Commons
than Churchill. He observes parliamentary procedure with care, but this
does not prevent him from employing his talent for abuse and ridicule to
the fullest and he often whips the Chamber into such an uproar with
insults and accusations hurled back and forth that the Speaker rises to
maintain order. Following one of these hubbubs in 1947, several letters
appeared in the Daily Telegraph deploring the fact that Churchill was not
accorded the deference of the Elder Statesman. Little did the writers under-
stand the man's temperament for if the day ever comes when he fails to

O WINSTON CHURCHILL

draw the fire of the other side, he will consider his usefulness in Parlia-
ment at an end. In fact, his provocations are often such carefully planned
traps that Labour M.P.S are sometimes instructed by the Whips not to
interrupt him during a debate so that he will not have the opportunity of
getting the better of them.

..The.secret of Mr. Churchill's parliamentary mastery lies in his ability
to change the mood of the House. Although he can provoke an angry
storm he can also turn the storm into roars of kughter by a sudden shaft of
wit. His humour is not the cold, polished variety; it smacks much more
of the Music Hall with comic, impish, even schoolboy jokes which few
people can resist. In 1939 when he was serving as First Lord of the Admir-
alty he told me with relish how a destroyer had dropped a depth charge,
but instead of finding a submarine, bits of an old wreckage had come to
the surface. 'And would you believe it,' he added with a grin, 'there was a
door bobbing around with my initials on it! I wanted to recount this im-
portant occurrence in a speech, but Mr. Chamberlain cut it out.' He added
with a twinkle, 'He thinks my taste is questionable.' On another occasion,
near the end of the war, when he was reminiscing about his career and the
fact that he had changed his Party twice, I remember him startling his
luncheon guests by proclaiming solemnly: 'Any one can rat but it takes a
certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.*

In the House of Commons his humour often lies in the emphasis and
hesitation of his voice. Sometimes he treats the assembly to an act which
borders on pant^gpime. A few years ago when a Labour Minister rose to
speak Mr. ChurdM suddenly began feeling in his pockets with an air of
consternation, then looking down towards his feet. The eyes of the mem-
bers left tfie speaker and began to follow his puzzling movements, and
soon even the people in the Galleries were craning in his direction.
Suddenly with an elaborate start he apologized to the Minister: 'I was just
looking for my jujube/ he explained innocently.

An example of his ability to turn an awkward situation into a humor-
ous one was illustrated recently over the controversy about American and
British naval commands. When Churchill was Leader of the Opposition
he had attacked the Labour Government hody for having consented to an
American Admiral as Commander of the Atlantic, insisting that the
British should have the Atlantic and the Americans the Mediterranean.
When, however, he lost the arguments about the Atlantic he dismissed
the reasons he had advanced about the advantages of an American in the
Mediterranean and insisted that the Mediterranean must remain under
British control. The Socialists could not resist baiting him about his change
of mind. In order to force him into a corner, one of them asked him to

AN INTRODUCTION 7

state categorically whether or not his views were the same now as they
had been twelve months previously. 'My views,' he began . . . 'Change,'
interjected a Socialist. 'My views/ he continued placidly, 'are subject to a
harmonious process which keeps them in relation to the current move-
ments of events.' 1 Even the Labour benches could not refrain from
laughter.

Time has mellowed Mr. Churchill and greatness has softened the antag-
onism of his opponents. As a young man he was far from popular. It was
part of his Romanticism that from his earliest days he believed he had been
put upon earth to fulfil some great purpose. This presentiment led him
into many disastrous blunders, for he was not merely ambitious as other
men are, but openly and impatiently in search of Fame. As a result he
gave the impression of seizing issues indiscriminately in order to project
himsdf into the limelight. Noman in public life seemed .to- have a
greater facility for veering fr omT the roleof statesman to that of politician.
Indeed, as recently as 1945 Churchill gave a striking example of this dual
capacity, by opening the election campaign with the sensational warning
that Socialism would mean 'a Nazi state' and 'a Gestapo*. People were
shocked because they remembered the many tributes he had paid to
Atdee, Morrison, Bevin and other Socialist leaders when they were serv-
ing in his wartime coalition Government only a few weeks before; to
turn on them so wildly to cadge votes was considerecL'uh-English'. One
could not help recalling the lines H. G. Wells once wrote: 'There are times
when the evil spirit comes upon him and I think of him as a very intrac-
table, a very .mischievous, dangerous little boy, a knee-worthy litde boy.
Only thinking of him in that way can I go on liking him.'

Churchill's egoism and impetuosity filled the public with a deep, dis-
trust which proved a fatal stumbling block to him for nearly four decades.
.People became ^cojivinccd that he was less interested in a cause for its
merits, than as a vehicle for his own ambitions; and the fact that he changed
his party twice did not- help to dispel the impression. His opponents
branded Ibim as a cynic and an opportunist, while his colleagues, discon-
certed by the fact that he found it difficult to serve as a member of a team
baHnstinic^d^feacEed out for the reins, openly referred to him as
'a trouble-maker*.

Mr. ChurdhiH never got accustomed to his unpopularity. He was
genuinely hurt and astonished by the animosity he aroused, for he was so
absorbed by his projects and plans that he gave very little thought to the

1 Hansard: 5 May, 1952.

8 WINSTON CHURCHILL

complexities of human nature. Ideas, not people, interested him, and as a
result tETreactions of his fello ^"beings-mvariabl^r bunt upon him as a
complete -surprise: Sometimes moody and preoccupied, at other times
tactless and aggressive, he frequently wounded sensibilities without even
knowing that he had done so. Once he cried out mournfully: 'I have never
joined an intrigue. Everything that I have got I have fought for. And yet
I have been more hated than anybody!' 1

These protests came from the heart, for Churchill himself is remarkably
free from malice. His kck of interest in the human element eliminates all
pettiness from his nature, and his Sudden, unexpected, emotional surges of
generosity have disarmed more than one opponent. Once when Ernest
Bevin was Foreign Minister he paid Churchill a heart-felt tribute in the
House, and the latter was so moved he could not keep back the tears. On
more than one occasion during the 1945-51 Parliament, when Mr. Atdee
was Prime Minister, Churchill entered the smoking-room, sometimes
after a particularly acrimonious debate, saw 'Clem* sitting at a table,
promptly joined him and congratulated him on his speech. Members also
remember how in 1951, when his most formidable critic, Mr. Aneurin
Bevan, opened the Defence Debate, he sat attentively in his place admir-
ing the brilliance of the speech. Then Mr. Bevan began to liken some of
his methods to those of die Nazis. Churchill put up his hand in protest
'I had nothing to do with the Nazis/ he beamed. 'Do not spoil a good
speech now.' 2 Recently when Churchill visited his old school, Harrow,
the boys asked him who he thought was the greatest man who had ever
lived. "Julius Caesar, 9 he replied, 'because he was the most magnanimous
of all the conquerors/

I first met Mr. Churchill in the beginning of 1938, when his political career
was at one of its lowest ebbs. He was not a member of the Government
for although his colleagues recognized his ability they were deeply suspi-
cious of his 'unreliability' and his 'exhibitionism'. 'The trouble with
Winston,' people said, 'is that you never know what he will do next.' But
despite his exclusion from power, he was still the most colourful and con-
troversial figure in English political life. I had sat in the gallery of the
House of Commons and watched the Chamber crowd to hear him speak.
In the distance he looked extraordinarily old-fashioned in his black coat,
his winged collar and bow-tic, and even his rolling prose suggested a more
leisurely and cultivated century. But what he had to say was not of the

1 My Diaries: Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.
1 Hansard: 15 February, 1951.

AN INTRODUCTION 9

past; when he leaned forward to warn his colleagues of the dangers of
Nazi Germany he became the incarnation of a pugnacious and perennial
John Bull. You felt the imagination of the House stir with the brilliance of
his words, but unfortunately the magic ended with his eloquence. When
you went into the tea-room half an hour later you heard people chattering
about what he had said with an alarming light-heartedness.

Churchill spent most of his time at his country house, Chartwell in
Kent, and one Sunday his son took me there for lunch. I remember being
surprised by his round pink face. I had not expected such a formidable
man to have such a cherubic appearance. Later I heard that a woman had
once told him that her baby looked like him, to which he replied firmly:
'All babies look like me.' I was also surprised by the fact that even in
private conversation his phrases were as rounded and polished as when he
is speaking in the House. He delighted in the use of such Victorian expres-
sions as 'I rejoice', 'I am greatly distressed' and 'I venture to say', which
were emphasized by the impediment in his speech that prevented him
from pronouncing distinctly the letter V.

During lunch the conversation centred on world affairs and Mr.
Churchill talked with the brilliance I had expected but I later learned that
I was lucky, for often he is absorbed with his own thoughts and makes no
attempt at conversation. Small talk does not interest him; it is a question
of silence or a monologue, and nothing in between. On this day, however,
he expressed his fear that England would not only refuse to show her hand
until it was too late to avoid war, but too late to win. 'Mr. Chamberlain
can't seem to understand that we live in a very wicked world,' he said.
'English people want to be left alone, and I daresay a great many other
people want to be left alone too. But the world is like a tired old horse
plodding down a long road. Every time it strays off and tries to graze
peacefully in some nice green pasture, along comes a new master to flog
it a bit further along.'

After lunch I was taken upstairs to see his large, high-ceilinged, oak-
beamed study. He showed me several stacks of manuscript of the history
of the English-speaking people which he was then writing. *I doubt if I
shall finish it before the war comes,' he said morosely, 'and if I do, the
part the English-speaking people will play will be so decisive I will have
to add several more volumes.' He paused. 'And if it is not decisive no
more histories will be written for many years.'

One had an impression of resdess, pounding energy, and a prodigious
capacity for work. In the course of the afternoon I was shown the goldfish
pond (fish are one of Churchill's hobbies), the swimming pool and the
cottages, all of which he had built with his own hands. I was also shown

10 WINSTON CHURCHILL

another cottage that he had turned into a studio and which was filled with
pictures he had painted. In 1951 Sir John Rothenstein, the Director of the
Tate Gallery, and one of the foremost art critics in England, paid him the
compliment of saying: 'Had the fairies stuck a paint brush into his hands,
instead of a pen into one and a sword into the other, had he learnt while
still a boy to draw and to paint, and had he dedicated an entire laborious
lifetime to art, Mr. Churchill would have been able to express himself,
instead of one small facet He would have painted big pictures.' Churchill,
however, regarded painting as a recreation, not as hard work. In 1949 he
commented to Rothenstein, 'If it weren't for painting I couldn't live;
I couldn't bear the strain of things.' 1

Although Mr. Churchill has a reputation for enjoying luxury, few men
have devoted their lives more completely to intellectual pursuits. He has
never moved in social circles; idle conversation or aristocratic companion-
ship has never had an appeal for him. Throughout his life his closest
friends have all been men from humble backgrounds who have made
their own way to the top; Lloyd George, 'F. E.' Smith, 'Prof Lindemann
and Brendan Bracken. It was Churchill who recommended the last two,
now Lord Cherwell and Lord Bracken, for peerages.

Churchill often attends official functions, but he rarely can be per-
suaded to spend a week-end away from home. He is devoted to his wife,
and idolized by his children, and is very much the master of the house-
hold. The one thing he insists upon is comfort, and his ideas on this subject
are based, rigidly, on Victorian standards. Delicious food and well-trained
servants are regarded as absolutely essential. And if he can help it, he never
travels without a valet Before the war, he once arrived at Maxine Elliott's
villa in the South of France by himself, and Vincent Sheean heard tell him
his hostess with a broad grin, 'My dear Maxine, you have no idea how
easy it is to travel without a servant. I came here all the way from London
alone and it was quite simple.' 'Winston, how brave of you,' replied Miss
Elliott. 2

Any deviation from comfort, arranged in the name of pleasure, fills
Churchill with gloom. For example, Lady Megan Lloyd George tells the
story of a time many years ago when her father and he went on a trip to
North Africa. A prominent prince of the desert gave a large dinner in their
honour. The feast was served in the open and the guests sat in a circle on
the ground around a huge cauldron of steaming food. There were no

1 Mr. Churchill: The Artist: Sir John Rothenstein (Sunday Times, 7 January, 1951).
* Bettveen the Thunder and the Sun: Vincent Sheean.

AN INTRODUCTION II

forks or knives and everybody was expected to help, himself from the
common bowl and to cat with his fingers. Lloyd George enjoyed anything
out of the ordinary and at once flung himself into the spirit of the occasion.
But Churchill sat silent and glowering, refusing to make a move of any
kind. Some of the guests eyed him nervously for fear their host would
take offence at his sullen mood. Suddenly he rolled up his sleeves and with
a fierce defiance plunged his arm into the bowl growling: 'Come on,
Megan, to hell with civilization!'

Mr. Churchill occasionally plays a game of Canasta, and has a weakness
for romantic or humorous films. During the war he saw Lady Hamilton
eight times and rewarded the producer, Alexander Korda, with a knight-
hood. The news of Rudolph Hcss's arrival in Britain is said to have been
delivered to him while he was watching the Marx Brothers. Another one
of his amusements is singing old and familiar songs. During the last twelve
years he has never missed an annual evening visit to Harrow during which
all the old school songs are sung. However, he is like a child about music,
and a change of tune can turn him instantly from one mood to another.
In the war his son-in-law Vic Oliver was playing 'The Blue Danube' on
the piano at Chequers, when Churchill came through the door and slowly
began to waltz. Suddenly Oliver jokingly struck the sombre chords of
Chopin's Funeral March. The Prime Minister broke off angrily, and left
the room.

Churchill's recreations are simple enough, for the answer is that he has
derived his real pleasures in life from a great creative output, whether it is
building houses, writing books, painting pictures, or making speeches.
Once he remarked to me with a twinkle: 'With all the fascinating things
there are to do in the world, some people actually while away their rime
playing Patience. Just fancy!' Few people will accuse him of such a
weakness.

It is a great tribute to Democracy that when war came Mr. Churchill was
unanimously accepted as leader of the nation. The antagonisms and the
quarrels that he had had with all three political parties, some of them
stretching over nearly four decades, were put aside at once. Politicians and
public alike recognized that by temperament, application and genius he
was the one man superbly fitted to command the battle. Never in history
have the people of Britain been so solidly behind a Prime Minister.

Mr. Churchill did not fail them. At last the canvas was high and broad
enough to work on; at last his brilliant colours were needed to depict the
terrible and majestic glow on the horizon. He thrilled the western world

12 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to its mission as no other man could have done. The very fact that he saw
life in terms of broad events rather t-han through the individual, which
hitherto had been his greatest weakness, now became his greatest strength.
When he spoke of Man, he was thinking of Mankind; and the future of
Mankind hung in the balance.

PART TWO
THE MAKING OF A

CHAPTER TWO

HIS BACKGROUND

BLENHEIM PALACE is one of the great houses of England. It was built
nearly two hundred and fifty years ago with money voted by Parlia-
ment as a princely home for John Churchill, the first Duke of Marl-
borough, whose military genius saved Europe from the domination of
Louis XIV.

From that time to this the palace has been occupied by the dukes of
Marlborough and in 1950 its present owner announced that on certain
days of the week the Great Hall and the West Wing would be open to the
public. Since then thousands of sightseers have strolled across tie rolling
green parklands and wandered through the house inspecting the priceless
tapestries and murals, the wonderful carved ceilings, the gold and silver
work, the china and furniture wrought in the days of Queen Anne.
Many of these tourists write their impressions in a 'Suggestions Book* in
the chapel, and it is amusing to notice that whereas the English visitors
usually comment on the beauty of the treasures, many of the Americans
remark on what a privilege it has been to see 'the home of Mr. Winston
Churchill'.

Blenheim, of course, has never been Mr. Churchill's 'home*. His
father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the third son of the seventh Duke
of Marlborough, and lived in the palace from the age of eight until he
married. The estate eventually passed to his eldest brother, and then in
turn to his nephew, and is now in the possession of Winston Churchill's
second cousin, the tenth Duke. Strictly speaking Winston arrived in the
world as the poor relation of a great ducal family. Nevertheless from the
very first he asserted himself and with a fine disregard for propriety
managed to be born at Blenheim.

The circumstances of his birth were unusual. His mother, a beautiful,
vivacious young bride, was seven months with child. She loved gaiety and
against the advice of her doctors insisted on attending the Sk^lGic&ew's
Ball, held at Blenheim on the night of 30 November. In the middle of
the evening she was rushed from the ballroom to the cloakroom where,
amid a setting of silk hats, velvet capes and feather boas, she gave birth to
Winston. 1

1 This story was told to me by Sir Shane Leslie, who heard it from his mother,
Lady Leslie, Lady Randolph Churchill's sister.

15

16 WINSTON CHURCHILL

This fact has caused the owner of Blenheim a certain amount of
embarrassment. For although Winston's birthplace was once the bedroom
of the first Duke's chaplain, Dean Jones, it is more suitable as a cloakroom
than a boudoir. It is on the ground floor, small and plain, overlooking a
sunless well. It has been fitted with a modest bed and a few pieces of
furniture, and when the tourists file through one always sees looks of
surprise, and hears whispered comments on the disappointing lack of
regality. The present Duke has criticized Winston's lack of showmanship
in failing to arrive in the Yellow Room or some other suite which could
be shown off to advantage.

Winston's birth was announced by The Times in a single line: 'On the
30th November at Blenheim Palace, the Lady Randolph Churchill,
prematurely, of a son.' Nevertheless the event caused excitement among
members of the Churchill family who interpreted the circumstances as an
omen that one day he would succeed to the Marlborough title. Although
this prediction did not come true, the accident of his birth had a pro-
found effect on his character and outlook. It aroused in him a passionate
interest in Blenheim and its history, and a veneration for tradition and
continuity which developed into a fierce family pride. The two heroes of
his youth, about whom he later wrote biographies, were men whose blood
flowed in his own veins; the first Duke of Marlborough, and that brilliant,
erratic Victorian statesman, his own father. The fact that both these men
had lived at Blenheim where he had so unexpectedly intruded did not
make him dream of inheriting the Marlborough riches, but of being the
true heir to the genius in the Churchill line. As a Churchill he felt he had a
special obligation and a special mission.

The first Churchill about whom anything much is known was the son of a
lawyer and the grandson of a blacksmith. He was born in 1620 and grew
up in the county of Dorset; like his descendant of to-day he was a soldier,
a writer, and a member of Parliament, and his name was Winston. He
was a passionate supporter of Charles the First and in the Civil War took
part in the fighting at Lansdowne House and Roundway Down, where
he was wounded. When the Parliamentarians triumphed he was a ruined
man and spent thirteen years bringing up a large family under the poverty-
stricken roof of his mother-in-law, Lady Drake, a sister of the Duke of
Buckingham. Nevertheless he occupied himself in doggedly writing a
long and laborious book entitled Divi Britannia in which he traced from
'the year of the world 2855* downward the Divine Right of Kings, insist-
ing that the monarch should have the power to levy taxes without con-

HIS BACKGROUND 17

suiting Parliament, an idea which, even in those days, caused some aston-
ishment. When the Restoration came and Charles II ascended the
throne Winston's fortunes took a turn for the better. He was awarded a
knighthood and allowed to place one of his daughters at Court. Whether
he considered this due recompense is not known, for he had despairingly
emblazoned on his coat-of-arms the motto, 'Faithful but Unfortunate'.

Lord Macaulay refers to Sir Winston in his History of England as *a poor
Cavalier Baronet who haunted Whitehall and made himself ridiculous by
publishing a dull and affected folio, long forgotten, in praise of monarchy
and monarchs*. Nevertheless, Sir Winston produced three remarkable
children. One was Arabella, who became the mistress of James the Second
and bore him a son, the Duke of Berwick, who was one of the great
generals of Louis XIV; 1 another was a George Churchill who rose to be
an admiral in the British Navy; the third was John Churchill, the first
Duke of Marlborough, who proved himself one of the greatest soldiers of
all time.

It is not surprising that the Winston of to-day should have been
thrilled by the story of the Duke, for there is no more fabulous character
in English history. In 1688 England embarked on a war which soon in-
volved all the civilized countries of the world and lasted, with one brief
period of peace, for a quarter of a century. This war was not only fought
to defend the Protestant faith but to prevent Louis XIV from bringing all
Europe under his control, thus destroying the independence of England.
It was as perilous a struggle as the war against Hitler, and for ten cam-
paigns stretching over the years John Churchill led the armies of Europe.
'He never fought a battle which he did not win nor besieged a fortress
which he did not take. . . . Nothing like this can be seen in military
annals/ writes the present Winston Churchill. 'Until the advent of
Napoleon no commander wielded such widespread power in Europe.
Upon his person centred the union of nearly twenty confederate states.
He held the Grand Alliance together no less by his diplomacy than by his
victories. He rode into action with the combinations of three-quarters of
Europe in his hand. His comprehension of the war extended to all theatres,
and his authority alone secured design and concerted action. . . . He was
for six years not only the Commander-in-Chief of the Allies, but, though
a subject, virtually Master of England.' 2
Marlborough has been described by his contemporaries as 'cold and

1 In 1939 the present Duke of Berwick and Alba, a lineal descendant of the
victor of Almanza, was appointed Spanish Ambassador to Britain. He held the
post throughout Mr. Churchill's premiership until 1945.

* Marlborough: his Life and Times: Winston S. Churchill.

18 WINSTON CHURCHILL

proud* and 'the handsomest man in Europe*. His powerful position invited
bitter attack, and for years the Tories blackened his name while the Whigs
only defended him with indifference. He was accused of avarice, im-
morality, corruption and even treachery; and long after he died scurrilous
stories were repeated by famous writers which for many years prevented
his countrymen from according him his just due. Twice he was dismissed
from his offices, once by King William who believed that he was intrigu-
ing against him, and once by Queen Anne who listened to tales of corrup-
tion, but both times he was later reinstated. Through all his vicissitudes
he had the support of his beautiful, dynamic wife, Sarah. The passionate
feelings of these two through nearly fifty years of married life constitute
one of the great love stories of history. When Sarah was widowed at
the age of sixty-two, the wealthy Duke of Somerset proposed to her,
and she made her famous reply: 'If I were young and handsome as I was,
instead of old and faded as I am, and you could lay the empire at my feet,
you should never share the heatf and hand that once belonged to John,
Duke of Marlborough.'

After Marlborough's victory at Blenheim in 1704 Queen Anne made
him a gift of fifteen hundred acres at Woodstock, a few miles from the
city of Oxford, and Parliament approved the sum of 24,000 for the
building of a house. It was arranged that the quit-rent of the palace would
be 'one standard, or colours, with flower-de-luces painted thereupon',
presented at Windsor Castle every August on the anniversary of the
Battle of Blenheim. This custom is still observed to-day, and when the
present Winston Churchill wrote his brilliant life of Marlborough he
paid his forbear an added tribute by carefully dating the foreword of
each volume August the 1 3th.

When Marlborough died he left no son and the tide passed through his
daughter to his grandson whose family name was Spencer. In 1817 the
Marlboroughs received permission to add Churchill to their name, and
since that time members of the family have styled themselves Spencer-
Churchill.

For a century and a half the dukes of Marlborough and their Churchill
kin led surprisingly uneventful lives. They passed their days as undis-
tinguished members of the landed gentry occupying themselves with die
traditional duties of the aristocracy. Not until 1874 did the pulse of
Blenheim quicken with excitement, as once more it felt adventure in the
air. That was the year that Lord Randolph Churchill, a younger son of
the seventh Duke of Marlborough, stood as a candidate for Woodstock
and was elected to Parliament; that was also the year that he brought his
American bride to Blenheim. 'As we passed through the entrance arch-

HIS BACKGROUND 19

way and the lovely scenery burst upon me,' she wrote, 'Randolph said
with pardonable pride, "This is the finest view in England". Looking at
the lake, the bridge, the miles of magnificent park studded with old
oaks . . . and the huge stately palace, I confess I felt awed. But my Ameri-
can pride forbade the admission.' 1

And 1874 was also the year that the Randolph Churchills' son and heir,
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, was born.

Winston grew up in the bright glow of his father's fame. If the Duke of
Marlborough was his idol, Lord Randolph was his inspiration. Lord
Randolph was one of the most spectacular men of the day, and it is small
wonder that he excited his son's imagination for he astonished many other
people as well. His career flashed across the late Victorian sky like a
meteor while he advanced, by means of a brilliant and savage tongue,
from the political back benches of the Commons to Leader of the House
and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was the outrageous idol of the
hustings, the enfant terrible of British politics. He revitalized a defeated and
dispirited Tory Party and led it to victory. He reached the pinnacle of
success when he was only thirty-six; then in a moment of arrogance and
folly flung away his position never to retrieve it again.

Lord Randolph entered politics and his son entered the world as the
curtain was rising on the last twenty-five years of Queen Victoria's reign.
During the first sixty years of that century Britain turned from her victory
over Napoleon to develop the talents which soon transformed her from a
landed society into the greatest manufacturing country in the world. She
had no rivals, and as well as supplying the needs of Europe, extended her
commerce to her great growing Empire across the seas. In 1868 she was
proud and prosperous. The aristocracy and the newly rich manufacturers
lived in affluence and style; and although they were divided by birth and
breeding the public schools provided die necessary link by educating the
children of both to be gentlemen of a single, approved pattern. These
children were brought up to take their places in the powerful and ex-
clusive oligarchy by which Britain was governed.

This oligarchy was based on wealth and position. Only men of pro-
perty had the right to vote and only men of property were chosen as
Parliamentary candidates. As a class they considered it their natural
prerogative to rule, and proudly displayed to the world the strong, rich
nation that had emerged under their guidance. But beneath this impres-
sive show of prosperity there was also poverty, bitterness and unemploy-

1 Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill.

20 WINSTON CHURCHILL

ment. The lot of the working man was hard. He lived in crowded slums,
labouring long hours for low wages, with the fear of the workhouse
always in his mind. Without the right to vote his struggle for improve-
ment was limited, but the fact that the Trade Unions were slowly gather-
ing strength revealed his sombre determination.

The restlessness of the masses did not escape the notice of William
Ewart Gladstone, who was Prime Minister from 1868 to 1874. He devoted
his first administration almost entirely to attacking the privileges of the
riding class. He ended the patronage system by which the Civil Service
was run and opened it to competitive examination; he stopped the buy-
ing and selling of commissions in the Army and opened it to talent; he
extended primary school education throughout the country; and he
extended further the vote to the middle classes.

Although he did not destroy the oligarchy but merely broadened its
basis, such people as the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough considered
Mr. Gladstone a dangerous Radical. When young Lord Randolph left
Oxford they begged him to hold himself in readiness for the next election
when he could stand for the family seat of Woodstock and prevent it from
falling into the hands of the hated enemy.

As a boy Lord Randolph had none of the harsh insolence which
characterized his career in the House of Commons. He grew up at
Blenheim with his elder brother, Blandford, under the care of a doting
father and mother. His parents followed the normal practice of die aris-
tocracy in sending him to Eton and Oxford where he appears to have
been an able though not a brilliant pupil. At Eton one of his masters,
Mr. Brinsley Richards, described him as 'a rough and tumble urchin*.
'Churchill/ he wrote, 'was an easy lower boy to catch whenever anything
had to be done, for his whereabouts could be ascertained by his incessant
peals of laughter.' 1

**- After jraduatingjroni Oxford Lord Randolph obediently idled away
the next three years waitinglbr a General Election. He was not at all
politically incline^but Woodstock had been represented by a member of
the family for 'years and years' and he felt it his duty to maintain tradition.
He travelled abroad for a year then returned to enjoy himself as a gay
spark in the fashionable and exclusive circles of London society. At this
period he is described by his biographers as 'cheerful and impulsive', which
seems to be borne out by the feet that he went to Cowes in August 1873,
met a beautiful, dark-haired, nineteen-year-old American girl, Jeanette
Jerome, and forty-eight hours kter proposed and was accepted. He sent
her picture to his father with a long letter of explanation, in which he said:

1 Seven Years at Eton: Brinsley Richards.

HIS BACKGROUND 21

'I do not think that if I were to write pages I could give you any idea of the
strength of my feelings and affection and love for her; all I can say is that
I love her better than life itself, and that my one hope and dream is that
matters may be so arranged that soon I may be united to her by ties that
nothing but death itself could have the power to sever/

He then went on to say: 'Mr. Jerome is a gentleman who is obliged to
live in New York to look after his business. I do not know what it is.' 1

Mr. Jerome was a New York business man who had made and lost
several fortunes. During the Civil War he owned and edited the New
York Times. He was a passionate supporter of the Northern cause, to
which he subscribed large sums. When the New York war party became
discredited in 1862, furious mobs attacked the Times office. But Mr.
Jerome had fortified his position with rifles and cannon and beat off the
raid after some bloodshed. In his calmer moments he managed to found
the first two great American race-courses, Jerome Park and Coney Island
Jockey Club. He had two daughters besides Jeanette, both of whom
married British subjects. One became the mother of Shane Leslie, the
distinguished Irish writer, and the other of Clare Sheridan, the equally
distinguished sculptress.

The Duke of Marlborough was alarmed by his son's precipitous action
and although Lord Randolph assured him that Jeanette was beautiful,
accomplished and rich, and that she moved with the most exclusive society
in France, where she lived with her mother, the Duke was not enthusiastic
about his son marrying an American. He insisted that the young couple
must wait until time proved the worth of their affection. At the first sign of
reluctance on the Duke's part Mrs. Jerome indignantly took her daughter
to Paris and refused to let her see Lord Randolph except at infrequent in-
tervals. A period of frantic letter writing followed, then suddenly Parlia-
ment was dissolved and Lord Randolph was faced with an election.

In those days only 1071 people in the Churchill family borough were
eligible to vote. Disraeli's Act of 1867 had extended the franchise to the
lower middle class but the agricultural labourers who made up the bulk
of the population of Woodstock were not included. To-day, when the
constituency of a Member averages fifty thousand voters, Victorian
elections seem leisurely affairs. But evidently Lord Randolph did not think
so, for he wrote to Jeanette: 'My head is in a whirl of voters, committee
meetings and goodness knows what. I am gkd it is drawing to an end,
as I could not stand it very long; I cannot eat or sleep.' 2

The suspense soon ended with victory for Lord Randolph, and victory

1 Lord Randolph Churchill: Winston S. ChurchiD.
* Ibid.

22 WINSTON CHURCHILL

for the whole Tory Party. Disraeli displaced Mr. Gladstone as Prime
Minister. But Lord Randolph was more concerned with his personal
triumph. He wrote Jeanette elatedly: 'There was such a burst of cheers

they must have made the old dukes in the vault jump There is nothing

more to do but pay the bill which I have left to my father/ 1

Shortly after this the Duke of Marlborough and Mr. Jerome amicably
agreed to let the young couple marry. Lord Randolph brought his bride
to England where she soon established herself as one of the most fascinat-
ing and popular figures in Society.

Lord and Lady Randolph lived in London for two years where they
entertained Mr. Disraeli, the Prince of Wales, and many other illustrious
figures of the day. Lord Randolph dutifully made his maiden speech but
he was more interested in the pleasures of life than in Parliament. He
attended the House only spasmodically, spending his time at balls, dinners
and week-end parties. Then suddenly an event took place which altered
the whole course of his life. In his biography of his father Winston
Churchill states: 'Engaging in his brother's quarrels with fierce and reck-
less partisanship, Lord Randolph incurred the deep displeasure of a great
personage. The fashionable world no longer smiled. Powerful enemies
were anxious to humiliate him. His own sensitiveness and pride magnified
every coolness into an affront. London became odious. The breach was not
repaired for more than eight years and in the interval a nature originally
genial and gay contracted a stern and bitter quality, a harsh contempt for
what is called "Society", and an abiding antagonism to rank and authority. ' 2

This discreet statement by Mr. Winston Churchill was amplified some
years later by Lord Randolph's nephew, Shane Leslie, who explained that
the 'great personage' with whom Lord Randolph's brother, Lord Bland-
ford, quarrelled was the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. The quarrel
was over a woman. Lord Blandford had succeeded the Prince in a certain
lady's affections, whereupon the Prince, through pique, encouraged the
lady's husband to sue for divorce and name Lord Blandford. Lord
Randolph was outraged by this behaviour and audaciously intimated that
'any divorce case would bring to light some friendly letters which had
escaped the Prince's pen and memory'. 8

But how did Lord Randolph come into possession of the lady's letters?
To threaten the Prince was bad enough; to brandish a lady's love letters

1 Lord Randolph Churchill: Winston S. Churchill.

1 Ibid.

These Men are Different: Shane Leslie.

HIS BACKGROUND 23

was quite unthinkable. These were the points around which the scandal
raged. The Prince declared that he would not enter any house which
received Lord Randolph, and as a result all the doors of Society were
firmly shut. The ban was severe and complete; and feeling ran so high
that the Duke of Marlborough consented to accept the position of
Viceroy in Ireland so that he could take his son with him as secretary.

The Randolph Churchills did not return to England for nearly three years.
Soon afterwards Disraeli's Government came to an end and Gladstone was
again in power. The Grand Old Man's second administration lasted from
1880 to 1885. Its most important legislation was the Third Reform Bill
giving the vote to the agricultural labourer and the miner. Otherwise it
was concerned mainly with serious problems in Ireland, Egypt and Africa.

The Tory members took their places on the Opposition benches in a
discouraged and uncertain frame of mind. They had been out of power
for twenty-two years except for one short interval until Disraeli brought
them back in 1874; was this the beginning of another long period in the
wilderness? It seemed as though Mr. Gladstone exercised a magic spell
which no one could break.

This was the stage on which Lord Randolph made his entrance. The
five years he had spent in Ireland had whetted his appetite for politics and
he was ready for a fight. 'The duty of an Opposition -is to oppose/ he
announced, and lost no time in doing it. He was no longer the amiable
young man of London society. Many people still refused to receive him
in their houses, but now he did not seem to mind. He had developed a
hard, cold armour and his tongue had become a formidable weapon.

He at once plunged into the attack. Yet he did not only cross swords
with the great Gladstone but turned on his own leaders as well, ridiculing
them for their vacillation and defeatism. With three followers he sat below
the gangway in the House of Commons, and carried on his own blister-
ing opposition to the powerful Liberals, regardless of what his party
leaders had to say. This small group became known as 'The Fourth Party'.

Lord Randolph's house gradually became a meeting place for all shades
of politicians. 'Many were the plots and plans,' Lady Randolph wrote,
'which were hatched in my presence by the Fourth Party, who, notwith-
standing the seriousness of their own endeavours, found time to laugh
heartily and often at their own frustrated efforts.' She went on to add:
'Sometimes to hear . . . Randolph discussing the situation the uninitiated
might have thought the subject was a game of chess.' 1 There is no doubt

1 Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill.

24 WINSTON CHURCHILL

that Lord Randolph and his followers enjoyed themselves. They referred
to their respectable, die-hard leaders as the 'Old Gang', and derisively
nicknamed the weaker members 'The Goats*.

Under these circumstances it is small wonder that Lord Randolph was
not popular. While he made his strenuous and unorthodox efforts to
infuse a new spirit into the Tory Party and bring it back to power, the
Tories stood by ready to benefit by his success, yet smarting with resent-
ment. 'To them/ Winston Churchill wrote, 'he seemed an intruder, an
upstart, a mutineer who flouted venerable leaders and mocked at con-
stituted authority with a mixture of aristocratic insolence and dramatic
brutality.' 1

Not only this but he seemed a cad. His tactics were not the tactics of an
English 'gentleman'. On one occasion he wrote a scorching letter to The
Times criticizing Sir Stafford Northcote's 'pusillanimous' leadership in
the House of Commons. His friends begged him not to send the letter,
warning him against public disloyalty to his own leader, and reminding
him that Sir Stafford had just recovered from an illness and enjoyed the
sympathy and affection of many people. Lord Randolph persisted and
when he entered the House the next day scarcely a soul would speak to
him; and when Sir Stafford rose to ask a question he was greeted by a
tremendous ovation. On another occasion Lord Granville, the Foreign
Secretary, criticized Lord Randolph in the House of Lords, and the latter
again wrote The Times; he accused Granville of 'the petty malice of a
Whig'; 'of his usual shamdessness'; 'of sneaking down to the House of
Lords to make without notice a variety of deliberate misrepresentations,
deliberate misquotations and false assertions which were quite in accord-
ance with the little that was known about the public career of Earl Gran-
ville, Knight of the Garter, and, to the misfortune of his country, Her
Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs'. The Times
printed the letter but devoted a column and a half to dissociating itself
from the insults and bad taste of the author.

Lord Randolph, however, continued along his sensational path with
cold indifference. It must be borne in mind that a majority of the Mem-
bers of Parliament were the same men who ruled the fashionable world
which had turned its back on him. He was paying them back, and show-
ing that he scorned their good will. Gradually he developed a creed for
his small party, borrowed from Disraeli's political philosophy, which
became known as 'Tory Democracy'. Upon examination there was
nothing particularly new in this faith. 'Tory Democracy,' Lord Randolph
once explained blandly, 'is a Democracy that votes for the Tory Party.'

1 Lord Randolph Churchill: Winston S. Churchill.

HIS BACKGROUND 25

His tactics were to appeal to the patriotic sentiments of the English
working man and to convince him that no one could defend Queen and
Country better than the Tories. This was accompanied by a slashing
indictment of Mr. Gladstone's handling of Foreign Affairs. But when it
came to the acid test, Tory Democracy faltered. Mr. Gladstone presented
his Bill to extend the vote to the agricultural labourer and Lord Randolph
opposed it. 'As the representative of a small agricultural borough he could
not, as he himself said afterwards, be expected to look on a measure for
the extinction of Woodstock "with a very longing eye",' his son explains
somewhat naively. 1 As things turned out the extension of the vote did not
mean 'the extinction of Woodstock' for Lord Randolph won his next
election; and it remains a curious blot on the career of the Tory Democrat
who toured the country crying: 'Trust the People'.

Nevertheless it did not seem to affect Lord Randolph's popularity with
the masses. His meetings were packed and he went from strength to
strength. He was greeted by cries of 'Yahoo Randy!' and 'Give it to 'em
hot!' He complied with relish. During this period his range of invective
was inexhaustible. He called Chamberlain a 'pinchbeck Robespierre' and
Gladstone a 'purblind and sanctimonious Pharisee' and 'an evil and
moonstruck monster'. He accused the Government of 'treachery and
incapacity*, of 'imbecility', of 'sinking below the level of slaves'; and he
declared that 'general destruction and all around plunder are alike their
pleasure, their duty and their pride.'

By 1884 Lord Randolph was a national figure. A slim man with bulg-
ing eyes and a huge moustache, he became the delight of the cartoonists.
Although he was of medium height it pleased the artists to picture Him as
a diminutive figure; sometimes as Jack the Giant Killer; sometimes as a
wasp, a pug dog, a monkey or a down. This publicity served him well
and helped to swell the already large, excited crowds. His wife flung
herself into the political fray, and even fought an election for him.
On this occasion Lady Randolph and her sister-in-law toured Woodstock
in a smart tandem with the horses wearing brown and pink ribbons, Lord
Randolph's racing colours. Soon the music halls were singing:

Bless my soul! that Yankee lady
Whether day was bright or shady
Dashed about the district like an oriflamme of war;
When the voters saw her bonnet
With the bright pink roses on it,

They followed her as the soldiers did the Helmet of Navarre.
1 Lord Randolph Churchill: Winston S. Churchill

26 WINSTON CHURCHILL

As Lord Randolph's popularity in the country grew, the Liberals
attacked him with increasing vehemence. A pamphlet entitled The
Woodstock Bantam was published by a Mr. Foote, who wrote angrily:
'Incessant abuse of Mr. Gladstone has been the principal means of Lord
Randolph Churchill's advancement. The Tories hate the great Liberal
chief who is at once its Nestor and its Agamemnon; and they are ready to
applaud any young jackanapes who will pull him by the beard. Finding
how cheap and easy it was to bait Mr. Gladstone and what golden honours
the performance won among the Conservatives, his lordship flew at the
Premier night after night like an impudent bantam. Out of doors he was
still more insolent. There is scarcely an epithet in the vocabulary of
vituperation which he has not flung at Mr. Gladstone from Tory plat-
forms At a recent Woodstock election his lordship circulated a printed

certificate of his good manners from no less a person than Mr. Gladstone
himself. It was a sign of that great man's magnanimity but it was also a
sign of Lord Randolph Churchill's consummate meanness. After black-
guarding the Liberal chief for years no one but a miserable sneak would
have condescended to have availed himself of an exculpation from the
object of his malicious insults.'

In 1885 Mr. Gladstone resigned and the Tories formed a Government.
Lord Randolph was made Secretary of State for India. A few months
later Mr. Gladstone again formed a Government; then in the summer of
1886 a General Election took place.

This election was fought on the stormy issue of Home Rule for Ireland
and was one of the most bitter contests that have ever taken place in
English parliamentary life. Home Rule was the great dream of Mr. Glad-
stone's old age; but it split the Liberal Party in two. The dissentients lined
up with the Tories and together the 'Unionists', as they were called,
scored a sweeping victory.

Historians do not go so far as to declare that without Lord Randolph
the Tory battle would have been lost, yet no one denies that by his force
and personality he pkyed a major part. Lord Salisbury, the Tory Prime
Minister, rewarded him by appointing him Leader of the House of
Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was at the top.

He did not hold his position long. In December 1886, less than six
months later, he suddenly resigned. He informed the Prime Minister that
unless the Army and Navy cut the amount of money they were spending
he would not be able to construct the Budget as he wished. The Navy
acquiesced but the War Minister stood firm. Lord Randolph had forced

HIS BACKGROUND 27

his colleague to do as he wished twice before by threatening resignation;
why not a third time, particularly when, as Leader of the House of
Commons and the greatest platform orator of the day, his influence was
at its zenith?

But this time the move failed. Lord Salisbury accepted his resignation.
The news caused a sensation not only in England but throughout Europe.
The public were astonished and all sorts of rumours began to spread as
people insisted there must be a more important reason than the one given
in the press. The Tory Party was openly alarmed. Could Lord Salisbury's
administration continue, deprived of the support of its most glittering
figure?

As it became known that Lord Randolph's resignation was not based
on a great principle, but on a minor disagreement, opinion quickly
hardened. The Times rebuked him indignantly, declaring that Conser-
vative circles regarded him as highly 'unpatriotic'; and the following day
printed an excerpt from the Vienna Tageblatt which almost equalled Lord
Randolph's own invective: 'He is one of those men who will always pky
second fiddle and pky out of tune. The Continental Cabinets which were
astonished and perplexed by his sudden rise, must rejoice that Lord
Salisbury has not allowed himself to be dictated to by a mere jackanapes.
Lord Salisbury's resignation would have been a very serious thing for
Europe; Lord Randolph's resignation means simply this that a noisy
personage, who was never fitted to be a Cabinet Minister, has reassumed
his proper part as a political brawler.' 1

Lord Salisbury's Government staggered, then quickly righted itself.
Practically no voices were lifted in Lord Randolph's defence and no one
mourned his going. Punch printed a cartoon of a down walking out of the
circus ring, saying: *I shan't pky any more.' Underneath was the caption:
'The Great Little Random', and the following verse:

Pet of the Public and pride of the Ring
Master of excellent fooling
Beating in patter and tumble and fling
Fellows with ten times his schooling
Great Little Random the company led
Was it a wonder he went off his head?

Lord Randolph remained in Parliament but returned to the backbenches
where, only six years before, he had begun his career. In January 1895, at
the age of forty-five, after a protracted and lingering illness which resulted
in paralysis of the brain, he died. His son, Winston, was just twenty.

1 The Times: 25 December, 1886.

CHAPTER THREE

HIS SCHOOLDAYS

WINSTON'S EARLIEST memories are of Dublin. He was not quite two
years old when his father quarrelled with the Prince of Wales and his
grandfather accepted the position of Viceroy of Ireland in order to remove
die impulsive Randolph from the wrath of London Society. The latter
received an official appointment as the Duke's Private Secretary and in-
stalled himself and his family in the Little Lodge, a house in the park of the
Viceregal Mansion. One of Winston's first recollections is the forbidding
figure of his grandfather unveiling a statue to Lord Gough with the thrill-
ing words 'and with a withering volley he shattered the enemy lines'.

Although Winston left Ireland before he was five, Dublin made a vivid
impression on his mind. He remembers the red-coated soldiers, the emer-
ald grass, the mist and the rain, and the excited and sometimes whispered
talk about 'the wicked Fenians' who were trying to terrorize the British
administration. Once when he was riding a donkey led by his nurse, Mrs.
Everest, a group of soldiers appeared in the distance. There was a moment
of panic as the nurse mistook them for Fenians; the donkey kicked
and threw Winston to the ground, which resulted in a slight concussion
of the brain. On another occasion arrangements were made to take
a group of children to the pantomime. When Winston and Mrs. Everest
reached the Castle where they were to meet the others, people with
long faces came out and said that the theatre had been burned down.
All that was left of the manager, they added lugubriously, were the keys
that were in his pocket. Winston asked eagerly to see the keys, but this
request, he wrote years later, 'does not seem to have been well received.'

The early pictures of Winston show a pug-nosed, determined little boy
with a mass of untidy curls framed by the round sailor hat so dear to the
hearts of the Victorians. He was red-headed, freckle-faced and obstre-
perous and from the moment he learned to talk, he talked incessantly. The
recipient of his confidences was Mrs. Everest, a large, fat, homely woman
who loved her small charge and who was rewarded by an unswerving
devotion which lasted until her death;

He did not see much of his parents. His father was engrossed in Irish
politics and his mother caught up in a busy social life. Neither considered
children a vocation, and, in the way of most aristocratic families at that

time, regarded the nursery, like the kitchen, as necessary adjuncts to the

28

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 29

well-run household, but ones which should be hidden. Winston admired
his mother from a distance like a beautiful, far-away evening star. She
obviously had dazzling qualities for Viscount D'Abernon wrote of her at
this time: 'I have the clearest recollection of seeing her for the first time.
It was at the Viceregal Lodge at Dublin. She stood at one side to the left
of the entrance. The Viceroy was on a dais at the farther end of the room
surrounded by a brilliant staff, but eyes were not turned on him or his con-
sort, but on a dark, lithe figure, standing somewhat apart and appearing
to be of another texture to those around her, radiant, translucent, intense.
A diamond star in her hair, her favourite ornament its lustre dimmed by
the flashing glory of her eyes. More of the panther than of the woman in
her look, but with a cultivated intelligence unknown to the jungle. Her
courage not less great than that of her husband fit mother for descendants
of the great Duke. With all these attributes of brilliancy such kindliness
and high spirits that she was universally popular. Her desire to please, her
delight in life, and the genuine wish that all should share her joyous faith
in it, made her the centre of a devoted circle.' 1

Winston was supremely happy until he was seven years old. His parents
moved back to London after their three years in Ireland and he was
given a large nursery equipped with all the things that a small boy likes
best. He had a thousand tin soldiers, a magic lantern, and a real steam
engine. Furthermore, when he was six his mother presented him with a
brother, John, whom he regarded as a curious and amusing newpossession.

The following year adversity set in. His mother announced that the time
had come for him to go to boarding school. She had selected an expensive,
modern school near Ascot which specialized in preparing boys for Eton.
Winston dreaded the idea of leaving his untrammelled existence with Mrs.
Everest and, as things turned out, his worst forebodings were fulfilled; he
spent two years at St. James's School and hated every minute of it.

His departure had an almost Dickensian flavour. He was only seven
and until then had led a happy and sheltered life. He remembers the ride
in the hansom cab with his mother, his growing apprehension, and finally
the awful moment when good-byes had been said and he was left alone
with a stern, unbending master. The latter led him to an empty classroom
nnd told him to sit down and learn the First Declension of the Latin word
for table, mensa. One can imagine the child's sinking heart as he looked at
the strange, incomprehensible words. He did as he was bid and memor-
ized them, but when the master returned, inquired boldly:

'And what does O table mean?'

'Mensa, O table, is the vocative case You use it in speaking to a table.'

1 An Ambassador of Peace: Viscount D'Aberaon.

30 WINSTON CHURCHILL

'But I never do,' insisted young Winston.

'If you are impertinent, you will be punished, and punished, let me tell
you, very severely/ said the master angrily. 1

This was the beginning of a bad two years. Discipline at St. James's was
rigidly strict and, according to Winston, the headmaster was cruel and
perverted. He delighted in assembling the little boys in the library, singling
out the culprits one by one and taking them into the next room where he
beat them until they bled. The other boys were forced to sit silent and
listen to the screams of their schoolmates. Winston rebelled. He was beaten
often and freely and with a violence which, he declares, not even a re-
formatory would tolerate to-day. Nevertheless he refused to surrender; he
refused to write the Latin verses which he declared he could not understand,
he refused to curry favour, he refused to repent. Once he even kicked the
headmaster's straw hat to pieces which made him the hero of the school.
Winston nursed such a grievance against this man that for years after-
wards he brooded on revenge. He planned to return one day, denounce the
master before all his pupils, then subject him to the same punishment he
had inflicted on his helpless charges. At the age of nineteen he actually drove
to Ascot, but when he reached his destination he found that the school had
been abandoned long before and the hated headmaster had disappeared.

Although Winston's lion-hearted resistance soon became a legend at
St. James's his health suffered badly and after two years his family doctor
advised Lady Randolph to remove him to Brighton where he would gain
the benefit of sea air and more freedom. Here his fortunes improved. He
was put under the care of two kind and elderly ladies who encouraged
him to study the things he liked such as English, history, French and
poetry. He was also allowed to ride and swim and to read Rider Hag-
gard's thrilling books King Solomon's Mines and Attan^Quatermain. Other
activities included a school paper called The Critic in which he lost interest
after the first number, and a production of Aladdin which was so ambitious
it never saw the light. He was happy once again, but in all fairness to the
masters of St. James's it must be said that his new freedom did not bring
about any magic change in him so far as obedience was concerned. He had
such bounding vitality he could not, it seemed, keep out of mischief. His
dancing mistress, Miss Vera Moore, described him as 'a small, red-headed
pupil, the naughtiest boy in the class; I used to think he was the naughtiest
small boy in tie world'. There seemed to be no field in which Winston's
peculiar brand of cheekiness did not flourish. Once one of the teachers
asked the children to call out the number of good conduct marks they had
lost 'Nine,' cried Winston. 'But you couldn't have lost nine,' the teacher
1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill.

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 31

protested. 'Nein,' repeated Churchill triumphantly. 'I am talking German.'

Even Winston's relatives found him a handful. He usually spent his
holidays visiting one of his many aunts and uncles, and the occasions
rarely passed without some dramatic incident taking place. Sometimes he
went to Bournemouth to stay with his father's sister, Lady Wimborne,
and sometimes to Blenheim to stay with his father's brother, now the
eighth Duke of Marlborough. Winston loved Blenheim, for every corner
of the resounding halls and majestic rooms breathed the splendour of the
great defender who had saved England from the rule of a tyrant. The little
boy was dazzled by the uniforms and armour, by the wonderful trophies,
and by the battle scenes that decorated the walls; but best of all he loved the
toy soldiers that brought to life the armies which his famous ancestor had
commanded. He modelled his own collection on this impressive array and
often refought the Battle of Blenheim with himself as the heroic leader.
He resolved that his life too would be filled with excitement and glory.

When Lady Randolph was abroad, as she frequently was, her elder
sister, Lady Leslie, took Winston under her wing as part of her own
family. When he was twelve years old she wrote the following letter to
the celebrated author, Mr. Rider Haggard: 'The little boy Winston came
here yesterday morning, beseeching me to take him to see you before he
returns to school at the end of the month. I don't wish to bore so busy a
man as yourself, but will you, when you have time, please tell me, shall
I bring him on Wednesday next, when Mrs. Haggard said she would be
at home? Or do you prefer settling to come here some afternoon when I
could have the boy to meet you? He really is a very interesting being,
though temporarily uppish from the restraining parental hand being in
Russia.' Shortly after the meeting Winston wrote to Mr. Haggard: 'Thank
you so much for sending me Allan Quatermain; it was so good of you.
I like A.Q. better than King Solomon's Mines; it is more amusing. I hope
you will write a good many more books.'

When Winston was not at Bournemouth or Blenheim or with Lady
Leslie, in her house near Dublin, he sometimes stayed with his mother's
younger sister, Mrs. Frewen, in London. And other times the Leslie and
Frewen children came to visit him at various houses which the Randolph
Churchills rented for the summer. The three Jerome sisters had produced be-
tween them six boys and one girl, so there was no shortage of playmates.
A picture taken in 1 889 shows Lady Randolph with her two sons, Winston
age fourteen and Jack age eight; Mrs. Frewen with Oswald, one, Hugh,
six, and Clare, four; and Lady Leslie with Shane, four, and Norman, three.

Winston was the undisputed leader of the group, being six years older
than any of the other children, and his leadership was of a stirring and

32 WINSTON CHURCHILL

wilful character. His cousin, Shane Leslie, remembers the agitated con-
sultations between nannies and nursery maids as to how to handle the
headstrong boy. He was the true enfant terrible. Once when he was defying
his nurse he searched his brain for something 'wicked' with which he
could threaten her; finally remembering her low church principles he
declared boldly that if she would not let him have his way he would
'go and worship idols'.

The cousins regarded Winston with fascination and awe. 'We thought
he was wonderful,' Shane Leslie explains, 'because he was always leading
us to danger.' Sometimes the danger rested in hazardous bird's-nesting ex-
peditions, sometimes in fights with the village children, sometimes in full-
scale battles over carefully built fortresses. Once he persuaded Mrs. Everest
to organize an expedition to the Tower of London so that he could give
the younger children a detailed lecture on the tortures.

His cousin, Clare Frewen, who later as Clare Sheridan became widely
known as a sculptress and a writer, describes in her memoirs the impression
he made on her:

'Winston was a large school boy when I was still in the nursery. He
had a disconcerting way of looking at me critically and saying nothing.
He filled me with awe. His playroom contained from one end to the other
a plank table on trestles, upon wliich were thousands of lead soldiers
arranged for battle. He organized wars. The lead battalions were man-
oeuvred into action, peas and pebbles committed great casualties, forts
were stormed, cavalry charged, bridges were destroyed real water tanks
engulfed the advancing foe. Altogether it was a most impressive show,
and played with an interest that was no ordinary child game.

'One summer the Churchills rented a small house in the country for the
holidays. It was called Banstead. Winston and Jack, his brother, built a log
house with the help of the gardener's children and dug a ditch around it
which they contrived to fill with water, and made a drawbridge that
really could pull up and down. Here again war proceeded. The fort was
stormed. I was hurriedly removed from the scene of action as mud and
stones began to fly with effect. But the incident impressed me and Winston
became a very important person in my estimation.' 1

During the first three years that Winston was at school in Brighton,
Lord Randolph was moving rapidly towards the glittering height of his
career. Even though Winston was only nine he realized with immense
pride that his father was a great national figure. The newspapers were full
of his utterances, and the magazines ran dozens of cartoons. He noticed
proudly that strangers even took off their hats when Lord Randolph

1 Nuda Veritas: Clare Sheridan.

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 33

passed and he heard grown-ups speaking of him as 'Gladstone's great
adversary*. He pored over the daily papers and read every word of his
father's speeches. He bought a scrap-book and pasted in the cartoons. He
listened to whatever snatches of political talk he could hear, and acquainted
himself with knowledge of all die great personalities of the day. And, of
course, he lined up firmly on his father's side.

Anyone who was not interested in politics, he decided, must be very
stupid indeed. Once when he visited the Marylebone swimming baths in
London he .asked the attendant if he were a Liberal or a Conservative.
'Oh, I don't bother myself about politics,' replied the man. 'What,' gasped
Churchill in indignation, 'you pay rates and taxes and you don't bother
yourself about politics? You ought to want to stand on a box in Hyde
Park and tell people things.' On another occasion Winston refused to play
with a certain friend any more, and when the friend's father inquired why,
the boy answered: 'Winston says you're one of those damned Radicals and
he's not coming over here again.'

Lord Randolph was apparently unaware that he had such a staunch
supporter in his elder son. He was completely centred in his own affairs
and spared little time for his children. They were almost like strangers to
him and yet when Winston was thirteen his father introduced him to Bram
Stoker, the author ofDracula, saying: 'He's not much yet, but he's a good
'un.' Winston was enormously pleased by this tribute but during the next
few years was doomed to fall considerably in his father's estimation.

The trouble, once again, was school; and this time it was Harrow. From
the very first he was a failure. Most members of the Churchill family went
to Eton, but since Winston had suffered from pneumonia twice his mother
decided to send him to Harrow which, since it stands on a hill, was
supposed to be healthier for a boy with a weak chest. The Latin entrance
examination paper which Winston handed in, however, contained nothing
more than a figure one in brackets, two smudges and a blot. However,
Dr. Welldon, the Headmaster, took the unusual step of examining his
other papers himself, and being convinced that it was impossible for Lord
Randolph's son to be totally devoid of intelligence, persuaded himself that
they showed traces of originality. On the strength of his intervention
Winston was admitted.

Things went from bad to worse. Winston passed into Harrow the
lowest boy in the lowest form, and he never moved out of the Lower
School the whole five years he was there. Roll call was taken on the steps
outside the Old School and the boys used to file past according to their
scholastic record. Although in 1888 Lord Randolph was out of office he
was still a world figure and sometimes visitors gathered to catch a glimpse

34 WINSTON CHURCHILL

of the brilliant man's son. Winston often heard them exclaim in amaze-
ment: 'Why, he's the last of all!' Many years kter he proclaimed firmly:
Tm all for the Public Schools but I do not want to go there again.*

The masters struggled with Churchill in bewilderment and indignation.
He was self-confident and assertive; he could talk the hind leg off a donkey;
why could he not learn the rudiments of Latin and Mathematics? Churchill
insists that where 'my reason, imagination or interest was not engaged I
could not or would not learn'. 1 There is no doubt that stubbornness
pkyed a considerable part for when his twelve years of school came to
an end he declared with some pride that no one had ever succeeded in
making him write a Latin verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet.

As a result he remained perpetually at the bottom of the class; and as a
further result he was thoroughly grounded in English. If he was too stupid
to learn Latin he could at least learn English. He was drilled over and over
again in parsing and syntax. 'Thus,' he writes, 'I got into my bones the
essential structure of the ordinary British sentence which is a noble
thing. And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and
distinction for writing such beautiful Latin poetry and pithy Greek epi-
grams had to come down again to common English, to earn their living
or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage.' 2

Churchill loved to experiment with the use of words and was passion-
ately fond of declaiming. He astonished the Headmaster, Dr. Welldon, by
reciting twelve hundred lines of Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome without
making a single mistake, for which he won a school prize. 'I do not believe
I have ever seen in a boy of fourteen such a veneration of the English
language,' Welldon once declared. Other testimony comes from Mr.
Moore, who ran the Harrow Bookshop. 'Mr. Churchill ... in his school-
days already showed evidences of his unusual command of words. He
would argue in the shop on any subject, and, as a result of this, he was, I am
afraid, often left in sole possession of the floor.' 3

Churchill was no better at sport than he was at Latin or Greek. He hated
cricket and football and the only distinction he won was the Public Schools
Fencing Competition. He was not a popular boy. Instead of being sub-
dued by his failures he grew more self-assertive than ever. Once he crept
up behind a small boy standing on the edge of the swimming pool and
pushed him in. As the dripping and indignant figure climbed out, some
of the boys who had watched die incident chanted with delight, 'You're
in for it,' for the victim was none other than Leo Amery, a Sixth Form

1 My Early Life: Winston S. ChurchilL

Ibid.

9 Winston Churchill and Harrow: Ed. by E..D. W. Chaplin.'

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 35

boy, who was not only Head of his House but a champion at gym. When
Winston realized the full implications of his act he went up and apologized.
'I mistook you for a Fourth Form boy,' he explained, 'you are so small.'
Then, sensing that this had not improved matters, added quickly: 'My
father too is small and he also is a great man.' Leo Amery, who in later
years sat in many of the same Cabinets with Churchill, burst into laughter
and warned the miscreant to be more careful in the future.

Amery got his own back on Winston a short time later when the latter
wrote several letters to the school magazine criticizing the gym. Amery
was one of the schoolboy editors, and when Churchill's second contribu-
tion was sent in, containing an even more spirited attack than the first, he
wielded the blue pencil firmly. With tears in his eyes Winston remon-
strated that Amery was deleting his best paragraphs, but the latter was
adamant and the letter was published with the following footnote: *We
have omitted a portion of our correspondent's letter, which seemed to us
to exceed the limits of fair criticism. Eds. Harrovian. 9

Churchill's letters were published under the pen-name, Junius Junior,
and even with the excisions Welldon felt that he was going too far. He
summoned him and said that he had noticed certain articles of a subversive
character critical of the constituted authorities of the school; that as the
articles were anonymous he would not dream of asking who wrote them,
but that if any more of the same sort appeared it might be his painful duty
to swish Winston.

Churchill, however, was not intimidated by a dressing-down. Mr.
Tomlin, who was the Head of School in Winston's second year, wrote
that when Welldon once had Winston 'on the carpet' and said, 'Churchill,
I have very grave reason to be displeased with you,' the boy retorted
brightly, 'And I, sir, have very grave reason to be displeased with you.' 1
Despite Winston's sauce, Welldon confided to a friend that he was one
of his favourite pupils.

Churchill's literary efforts did not extend much further than his attacks
on the gym, save for a long poem on an epidemic of influenza. One of the
verses went:

And now Europe groans aloud

And 'neath the heavy thunder-cloud

Hushed is both song and dance;

The germs of illness wend their way

To westward each succeeding day

And enter merry France. 2

1 Winston Churchill and Harrow: Ed. by E. D. W. Chaplin.
Ibid.

36 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill did not worry about his unpopularity with his schoolmates,
for he was not a boy who feared to be alone; he could always find some-
thing amusing to do with his leisure. When he was fifteen he made an
experiment which fortunately escaped the notice of the masters. In the
town of Harrow there stood an old deserted house with a large garden.
As the building fell into decay it became known as 'The Haunted House*.
There was an old well in the garden and people claimed that a passage at
the bottom led to the Parish Church. Winston thought it would be fun
to find out whether this was true and hit upon the happy idea of blowing
it up. With some gunpowder, a stone ginger-beer bottle and a home-
made fuse he assembled an elementary but effective bomb, and placed it
at the bottom of the well. Nothing happened and he leaned over the wall.
At that moment the bomb exploded. Winston was not hurt but his face
was blackened and his hair and eyebrows singed. The neighbours hurried
to their windows and Mr. Harry Woodbridge, who still lives in Harrow,
declares that his aunt ran out to help the boy. She brought him into the
kitchen and bathed his face. When he left he thanked her and said: 'I ex-
pect this will get me the bag.' But the masters did not hear of the incident
and his fears were not realized.

Winston's indifference to his schoolmates probably revealed itself most
nobly in his attitude to the devoted Mrs. Everest. English Public Schools
are cruelly critical of the outward display of affection, and for this reason
boys have even been known to beg their parents to keep away. Winston
not only invited Mrs. Everest to visit him but when she arrived, enor-
mously fat and smiling, kissed her in front of all the boys and walked down
the street with her arm in arm. Jack Seely, an old Harrovian who after-
wards became one of Churchill's Cabinet colleagues, and won the D.S.O.
in the First War, witnessed the incident and described it as one of the
'bravest acts' he had ever seen.

Lord Randolph was startled and worried by his son's scholastic failures.
He felt that die boy must be backward and for the first time began to
concern himself about his future. Occasionally he visited him at Harrow
and followed the approved pattern of parental behaviour by taking him
and his school friend, Jack Milbanke, to luncheon at the King's Head
Hotel. Winston sat awkward and silent, listening to Milbanke conversing
so easily with his brilliant father and wishing with all his heart that he
could do the same. But Lord Randolph intimidated his son. He was
remote and impersonal and even then made no effort to gain his con-

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 37

fidence. The son was filled with admiration for his father, yet in his
presence was gauche and self-conscious.

One day when Winston was fourteen and home on holiday Lord
Randolph went up to the nursery. He found the boy playing with his
soldiers which were then over fifteen hundred strong. He studied them as
they stood arrayed in line of battle and asked him if he would like to be a
soldier. Winston was delighted to think that his father had discovered in
him the seeds of military genius and did not realize for many years that
Lord Randolph had decided that soldiering was the only career for a boy
of limited intelligence.

Winston was immensely pleased at the prospect of a military life. He
took a special course at Harrow to prepare him for his Sandhurst examina-
tion, but even here he did not succeed. Twice he took the examination
and twice he failed. In exasperation his father removed him from Harrow
and sent him to a crammer. He took the examination for the third time
and passed, but so low that he was not qualified to enter any regiment
but the cavalry. The cavalry accepted a lower standard since its primary
requisite was for young men of independent means who could and would
pay for their own horses.

When Lord Randolph heard of his son's latest failure he was very angry
and wrote him a terse letter warning him that if he did not pull himself
together he would be a 'social wastrel'. Lord Randolph had set his heart
on Winston's joining the 6oth Rifles, and now he had the humiliating
duty of writing to the Colonel of the Regiment and explaining that his
son was too stupid to qualify.

Despite his father's indignation Winston was thrilled at the thought of
becoming a cavalry officer. Fading was more fun than walking. He
entered Sandhurst with a light heart.

Just before Winston passed his final examination for Sandhurst he had
a serious accident. He went to visit his aunt, Lady Wimborne, at Bourne-
mouth. He was being chased by his cousin and his brother and suddenly
found himself cornered on a bridge, under which lay a ravine covered
with pine trees. He rashly decided to avoid capture by jumping into the
ravine, hoping that the trees would break his fall and deposit him on the
earth unhurt. His plan misfired and he fell twenty-nine feet on to hard
ground. The two boys ran into the house and fetched Lady Randolph,
saying: 'Winston jumped over the bridge and he won't speak to us.'

For three days he was unconscious. His father hurried from Ireland
and all the most eminent specialists of the day were summoned. He had a

38 WINSTON CHURCHILL

ruptured kidney which called for an immediate operation. The news went
round the Carlton Club that Lord Randolph's son had met with a serious
accident playing 'Follow my Leader', to which the wits replied: 'Lord
Randolph will never come to grief that way.'

Winston was laid up for nearly the whole of the year 1893. But his
convalescence, far from proving dull, opened up for him the exciting
world of politics that he had hitherto only read about. His parents took
him to London where they were living with his grandmother, the dowager
Duchess of Marlborough, at 50 Grosvenor Square. Lord Randolph was
a sick man; he was shrunken and pale and had grown an enormous,
shaggy beard that seemed to accentuate his illness. Yet he still dreamed of
retrieving his position. He felt he had been badly used and Winston had
heard him refer bitterly to the Tories as 'a Government and a party which
for five years have boycotted and slandered me.' 1 He had therefore gained
a certain amount of satisfaction when, a few months previously, Gladstone
had beaten the Tories at the polls and ascended the throne once again.

Lord Randolph's sister was married to Lord Tweedmouth, Gladstone's
chief whip, so the Churchills found themselves in the Liberals' inner
circle. Every day there were people for lunch and dinner and here the
eighteen-year-old Winston met for the first time many of the great figures
whom he was destined to know as colleagues in the days to come. He met
Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Edward Carson, Mr. Asquith, Mr.
John Morley, Lord Rosebery and many others. He often attended the
House of Commons, and heard Gladstone wind up the Third Reading of
the Home Rule Bill. One evening when Edward Carson came to dinner
and discovered that Winston had spent the afternoon in the gallery, he
said: 'What did you think of my speech?' Winston replied solemnly: 'I
concluded from it, sir, that the ship of State is struggling in heavy seas.'

What fascinated Winston most about the House of Commons was that
although the battle across the floor was sharp and fierce, when opponents
met outside the Chamber they were friendly and courteous. On one
occasion he heard his father and Sir William Harcourt exchanging very
acrimonious charges. Sir William seemed to him unnecessarily angry and
extremely unfair. He was therefore astonished when the latter came up
to him in the gallery, shook his hand and smiled and asked him what he
thought of the speech. The lack of rancour impressed Winston. It was the
truly sporting way to fight, he decided, as chivalrous as the knights of old;
and it is worth noticing that he has always modelled his own conduct on
these Victorian examples.

As the days passed he tried eagerly to draw closer to his strange father.

1 Lord Randolph Clwrchill: Winston S. Churchill.

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 39

A short time before his accident he had caught one fleeting glimpse of the
inner man, which encouraged him and filled him with hope. He had let
off a gun at a rabbit which happened to appear on die lawn just below
Lord Randolph's window. The latter spoke to his son angrily, then sud-
denly melted. He talked gently about school and the Army, and the
difficulties and rewards of life in general. At the end he said: 'Remember
things do not always go right wi th me. My every action is misjudged and
every word distorted. ... So make some allowances.' 1

The fact that Lord Randolph had unbent for these few minutes filled
Winston with hope. Perhaps one day, when he had made his name and
fortune, he would enter the House at his father's side and they would
fight their way together. But this talk was the only intimate conversation
he was ever to have with Lord Randolph.

Winston loved Sandhurst. For the first time he enjoyed studying for
now the lessons consisted of Tactics, Fortification, Topography and
Military Law. He learned how to blow up masonry bridges, constructed
breastworks, made road reconnaissances, and contoured maps. The wars
he particularly studied as 'the latest and best specimens' were the American
Civil War, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Franco-German War.

Horses were his greatest pleasure. Besides the instruction he received at
Sandhurst his father arranged for him to take an additional course in the
vacations with the Royal Horse Guards. He spent all his money on hiring
horses and muchof histimeinorganizingpoint-to-pointsandsteeplechases.

But he still retained a lively interest in politics, and during his last term
made his first public speech. The circumstances were unusual and comic.
In the summer of 1894 a certain Mrs. Ormiston Chant launched a Purity
Campaign which received much publicity. The chief object of her atten-
tion was the promenade of the Empire Theatre, a large space behind the
dress circle whi ch was alounge containing several bars and usuallyfilledwith
men and professional ladies. Since it was a favourite place of many of the
Sandhurst cadets many of them were naturally indignant at Mrs. Chant's
allegations of insobriety and immorality. The Daily Telegraph ran an article
against the kdy entitled: 'Prudes on the Prowl', and the batde was on.

Winston followed the controversy with immense interest, and one day
read in the paper that a certain gentleman was proposing to form a League
of Citizens under the name 'The Entertainments Protection League* and
was calling on all interested people to come forward and help form com-
mittees.

1 Lord Randolph Churchill: Winston S. Churchill.

40 WINSTON CHUKCHILL

He responded at once, and wrote to the founder saying that he would
travel to London for the first meeting. He then sat down and composed a
speech, dealing with the rights of the individual, which he learned by
heart. On the appointed day he travelled to London with the good wishes
of his colleagues. He was surprised to find the hotel small and dingy. But
he was even more surprised to find only one person there, the founder.
The latter admitted sadly that save for Cadet Churchill there had been no
response. Winston swallowed his disappointment and returned to Sand-
hurst, pawning his gold watch on the way to pay for his dinner.

This was not the end of the story. Winston and his friends attended the
promenade and were disturbed to see that screens had been put around the
bars to divide them from the public. A young man tapped one of the
screens with his cane; another pushed it, a third kicked. Suddenly two
hundred people were rushing at the screens, Winston conspicuous among
them. At the height of the excitement Churchill leapt on to a chair and
delivered his speech, but it was no longer the cold, reasoned, constitu-
tional effort. It was a heated, rousing speech shouted above the tumult.
Although this maiden oration fortunately escaped the notice of the press,
Richard Harding Davis, an American author who met Churchill in
London, was given a version of the speech by Winston's fellow officers,
and preserved a portion of it for posterity. 'Where does the Englishman
in London always find a welcome?' cried Churchill. 'Where does he first
go when, battle-scarred and travel-worn, he reaches home? Who is always
there to greet him with a smile and join him with a drink? Who is ever
faithful, ever true? The ladies of the Empire promenade!' 1

Luckily, this incident was not brought to the attention of Winston's
commanding officer.

In January 1895, two months before Winston received the Queen's
Commission, Lord Randolph Churchill died. It was a severe blow to his
son, for although the disappointed statesman had been increasingly ill in
the past few years the family dung doggedly to the hope that he would
recover both his health and his political position. Winston was eagerly
awaiting the day when his father would accept him as an equal. During
the boy's two years at Sandhurst Lord Randolph had occasionally taken
him to dinners and week-end parties and he was confident that they were
moving toward a closer understanding. But Lord Randolph never really
dropped his mask. 'If ever I began to show the slightest idea of comrade-
ship, he was immediately offended;' Winston wrote many years later,
1 Real Soldiers of Fortune: Richard Harding Davis.

HIS SCHOOLDAYS 41

*and when once I suggested that I might help his private secretary to write
some letters, he froze me into stone.' 1

Lord Randolph knew his son so litde that it never crossed his mind
that Winston even toyed with the idea of entering politics. Certainly it
never entered his head as a feasible proposition. Politics were expensive
in those days and Members of Parliament were unpaid. Besides, he could
not pretend his boy was clever. Some months previously he had even
written a friend in South Africa asking if there were any prospects in the
Colonies for he did not feel his son was likely to make his way in England.

Winston was just twenty when Lord Randolph died and he at once
assumed his role as head of the family. Relatives remember him at the
funeral, self-possessed and capable. They remember the hundreds of tele-
grams that poured in and the picture of Winston reading each one and
impaling it dramatically on a spike. The young man's future was now a
large question mark, for Lord Randolph had left his two sons no money.
His estate just settled his debts, and there was nothing over. In Victorian
days this was a severe handicap for a member of the ruling class, for with-
out money the road to politics was completely barred. It was even neces-
sary, of course, to have money as a cavalry officer. Lady Randolph gave
Winston an allowance of ^ 5 oo a year. He accepted it gratefully with a deter-
mination to make himself financially independent as quickly as possible.

Six months after his father's death Winston received another blow,
which was an even greater emotional loss. Mrs. Everest died. Throughout
the years the deep bond between her and Winston had remained as strong
as ever. 'She was,' he wrote, 'my dearest and most intimate friend during
the whole twenty years I had lived.' 2 When she had retired from the
Churchills' service some years before, Lord Randolph had paid tribute to
her devoted care by making a special trip in a hansom cab to lunch with
Lord Rothschild in order to invest her savings.

Mrs. Everest lived in North London, and when Winston heard she was
ill he hastened to her bedside. He had to return to Aldershot for an early
morning parade, then hurried back to her again. He sat with her for many
hours, and was with her when she died. He attended her funeral and when
she was lowered into her grave he wept as he had never wept for his own
father. Several years later, in India, he came across the passage Gibbon had
written about his nurse: 'If there be any, as I trust there are some, who
rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman their gratitude is due/
This, he declared, would be Mrs. Everest's epitaph: and to-day her picture
still hangs in his study at Chartwell.

1 My Early Life: Winston S. ChurchilL
8 Ibid.

CHAPTER FOUR

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT

Two MONTHS after Lord Randolph's death, Winston was gazetted to
the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. Although he was not a handsome boy, his
appearance was striking. He was of medium height, strong and wiry, with
a head that seemed too large for his body. He had a pug nose, large
protruding blue eyes, a pink and white skin a girl might have envied,
and a shock of red-gold hair that matched the braid on his uniform. An
impediment in his speech prevented him from pronouncing the letter V
clearly and gave him a slight lisp. Yet he was anything but effeminate.
His blue eyes were impudent and challenging and his round face had the
pugnacious look of the street urchin.

His birth and breeding automatically opened the doors to the powerful
oligarchic society which ruled Britain. This society consisted of a few
hundred great families who throughout the years had become widely
interrelated by marriage. 'Everywhere one met friends and kinsfolk,'
wrote Winston. 'The leading figures of Society were in many cases the
leading statesmen in Parliament, and also the leading sportsmen on the
Turf. Lord Salisbury was accustomed scrupulously to avoid calling a
Cabinet when there was racing at Newmarket, and the House of Com-
mons made a practice of adjourning for the Derby. In those days the glit-
tering parties at Lansdowne House, Devonshire House and Stafford House
comprised all the elements which made a gay and splendid social circle in
close relation to the business of Parliament, the hierarchies of the Army
and Navy, and the policy of the State.' 1

Winston found this new world greatly to his liking. Not only was he
free from the constraining atmosphere of the classroom but he was
delighted to findhimself moving on terms of social equality with the most
distinguished men of the day. Furthermore, he had discovered in his
mother a new and kindred spirit. Up till then Lady Randolph had paid
little attention to her son, but now that Winston had readied an age
where he could fit into her life she began to take an amused and genuine
interest in him. She introduced him to whoever he wished to meet and
made every effort to smooth his path. She did not attempt to exert a
maternal influence, and gradually a deep and affectionate brother-sister
relationship developed which lasted until her death.

1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill

42

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 43

Winston, however, was not a universal favourite. He moved bombasti-
cally and assertively through the sedate circles of Victorian society. He
was blunt and opinionated and indifferent to the social graces. His pro-
longed failure at school had increased, not diminished his aggressiveness,
for he was so eager to impress people with his unrecognized ability that he
seized every opportunity to force his ideas upon them. Small talk bored
him and he made no attempt to conceal his impatience with stupidity. He
did not hesitate to engulf his elders in a tide of rhetoric against which
they often struggled helplessly; and as a result he soon won the reputation
of being egotistical, rude and bumptious.

The young men of the 4th Hussars regarded him with good-natured
amusement. The majority were rich, charming and intellectually lazy.
Most of them had chosen a military career because it interfered less than
anything else with hunting and shooting and the pleasures of the London
season. In those days cavalry officers were paid only fourteen shillings a
day, and were obliged to dig into their own pockets to support themselves
and a string of horses as well. But their meagre salaries were balanced by
certain advantages. They had five months' leave a year, and even when
they were on duty their hours were neither arduous nor long. Although
Winston's mother made him an allowance of ^500 a year which in those
days had considerable purchasing power, his brother officers lived at such
a high standard he regarded himself as 'a poor man'.

However, Lieut. Churchill had not joined the army in order to embark
on a social career. It was not for nothing that the Duke of Marlborough
was his hero, or that he had arrayed his tin soldiers in line of battle and
dreamt of heroic deeds suitably rewarded by Fame. He was determined to
make a name for himself, but it was a depressing truth that there could be
no sensational military exploits if there were no wars. He looked at the
world of 1895 with dismay. If only he had been born at the end of the last
century with twenty years of Napoleonic battles stretching out before
him. The last war Britain had fought was in the Crimea in 1854, and still
there was scarcely a cloud on the horizon.

The only place any fighting was going on was in Cuba and one could
scarcely call a minor rebellion a war. However, he was soon to have a few
months' leave and a rebellion was better than nothing. He persuaded
Reginald Barnes, a fellow subaltern, to undertake the journey with him
and secured a few letters of introduction to the Spanish authorities in
Havana by writing to his father's old friend, Sir Henry Drummond-
Wolff who was at that time British Ambassador in Madrid, Then he
remembered that his father had once written several articles for the Daily
Graphic. In those days there were no regulations which forbade Army

44 WINSTON CHURCHILL

officers to write for the press, and many newspapers commissioned serving
officers to act as correspondents. Winston saw the editor of the Graphic and
succeeded in securing a commission for a series of dispatches at ^5 apiece.
The two young Hussars set out for Cuba early in November. Their
adventures proved to be more comical than dangerous and more jovial
than instructive; nevertheless the trip was an important turning point in
Winston's life for it launched him on the career of a war correspondent
which was to make him a national figure before five years had passed.)x

The Spanish authorities welcomed the two subalterns with surjmsing
cordiality. They were attempting to suppress a Cuban thrust for independ-
ence, and they insisted on interpreting the visit of the Englishmen as an
official gesture of friendship from a great and interested power. Every
courtesy was shown them and every facility placed at their disposal.
Arrangements were soon made to send them to join a Spanish column
of four thousand men that was marching through a jungle in which many
enemy patrols were operating.

It took the two Hussars several days to reach General Valdez's column.
They travelled first by train, then by boat and finally caught up with him
in the town of Sancti Spiritus. The General greeted them warmly, pro-
vided them with horses and explained to them that he was making a fort-
night's march through the insurgent districts. The long column set off in
the morning first moving through tangled jungles, then open spaces, then
more jungles. The enemy was well hidden, but on the morning of 30
November, Winston's twenty-first birthday, a few bullets whistled over
his head while he was camped near the roadside eating a chicken for his
breakfast. This was his baptism of fire. The next evening another volley
rang out while he and a group of officers were dressing after a swim,
causing them a certain amount of inconvenience and a good many jokes.
And later that night several more bullets lodged themselves in the thatch
of the hut in which he was sleeping.

On the third day the Spanish column attacked. Churchill and Barnes
were mounted and advanced with the General and his staff about fifty
yards behind the Spanish infantry. They watched the puffs of enemy
smoke in the distance and sat with dignity while bullets whistled around
them. Soon the rebel fire died away and the Spanish soldiers occupied the
insurgent positions. It was impossible to pursue the enemy because of the
density of the jungle, and the battle was over. The next day the English-
men left for England.

Winston sent several dispatches home. One opened with the jovial
declaration that first sentences, whether of a proposal of marriage or a
newspaper article, were always difficult. The other explained the handi-

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 45

caps under which journalists operated. 'While the Spanish authorities are
masters of the art of suppressing the truth,' he wrote, 'the Cubans are
adepts at inventing falsehoods/

Churchill and Barnes felt that they had had their money's worth.
Besides all the fun, they had learned to appreciate Havana cigars, rum
cocktails, and the merits of the Spanish siesta. When the first World War
came, Winston adopted the habit of the afternoon siesta and has con-
tinued it ever since. But more important still, the young men now con-
sidered themselves authorities on war. None of their fellow subalterns
had been to a war and although their own experience was limited to three
days they could boast triumphantly of 'having seen fighting in Cuba'.

They reached England to learn that the 4th Hussars were soon to sail
for India.

The necessary regimental preparations took nearly nine months and it
was not until the autumn of 1896, a year and a half after Winston had first
received his commission, that die Hussars finally set forth. When the ship
anchored in Bombay Harbour he was so anxious to get ashore that he
embarked in a small boat. Upon reaching the quay he grabbed at an iron
ring to pull himself up and dislocated his shoulder, which was to prove a
handicap in later life.

The regiment was stationed at Bangalore. Winston moved into a pink
and white bungalow covered with roses which he shared with three other
officers. The young men pooled their money, organized their servants and
settled down happily to enjoy themselves. They ipent the mornings drill-
ing, parading and attending to their regimental duties, and the afternoons
in sleeping. But at five o'clock the real business of the day began. In the
cool of the evening they had strenuous and thrilling polo matches, for polo
was the pivot around which the life of all cavalry officers in India centred.
Although Winston had to ride with his shoulder strapped he often played
ten or twelve chukkas. His life was entirely carefree except for occasional
money worries. Polo ponies were expensive, and the mess operated on a
lordly scale. Every now and then he was forced to visit the native money-
lenders where he borrowed money at the rate of twenty-four per cent in-
terestayear.Butin the endall these matters seem to haveadjusted themselves.

Winston enjoyed his new existence to the full Nevertheless he found
Hmself beginning, tatJiink of more serious things, and for the first time he
became painfully aware of the fact that^ he wa^bacUyjeducaj^d. Years
later he likened his education to a Swiss cheese 'smooth on the surface
but too many holes in it/ He wrote to his mother and asked her to send

46 WINSTON CHURCHILL

him some books. Gradually he developed the habit of reading for three or
four hours each day. He read Plato's Republic, Aristotle on Politics,
Schopenhauer on Pessimism, Malthus on Population, Darwin's Origin
of Species. But the books that interested him most, first for their worfder-
ful English and second for their thrilling subject matter, were Gibbon's
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Macaulay's History of England.
He read and re-read these two authors, revelling in their wonderful,
rolling phrases and memorizing long passages by heart. He tried to pat-
tern his own writing on their style and subconsciously even began to
phrase his thoughts in their polished language.

Although Winston admitted the deficiencies of his education he was
careful not to allow anyone else to draw attention to them. He was as
cheeky as ever. He could not refrain from criticism and advice, and was
seldom able to flavour either with tact. An old Field-Marshal, who was
serving as a captain in India at the time, told me of an occasion when
Winston and several of his fellow officers were invited to dinner at the
Viceroy's Palace. Pomp and ceremony blazed at such functions, and rules
of procedure were observed with meticulous care. The young Army
officers were kept at one end of the reception room, while the great ones
of India, the governors and princes, or 'heaven-boms', as they were called,
talked politics at the other end. Winston listened impatiently to the banal
conversation of his contemporaries, then strode down the length of the
room, pushed his way into the celebrated circle and began to give them
advice on how to run the country. 'That sort of thing,' said the Field-
Marshal, 'did not contribute to his popularity/

And yet if Winston could be annoying he could also be disarming. He
was aware of the unfavourable impression he created and was usually
indifferent to it, but his indifference was never cold for he was incapable
of holding any malice. He had the rare quality of never resenting the
resentment of those to whom he had been rude, and often took his enemies
unawares by offering a sudden warm apology. Once sufficient time had
elapsed to give him perspective, he had die gift of surveying himself with
humour and detachment In My Early Life he produces a literary bonne
bouche in describing an occasion, shortly after his arrival in India, when
he was in one of his most aggressive moods. The Governor of Bombay,
Lord Sandhurst, entertained Winston and a brother officer at dinner.
'We . . . enjoyed a banquet of glitter, pomp, and iced champagne,' he
wrote. 'His Excellency, after the health of the Queen-Empress had been
drunk and dinner was over, was good enough to ask my opinion on
several matters, and considering the magnificent character of his hos-
pitality I thought it would be unbecoming in me not to reply fully. I have

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 47

forgotten the particular points of British and Indian affairs upon which he
sought my counsel; all I can remember is that I responded generously.
There were indeed moments when he seemed willing to impart his own
views; but I thought it would be ungracious to put him to so much
trouble; and he very readily subsided/

Although Winston enjoyed the Army life in Bangalore, and particularly
the thrilling polo matches, he began to grow restless. The more he read
and the more he talked, the more certain he became that he was intended
for great things. A sharp driving ambition was growing within him that
seemed to be increasing each day; and at the age of twenty-two he felt
there was no time to lose. He must establish a name for himself as quickly
as possible. But how could he show the world the stuff he was made of if
his regiment remained in idleness? What chance was there for him to
win his spurs in peaceful Bangalore?

He was in this impatient mood in the summer of 1897 when he was in
England on leave. One morning he picked up a newspaper and read that
fighting had broken out on the Northwest Frontier and General Sir
Bindon Blood was in charge^ Sir Bindon was a descendant of a notorious
character named Colonel Blood who had tried to steal the Crown Jewels
from the Tower of London in the reign of Charles ILlWinston had made
friends with the General at a social function in England the year before,
and the latter agreed that if any trouble broke out on the frontier he would
let the young subaltern join him. Churchill promptly sent him a telegram
reminding him of his promise, and the reply came back that although
there were no vacancies on liis staff if Winston could get a job as a war
correspondent he would be pleased to have him with him.

Winston left for India in a high state of excitement He persuaded the
editor of an Indian paper, the Allahabad Pioneer, to employ him, and even
more important, persuaded the Colonel of the Queen's Hussars to grant
him leave from his regiment. He then travelled two thousand miles across
India to the frontier.

The command Winston joined was known as the Malakand Field
Force. Its task was to suppress an uprising among the fierce Pathan tribes-
men on the frontier, against a grandiose background of high rugged moun-
tains, small mud villages and broad arid plains. Winston was allowed to
attach himself to a brigade of cavalry and infaptry which had been given
orders to march- through the Mamund Valley ^he column started forth in
war-like formation preceded by a squadron of Bengal Lancers, then broke
up into small sections. Before the day was out Winston's group came into
contact with a band of fierce Pathan savages. The Adjutant of his regiment
was wounded a few yards from Winston, who saw a tribesman rush at the

48 WINSTON CHURCHILL

stricken officer and kill him with a slash of his sword. Then the savage
picked up a stone, hurled it at Winston and waited for him, brandishing
his sword. Churchill pulled out his revolver and fired several shots, then
realizing he was alone and surrounded by the enemy he ran as fast as he
could and took cover behind a knoll where he found a handful of his own
soldiers. The fighting lasted several hours. Winston and his men carried
two wounded officers and six wounded Sikhs back to safety.

For the next fortnight part of the Field Force carried out a punitive
expedition through the valley which provided Winston with more
fighting and more copy. When the operation finally came to an end Sir
Bindon Blood stated in dispatches that the officer commanding the forces
had 'praised the courage and resolution of Lieut. W. L S. Churchill, 4th
Hussars, the correspondent of the Pioneer newspaper, who had made him-
self useful at a critical moment.'

After this thrilling adventure Winston had no wish to return to the
routine life of Bangalore. His mother had been busy on his behalf in
London and had landed him a job as correspondent to the Daily Telegraph.
He tried energetically to secure a permanent appointment to the Malakand
Field Force, but suddenly operations came to an end and the command
was disbanded. This was disappointing but at the same time news came
that another force was being organized to carry out a punitive expedition
in Tirah, another trouble spot on the Northwest Frontier. Winston
began to pull strings, but by this time influential generals and colonels had
formed a strong prejudice against the bumptious young officer. He could
not resist offering them advice and lecturing them on strategy and he even
had the effrontery to criticize them in his articles. Who did the young
whippersnapper think he was, anyway? They would show him, and as a
result Winston found his path firmly blocked. Sorrowfully he was forced
to return to the uneventful life of Bangalore where his brother officers made
it plain that they thought it high time he attended to his regimental duties.
But Winston did not abandon his efforts. He still cast wistful eyes to-
wards Tirah, and with his mother's help in London he exerted all the
pressure he could to advance his aims. He wrote letters, sent telegrams,
inveigled and implored. Finally a letter arrived from an old friend,
Colonel Ian Hamilton, informing him that a certain Captain Haldane
was A.D.C. to Sir William Lockhart, the Commander-in-Chief of the
expedition, and advising him that if he could impress himself sufficiently
on Haldane the latter had sufficient influence to get him an appointment
on the General's staff. Once again Winston obtained leave from his
Colonel and once again he travelled across India. He was received by
Captain Haldane who listened to his story and said he would have to

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 49

discuss the matter with his chief. Ten minutes later he reappeared and to
Winston's great joy announced that he could give him an appointment
as an extra orderly officer on the Commander's staff.

This was such a stroke of good fortune that Winston strained every
nerve to continue his good behaviour. For once he was neither bumptious
nor cheeky. 'I behaved and was treated,' he wrote, 'as befitted my youth-
ful station. I sat silent at meals or only rarely asked a tactful question.'

Captain Haldane obviously had no idea what an effort this cost Lieut.
Churchill, for years later when he was an old, distinguished and retired
general he wrote in his memoirs that although Churchill 'was widely
regarded in the Army as super-precocious, indeed by some as insufferably
bumptious' that 'neither of these epithets was applicable.' 'On the con-
trary,' he continued, 'my distinct recollection of him at this time was that
he was modest and paid attention to what was said, not attempting to
monopolize the conversation or thrust his opinions and clear-cut
opinions they were on many subjects on his listeners. He enjoyed giving
vent to his views on matters military and otherwise, but there was nothing
that could be called aggressive or self-assertive which could have aroused
antagonism among die most sensitive of those with whom he was
talking.' 1

It all went to prove that Lieut. Churchill knew how to conduct himself
when his interests were at stake. However, his well-laid plans and his
justifiable hopes were to come to nothing. Peace suddenly broke out and
the expedition was abandoned. Once more Churchill returned forlornly
to Bangalore.

While Winston was in Bangalore trying to attach himself to the Tirah
expedition he was not idle. His dispatches on the fighting at the frontier
had been colourful and amusing and he suddenly decided to write a book
entitled TheMalakand Field Force. He worked furiously and at the end of
two months had produced a lively and detailed account of the campaign.
The book soon found a publisher and when it came out a few months
later the critics were friendly and the public enthusiastic. The Prime
Minister, Lord Salisbury, read it, and the Prince of Wales wrote the author
a letter of congratulation. Everyone was delighted except the Army. The
generals noticed with annoyance and anger that 2nd Lieut. Churchill had
been very free with his censure. He criticized the 'short service' system of
recruitment; the fact that soldiers were not equipped with chocolate or
sausages on their marches; that retiring companies were not covered by
1 A Soldier's Saga: General Sir Aylmer Haldane.

5O WINSTON CHURCHILL

continuous fire; that civil officers were encouraged to collect military
information from the enemy. And then ended undaunted: 'There will not
be wanting those who will remind me that in this matter my opinion
finds no support in age or experience. To such I shall reply that if what is
written is false or foolish, neither age nor experience should fortify it;
and if it is true, it needs no such support.'

Winston was so encouraged by the success of his book, that he promptly
sat down to write another. This time he decided to try his hand at a novel.
While his brother officers were taking siestas on the hot Indian afternoons,
he worked. His theme was a revolt in Ruritania with a hero who over-
threw the Government and was then threatened with a socialist revolu-
tion. The climax centred in an iron-dad fleet firing on the capital to quell
die murderous radicals. The story was called Savrola aud although it was
not hailed as a masterpiece it was serialized in Macmillans Magazine and
earned the author 700. Winston was quick to see its literary defects and
decided never again to attempt fiction. 'I have consistently urged my
friends to abstain from reading it/ he wrote in kter years.

Winston felt in his bones that he was meant for the battlefield. But he was
not content to lead a minor campaign. He wanted a career along the lines
of Marlborough or Napoleon, but in 1898 people were saying emphati-
cally that major wars were a thing of the past.

Reluctantly he came to the conclusion that if Fame was to be his quarry
he must change his course. The more he studied his father's life the more it
stirred him. The House of Commons offered excitement, and the prizes
were great. Besides, there was no bar to youth and he was in a hurry. Lord
Randolph had reached the Cabinet at the age of thirty-six, and perhaps he
would do the same. He made up his mind to enter Parliament as soon as
possible. He knew that he would be unable to secure a Conservative seat
without money and a reputation, but he was confident that he could win
both by his pen, if only Britain's 'little wars' would provide him with
sufficiently exciting material to catch the public eye.

He was delighted to learn therefore, in the spring of 1898, that Sir
Herbert Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-Egyptian
Army, was planning a large-scale offensive to liberate the Sudan from the
tyrannical rule of the Dervishes. This would be a thrilling campaign and
he was determined to be in it. Once again he started pulling strings, but
the hostility towards him in military circles had been growing and now
extended to the powerful Kitchener himself. Although Winston obtained
permission from the War Office to join the Egyptian forces, and leave

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 51

from his regiment, and even wangled a commission with the 2ist Lancers,
Kitchener flatly refused to have him. Lady Randolph, who knew the
General personally, wrote him a letter but die 'no* still remained firm.

Then one day Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, wrote Winston tell-
ing him how much he had enjoyed his book The Malakand Field Force and
invited him to come and see him. The latter accepted with alacrity, and
spent half an hour with the Prime Minister discussing military operations
in India. When he left the aged statesman told him to let him know if
he could ever be of any help to him. Winston took him at his word
and asked him to intervene with Kitchener. But even Salisbury failed.
Kitchener still said no.

Winston, however, never abandoned hope, and finally got his way
through the rivalry which existed between Kitchener and the War Office.
Sir Evelyn Wood, the Adjutant-General, felt that Kitchener was being too
autocratic in picking and choosing officers despite the recommendations
of the War Office. The case of young Churchill gave him an opportunity
to assert himself. He declared that Kitchener was Commander of the
Egyptian Army but not of the British Army; that the 2ist Lancers were
part of the Expeditionary Force and not under his control until they
arrived in Egypt; and sent Winston a note informing him that he was
attached to die Lancers, and ordering him to report at once to Regi-
mental Headquarters in Cairo. 'It is understood/ said the communica-
tiotff'that you will proceed at your own expense and that in the event of
your being killed or wounded in the impending operations or for any
other reason, no charge of any kind will fall on British Army Funds/
With this our hero set off for die wars. Before leaving he signed up with
the Morning Post to write articles at 15 each.

He arrived in Cairo on I August. He learned that two squadrons of
the 2ist Lancers had already started up the Nile and the other two were
scheduled to leave in the morning. A troop in one of the leading squadrons
had been reserved for him but because of the uncertainty of his arrival it
had been given to Lieut GrenfdL This was part ofWinston's luck for Gren-
fell and his troop were destined to be cut to pieces in the batde to come.

The regiment travelled fourteen hundred miles into the heart of
Africa. It took them nearly three weeks to reach the front, an outpost
about twenty miles from the great city of Omdurman. They journeyed
by train and steamer, then marched two hundred miles through blistering
heat in full batde array. The tension and excitement mounted as they
drew nearer their destination and heard the first reports of horsemen in
white with Dining, curved swords.

A few hours after the Lancers had reached their final camp Winston

52 WINSTON CHURCHILL

had his first sight of the enemy. He rode up to an advance outpost where,
with several other officers, he looked through field glasses and saw a long
dark smudge on the horizon which was the massed Dervish Army sixty
thousand strong. The shadow was beginning to move and Winston was
ordered to ride post haste to Kitchener and give him the latest report. He
was exhilarated at the thought of the coming action but filled with
apprehension at having to face the Commander who had flatly refused to
have him in Egypt. He cantered back seven miles, paused on a hill to
watch the British Army advancing in splendid formation with their
standards flying, and Kitchener himself leading the procession, then rode
forward and delivered his message. Kitchener asked a few questions, and
then dismissed his^informant; he did not know who he was.

That night all was quiet. The Dervish Army had not attacked after all.
Several British gun-boats were anchored on the Nile not far from
Winston's camp, and some of the naval officers chaffed with the soldiers
about the coming battle. A young man named Beatty flung a bottle of
champagne ashore which Winston picked up.

At dawn the great battle began. Kitchener's Army consisted of only
twenty thousand men, but it was an uneven struggle. Some of the
Dervishes had antiquated guns but most of them attacked with lances and
swords and were mown down by the artillery and rifle fire of the British.
At the end of an hour the ground was strewn with over twenty thousand
Dervishes, dead and wounded. Winston watched the great dash from an
observation post only four hundred yards away. The enemy swept across
the sands like a great incoming tide cheering fanatically for God, his
prophet, and the Khalifa. c We were so dose, as we sat spellbound on our
horses,' he wrote, 'that we almost shared their perils. I saw the full blast
of Death strike this human wall. Down went their standards by dozens and
their men by hundreds. Wide gaps and shapeless heaps appeared in their
array. One saw them jumping and tumbling under the shrapnd bursts;
but none turned back.' 1

The Lancers played no part in the initial assault but as soon as the main
body of the Dervish Army was broken and retreating they had orders to
reconnoitre and find out what enemy forces stood between Kitchener and
Omdurman. The three hundred men of the 2ist Lancers had little idea
when they mounted their horses that they were going to provide the
most dramatic chapter of the day's fighting.

They were riding forward when suddenly two thousand Dervishes
who had been concealed in a water course rode up from the ground like
magic. The Colond intended to wheel around to their flank but the
1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill.

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 53

Dervishes opened fire and he had no choice but to charge them. "The
trumpet sounded "Right wheel into line", and all the sixteen troops
swung around towards the blue-black riflemen/ wrote Winston. 'Al-
most immediately the regiment broke into a gallop, and the 2ist
Lancers were committed to the charge. ... In one respect a cavalry charge
is very like ordinary life. So long as you are all right, firmly in your saddle,
your horse in hand, and well armed, lots of enemies will give you a wide
berth. But as soon as you have lost a stirrup, have a rein cut, have dropped
your weapon, are wounded, or your horse is wounded, then is the
moment when" from all quarters enemies rush upon you. Such was the
fate of not a few of my comrades in the troop immediately on my left/ 1
The charge took only two minutes. The Lancers lost twenty dead and
fifty wounded, but the enemy was in full flight.

The story caused widespread interest in England, for even in 1898 the
cavalry charge was almost a thing of the past. Revolvers, rifles and
artillery were giving war a new technique, and the action in which
Winston took part was almost the last of its kind in British history. But
the newspapers of the nineteenth century were so staid and dull the
Morning Post did not think to exploit its good fortune in having a well-
known journalist as an eye-witness. It ran Winston's account without
even bothering to sign his name, and however much their 'special corres-
pondent* wrote, printed only one short paragraph on the day's fighting in
the middle of a column of closely printed type. Very few people would
guess that this is what came from Mr. Churchill's pen at the end of one
of the most exciting days of his life:

Camp at Omdurman.
2 Sept

THE GENERAL ENGAGEMENT

The Dervishes attacked our Zareba at Kerreri shortly before seven in
the morning.

The battle lasted five hours, the enemy charging repeatedly.

The gunboats, artillery and Maxims did deadly execution at long range.

The enemy eventually wavered and fell back. Whereupon British
Brigades, with the cavalry, advanced towards Omdurman.

A great mass of the enemy, accompanied by horsemen, suddenly
charged the First and Second Brigades from the right flank.

Both sides showed great gallantry.

The Dervishes were completely destroyed, though our losses were not
severe.

1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill. '

54 WINSTON CHURCHILL

The Lancers suffered the greatest proportion of casualties.
Omdurman was taken at sundown.

The Khalifa has not yet been captured but troops are pursuing him.
Charles Neufeld, a European who has been a prisoner with the Der-
vishes for many years, has been released/

Besides Winston, only three survivors of the cavalry charge are alive
to-day. One of them, Mr. Morris, a private soldier who now lives m
retirement in Dublin, wrote me a letter about the part Churchill played,
In contrast to the antagonism Winston aroused among his senior officers
this touching tribute is interesting for the warm regard which the ordinary
man felt for him. 'Mr. Churchill/ he says, 'was in command of my troop
and I must say that he was a daring and a resourceful soldier. I was only
nineteen years of age then and Mr. Churchill must have been about
twenty-four years of age. The morning of the battle my regiment was
told to scout out and turn their flank and during this manoeuvre I saw
him dismount and firing his revolver at the Dervishes. When he was
spotted by my colonel whose name was Martin he was told to mount his
horse and join his troop, and no sooner had he joined when the regiment
wheeled into line for tie charge. We had a drop of six feet or more and
the ditch was about twenty feet wide. They were lying in wait for us. I
saw Mr. Churchill firing away for all he was worth. The troop went into
the charge twenty-five strong but only twelve of us were left, some were
killed and others wounded.

'After the batde that night when I was picketing my hone, down my
foot came in contact with a bundle of rags and on picking it up I found
it was a Dervish baby. Just then Mr. Churchill came down the line
asking if anybody knew of any man who had done a great deed. When
he came to me I handed the baby to him and like a gentleman he took it to
the Sudanese lines as they had their wives with them and that was the last
time I saw him. I would like to see him again before I leave this world.
I am going on for seventy-three years of age/

Three weeks after the charge Winston was on his way back to London
and he now took a momentous step. He decided the time had come to
leave the Army and strike out on his own. The Morning Post was impressed
by his enterprise and he was certain they would give him a permanent job.
But first he decided to write a book on the Egyptian campaign. With
characteristic zeal he proceeded at once, working half the night on the
ship that was taking him home* On the voyage he struck up a friendship

CUBA, INDIA AND EGYPT 55

with a newspaper correspondent, G. W. Steevens of the Daily Mail. The
latter was immensely struck by the young man's energy and brilliance
and wrote an article about him describing him as 'the youngest man in
Europe*. He went on to predict: 'There will hardly be room for him in
Parliament at thirty or in England at forty*.

Other people were not so complimentary, particularly the military
hierarchy. They called him a 'young whippersnapper', a 'medal snatcher*
and a 'self-advertiser 9 . Although he had held a commission in the 4th
Hussars for four years they pointed out that he had spent less than six
months on routine duty. This was true but what they failed to appreciate
was his extraordinary capacity for hard work both physical and mental.
While his brother officers spent their evenings talking and drinking in the
mess, he was working. Although he was not yet twenty-five he had pro-
duced three books. Winston's outlook on these matters was distinctly
Victorian. His philosophy was expressed by the hero of his novel Savrola.
* "Would you rise in the world?" said Savrola. "You must work while
others amuse themselves. Are you desirous of a reputation for courage?
You must risk your life. Would you be strong morally or physically? You
must resist temptation. All this is paying in advance." '

Although Winston was unpopular with generals another proof of the
loyalty of his subordinates comes from an old man of eighty-two who
served in Mr. Churchill's regiment in India as a sergeant-major. His
name is Mr. Halkway and he now lives on splendid memories in a little
house in Wimbledon. I called on Him there and found a charming person
with bright blue eyes and a handsome snow-white moustache. He seemed
pleased to talk of the old days and showed me pictures of the young
gentlemen of the 4th Hussars in their wonderful uniforms with astrakhan
collars and cuffs. ('They cost 150 apiece, madam.') 'Mr. Churchill was
a real live one/ he beamed. 'Not at all stuffy like some of the other
officers, if you know what I mean. Easy going, and always ready for a
joke. He hated to see chaps punished. The officers used to inspect the
stables every day and we never knew when they were coming. But Mr.
Churchill would whisper to me "Eleven-thirty, sergeant-major". But
perhaps you had better not mention that,' he broke off anxiously, *he
ought not to have done it. But the great thing about him was the way he
worked. He was busier than half the others put together. I never saw him
without pencils sticking out all over him. And once when I went to his
bungalow I could scarcely get in what with books and papers and fool-
scap all over the place. Oh, he was a live one. He told me he was leaving
the Army to earn some money. We always had one thing m common.
Both of us was always broke. . . .'

56 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston returned to India, said good-bye to his regiment, and took
part in a polo tournament which he won. Then he went to Egypt and dis-
cussed and checked his manuscript. The book was called The River War and
was published in two volumes. It aroused a good deal of interest but did
litde to appease military circles for the author did not hesitate to criticize
Kitchener. He condemned him hody for ordering the desecration of the
Mahdi's Tomb. He told how the Mahdi's corpse was dug up and cut to
pieces and commented acidly: 'Such was the chivalry of the conquerors!'

In June 1899, three months after he had resigned from the Army, he was
invited to fight a by-election as Conservative candidate for Oldham, a
great Lancashire working-class constituency. Purely political issues were
far less absorbing in those days and Winston's opening speech was on the
issue of high church versus low. He began with a diatribe on the 'lawless-
ness and disorder in the Church of England' caused by the introduction
of 'ritualistic practice'. This was an opinion he had acquired from both
his nurse and his masterful aunt, Lady Wimborne, and he fought their
cause with fervour. He was sure, he told his audience, that this subject was
uppermost in its mind.

He also fought on the well known Tory platform of 'unity of the
Empire', the 'benefits of the existing system of society* and the 'virtues
of Conservative rule'. However, as die election progressed it became
apparent that the opposition was gaining ground by the unpopularity of a
Tithes Bill which at that moment was being passed through the House of
Commons. The Bill had been introduced to help the Church of England's
poor clergy, but it was arousing widespread antagonism among Non-
conformists, a large number of whom lived in Lancashire. Winston's
Conservative supporters did not like the Bill, and in the middle of the
campaign he suddenly threw it overboard, promising not to vote for it
if he were returned to Parliament.

This spectacular move caused an uproar. In the House of Commons
Liberals were able to jeer at the Government with the taunt that even their
Conservative candidate did not dare face the electors on the issue; and
Mr. Balfour, the Leader of the House, remarked acidly: 'I thought he was
a young man of promise, but it appears he is a young man of promises/

Winston was beaten at the poU. He returned to London to find himself
the subject of general abuse, for even the newspapers were running
leaders saying that in the future the Conservatives must not send raw
young candidates to fight working-class areas.

Sadder, wiser, but still undaunted he turned his attention back to his book.

CHAPTER FIVE "
FAME

THE WHEEL of Fortune holds many surprises. Six months after his defeat
at Oldham, Churchill's name was ringing throughout England. He was a
national hero.

The scene of his triumph was the South African War, a war which was
denounced by many Radicals as 'shameful* and became the subject of
bitter debates in Parliament. The war was brought about by the demands
of the Tory Imperialists of the day led by Joseph Chamberlain. Gold and
diamond mines had been discovered near Johannesburg which, in the past
ten years, had attracted a rush of British pioneers and business men. These
newcomers were bitterly resented by the Dutch or 'Boer* farmers who
had settled in South Africa a century and a half before, and who had
established two independent republics, the Orange Free State and the
Transvaal. The Dutch were determined not to allow the British settlers
to gain political control of their affairs, while the British Government,
toying with the idea of building a railway from Cairo to the Cape,
became increasingly attracted by die possibility of 'uniting* the length of
South Africa under British rule. This was the fundamental issue under-
lying the events of 1899. Chamberlain demanded that British subjects
residing in the Transvaal should be granted full rights of citizenship after
five years of residence. As the crisis developed, the Boer President, Mr.
Kruger, finally agreed to the proposals, but his concession only drew
further demands from the British, and he finally dug in his toes. He sent
an ultimatum to London and a few days later war had begun.

In those days Winston was not so much concerned with the rights and
wrongs of an issue as with getting himself to the front This time he had
no difficulty, for his book The River War had been hailed by the critics as
a brilliant military history. Shortly after the Boer ultimatum was pub-
lished the Morning Post asked him to travel to South Africa as their special
correspondent. They would pay all his expenses, and a salary of 250 per
month which, at that time, was an unheard-of figure.

Delighted by his stroke of good fortune he sailed in the Dunottar Castle
on ii October. The ship contained many distinguished passengers includ-
ing General Sir Redvers Buller, the Commander-in-Chief of the British
Army, and his entire Headquarters Staff. Winston would have liked to
have made the acquaintance of the General, but the latter had no time for

57

58 WINSTON CHURCHILL

journalists', so Churchill was forced to content himself with lesser fry.
His great fear, as the ship moved slowly through the waters, was that
the show would be over before he arrived. The Army believed that a war
against untrained Boer fanners could not possibly last more than three
months, but in fact it dragged on nearly three years, and cost the Treasury
^200,000,000.

On the voyage Winston made friends with a young man, Mr. J. B.
Atkins, who was correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Atkins is now
an old man of over eighty, a charming and soft-spoken person whose eyes
gleam with humour and pride when he talks of his trip with Churchill.
He was immensely struck by the latter's dynamic personality, and it is
obvious that Winston found Atkins a sympathetic character, for he at
once poured out his heart to him. Many years later Atkins recorded some
of their conversation in his memoirs, 1 producing the most sensitive and
amusing pen portrait of Winston at this period that has ever been pub-
lished. *I had not been many hours on board before I became aware of a
most unusual young man/ he wrote. 'He was slim, slightly reddish-
haired, pale, lively, frequently plunging along the deck with neck out-
thrust, as Browning fancied Napoleon; sometimes sitting in meditation
folding and unfolding his hands, not nervously but as though he were
helping himself to untie mental knots. Soon we conversed. He told me
that he was Winston Churchill, that he was correspondent for the Morning
Post, that he had already seen fighting in Cuba in 1895, with the Malakand
Field Force, with Lockhart's Tirah Force, and in Egypt where he had been
in the charge at Omdurman. He coveted a political career above all.

'It was obvious that he was in love with words. He would hesitate
sometimes before he chose one or would change one for a better. He
might, so far, have been just a young writer or speaker very conscious of
himself and his art. But when the prospects of a career like that of his
father, Lord Randolph, excited him, then such a gleam shot from him
that he was almost transfigured. I had not before encountered this sort of
ambition, unabashed, frankly egotistical, communicating its excitement,

and extorting sympathy He stood alone and confident, and his natural

power to be himself had yielded to no man. It was not that he was without
the faculty of self-criticism. He could laugh at his dreams of glory, and
he had an impish fun: that was what it was in those days rather than an
impish wit It was as though a light was switched on inside him which
suddenly shone out through his eyes; he compressed his lips; he contracted
himself slightly as though gathering himself together to spring; the whole
illuminated face grinned. I never heard him bring out a jocular or mis-
1 Incidents and Reflections: J. B. Atkins.

FAME 59

chievous remark without these symptoms of his own preliminary relish/
Atkins and Churchill agreed to knit their fortunes together. They
decided to travel to Durban, a four-day journey by rail and steamer, then
to try and get through to Ladysmith where they believed the heaviest
fighting would take place, and where Winston's friend General Ian
Hamilton had promised to give him 'a good show*. However, when they
reached the town of Estcourt they found that Ladysmith had been cut off,
and that troops were being hurriedly concentrated to protect the southern
part of Natal from an impending attack.

Churchill and Atkins pitched their tent in the railway yard at Estcourt
and talked far into the night. Winston showed his friend articles which
had been published in the Morning Post, and two still in manuscript, and
invited his criticism. 'He was gratified,' wrote Atkins, 'by the wide
interest which his work had already aroused. When I read his articles, he
said, "Now what do you think of them? Is the interest due to any merit
in me, or is it because I am Randolph's son?" "Do you want a candid
answer?" "Naturally. Any other would be useless." "Well," said
Atkins, "I notice in your articles a sweep and a range of thought, par-
ticularly in your philosophical vision of a true Imperialism, which I should
not find in articles of other correspondents. But, then, would your articles
have excited so much interest if I had written them? I think not"
' "A fair verdict. But how long will my father's memory help me?"
' "Curiosity is very keen for a time, but only a short time. I should think it
will help you for two or three years, but after that everything will depend
on you. But I honesdy don't think you will have to rely on your father."
'Winston told me,' continued Atkins, 'that the Morning Post had been
very kind to him in his political campaigning so far. It had given a good
deal of praise to his speeches, and had even allowed him to visit the office
to revise proofs. On one occasion die Editor was surprised at the modesty
of youth when Winston struck out "Cheers" at the end of a speech, but
was still more surprised when he substituted "Loud and prolonged
applause". "The worst of it is," went on Winston, "that I am not a good
life. My father died too young. I must try to accomplish whatever I can
by the time I am forty."

'He often turned our conversation to style, grammar and construction.
He admired the rhythm and resonance of Gibbon. It had been said that
he had taken Gibbon for his master. Did I find anything Gibbonian in
him? But, after all, style was a matter of taste; what was more important
to him immediately was correctness in construction and grammar. What,
for instance, was a split infinitive and why was it wrong? And what was
an unrelated, or misrelated, participle, which was said to be a frequent

60 WINSTON CHURCHILL

source of ambiguity and which I had happened to mention? He considered
my explanations, such as they were, and sternly rejected my caveat that as
great writers often carry a load of mistakes it is pedantic and priggish to
let such things count for too much in a reckoning of genius. "It is better,"
he pronounced, "to be correct." I agreed to his maxim so far as it affected
us. Ruskin could afford to invent his own grammar, but we could not.
"Very well," he concluded. "I am never going to write, 'the plan is to
frontally attack the position'." J1

Winston had not been in Estcourt more than a few hours before he
found old friends. First he ran into Leo Amery, the Harrow schoolboy
whom he had pushed into the bathing pool, and who was now a war
correspondent for The Times. That same evening as he was walking down
the street he met Captain Haldane, the young officer who had been in
India and helped him to secure an appointment on Sir William Lockhart's
staff for the Tirah expedition. Haldane had been wounded and had been
given the temporary command of a company of the Dublin Fusiliers.

The position of the small force in Estcourt was precarious. No one
knew from day to day whether a few thousand Boers might not sweep
into the town. Each morning cavalry reconnaissances were sent out to
find out if any sudden attack was likely. Then the General in command
of the town decided to aid the cavalry by sending an armoured train along
the sixteen miles of railway which was still intact The armoured train
was regarded by ordinary soldiers as a huge joke. It rumbled along at a
slow pace and was nothing more than an engine with a few ordinary iron
railway trucks covered with steel plates through which rifle slits had been
cut. Everyone except the General seemed to know that if the Boers
wanted to capture the train all they had to do was to blow up a bridge or
culvert, and it ky at their mercy.

Captain Haldane was put in charge of the operation, and asked Winston
if he would like to accompany him. The latter enthusiastically said yes,
and hurried off to extend the invitation to Atkins. But Atkins declined.
He thought it was a crazy idea, explaining that his instructions were to
follow the war on the British side, not to rush off and let himself get taken
prisoner, and miss the rest of the war. 'That is perfectly true,' said Winston,
'I can see no fault in your reasoning. But I have a feeling, a sort of intuition,
that if I go something will come of it. It's illogical, I know/

Winston's instincts were right, for the journey on the armoured train

was the beginning of a journey to fame. The train travelled along the line

fourteen miles to Chievdey. Then two Boer guns opened fire. A few

minutes later there was a crash and an explosion as the driver ran into a

1 Incidents and Refections: J. B. Atkins.

FAME 6l

shell that had been placed on the track. Several trucks were derailed, and
the engine trapped. Captain Haldane asked Winston to see what damage
had been done to the line while he and his Dublin Fusiliers fired the small
naval gun they had in the rear truck. Winston quickly surveyed the situa-
tion and decided that it might be possible to free the engine. With bullets
rattling against the steel plates and shrapnel bursting overhead he called for
volunteers, and was heard to say: 'Keep cool, men/

The engine driver was grazed on the head, and he reassured him by
announcing confidently: 'No man is hit twice in the same day/

At last die engine was free. Since it was impossible to re-attach the
trucks Captain Haldane decided that the engine should carry all the
wounded, who were now numerous, and that the rest of the men should
march home on foot, sheltering behind the vehicle which would travel
very slowly. Winston climbed into the engine cab. Shells were still burst-
ing overhead, and the driver could not seem to keep the pace slow enough.
Gradually the infantry were being left behind. Winston forced the engine
driver to stop, but by this time there was a gap of three hundred yards.
He jumped out and ran back to find Captain Haldane. Suddenly he saw
two figures in plain clothes on the line and realized they were Boers. He
ran back towardsthe engine, with the men firing after him. He scrambled
up the bank trying to make a dash for the river, but now he was con-
fronted by a horseman galloping furiously towards him with a rifle in his
hand. The rider pulled up and took aim. Winston reached for his pistol
but it was not there. He had taken it off when he was trying to free the
engine. The Boer looked along the sights of his gun. There was nothing
for Winston to do but surrender. His captor led him back to the other
British soldiers where he found Captain Haldane. Together they were
taken to Colenso Station, and then on a three-day journey to Pretoria
where they were imprisoned in the State Model Schools. Captain Haldane
describes in his memoirs their feelings as they trudged across the veldt
together and relates how Winston thanked him for allotting him the 'star
turn* of freeing the engine. He told Haldane he was certain it would be
given much prominence in the English papers; and although he would
lose his job as a war correspondent the incident undoubtedly would help
him to reach the House of Commons. This strange conversation in such
depressing circumstances gives the reader an indication of Winston's
determination to succeed in life; it also shows how accurately he gauged
the situation, for his fellow journalists received glowing accounts of his
action which they sent home and which made front page news the Daily
Telegraph printed Renter's dispatch which said: 'Mr. Winston Churchill's
bravery and coolness is described as magnificent, and encouraged by him,

62 WINSTON CHURCHILL

all worked like heroes to clear the line and enable the engine and tender
to get away.' 1

Winston was a prisoner but he was also well on the way to being a
national figure.

Sixty British officers were imprisoned in the State Model Schools which
stood in the middle of a quadrangle bounded on two sides by a corrugated
iron fence about ten feet high, and on the other two by an iron grille.
Winston had no intention of remaining a captive for long. First he argued
with the Boer authorities that he should be released because he was a
civilian press correspondent. But the Boers had no intention of letting him
go, for by this time they knew who he was. 'It's not every day,' one of
them said, 'that we catch the son of a lord/ Besides, they had the law on
their side. He had forfeited his non-combatant status by the part he had
taken in the train fight.

The moment Winston realized that their decision was final his thoughts
turned to escape. He hated the feeling of being confined, and found it
impossible to pky cards with his fellow prisoners or enjoy any lighter
moments. Meanwhile Captain Haldane was working out a plan of escape
with a sergeant named Brockie who spoke Tad 2 fluently. Winston asked
Haldane if he could join them but the latter was apprehensive at increasing
their numbers. Besides, he felt that Churchill was already attracting too
much attention to himself by engaging in animated discussions as to who
was to blame for the war. Added to this, he was temperamental and un-
accountable. For example, if any of the younger men indulged in whistling
Winston made no effort to conceal his extreme exasperation.

In his memoirs, A Soldiers Saga, Haldane relates how Churchill con-
tinued to urge him to include him in his plan of escape. As bait, Winston
emphasized that if they were successful, he would see that Haldane's name
was emblazoned triumphantly across the press. The Captain declared that
this did not interest him, for he felt it was his duty to escape. What wor-
ried him was the fear that the talkative soldier-journalist might compro-
mise their chances of success. He discussed the matter with Brockie, who
shared his apprehension and was strongly opposed to Churchill's inclusion.

Nevertheless Haldane felt responsible for having invited Winston to
join the armoured train, and in the end gave in. He made no secret of
Brockie's views and said that under the circumstances he could not extend
a cordial invitation, but that if Winston, knowing of their mixed feelings,

1 17 November, 1899.

* Debased Dutch which was the local idiom.

FAME 63

still wanted to join them, he could do so. Churchill at once replied that he
would come, but said he did not think it would be fair to blame him if
they were recaptured due to his presence. Haldane agreed, but made it
dear that he expected Winston to 'conform to orders'.

The plan, as outlined by Haldane, was as follows. Since it would be
difficult for all three men to climb out of the latrine at the same time,
Brockie was to follow as soon as it was known that Haldane and Churchill
had succeeded. Haldane had noticed that Churchill did not take much
exercise and stood aloof while the other prisoners played fives and
rounders and tried to keep themselves fit by skipping. Besides this, he had
a weak shoulder. Haldane therefore was worried for fear he might not be
agile enough to reach the roof of the latrine, which was about seven feet
high, without a 'leg up*. In his effort to mount the top he might kick the
metal side of the structure and attract the attention of the sentry. Haldane
states bluntly in his book that his major anxiety about the success of the
operation arose from Winston's 'accession to the party'. With only
Brockie, he continues, there was nothing to fear; but with the impulsive
and loquacious Churchill, he was gravely doubtful. Nevertheless the die
was cast and he had to go on with it.

The three men decided to leave on n December. About ten minutes
before the dinner hour, at six-fifty, Churchill and Haldane strolled over to
the latrine in the company of several officers. These prisoners would
return one by one in the hope that the sentry might think that all had left.
If the guard behaved as he usually did he might move along a line of trees
to talk to another sentry, which would give the three trie" their chance to
scale the walL On this night, however, the sentry did not budge and after
waiting fifteen or twenty minutes Churchill and Haldane whispered to
each other that they must abandon their efforts and try another time.

The next day continued to be one of anxiety. Haldane was alarmed by
Winston's excited condition and the fact that he was striding up and down
the yard with his head lowered and his hands clasped behind his back. He
feared that the other prisoners would realize that something was up.
Churchill said to Haldane, 'We must go to-night/ The Captain replied
that if the chances were favourable they would certainly undertake it
again that evening, but he must remember that there were three of them.

Winston relates the story of his escape in My Early Life. The next even-
ing, shortly after Haldane and Brockie had made another unsuccessful
attempt, he strolled out and secreted himself in the lavatory. He had not
been there long before the sentry turned his back and the great moment
had arrived. He drew himself up, and jumped over the wall. He was in a
garden and people were moving about. He hid himself in the shrubs and

64 WINSTON CHURCHILL

waited there for over half an hour, then he heard a British voice from
within the camp say: 'All up.* Winston coughed and the voice continued
in a low tone! 'The sentry suspects. It's all up. Can you get back?'

No sensible person could really have expected Winston meekly to
climb back into captivity. He had .75 in his pocket, four skbs of choco-
late and a few biscuits, and although he was without a compass he decided
to have a run for his money. Haldane declares in his Saga that he was
'bitterly disappointed to find that Winston had gone', and adds, 'I resist
the temptation of stating what Brockie said on the subject/

Friends who heard the story from both men saw that a genuine mis-
understanding had arisen. Winston believed he was acting within his rights
and Haldane felt he should have waited. Neither one has dealt with the dis-
agreement in his memoirs. Churchill ignores it and Haldane alludes enig-
matically to the proverb 'There is many a slip', and declares that things did
not go 'according to plan'. He then goes on to say that at this point it is best
'to draw a veil over subsequent events', although by doing so he does not
want his readers to suppose that he supports many of the versions of the
story which appearedin print, often under the name of distinguished writers.

Those dose to Haldane assert that he never forgave Winston. And as a
result of his resentment Churchill was often accused on public platforms
of having left his comrades in the lurch, which he always hody denied.
George Smalley, an American journalist who knew Churchill personally,
and heard statements on both sides, including a full account from Winston,
wrote: 'I think his conduct open to no reproach or even criticism.' 1

Nevertheless aspersions continued to be made, and out of this story
sprang another, that Churchill had broken his parole. No parole system
existed and all prisoners were under armed guard. Many years later he
sued Blackwood's Magazine for libel, and on other occasions issued writs
which drew forth apologies.

Winston's lucky escapes in India and Egypt had made him super-
stitious. He was increasingly certain that he was destined for great events.
Certainly there was an astonishing element of luck in his flight from the
Boers. After waiting in the garden for nearly an hour he began to walk.
He found the railway line, headed along it for some time, then managed
to climb on a goods train. Before dawn he jumped oflfand making for the
hills hid in a grove of trees near a ravine. That night he walked back to
the tracks wilt the idea of taking another train. But he saw lights in the
far distance, which he thought were Kaffir fires, and some strange instinct
1 Anglo-American Memories: George Smalky.

FAME 65

bade him approach them. He walked for many hours and as he drew
nearer he suddenly realized that he was nearing a coal mine.

He had heard that there were a number of English residents in the
mining district of Witbank and Midddburg and with trepidation decided
to chance his luck. He knocked on a door and a tall man with a pale face
and a moustache let him in. Winston said he was a burgher but the man
eyed him with suspicion. Then he decided to make a clean breast of it.
When he gave his name his host's face relaxed. 'Thank God you have
come here,' the man said. 'It is the only house for twenty miles where you
would not have been handed over.' The man was Mr. John Howard, the
British mine manager, and living in the house with him was a plump man
named Mr. Dewsnap, of Oldham of all places. Howard decided that
Winston must hide in the coal pit and Dewsnap led him there, shook his
hand and whispered, 'They'll all vote for you next time.'

He remained under Howard's wing for three days. By then arrange-
ments had been made for him to board a goods train heading for Por-
tuguese East Africa. The plan worked easily, and Winston ky in one of
the wagons covered by bales of wool. Three days later the train reached
Louren?o Marques, and he jumped off a free man. He made his w^y to
the British Consulate where he was givenahotbath, new clothes andasquare
meal. He learned that newspapers all over Europe had been speculating on
his fortunes and that the Boers had advertised his escape widely, offering
^25 for his capture dead or alive. The English press took a pessimistic view
of his chances. One of them remarked laconically: 'With reference to the
escape from Pretoria of Mr. Winston Churchill, fears are expressed that
he may be captured again before long and if so will probably be shot.'

The war in South Africa had been going badly. Britain was smarting
under a series of military rebuffs, and die news that Winston had reached
safety was just the tonic that was needed. The public went wild with joy:
overnight he became a symbol of British invincibility. The same day that
he had arrived in Lourengo Marques he caught a steamer back to Durban.
He arrived to find the town decorated with flags, bands playing, and
cheering crowds in a state of excitement

An interesting footnote to the whole episode is the fact that Captain
Haldane and Sergeant Brockie also succeeded in escaping. After Winston's
absence had been discovered they were unable to pursue the original plan
of scaling the wall, but worked out another scheme; they had learned
that all prisoners were to be transferred from Pretoria to another camp.
A week before the change took place they hid under the floor of the

66 WINSTON CHURCHILL

barracks. While the Boers were searching for them they sat tight; but
when the pursuit was finally abandoned and the move took pkce and the
camp was deserted, they struck out for safety. However, by die time they
reached the freedom of Portuguese territory, the gilt was off the ginger-
bread and compared with Winston's reception they were hardly noticed.

Sir Redvers Buller sent for Churchill and asked was there anything he
could do for him. The young man replied that he would like a com-
mission in the Army. This was difficult to arrange since a new regulation
had been introduced, largely because of Winston's activities, forbidding
serving officers to work for the press. Buller got round this order by grant-
ing him a commission unpaid.

Winston at once sent a dispatch to the Morning Post giving the War
Office and the generals some dear, practical advice. 'We must face the
facts,' he wrote. 'The individual Boer, mounted in suitable country, is
worth from three to five regular soldiers. The power of modern rifles is
so tremendous that frontal attacks must often be repulsed. The extraord-
inary mobility of the enemy protects his flanks. The only way of treating
the problem is either to get men equal in character and intelligence as
riflemen, or failing the individual, huge masses of troops. ... It would be
much cheaper in the end to send more than necessary. There is plenty of
work here for a quarter of a million men, and South Africa is well worth
the cost in blood and money. More irregular corps are wanted. Are the
gentlemen of England all fox-hunting? . . .'

The gentlemen of England did not take too kindly to this sarcasm.
A group of colonels and generals in one of the London clubs sent a
telegram: 'Best friends here hope you will not continue making further
ass of yourself.' And the Morning Leader wrote acidly: 'We have received
no confirmation of the statement that Lord Lansdowne has, pending the
arrival of Lord Roberts, appointed Mr. Winston Churchill to command
the troops in South Africa, with General Sir Redvers Buller, V.C., as his
Chief of Staff.'

For the next few months Winston served in the South African Light
Horse which he nicknamed the Cockyollybirds because of the plumes
which they wore in their slouch hats. It was a thrilling life, riding half the
day and talking over a camp fire at night. He took part in the fighting
at Spion Kop and in the relief of Ladysmith. His brother Jack, now a
lieutenant, joined him in this adventure but was wounded on the first day
and put out of action. Lady Randolph Churchill arrived in Durban on a
hospital ship which had been equipped with funds raised by a committee
of American ladies married to Englishmen, and the three members of the
family celebrated a reunion.

FAME 67

By the summer the British had captured Johannesburg and Pretoria.
It looked as though the war would soon come to a dose. The Con-
servative Government decided to take advantage of the public exuberance.
In September the 'khaki election* was held and Winston hurried back to
Oldham to try his luck.

Oldham gave Winston a spectacular welcome. The town was decorated,
crowds lined the streets and the band struck up: 'See the Conquering Hero
Comes/ That night he addressed a large meeting in the assembly hall, and
told them for the first time the full details of his escape. When he men-
tioned the name of Mr. Dewsnap, the Oldham man who had hidden him
in the coal mine, the audience shouted: 'His wife's in the gallery,' and
there were tremendous cheers. A girl in the front row expressed the Senti-
ments of his supporters by wearing a sash with the words embroidered on
it: 'God Bless Churchill, England's Noblest Hero/

He fought his election campaign in a blaze of national publicity. Many
London papers sent reporters to give it full coverage. Dozens of descrip-
tive articles appeared about him. Julian Ralph of the Daily Mail wrote*
'Young Churchill is a genius. The species is not so broad or so over familiar
that one can carelessly classify a man as such. In this case there is no doubt/
He then went on to describe his personality. 'He finds it easier to vault out
of a landau than to open the door when he is getting out to address his
electors and win their unqualified admiration if he can. He will take a bath
thirteen minutes before dinner-time, will not hesitate to advise or admon-
ish the Government in a newspaper letter, and will calmly differ from a
bishop on a point of ecclesiastical law. But, mark you, he is usually dip-
lomatic and considerate in speech and tone; he is boyishly handsome, has a
winning smile, and is electric in brilliance and dash. That is why people
rushed after him in crowds in Oldham, to see and hear igm and to wring
his hand. They called him "Young Randy" and shouted God's blessing
after him/ 1

The election was fought largely on the issue of the Boer War. The
radical Liberals were bitterly opposed to the conflict; they thought it was
wicked and unnecessary, and bid been deliberately engineered by Joseph
Chamberlain as a commercial venture. Winston was bound to defend the
Government and as a result the Radicals made him the target for a malicious
and outrageous whispering campaign. They suggested that he had left the
Army in disgrace; that he had gone to South Africa as a correspondent
rather than a soldier because he was a coward; that he would have been

1 2 October, 1900.

68 WINSTON CHURCHILL

cashiered from the Army had he not resigned; and many other cruel
slanders. On 27 September the Daily Mail reporter wrote: 'In nothing
does Winston Churchill show his youth more than in the way he allows
slanders to affect him . . . They deeply wound him and he allows men to
see it. When some indiscreet supporter brings these stories to him, his eyes
flash fire, he clutches his hands angrily, and he hurries out to find oppor-
tunity of somewhere and somehow bringing his traducers to book/

The campaign grew in violence as the climax neared. Chamberlain had
uttered the slogan: 'Every seat lost to the Government is as a seat gained
to the Boers', which had increased the temperature still further. He came
to Oldham to speak for Winston and the two men drove together to the
meeting in an open landau. The hall was jammed with supporters and the
entrance and streets were crowded with booing opponents. Both men
loved the 'roar of the multitude* and Chamberlain's speech was an out-
standing success. Polling day came and when the count was finally
announced Winston had won by two hundred and thirty votes.

In those days constituencies polled over the space of six weeks. Chur-
chill's result was one of the first. He walked to the Conservative Club to
find a telegram of congratulation from the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury,
and a few hours later invitations were pouring in from all over the country
asking him to address meetings. He spoke in Manchester for Arthur Bal-
four, the Leader of the House, and when he walked on to the platform
the whole Hall rose and cheered him. After this he seldom addressed
audiences of less than five or six thousand. 'Was it wonderful that I should
have thought I had arrived?* he wrote in My Early Life. 'But luckily life is
not so easy as all that: otherwise we should get to the end too quickly.'

Winston was now a Member of Parliament, which in those days was a
thrilling but expensive occupation. He took stock of his financial position.
His book The River War had sold well; besides he had written two small
books on his South African experiences which, together with his salary
from the Morning Post, gave him a net sum of ^4,000. He felt that he must
increase his capital by a lecture tour before taking his seat. First, he toured
England speaking every night for five weeks at a fee of ^100 to 300 a
lecture. He banked ^4,500. Then he travelled to the United States and for
two months carried out a similar programme in America and Canada.
In New York his meeting opened under the auspices of Mark Twain. His
manager advertised him enthusiastically as 'the hero of five wars, the
author of six books, and the future Prime Minister of Great Britain*.
Altogether the New World provided another ^10,000.

Just twenty-six years old he returned to London eagerly and joyously
to take his seat in the House of Commons.

CHAPTER SIX

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE

THE YEAR 1901 opened with the death of Queen Victoria after a reign
of nearly sixty-four years. Five kings and forty members of the royal
families of Europe followed her funeral cortege on its long and solemn
procession through the streets of London. A month later King Edward VII
opened his first session of his first Parliament: and in this Parliament
Winston Churchill made his dbut.

Churchill sat in the House of Commons as a 'back-bencher* for five
years. Those five years now appear in history as a bridge between the
peace and power of the Victorian age and the violence of the new century,
trailing in its wake global wars, turbulent reforms, and the steady decline
of British world supremacy.

However, few Members of the Parliament of 1901 were aware that an
era had ended. During Queen Victoria's lifetime Britain had risen from a
largely agricultural country to the greatest industrial nation and the
greatest empke in the world. At home she trod the path of slow, steady
reform with the comfortable knowledge of a wdl-ordercd and secure
existence. A strong, unrivalled Navy not only protected her home shores
but her far-flung trade routes, enabling her to remain aloof from all con-
tinental quarrels and to use her wealth for the benefit of mankind. She had
not taken part in a conflict in western Europe since the defeat of Napoleon
eighty-six years before. Her policy was Splendid Isolation.

Many of the Parliamentarians of 1901 saw no reason to doubt the
Victorian creed. At home this faith was based on the firm conviction that
Britain's astonishing success was due to the rule of an educated and
enlightened oligarchy. At the same time Britain was a democracy; indeed,
the harnessing together of these two political conceptions might be
described as the most ingenious achievement of the Victorian age.
Foreigners were openly puzzled by the strange paradox of a democracy
governed by an oligarchy, and it is only fair to add that even the English
were surprised that it worked. When it became apparent in the last forty
years of Victoria's reign that the democratic idea was gathering strength,
and that pressure was increasing for an extension of the franchise, the
English upper classes became alarmed. The great constitutional writer,
Walter Bagehot, stated firmly: 'Sensible men of substantial means are
what we wish to be ruled by . . / He went on to warn 'that a political

71

72 WINSTON CHURCHILL

combination of the lower classes ... is an evil of the first magnitude; that
their supremacy in the state they now are, means the supremacy of ignor-
ance over instruction and of numbers over knowledge. So long as they
are not taught to act together there is a chance of this being averted, and it
can only beavertedbythegreaterwisdomandforesightin the higher classes.' 1
Under Disraeli and Gladstone the vote was widely extended. Those
who voiced apprehension forgot that the British public had been taught
to respect its betters; and when the newly-enfranchised, class-conscious
mass went to the polls in 1885, and again in 1886, it elected a Conservative
Government known to regard innovations of almost every kind with an
unfriendly eye. The 'higher classes' drew a breath of relief and settled
down to a long period of quiet consolidation. In 1901 a Conservative
Government led by the same Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salis-
bury, was still in power.

The House of Commons that Winston Churchill entered was an exclu-
sive and wealthy body. Members of Parliament received no payment for
their services and were expected to contribute substantial sums of money
to their constituencies as welL Thus only men of means, or men with
outside backing, could hope to be adopted as candidates.

Liberals and Conservatives were cut from the same expensive cloth.
Conservatives could claim more supporters among the landowning
gentry, whose younger sons found occupations c fit for gentlemen* in the
Army, Navy and diplomatic services, and who were now stretching a
point by infiltrating into the financial precincts of the City. The Liberals
could cfoir" more supporters among the enterprising, self-made indus-
trialists upon whom Britain's prosperity depended. Nevertheless, each
party had a smattering of both.

Temperamentally, however, there was a dear division between the two
fictions. The Conservatives believed themselves to be the rightful guar-
dians of Church and State, of continuity and tradition. They disliked
change and usually made concessions only when it was impossible to
withhold them. The Liberals, on the other hand, regarded themselves as
the champions of individual liberty. They welcomed change so long as it
promised to enlarge the opportunities for personal freedom. And because
they were open to new ideas, they attracted a wing of Radicals who were
determined to break down the privileged oligarchic rule at Westminster,
to reform the House of Lords, and establish the principle of la can&re
ouverte aux talents.

1 The English Constitution: Walter Bagehot

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 73

However, these Radicals were not Leftists in the sense conveyed by that
word to-day. All Liberal supporters were passionate believers in a laissez-
faire economic system, and went even further than the Conservatives in
their opposition to State interference. Both parties agreed that the
Government's operational sphere should be extremely limited. The
Government was expected to produce law and order at home, to protect
British nationals abroad, and to conduct the country's foreign affairs to
skilful advantage. It was also expected to leave the country's industrial life
severely alone. Business matters were for business men and not for
politicians.

In 1902 Charles Booth, a wealthy ship-owner, published a laborious
statistical work entitled The Life and Labour of London which had taken
him sixteen years to complete. Although London was regarded as 'the
richest city in the world' he revealed that thirty per cent of die population
were suffering from under-nourishment, But despite this astonishing
revelation, poverty and unemployment continued to be regarded as sub-
jects for private charity, and not for Government action. The Victorians
accepted Malthus' theory that the population would always outstrip the
means of sustenance, and therefore looked upon the poor as a permanent
and unavoidable fixture brought about by God's Will rather than man's
ineptitude. On Sundays church congregations solemnly sang:

The rich mqn in his castle
The poor man at his gate
God rn^rfc them high and lowly
And order'd their estate.

And yet beneath the c^lp^ Victorian surface the tWrflJs of the pattern
for the new century, which Elie Halvy, the eminent French historian,
describes as 'hastening towards social democracy and towards war', were
already visible. In 1892 Keir Hardie, a Scottish coalminer, entered the
House of Commons as an Independent backed by Trade Union funds. He
was the first working man to sit as a Member. In 1900 he formed a new
party, the Labour Representative Committee, which was soon destined
to grow into the Labour Party; and in the election of the same year Hardie
and another working man were returned as Members. Their voices were
small but the fact that they were raised at all was an indication of what the
future held. Besides this, Trade Unionism was growing; and the Fabian
Society dominated by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas and
George Bernard Shaw, supported spasmodically by H. G. Wells, was not
only educating the public to the meaning of democratic socialism but

74 WINSTON CHURCHILL

infixing the Radical politicians of the day with ideas which were to lead
Britain forward for die next half century.

Abroad it was not without significance that the friendship between
Britain and France kindled by Edward VH's visit to Paris in 1903 was
slowly ripening and would soon result in the entente of 1904; and it was
also significant that the German Kaiser, with a fierce eagle on his shining,
spiked helmet, was growing increasingly proud of his efficient, goose-
stepping army, and that he was toying with the idea of producing a strong
navy as well. These were the threads; but in 1901 only a few Members of
Parliament attached much importance to them.

One might have expected Winston Churchill to be among the few.
During the years he spent as a back-bencher he provided the House of
Commons with incident, drama and excitement. He sparkled and shone
in his new surroundings. His language was colourful, his personality com-
pelling, and his polished, memorized orations seldom failed to hold the
attention of the House. He was master of the unexpected phrase and the
unexpected action.

Yet what was surprising about this high-spirited, independent young
man, who revelled in unusual tactics, was the fact that his ideas were of a
most orthodox and conventional kind. Far from anticipating the new
forces of die new century his energies were bent on turning the dock back
to the generation before, when Victorian conceptions were in the full
bloom of maturity. He preached all the fading doctrines of a fading age:
he stood for Isolationism from Europe and for a small Army; for Im-
perialism; strict economy; Free Trade; no further increases in die income
tax. These were die ideas of die past, and as the new century progressed
every one of them was to perish.

What curious and paradoxical qualities prompted Churchill to proffer
unoriginal ideas with striking originality? Someone once remarked that
die politician brings to politics what he is. At twenty-six Churchill was a
master of English prose and a trained observer of military events. He knew
nothing of finance or economics and possessed only a superficial grasp of
history and philosophy which he had acquired by a smattering of reading
on die hot Indian afternoofionsben his fellow subalterns were sleeping.
He had not had the benefit of a university education where ideas are con-
standy explored and challenged; and although his five years in the Army
had brought him into contact with many men of outstanding character he

j mixed widi few men of outstanding intellect.

Churchill's mind was neidier philosophic nor profound. He was a man

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 75

of action rather than thought. He did not feel compelled to examine
accepted principles and value them for himself. By nature he was romantic
and sentimental. He liked to picture events in simple, bold and vivid
colours; and he preferred to follow his emotions rather than his logic.
Indeed when he found the path of logic leading him away from the
course to which his instincts inclined he often abandoned the logic. For
instance, when he was in India he grappled with the subject of religion.
He found that although he wished to believe in a Higher Being his mind
refused to accept much of the dogma. This might have worried some men
but Churchill found an easy, almost feminine solution. 'I adopted quite
early in life,'" he wrote, 'a system of believing what I wanted to believe,
while at the same time leaving reason to pursue unfettered whatever paths
she was capable of treading.' 1

Churchill entered the House of Commons because he believed it would
provide HTT* with an exciting occupation. At twenty-six he was less con-
cerned with the political contribution he had to offer than with the
political prizes that might await him. He was bursting with energy and
ambition. The only thing he lacked was a political theme, but this was
easily remedied. He turned to his father's writings for guidance. 'The
greatest and most powerful influence in my early life,' he explained many
years later, 'was, of course, my father. Although I talked to him so seldom
and never for a moment on equal terms I conceived an intense admiration
and affection for him; and after his early death, for his memory. I read
industriously almost every word he had ever spoken and learnt by heart
large portions of his speeches. I took my politics unquestioningly from
him. He seemed to me to have possessed the key alike to popular oratory
and political action.' 2

The reader may find it strange that a father who had concerned himself
so little with his son should have exercised such a hold over the latter's
imagination long after his death. Here the conservatism bred into Winston,
with its emphasis on continuity and tradition, asserted itself. Just as he
drew strength from the fact that the great Duke of Marlborough's blood
ran in his veins, he likewise enjoyed picturing himself as a projection of his
father whose exciting career appealed to his adventurous instincts. He
remembered as a child seeing people take off their hats in the street as
Lord Randolph passed; he remembered the buzz of excitement and the
talk of great orations; the endless columns in the newspapers, the photo-
graphs, the cartoons, tibe thrill of importance his father's presence cast over
die household. It is only natural he should have turned to his father's

1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill

1 Thoughts ana Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

7<S WINSTON CHURCHILL

speeches for inspiration. And when he read them he was fascinated by their
vivid imagery, their sarcasm and rich irony.

He resolved to write his father's biography. It was possible to combine
the task with his political duties, for in 1901 Parliamentary business was
so regulated that the House only sat six months of the year. His literary
labours were not only an act of filial devotion but a means of earning his
living and they occupied him the whole five years he spent as a back-
bencher. They had a profound effect upon his political career. As he
became immersed in his writing he fell more and more deeply under the
spell of Lord Randolph's example. This influence was further strengthened
by research which threw him into contact with many of his father's old
colleagues; and one of these, Sir Francis Mowatt, the head of the Civil
Service, exerted a decisive influence upon him.

- Sir Francis had served in the Treasury during Lord Randolph's brief
tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He held Winston enthralled by
stories of his father and won the young man's confidence by his genuine
and wholehearted admiration. 'He was one of the friends I inherited from
my father," wrote Churchill. 'Tall, spare with a noble brow, bright eyes
and strong jaws, this faithful servant of the Crown, self-effacing but self-
respecting, resolute, convinced, sure of himself, sure of his theme, dwelt
modestly and frugally for nearly fifty years at or near the centre of the
British governing machine. ... He represented the complete triumphant
Victorian view of economics and finance; strict parsimony; exact account-
ing; free imports whatever the rest of the world might do; suave steady
government; no wars; no flag-waving; just paying of debts and reducing
taxation and keeping out of scrapes; and for the rest ... for trade, industry,
agriculture, social life ... laissez-faire and laissez-aller. Let the Government
reduce itself and its demands upon the public to a minimum; let the nation
live of its own; let social and industrial organization take whatever course
it pleased, subject to the law of the land and the Ten Commandments.
Let the money fructify in the pockets of the people.' 1

Winston was looking for a political theme. Mowatt's views on finance
seemed to be a faithful reflection of Lord Randolph's views on finance.
For the next five years Winston adopted them as his own.

Winston Churchill entered Parliament as a celebrity. Although many of
the politicians did not know him by sight they all knew him by name.
His escape from the Boers, only the year before, was still fresh in the
public mind. Members had followed his adventures in the newspapers,
1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill.

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 77

read his books, and heard of the huge sum he had been paid for his
American tour. But what whetted their curiosity most of all was the fact
that he was Lord Randolph's son.

In the six years since Lord Randolph's death the setting and the actors
on the Parliamentary stage had changed surprisingly little. Many of the
present Members had served as Lord Randolph's colleagues and some of
them had heard him at the summit of his powers. The drama was further
heightened by the fact that the Conservative Party was more tightly than
ever in the grip of the Cecil family. Lord Salisbury, who had broken Lord
Randolph's career, was still Prime Minister. His nephew, Arthur Balfour,
was Leader of the House of Commons. Another nephew, Lord Balfour of
Burleigh, and a cousin, Mr. Gerald Balfour, were in the Cabinet. His son,
Lord Cranborne, was Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Two
more sons, Lord Hugh Cecil and Lord Robert Cecil, were back benchers,
and a relative, Lord Selborne, was a member of the Government. It was
not surprising that wits often referred to the House as 'The Hotel Cecil'.

It is perhaps opportune to say something about Arthur Balfour here.
Before the year had ended he succeeded his_unde as Prime Minister and
before three years were out Churchill had crossed swords with him as
decisively as his father had with Salisbury. But in 1901, Balfour welcomed
Winston into the House with almost paternal warmth. He had once been
a member of Lord Randolph's 'Fourth Party' and had met his son when
he was a boy of eighteen. Balfour was an enigmatic character. He was a
country gentleman and an intellectual, charming, courteous, unemotional
and unhurried. He gave the impression, so attractive to English people, of
having no political ambitions but of merely seeking to do his duty. He
presided over the House with almost astonishing detachment. The news-
paper columnists dubbed him 'Prince Arthur' and the cartoonists depicted
him with an air of elegant indolence. And yet Balfour was a master of
debate and often shrewd and witty. Once, when Churchill told him that
he kept a book of press cuttings because every now and then he came
across something of special interest, Balfour replied disdainfully that he
did not see the point of rummaging through a rubbish heap on the prob-
lematical chance of finding a cigar butt.

While the Cecils, fortified by that formidable character, the ex-Radical,
ex-mayor of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain, dominated the Con-
servative scene, the Liberal benches sparkled with names that were to go
into the history books. There was Asquith, stiff, brilliant and self-confident;
there was the erudite pacifist, John Morley, who had written a scholarly
life of Gladstone; Haldane who was to lay the foundations for the modern
British Army; Sir Edward Grey who was to declare in 1914 'The lights

78 WINSTON CHURCHILL

arc going out all over Europe'; and Lloyd George, the brilliant-, silver-
tongued Welsh Radical who was to revolutionize British social thought
and lead the country through a war as well.

These were some of the men who awaited Winston Churchill's d6but
with interest and expectancy. He made his maiden speech on 18 February,
three days after the opening of the Parliamentary session. The stage was
well set. The great issue was the Boer War, and passions ran high. In the
King's Speech His Majesty said: 'The war in South Africa has not yet
entirely terminated; but the capitals of the enemy and his principal lines
of communication are in my possession, and measures have been taken
which will, I trust, enable my troops to deal effectually with the forces by
which they are still opposed. I greatly regret the loss of life and the ex-
penditure of treasure due to the fruitless guerilla warfare maintained by
the Boer partisans . . / 1

This was stating the case both mildly and optimistically. The Boer
War was proving a bugbear. When it began the Government thought it
would last only a few weeks. Yet it had dragged on for a year and was
destined to continue for still another. Worse than that, it was making
Britain a laughing stock to the rest of the world. The Boers only had fifty
thousand fighting men, many of whom were untrained farmers armed
with shot guns. Yet the British Army now almost two hundred and fifty
thousand men strong still failed to subdue them. The reason was that the
Boers, familiar with every inch of the terrain, had turned themselves into
guerilla bands and spread out across the country. The British soldiers were
not experienced in this kind of warfare. In desperate attempts to rout out
the hidden enemy, orders were given that whenever treachery was sus-
pected Boer farms should be burnt to the ground.

This action aroused a storm of protest from the radical element in the
House of Commons. To begin with, the Liberal Party was split in half
over the dubious justness of the war itself. The Conservatives, supported
by the Liberal Imperialists, believed in its righteousness, but the radical
and pacifist Liberals bitterly denounced it. John Morlcy described it as
'a hateful war, and a war innate and infatuated, a war of uncompensated
mischief and irreparable wrong'. The Conservatives dubbed members of
the anti-war party 'Little Englanders* and decried them as 'traitors to their
country 9 . The latter struck back hotly accusing the Government not only
of evil motives but of shocking misrnanagpTrienk In this atmosphere of
passion and recrimination, Winston Churchill made his maiden speech.

1 Hansard: 14 February, 1901.

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 79

He spoke after dinner to a crowded House. One can picture the scene of
1901 ; the hansom cabs and carriages clattering across the pavement of New
Palace Yard and pulling up in front of the entrance to Westminster Hall;
the lobbies lit by flickering gas jets; the Strangers' Dining Room filled
with men and women in evening dress; the Chamber itself with Members
elegantly attired in striped trousers and frock coats, some of them half
reclining on the benches with their silk hats tipped over their foreheads;
the wives and daughters, in voluminous, rustling skirts, taking their seats
in the gallery and gazing earnestly at the crowded Soor.

Lloyd George preceded Winston. He was one of the young Radicals
who opposed die war hody. 'One satisfactory feature in connection with
the debate on South Africa, 9 he began sarcastically, 'is that no one seems
to have a good word to say for the Government. "Whether they approve
of or condemn the war they are all agreed on that point; that the Govern-
ment have made every possible blunder they could make from any and

every point of view Though they have the resources of the wealthiest

Empire which the world has ever seen to draw upon they have so directed
their operations that their own soldiers have been half-starved, stricken
by disease and have died by the thousands from sheer lack of the simplest
appliances. Who could say a good word for a Government responsible for
such a terrible state of affairs?'

Lloyd George then went on to a blistering attack on the Conservatives
for not stating specific terms of peace. 'Does anyone think the Boers will
lay down their arms merely to be governed from Downing Street?' Then
on to farm burning. 'It is not a war against men but against women and
children ... I appeal to honourable Members opposite.' Then on to the
military situation. 'Not a diird of the men we sent to Soudi Africa are now
in the line of batde. There have been fifty-five thousand casualties; thirty
thousand men are in hospital/ 1

When Lloyd George sat down, dozens of Members rose to their feet in
the hope of being called, including the honourable and gallant Member
for Oldham. 'Mr. Churchill/ said the Speaker; and thus began the most
remarkable parliamentary career of tie century. According to the
columnist in Punch Winston was 'fortunate in the circumstances attending
his dbut/ for Lloyd George's denunciations had aroused the 'frantic
cheers of Irish sympathizers' and had drawn in 'loungers from the lobby,
students from the library, philosophers from the smoking-room. A con-
stant stream of diners-out flowed in. When young Winston rose from
the corner seat of the bench behind Ministers ... he faced, and was sur-
rounded by an audience that filled the Chamber. No friendly cheer
1 Hansard: 18 February, 1901.

80 WINSTON CHURCHILL

greeted his rising. To three-quarters of the audience he was personally
unknown. Before he concluded his third sentence he fixed attention,
growing keener and kinder when, in reply to a whispered question,
answer went around that this was Randolph Churchill's son.' 1

Winston was nervous. He stammered over his opening remark but he
had learned his speech by heart and soon regained his composure. He
referred to Lloyd George's oration. 'I do not believe that Boers will
attach much importance to the utterances of the honourable Member.
No people in the world receive so much verbal sympathy and so little
political support as the Boers. If I were a Boer fighting in the field . . . and
if I were a Boer I hope I should be fighting in the field . . / Here there was
a stir on the Conservative front bench as Joseph Chamberlain, the leading
Imperialist and Secretary of State for the Colonies, whispered to a col-
league, 'That's the way to lose seats f ' But Churchill continued unruffled:
'If I were a Boer fighting in the field I should not allow myself to be taken
in by any message of sympathy not even if it were signed by a hundred
honourable Members. The honourable Member dwelt at great length
upon the question of farm burning. I do not propose to discuss the ethics
of farm burning now; but honourable Members should, I think, cast their
eyes back to the fact that no considerations of humanity prevented the
German Army from throwing its shells into the dwelling houses of Paris
and starving the inhabitants of that great city to the extent that they had
to live upon rats and like atrocious foods in order to compel the garrison
to surrender. I venture to think His Majesty's Government would not
have been justified in restricting their commanders in the field from any
methods of warfare which are justified by precedent set by European or
American generals during the last fifty or sixty years. I do not agree very
fully with the charges of treachery on the one side and barbarity on the
other. From what I saw of the war . . . and I sometimes saw sbmething of
it ... I believe that as compared with other wars, especially those in which
a civilian population took part, this war in South Africa has been on the
whole carried on with unusual humanity and generosity.'

Churchill then went on to make the point that it was impossible to
give the Boers self-government as soon as the war ended as a large number
of the population had fled. 'What could be more dangerous, ridiculous
or futile than to throw the responsible government of a ruined country on
that . . . particular section of the population which is actively hostile to
the fundamental institutions of the State?'

The question, he continued, was what sort of interim Government
should be set up: military or civil?

1 Punch: 27 February, 1901.

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 81

*A military government is irksome. I have often myself been very much
ashamed to see respectable old Boer farmers ... the Boer is a curious
combination of the squire and the peasant, and under the rough coat of
the peasant there are very often to be found the instincts of the squire . . .
I have been ashamed to see such men ordered about peremptorily by
young subaltern officers as though they were private soldiers.'

Churchill suggested that some wise administrator such as Sir Alfred
Milner should be set at the head of a civil administration, and ended his
speech by stating that the Government should make 'it easy for the Boers
to surrender and painful and perilous for them to continue/ Many more
troops should be sent to South Africa and the military effort should be
redoubled. 'At the same time I earnestly hope that the right honourable
Gentleman, the Colonial Secretary, will leave nothing undone to bring
home to these brave and unhappy men who are fighting in the field that
whenever they are prepared to recognize that their small independence
must be merged in the larger liberties of the British Empire there will be a
full guarantee for the security of their property and religion, an assurance
of equal right, a promise of all representative institutions, and last of all,
but not least of all, what the British Army would most readily accord to
a brave and enduring foe ... all the honours of war. 9

Before Churchill sat down he thanked the House for the kindness and
patience with which it had heard him. 'It has been extended to me, I
know, not on my own account, but because of a splendid memory which
many honourable Members still preserve/ 1

Churchill's speech was a triumph. He had steered a delicate course
between the two extreme factions in the House. He had supported the
Government in its prosecution of the war which pleased the Conservatives;
and he had extolled the virtue of the enemy which pleased the pro-Boers.
As a result he was praised by both sides of the House. Punch commented
that the 'high expectations' of his d&ut were fully justified and that he
had his father's 'command of pointed phrase'. 'Instantly commanding
attention of the House, he maintained it to end of discourse wisely brief.' 2
Other observers were particularly impressed by the 'parliamentary man-
ner' he had acquired in the brief three days since he had taken his seat.
'Ten minutes after "Winston had been sworn,' wrote the Daily Mail, 'he was
leaning back comfortably on the bench, his silk hat well down over his
forehead, his figure crouched up in the doubled-up attitude assumed by

1 Hansard: 18 February, 1901.
1 27 February, 1901.

82 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Mr. Balfour and other Ministers, both hands deep in his pockets, eyein
the place and its inmates critically as if they were all parliamentar
novices/ 1

When Churchill had finished his speech he went into the smoking-roorr
where he was introduced to Lloyd George. 'Judging from your senti-
ments/ said the Welsh Radical, *y u ^ standing against the Light/
which Winston retorted: 'You take a singularly detached view of
British Empire/ Thus began a friendship which was to dominate
political life of the next two decades.

Although Winston's maiden speech had made a lively impression,
Members awaited the development of his career with curiosity and even
reservation. Would arrogance and ambition lead him to repeat his father's
mistakes? Or was his temperament calmer and his judgment surer? By
what means would he attempt to advance his career?

The path of the ambitious young back-bencher, particularly if his own
Government is in power, is fraught with peril. He is expected to obey the
Party Whips and loyally advance the cause of his own leaders; but if he is
young, eager and critical his patience may not be equal to the restraint
demanded of him. He is perpetually in a dilemma. If he is silent or merely
acquiescent he probably will not be noticed, but, equally, if he is aggres-
sive and rebellious he probably will not be promoted. Back-benchers who
flaunt the authority of their leaders unwisely are not easily forgiven.

This is understandable considering that a Prime /Minister and his
Cabinet only retain their positions so long as they command a majority
in the House itself. Party loyalty is the very linch-pin of the British
parliamentary system. And as a result it is regarded as a cardinal virtue.
This of course adds to the problems of the back-bencher who soon finds
himself trying to strike as delicate a balance as a tight-rope walker between
loyalty to his Party and loyalty to his own opinions. If he disagrees with
his leaders he can use all his influence behind the scenes to make them
change their course; but if he fails he must search his conscience and
decide whether the issue is important enough to endanger the life of his
Government or whether he can honourably compromise in view of the
larger principles at stake. If he clashes violently with his own side he can
cross the floor of the House and join the Opposition, or he can continue
within the ranks of his own Party (unless he is expelled) as a 'rebel'.

There are always rebels in Parliament and they add to the liveliness of
the debates. But the rebels are rarely serious politicians. They are regarded

1 7 June, 1901.

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 83

as unreliable eccentrics and soon resign themselves to the back-benches.
Therefore when a determined, ambitious young politician becomes an
acknowledged rebel he faces an anxious future. He can only force his way
to the top by gathering such a powerful following in Parliament and the
country that the Government dares not ignore him and offers him a
Ministerial appointment to enlist his support rather than face his opposi-
tion. To achieve success by this method the back-bencher must possess
dazzling gifts. He must be a man of outstanding personality, a brilliant
debater who can command and hold the attention of the House whenever
he chooses. Very few back-benchers have the qualities to enable them to
reach the heights by this path. Lord Randolph Churchill was one of the
few but even he failed to hold his power for long; one false step and the
Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, seized the initiative and smashed his
career.

It was only natural that Members watched Lord Randolph's son with
curiosity and speculated about his future. Some believed that he possessed
his father's temperament and would be incapable of remaining in the
Party harness; others insisted that he had profited by his father's mistakes
and would move with caution. In support of this assertion they pointed
out that only fourteen months previously Winston had dedicated his
book, The River War, to Lord Salisbury 'under whose wise direction the
Conservative Party has long enjoyed power and the nation prosperity'.
They also noticed that when Winston took his place in the House he did
not sit, as his father had, on the bench below the gangway, the traditional
pkce for those with independent views, but squarely behind the Ministerial
front bench.

Winston did not keep the honourable Members in suspense for long.
Only four months after he made his maiden speech he delivered a slashing
attack on the Government for the size of its peace-time military expendi-
ture. This was the virgin step along a path which was to lead him through
angry, stormy scenes with his Conservative colleagues and finally across
the floor to the Liberal Opposition.

It is interesting to reflect that Winston Churchill, destined to become one
of Britain's greatest war leaders, took the first decisive political stand of
his career as an Isolationist. His attack on the Government was unexpected,
emotional and histrionic. It was an astonishing effort to vindicate his
father's political failure. Lord Randolph had resigned as Chancellor of the
Exchequer because the War Office refused to cut its expenditure. Lord
Randolph was an Isolationist in a peaceful age, believing that Britain's

84 WINSTON CHURCHILL

security depended less on her fighting services than on a wise foreign
policy designed to keep her aloof from continental wars.

Now the son had come down to the House to preach the same doctrine.
But the setting was different. Members of the Government of 1901 were
aware that a young, powerful and aggressive Germany was watching the
British setback in South Africa with marked interest. They stirred un-
easily and decided that something must be done, and the result was a new
and higher military budget. They listened to Winston's attack on their
efforts with surprise and irritation. What was the fellow up to anyway?

His ideas on Isolation and 'strict economy* were inherited, of course,
from his father. Lord Randolph had resigned from the Government when
his son was twelve. On innumerable occasions the boy must have heard his
mother and his aunts going over the ground and threshing out the subject
in an effort to justify Lord Randolph's resignation. In The Malakand Field
Force, published in 1897, Winston had begun his argument that the British
Army must not be constructed with the idea of fighting on the continent.
His speech in Parliament was a continuation of the same theme. 'I was so
untutored as to suppose that all I had to do was to think out what was
right and express it fearlessly,' he explained many years later. 'I thought
that loyalty in this outweighed all other loyalties. I did not understand the
importance of party discipline and unity, and the sacrifices of opinion
which may lawfully be made in their cause/ 1

Churchill's political naivete was undoubtedly genuine, but in view of
the fact that he continued to pursue an independent course many years
after his innocence had been shed, it is fair to assume that other elements
entered into the picture as well. He was impatient for success and eager to
create a stir. His father's struggles loomed large in his thoughts and the
resignation issue appealed to his pugnacious instincts. Besides, the same
Mr. Brodrick who had been Under-Secretary at the War Office at the
time of his father's quarrel was now the Minister for War. It was too good
an opportunity to miss. And last, but not least, Sir Francis Mowatt was
standing by with help and encouragement 'Presently I began to criticize
Mr. Brodrick's Army expansion and to plead the cause of economy in
Parliament,' wrote Winston. 'Old Mowatt . . . said a word to me now and
then and put me in touch with some younger officials, afterwards them-
selves eminent, with whom it was very helpful to talk . . . not secrets, for
those were never divulged, but published facts set in their true proportion
and with their proper emphasis.' 2

Winston delivered his speech on 13 May. Once again the House was

* My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. ChurchilL

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 85

crowded to hear him. The cartoonists of the day evidently saw in his
appearance no sign of the John Bull he was to become for they depict
him as a small, slim, rather elegant figure with a puckish smile. Some saw
a likeness to his father, others not. Punch declared that 'nothing either in
voice or manner' recalled Lord Randolph, while the Daily Mail asserted:
'There is a startling resemblance between the son of the late Lord Randolph
Churchill and that brilliant statesman. He has the square forehead and the
full bold eye of his father; his hurried stride through the lobby is another
point of resemblance; and when something amuses him in the course of a
debate he has his parent's trick of throwing his head well back and laugh-
ing loudly and heartily.'

What most observers agreed upon was the extreme boyishness of his
appearance, which seemed to be exaggerated by the red hair and pink and
white complexion, and accentuated by the dignified frock coat and wing
collar. 'Sitting in the corner seat from which his father delivered his last
speech in the House of Commons, he follows every important speech
delivered from, the Opposition with an alertness, a mental agility, which
develops itself in various ways,' the Daily Mail correspondent went on to
add. 'Occasionally a sort of mischievous, schoolboy grin settles over his
chubby face as he listens to some ridiculous argument; now and then he
becomes thoughtful and scribbles down a rebutting fact or a fresh argu-
ment and passes the note to a Minister below who is going to speak next;
at other rimes Mr. Gibson Bowles, sitting by his side, whispers some caustic
and amusing comment into his ear, and the long strong fingers, which
clutch each other so frequently in nervous excitement, are held over the
lower part of his face so as to conceal the smile or laugh/ 1

When Churchill began to speak, however, youth vanished, for his
words and manner were those of the elder statesman. He used the polished,
rolling language of the Victorians. Only two years before, G.W. Steevens
had commented: 'At dinner he talks and talks, and you can hardly tell
when he leaves off quoting his one idol Macaulay, and begins his other,
Winston Churchill.'

The speech of 13 May is not only historic because it marked a decisive
step in his career but is a remarkable example of his early mastery of a style
he was soon to make his own. 'If I might be allowed to revive a half-
forgotten episode,' he began quietly, '. . . it is half forgotten because it
has passed into that period of twilight which intervenes between the bright
glare of newspaper controversy and the calm rays of the lamp of history
... I would recall that once upon a time a Conservative and Unionist
Administration came into power supported by a large majority, nearly as

1 7 June, 1901.

86 WINSTON CHURCHILL

powerful and much more cohesive, than that which now supports His
Majesty's Government. And when the time came around to consider the
Estimates the usual struggle took place between the great spending depart-
ments and the Treasury. I say "usual"; at least it used to be so, I do not
know whether it is now. The Government of the day threw their weight
on the side of the great spending departments and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer resigned. The controversy was bitter, the struggle uncertain,
but in the end the Government triumphed, and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer went down forever, and with him, as it now seems, there fell
also the cause of retrenchment and economy, so that the very memory
thereof seems to have perished, and the words themselves have a curiously
old-fashioned ring about them. I suppose that was a lesson which Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer were not likely to forget in a hurry/

Winston then picked up a slip of paper and read a few lines from Lord
Randolph's letter of resignation to Lord Salisbury. Lord Randolph pointed
out that a very sharp sword often offered an irresistible temptation to
demonstrate its efficiency in a practical manner. Winston put the slip of
paper down and continued to quote the rest of the letter from memory.
'Wise words,* he cried, 'stand die test of time. And I am very glad that
the House has allowed me, after an interval of fifteen years, to lift the
tattered flag of retrenchment and economy. But what was the amount of
the annual Estimates on which the desperate battle was fought? It may be
difficult for the House to realize it, though it is within the memory of so
many honourable members. "The estimates for the year," said the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in resigning, "for the two services amount to no
less than 31,000,000 and I cannot consent to that." What are the
estimates we are asked to vote now? We are asked to vote, quite irrespec-
tive of the drainage of a costly war still in progress, something more than
59,000,000 for the ordinary service of the year. . . .

'What has happened in die meantime to explain this astonishing in-
crease? Has the wealth of the country doubled? Has the population of the
Empire doubled? Have the armies of Europe doubled? Is die commercial
competition of foreign nations so much reduced? Are we become the un-
disputed masters in die markets of die world? Is there no poverty at home?
Has die English Channel dried up and are we no longer an island? Is the
revenue so easily raised that we do not know how to spend it? Are the
Treasury buildings pulled down, and all our financiers fled? During the
few weeks I have been a member of this House I have heard honourable
Members opposite advocate many causes but no voice is raised in the
cause of economy. ... I think it is about time a voice was heard from
this side of the House pleading that unpopular cause; that someone not on

BACKBENCHER: CONSERVATIVE 87

the bench opposite, but a Conservative by tradition, whose fortunes are
linked indissolubly to the Tory Party, who knows something of the
majesty and power of Britain beyond the seas, upon whom rests no taint
of cosmopolitanism, should stand forward and say what he can to protest
against the policy of daily increasing the public burden. If such a one is to
stand forward in such a cause, then, I say humbly, but I hope with be-
coming pride, no one has a better right than I have, for this is a cause for
which the late Lord Randolph Churchill made the greatest sacrifice of
any Minister in modern times/

Churchill wound up his speech with an appeal to the House to place
their trust in a strong Navy, adequate for defensive purposes, and to keep
clear of continental wars. 'Now, when mighty populations are impelled
against each other, each individual severely embittered and inflamed,
when the resources of science and civilization sweep away everything that
might mitigate their fury, a European war can only end in the ruin of the
vanquished and the scarcely less fatal commercial dislocation and ex-
haustion of the conquerors The Secretary of War knows . . . that if we

went to war with any great Power his three Army corps would scarcely
serve as a vanguard. If we are hated they will not make us loved, if we
are in danger they will not make us safe. They are enough to irritate;
they are not enough to overawe. Yet while they cannot make us invulner-
able, they may very likely make us venturesome. . . . We shall make a
fatal bargain if we allow the moral force which this country has so long
exerted to become diminished, or perhaps even destroyed for the sake of
this costly, trumpery, dangerous military plaything on which the Secre-
tary of State has set his heart.'

Mr. Churchill's friend and fellow war correspondent, J. B. Atkins, sat
in the Press Gallery and listened to him make this speech. 'He was a lonely
but self-possessed figure as he stood there reproducing the sentiments
which caused the dramatic resignation of his father/ he wrote in the
Manchester Guardian. 'His metaphors were bold and a trifle too ornate here
and there, but they were always original and striking. His voice is not
really a defect, for it is a distinguishing possession that makes Inm unlike
anyone else to listen to/ Punch also commented joyfully on the occasion.
'With the modesty of youth he undertook to challenge the scheme of
Army reorganization put forward from the War Office . . . speech
evidently carefully prepared, but wasn't embarrassed by his notes; turned
aside from them now and then to make capital debating point out of
speeches delivered earlier in evening . . . Sark 1 complains that his utterance

1 The Member for Sark was an imaginary character created by the writer of
the political column to give voice to his own obiter dicta.

88 WINSTON CHURCHILL

is too rapid, and hopes he won't make fatal mistake of speaking too often.
But he'll learn and he'll do. . . .' *

Once again, Churchill's speech was a minor sensation. The Liberal
pacifists were delighted with his sentiments and the Liberal Imperialists
were delighted with his attack on his Tory leaders. H. W. Massingham,
a well-known Liberal journalist, wrote ecstatically that Churchill's speech
'should long ago have been delivered from our own benches', and pro-
phesied that its author would be 'Prime Minister ... I hope Liberal Prime
Minister of England.'

The Conservatives were divided in their reactions. Some of them
admired the young man for his family loyalty while others regarded his
performance merely as a stunt to attract publicity. When the debate was
resumed the following day Mr. Arthur Lee, later Lord Lee of Fareham,
said acidly: It is not well to confuse filial piety with public duty. This is
not the time to parade or pursue family traditions. . . .' And Mr. Brodrick,
Winston's main target, hit back scornfully. 'I confidently expect,' he said,
'that Parliament, which was not afraid to part company with a brilliant
statesman in 1886, will not sleep the less soundly because of the financial
heroics of my hon. friend the Member for Oldham. Those of us who
disagree with him can only hope that the time will come when his judg-
ment will grow up to his ability, when he will look back with regret to
the day when he came down to the House to preach Imperialism without
being able to bear the burden of Imperialism, and when the hereditary
qualities he possesses of eloquence and courage may be tempered also by
discarding the hereditary desire to run Imperialism on the cheap/

Thus began the breach between Winston and his leaders which two
years later was to widen into an irreparable gap. And thus the ghost of
Lord Randolph asserted itself with a vengeance. It is arguable that if
Winston had not revived the issue of his father's resignation he would have
remained in the Tory fold and become Prime Minister instead of Baldwin
after World War I. In that case World War n might not have taken pkce.
However, if all this had happened, it is also possible that Winston would
not have emerged as a great man. Great men are judged for the wars they
win, not the wars they prevent.

1 22 May. 1901.

CHAPTER SEVEN

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL

THE DOMINATION that Lord Randolph Churchill exerted from the
grave over a son in whom he had never confided stands out as the most
fascinating and remarkable aspect of Winston's career as a back-bencher. As
the months passed this strange spell increased rather than diminished. It is
not unusual for a son to revere his father's memory, but Winston carried
his devotion to such exaggerated lengths that his early Parliamentary life
was based on an almost slavish imitation. He not only borrowed his
father's views and clung to them no matter what spent forces they had
become, but he copied his manner and gestures, sought out his friends
and marked down his opponents, memorized his speeches in an effort to
catch their flavour, adopted his tactics and finally followed his strategy.

In view of Winston's originality and audaciousness this seems astonish-
ing, but the explanation partly lies in his work on his father's biography.
His romantic and forceful mind dramatized whatever subject it centred
upon, a quality which had already made him a highly successful journalist
And the fact that his emotions were now keenly involved only served to
heighten his powerful sense of theatre. He became increasingly enthralled
by the scene he was reconstructing and began to live in it with himself as
the chief actor. He identified himself so completely with his father that he
told all his friends he was certain he would die at the same early age as
Lord Randolph. He was determined to repeat his father's triumphs and
since time was short he must repeat them in the same meteoric fashion.

From the very first day Winston entered the House he was openly and
unashamedly ambitious, and he made it plain to all who would listen that
he regarded the rapid fulfilment of his aims as a matter of the gravest
urgency. He decided that only one of two courses was open to him:
either to win the leadership of the Tory Party, or to abandon the Tories
and make his way with the Liberals. He toyed with the second idea as early
as 1901, when he had been in Parliament less than a year. Lady Warwick
tells of a conversation she had with him at this time at Cecil Rhodes'
house in Scotland. 'On the visit to Loch Rannoch of which I write,
Winston Churchill discussed quite openly his political position. He had
just been on a visit to Lord Rosebery, and he said he was inclined to leave
the leadership to Mr. Balfour and proclaim himself a Liberal. He wanted
power and the Tory road to power was blocked by the Cecils and other

90 WINSTON CHURCHILL

brilliant young Conservatives, whereas the Liberal path was open. Cecil
Rhodes was all in favour of his turning Liberal.' 1

Winston evidently decided against this course and began to plan the
day when he would head the Conservatives. According to Mr. J. L.
Wanklyn, a Tory M.P., Mr. Churchill played with the notion of wresting
the leadership from Arthur Balfour in 1902, when he had been a back-
bencher fo*r only eighteen months. Winston denied this charge, and the
controversy which took place in the columns of The Times makes highly
amusing reading:

The Times. 6 March, 1905. 'On Saturday night Mr. J. L. Wanklyn,
M.P. for Central Bradford, addressed a meeting in that city. Mr. Wanklyn
said that ... at an interview with Mr. Churchill sought with him in that
month (November 1902) he was invited to assist Mr. Churchill and others
in overthrowing the Conservative Unionist Ministry in order to let in a
weak Radical Ministry, which in its turn was to be overthrown, and then
Mr. Churchill and others were to lead back to place and power a rejuven-
ated Conservative Unionist Party. The main argument was that the Duke
of Devonshire, Lord George Hamilton, Mr. Ritchie and Mr. Chamber-
lain were all too old at sixty, while Mr. Balfour and Mr. Brodrick could
easily be overthrown upon the public inquiry after the war. Lord Hugh
Cecil and Mr. Ernest Beckett were mentioned as prospective Ministers
in the Cabinet to be formed by Mr. Churchill. . . /

The Times. 7 March. *Mr. Churchill last night issued the following dis-
claimer. "Mr. Wanklyn's statement is devoid of the slightest foundation.
I have never sought an interview with him on any subject. I have never
had any conversation with him, on such a subject. The whole story from
beginning to end is a pure invention of his own, and, if not a hallucination,
can only be described as a wilful and malicious falsehood." *

The Times. 8 March. 'The editor of a Bradford evening paper yesterday
telegraphed to Lord Hugh Cecil, M.P., asking whether he had seen the
charges made by Mr. Wanklyn, M.P. and whether they were true. The
reply received was: "Statement untrue. Hugh Cecil". After Lord Hugh
Cecil's disclaimer was received a telegram was sent to Mr. Wanklyn, M.P.,
who replied as follows: "I did not say that Hugh Cecil knew of con-
spiracy, but Winston Churchill used his name to me as probable Education
Minister with or without his approval and also Lord Kitchener and Ernest
Beckett for War Office. Wanklyn"/

The Times, n March* 'Mr. J. L. Wanklyn, M.P., attended last night the
annual general meeting of the Leeds Licensed Victuallers. Referring to his
controversy with Mr. Churchill he said the latter had been driven into a

1 Life's Ebt and Flow: Frances, Countess of Warwick,

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 91

corner. He denied point blank his (Mr. Wanklyn's) statements but let him
refresh his memory for he kept a diary and a day book. ... He had tried
vague and curt denial but let him come out into the open. Let him issue a
writ and let him know that his (Mr. Wanklyn's) solicitor was Mr.
Soames. He (Mr. Wanklyn) should like to be at die elbow of the counsel
who cross-examined him. Let him refer the matter to the arbitration of
Mr. Balfour, or Sir Henry CampbeU-Bannerman, or three members of
the House of Commons. He made the offer and if Mr. Churchill refused
it they could draw their own conclusions/

Here the correspondence ended; and what probably was a drama in
1905 seems a comic episode in 1953.

As a back-bencher Winston was one of the most hard-working young
men in England. He had an astonishing capacity for sustained concentra-
tion. Although he shared a flat in Mayfair with his brother Jack, he had
no time for frivolity and rarely made a social engagement. Sometimes
friends persuaded him to visit them for a week-end, but even on these
occasions they seldom derived companionship from his presence. He
merely brought his work with him and organized his time as he would
at home. The American writer, George Smalley, was once a co-visitor
with Winston at Dunrobin, the vast mansion of die Duke and Duchess of
Sudierland. Winston invited the journalist into his room and the latter
was astonished at the sight that greeted him. 'His bedroom had been
turned into a literary workshop, strewn with books and papers and all the
apparatus of the writer. He had brought with him a tin box, some three
feet square, divided into closed compartments. This was his travelling
companion on journeys of pleasure. Like his father he wanted ample room
for his materials, and his hostess had provided him with a large writing-
table. This was covered with papers, loose and in docketed bundles, but all
in exact order for ready reference . When we left Dunrobin we found
that Winston had reserved a compartment in the railway train for himself
and for his big tin case of papers. He shut himself up there, and during
that long long journey read and wrote and worked as if a Highland rail-
way train were the natural and convenient laboratory in which literature
of a high order was to be distilled.' 1

Despite Winston's flexibility he preferred to work at home. His study
contained his father's huge writing-desk, his large brass inkwell and his
carved oak chair. He hung the walls with pictures of Lord Randolph and
even a picture of Lord Randolph's prize-winning horse Abbesse dejouarre,

1 Anglo-American Memories: George Smalley.

92 WINSTON CHURCHILL

which the jockeys used to call ' Abscess of the Jaw', and he decorated the
entrance hall with cartoons of Lord Randolph from Punch and Vanity
Fair.

He spoke in the House of Commons at least once and frequently twice
a month. He took infinite pains with his speeches, sometimes working on
them for as long as six weeks. He always wrote them out and learnt them
by heart. 'In those days, and indeed for many years,' he wrote, 'I was
unable to say anything (except a sentence in rejoinder) that I had not
written out and committed to memory beforehand/ Besides this, he often
practised his speeches by reciting them aloud, a habit which he evidently
followed for many years, for in 1908 a well-known newspaper editor wrote:
'I have been told by one who was in Scotland with him when he was
campaigning that he never appears at his hostess's table until tea-time.
All day he might be heard booming away in his bedroom, rehearsing
his facts and his flourishes to the accompaniment of resounding knocks
on the furniture.' 1 Once a speech was ready to be delivered he took care
that the newspapers received a copy in advance, and editors often were
surprised to see that the author had confidently punctuated his script with
'cheers'.

During the first three years of his Parliamentary life he spoke almost
exclusively on two themes: military matters, of which he had a wide
knowledge, and financial affairs, in which he was guided by his father's
ideas, interpreted by Sir Francis Mo watt. It was in the military field that
he made his most constructive contribution. Mr. Brodrick's scheme for the
reorganization of the Army was technically unsound and unworkable.
Winston seized every opportunity and attacked him, with tireless repeti-
tion, branding the scheme as the months passed with increasing vehemence
as "The Great English Fraud', a 'total, costly, ghastly failure', as a 'humbug
and a sham'. Finally the plan was abandoned, Mr. Brodrick was moved to
the India Office, and a new Minister was appointed to produce a more
sensible proposal. This was a great triumph for the young back-bencher.

His crusade for 'economy', however, was not so successful. The British
Army slowly expanded and the Army Estimates slowly rose. On 18
March, 1903, a Conservative M.P., Mr. Elliot, said in the House: 'Does
anyone really suppose that the circumstances of the old days are abso-
lutely past, and that in future all that would happen in the case of war
with a Continental Power would be our magnificent fleet pursuing an
inferior fleet? Such a state of things is unthinkable and I cannot imagine a
war between Britain and a Continental Power in which the British Army
would not be required.' 'Not in Europe,' interrupted Churchill.

1 Prophets* Priests and Kings: A. G. Gardiner.

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 93

Needless to say Churchill's isolationism was not so much intellectual
conviction as an inevitable outcome of championing his father's unborn
budget. No matter into what strange waters his cause led him he clung
to it stubbornly, and as a result one finds him attacking the Admiralty's
proposals to lay down eight new dreadnoughts, ships which proved
indispensable to Britain right up until 1912.

During his first four years as a back-bencher Winston took almost no
interest in purely domestic matters. He spoke once in favour of the Con-
servative Education Bill and once in opposition to a Bill to allow a man
to marry his dead wife's sister. He was led into this last, he declares, against
his better judgment, by the persuasion of his friend, Lord Hugh Cecil,
who felt strongly that the sanctity of the home was somehow involved.
Although Churchill often raised his father's old cry of 'Tory Democracy*
on the public platforms, the words had an empty ring. He offered no
proposals with which to bring them to life and once defined the slogan
vaguely as 'the association of us all through the leadership of the past*.

It is not surprising that Winston at the age of twenty-six lacked his
father's insight and interest in the social problems of the day. But it is an
interesting comparison that whereas Lord Randolph predicted the rise of
the Labour Party eight years before the Labour Party was even formed,
Winston appears to have been completely unaware of the social changes
towards which Britain was rapidly moving. 'I like the British working
man,' he declared to an interviewer in 1900, 'and so did my father before
me.' He had a deep faith in the sterling qualities of the working class,
unaccompanied by any knowledge of the conditions in which they lived.

The truth was that he was absorbed by ideas, and knew very little about
people; and his ideas as a back-bencher, mainly financial, were simple and
old-fashioned. All the great reforms that were to engulf the nation dur-
ing the next fifty years meant an entirely new approach to the nation's
fiscal policy; even if Winston had wished to introduce new reforms it
would have been impossible for him to do so without completely altering
his Victorian approach to Government expenditure. As it was he believed
that an income tax of is. sd. in the pound 1 was the limit which could be
imposed. He put his faith in a laissez-faire economy which produced the
rich at one end who, as good Christians, were expected to help the poor
at the other. In 1902 the question of a subsidy for the West Indian sugar
trade was discussed in the House of Commons. It was argued that when
the world price fell too low thousands of native workers found themselves

1 In 1901 and 1902 income tax was raised from one shilling to one shilling and
twopence and one shilling and threepence to pay the debts of the Boer War. In
1903 it dropped to elevenpence.

94 WINSTON CHURCHILL

in desperate conditions. Churchill opposed the subsidy: 'I object on prin-
ciple,' he said, 'to doing by legislation what properly belongs to charity'/

i

As the months passed Winston became increasingly rebellious. Early in
1903 he organized a group of back-benchers known as 'The Hughlighans',
in imitation of Lord Randolph's famous Fourth Party. Among the mem-
bers were Lord Hugh Cecil, Major Jack Seely, Mr. Gibson Bowles, and
Winston's cousins, Ivor and Freddy Guest. All were high-spirited young
politicians who agreed with Winston that good food and good brandy
were essential to good talk. They discussed their burning questions over
the best dinner that could be procured. Winston laid down the policy:
'We shall dine first and consider our position afterwards. It shall be High
Imperialism nourished by a devilled sardine. 5

Winston led His small group into spirited attacks against the Govern-
ment's Army scheme. Sir James Fergusson, a loyal Tory, wrote indig-
nantly to the Daily Telegraph that he had never known 'an attack upon
a Government so organized, and pressed with so much bitterness and
apparent determination by members elected to support it.'

The Government, however, apparently remained unruffled. Arthur
Balfour continued to smile upon Winston in a paternal fashion, and Cham-
berlain evidently took the line that 'boys will be boys'. The reason the
breach did not become serious was dear. Whereas Lord Randolph's
leadership of the Fourth Party had made him such a power in the land that
the Prime Minister had been forced to give him office, Winston's leadership
of the Hughlighans merely made him a diversion. The difference was that
Lord Randolph's attack on the Opposition aroused popular interest and
finally led his party to victory, while Winston's criticisms almost passed
unnoticed with the general public.

Suddenly Joseph Chamberlain raised a matter which started a national
controversy. This was the chance for which Churchill was waiting. He
plunged into the fray and overnight became the storm centre of the House
of Commons. The twelve months from May 1903 to May 1904 stand out
even to-day as the most turbulent and tempestuous year of his political
career; at the end of it he crossed the floor and joined the Liberal Opposi-
tion.

The issue that generated all the heat was Protection versus Free Trade.
It arose because Joseph Chamberlain, the Conservative Colonial Secre-
1 Hansard: 31 July.

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 95

tary, wished to establish a system of Imperial Preferences which would
allow imports from the Colonies and Dominions to receive special financial
concessions. In order to do this, however, it was necessary first to establish
tariffs on goods from foreign countries. To-day when the policy of
Imperial Preference has been in operation for twenty years it is difficult to
recapture the feeling it aroused at the beginning of the century; a large
section of the public regarded it as straight heresy.

Free Trade had been the corner-stone of British policy for fifty pros-
perous trading years. To the majority of British people it was not only
sound economics but almost a religion. Free Trade, they said, meant free-
dom and peaceful relations with the rest of the world while tarifis led
to wars. The Liberal Party was astonished that anyone should dare to
challenge a faith so well established and entered into the fight with pas-
sionate conviction. Even the Conservative Party was split in half. Three
members of Balfour's Cabinet resigned and Sir Henry Campbell-
Bannerman, the Opposition Leader, wrote to a friend: 'This reckless
criminal escapade of Joe's is the great event of our time. It is playing Old
Harry with all Party relations.'

Gradually Balfour pulled the Conservative Parliamentary Party to-
gether again until ninety-five per cent were once more following their
leaders through the lobby. But Winston was not among them. This was
an issue after his own heart. First of all he was sure that his father would
have been with him in fighting Protection. 'Everything I know suggests
to me that he would . . . have been one of its chief opponents.' 1 Secondly,
Sir Francis Mo watt was standing by with his customary advice. 'Mo watt,
going far beyond the ordinary limits of a Civil Servant, making no secret
of his views, courting dismissal, challenging the administration in admir-
able State papers, carried on the struggle himself He armed me with
facts and arguments of a general character and equipped me with a know-
ledge of economics, very necessary to a young man who, at twenty-eight,
is called upon to take a prominent part in the controversy/ 2

A few days after Chamberlain outlined his tariff policy to his Birming-
ham constituents Churchill made a fighting speech in the House of
Commons. 'The new fiscal policy,' he declared, 'means a change, not only
in the historic English Parties but in the conditions of -our public life. The
old Conservative Party with its religious convictions and constitutional
principles will disappear and a new party will arise . . . like perhaps the
Republican Party in the United States of America . . . rigid, materialist
and secular, whose opinions will turn on tariffs and who will cause the

1 My Early Life: Winston S. Churchill

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

96 WINSTON CHURCHILL

lobbies to be crowded with the touts of protected industries Not for

the last hundred years has a more surprising departure been suggested.' 1

It was obvious that Churchill was prepared to be a formidable ad-
versary. This was the psychological moment for Arthur Balfour, in the
traditional manner of Prime Ministers with powerful rebels, to silence
him by inviting him to join the Government. Winston had carefully
smoothed the way by announcing that although he was an opponent of
TariffReform he was not an opponent of his Party. But Balfour remained
adamant. He reshuffled his Cabinet, he invited new Ministers to take the
place of old Ministers, but Churchill was not one of them. Arthur Balfour
had strict ideas on Parliamentary behaviour. He refused to promote rebels
over the heads of loyal party supporters. And perhaps, too, he remem-
bered what his uncle, Lord Salisbury, had replied when someone asked
him if he would not like to have Lord Randolph Churchill in his Govern-
ment again. 'When you have got rid of a boil on your neck, you don't
want it back.' Many years later Lord Birkenhead, one of Winston's
closest friends, wrote: ' "He can wait" has always been the Tory formula
which has chilled the hopes of young and able men. . . . And so chance
after chance of modest promotion went by ... Winston characteristically
jumped the whole fence.' 2

There is no doubt that although Churchill was genuinely opposed to
Protection, he was not slow to see the political possibilities that the issue
raised. He had sat on the back benches for two years now, and he felt
it was far too long. After all, the Boer War had lifted htm to prominence
and in the election of 1900 both Balfour and Chamberlain had asked him
to address audiences of five thousand people. They knew he had the
ability. Why were they holding him back? Because of his youth? He
would show them that he was not prepared to spend the best, and perhaps
the only, years of his life in parliamentary obscurity. If he could rally
enough public and parliamentary support against Chamberlain's Protec-
tion scheme he might be able to force the Prime Minister to dissociate
himself from it, in which case Winston almost certainly would be invited
to step into the Cabinet. This was the way his father had attained office
and he would pky the same game for the same stakes. 'Politics are every-
thing to you?' a journalist asked him as his new and dangerous course
became dear. 'Politics,' he answered, 'are almost as exciting as war and
quite as dangerous/ 'Even with the new rifle?' his questioner continued.

1 Hansard: 28 May, 1903.

1 Sunday Times: 27 May, 1924.

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 97

'Well, in war,' he replied, 'you can only be killed once, but in politics
many times.'

So Churchill buoyantly travelled further along the path of opposition.
Joseph Chamberlain spent the summer campaigning throughout the
country for his plan, and Winston spent the summer campaigning against
it. The battle lifted him to the forefront of political life and he was now
regarded as one of the most controversial figures in the House of Com-
mons. And like all controversial figures he aroused intense emotion.

The personal impression he made on those who met him varies so
greatly that the only common denominator appears to be the fact that no
one could overlook him. Some idea of the range of opinions may be seen
from the following extracts from contemporary diaries. Mrs. Beatrice
Webb, the straitlaced, serious-minded Socialist, wrote on 8 July, 1903:

'Went into dinner with Winston Churchill. First impressions: restless

almost intolerably so, without capacity for sustained and unexciting
labour . . . egotistical, bumptious, shallow-minded and reactionary, but
with a certain personal magnetism, great pluck and some originality . . .
not of intellect but of character. More of the American speculator than
the English aristocrat. Talked exclusively about himself and his elec-
tioneering plans . . . wanted me to tell him of someone who would get up
statistics for him. "I never do any brain work that anyone else can do for
me" ... an axiom which shows organizing but not thinking capacity.
Replete with dodges for winning Oldham against the Labour and Liberal
candidates. But I daresay he has a better side . . . which the ordinary cheap
cynicism of his position and career covers up to a casual dinner acquain-
tance 1

Three months later, on 31 October, Wilfrid Blunt, poet, traveller and
humanitarian, wrote in his diary: 'I stopped to luncheon with Victor and
Pamela and met theVe for the first time young Winston Churchill. He is a
little square-headed fellow of no very striking appearance, but of wit,
intelligence and originality. In mind and manner he is a strange replica of
his fatter, with all his father's suddenness and assurance, and I should say
more than his father's ability. There is just the same gaminerie and con-
tempt of the conventional and the same engaging plainspokcnness and
readiness to understand. ... He has a power of writing Randolph never
had, who was a schoolboy with his pen, and he has education and a
political tradition. He interested me immensely/ 2

1 Our Partntrsbip: Beatrice Webb.
* My Dwwj.-W.S. Blunt,

98 WINSTON CHURCHILL

In the autumn Churchill recklessly began to burn his boats. In Decem-
ber he wrote the Liberal candidate at the Ludlow by-election and wished
Mm success against his Conservative opponent, declaring that 'the time has
now come when Free Traders of all parties should form one line of battle
against acommon foe' : and at a Free Trade Meeting at Halifax two days later
he ended his speech with the cry: 'Thank God we have a Liberal Party/

His local constituency party called him to account, informing him
coldly that he could no longer depend on. their support. Churchill
defended himself by saying that it was the Government, not he, who was
betraying the people who voted for him. 'When Mr. Balfour succeeded
Lord Salisbury,' he stated, 'he solemnly pledged himself at the Carlton
Club that the policy of the Party should be unchanged. And yet at Shef-
field, 1 only a year afterwards, he declared for a "fundamental reversal of
the policy of the last fifty years". Therefore it is not against me that any
charge of breaking pledges can be preferred!'

In the House of Commons Churchill moved to an independent seat
below the gangway. He continued to call himself a supporter of.the Con-
servative Party but redoubled his attacks on Chamberlain's tariff policy.
There was no doubt that the idea of tariffs was unpopular in the country,
and Churchill still felt he might be able to force Balfour to reject it. How-
ever, he was aware that anger and dislike were mounting against him in his
own Party, and he accepted the fact that if things were pushed too far
he must be prepared to cross the floor of the House. There already
were persistent rumours that this was what he intended to do, but he
remained silent on the subject. The Pall Mall Gazette came out with an
article emphatically denying that any such idea had crossed his mind.
'Few people we thfnlc realize the intensity of his devotion to Toryism . . .
and yet this is one of the most striking characteristics of the member for
Oldham. He is a Tory by birth and inheritance. Toryism possesses him.
. . . It is with him something of a religion. He once talked to me con-
cerning Toryism of "our spiritual ideals" . . . "Some of us," he once said,
"were born in the Tory Party and we are not going to let any aliens turn
us out." I referred to the Radical journalist and the gorgeous future he
had mapped out for "Winston Churchill. "Oh, absurd. I am a Tory and
must always remain a Tory".' 2

Meanwhile the lobby correspondents watched Winston's tactics with
amused interest They could not help referring repeatedly to the resemb-

1 At the Sheffield Party Conference to which Churchill referred, it became plain
that a large majority favoured Protection with an almost idealistic fervour as a
means of binding the Empire closer together.

Pall Mall Gazette: September 1903.

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 99

lance between father and son. 'Less in face than in figure, in gesture and
manner of speech. When the young Member for Oldham addresses the
House, with hands on hips, head bent forward, right foot stretched forth,
memories of days that are no more flood the brain. Like father is son in
his habit of independent view of current topics, the unexpectedness of his
conclusions, his disregard for authority, his contempt of the conventions,
his perfect phrasing of disagreeable remarks.

'His special enmity to Chamberlain and all his works is hereditary. He
does not forget and can never forgive the rebuff that seared his father's
proud heart when Birmingham clamoured for him to represent them in
the House of Commons and Chamberlain peremptorily said "no" . . .
Winston is a convinced Free Trader. But he enters with lighter, more
fully gladdened heart into the conflict, since Protection is championed by
his father's ancient adversary.' 1

It was becoming apparent that the Conservative Party was steadily
losing its popularity in the country. The Opposition was able to whip up
criticism of die Government on several grounds; first its inept handling of
the Boer War; second its employment of indentured Chinese labour in the
African gold mines which the Liberals branded as 'slave labour' and were
turning into an important moral issue; third its interest in Protective
Tariffs which the public suspected would mean 'dearer food'. It was
obvious that Conservative election prospects were declining. 'From 1903
onwards,' writes D. C. Somervell, the historian, 'it seemed certain, and
not only to those who wished it, that Balfour's Government would be
defeated at the next election.' 2

Winston's repeated attacks in the face of this decline infuriated his col-
leagues. Instead of trying to retrieve the position he was contributing to
the rot, and, incidentally, dashing the political hopes of his associates as
well. Although many of them had reservations about the tariff policy
they were willing to bury their differences at critical moments and were
incensed that Churchill refused to pky the game in what they called a
'gentlemanly' fashion. They might have forgiven him had they believed
in bis sincerity but they thought he was influenced mainly by ambition,
and began to denounce him as 'wickedly hypocritical'. One of his con-
temporaries, Mr. MacCallum Scott, wrote that 'the followers of Mr.
Chamberlain repaid his hostility with a passionate personal hatred over
which they vainly endeavoured to throw a mask of contempt There was
no better hated man in the House of Commons.' 3

1 Punch: 8 June, 1904.

1 British Politics Since 1900: D. C. Somervell.

3 Winston Spencer Churchill: A. MacCallum Scott

100 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Some idea of the fury he aroused was demonstrated in March 1904
when an unprecedented scene took place in the House. A week before the
incident, Major Jack Seely, a close friend of Churchill, announced his
resignation from the Conservative Party on the question of 'Chinese
slavery* in South Africa. Emotions ran so high and there was such an
uproar in the House Major Seely scarcely could make himself heard.
Churchill shouted above die din: 'Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.
I am quite unable to hear what my honourable Friend is saying owing to
the vulgar clamour maintained by the Conservative Party/ With this a
Conservative M.P. jumped up pointing to Winston and screaming
angrily that 'the vulgarest expression came from this honourable Gentle-
man'. Amid the hubbub the Speaker tried to explain that he was not so
much concerned with the vulgarity of the expressions as the loudness with
which they were delivered.

This was the prelude. A week later the English public picked up the
morning edition of the Daily Mail to read the following headlines:

CHILLING REBUKE

UNIONISTS REFUSE TO HEAR MR. CHURCHILL
STRANGE SCENE IN THE COMMONS

The reporter then gave the following account: 'The rank and file of
the Unionist Party who are still loyal to their leaders took a singular and
striking step in the House of Commons yesterday to mark their disap-
proval of Mr. Winston Churchill's attitude.

'For a considerable time his speeches have been almost without excep-
tion directed against the policy of the Government. They have been
clever, severe, biting in their sarcasm, full of sneers and scorn for Mr.
Balfour and his Ministers. Last week in the incident over Major Seely 's
resignation Mr. Churchill came into sharp collision with his former party
friends, when he characterized their interjections as "vulgar clamour".

The insult was resented at the moment and it rankled. The Unionists
apparently resolved that he would not have cause to complain again of
"vulgar damour". Yesterday when he rose to follow Mr. Lloyd George
in the debate on the adjournment at five o'clock, there was a general
movement to the tea rooms.

'Mr. Balfour at this juncture had risen and met Mr. Austen Chamber-
lain beyond the glass door behind the Speaker's chair. Mr. Churchill
objected to the departure of the Prime Minister when he was about to
speak. He was astonished at such a lack of deference and respect. The
Unionists who remained then got up and also left the House. Some turned

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL iui

back at the doors and looked in to see how many were left. Less than a
dozen members, mostly Free Traders, sat on the Government side.

'The merry jest, the sparkling epigram and the ironical sally departed
likewise from Mr. Churchill's oration. He never speaks unless there is a
full House. The full House had melted away under his spell. It was a chill-
ing rebuke, crushing, unanswerable. He complained bitterly at the slight,
and murmured some phrases about a shifty policy of shifty evasion. There
were only the crowded benches of the Liberals to cheer. Behind him was
silence and desolation.' 1

This episode was the breaking point. Churchill at once began making
arrangements to stand as a Liberal candidate at the next election. Until his
plans were completed he continued to sit, belligerently, on the Con-
servative benches; but three weeks later, on 22 April, he delivered a speech
on the Trade Disputes Bill which left the action he was contemplating in
no further doubt. It was the first left-wing speech of his career and was
described by the Daily Mail as 'Radicalism of the reddest type'. But the
speech was not only sensational for its content; it was sensational because
its author lost the thread of his argument three-quarters of the way through
and was unable to finish it. 'MR. CHURCHILL BREAKS DOWN/ cried the
headlines of the Daily Mail, 'DRAMATIC SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS'.

Churchill began his oration by calling the Conservative Party a 'sham'
and accusing it of being afraid to deal with the problems of the working
classes. 1 do not think it can be said,' he continued, 'that Labour bulks too
largely in English politics at the present time. When one considers the
gigantic powers which by the consent of both Parties have been given to
the working classes; when on the other hand, one considers the influence
in this House of company directors, the learned professions, the service
members, the railway, the landed and liquor interests; it will surely be
admitted that the influence of Labour on the course of legislation is even
ludicrously small/ 2

'It lies with the Government,* he cried, 'to satisfy the working classes
that there is no justification . . / He paused, hesitated, then began the
sentence again. But the words would not come. According to the Daily
Mail reporter: 'A few Members murmured a cheer. Mr. Churchill looked
confused in his boyish way, and smiled at the awkwardness, the absurdity
of the position . . . "It lies with them . . . What?" he ejaculated, as someone
suggested a word which was not the right word. He lifted a slip of paper
from the bench but the cue was not there. He searched the deep pockets
of his frock-coat but found no help. Major Sedy picked torn scraps from

1 Daily Mail: 30 March, 1904.
* Hansard: 22 April, 1904.

102 WINSTON CHURCHILL

the floor, and the words were not there ... It was all over. He sat down
murmuring thanks to the House for its kindness. The Conservative Party
looked silently on wondering what had overtaken him so. suddenly, so
dramatically.' 1

These Members remembered how Lord Randolph had broken down
in the House a few months before his death. Was Winston ill? Would he,
too, go the way of his father? Rumours swept the lobbies and gossip
reached a crescendo of excitement. But Winston was far from a physical
collapse. He had merely begun trying to change his methods of speaking.
Instead of learning his orations by heart he was attempting to deliver them
from paragraph headings. This was an effort to limber up so that Arthur
Balfour could not jeer at him for having powerful artillery that was 'not
very mobile*. He never broke down again, and continued to arrange his
speeches in headings; but he also reverted to memorizing them.

Controversy continued to rage about Churchill and it seems to have
extended to conflicting views even about his appearance. This was due to
his quick, changing moods which sometimes turned from loquaciousness
to a silence that was almost sulky. When he was animated he reminded his
audience of a young fighting cock, but when his face was in repose he
struck them as old and tired. For this reason one finds completely con-
tradictory descriptions of him in the contemporary journals. While the
Daily Mail correspondent describes the 'unmistakably schoolboy grin 9
that suddenly lights up Mr. Churchill's face in the middle of a stormy
scene, 'not the assumed smile so often seen in Parliament, but the real grin
of one who is alive to all the fun of things ... I saw it in Mr. Churchill's
face when Sir Trout Bardey was rebuking him for vulgarity* the Pall
Mall Gazette is assuring its readers 'that 'in appearance there is nothing of
"the Boy*' left in the white, nervous, washed-out face of the Member for
Oldham. He walks with a stoop, his head thrust forward. His mouth
expresses bitterness, the light eyes strained watchfulness. It is a tired face,
white, worn, harassed . . . There is, indeed, little of youth left to the
Member for Oldham.*

However, despite these claims there was plenty of energy left. At Easter
time Churchill was adopted as liberal candidate for Northeast Man-
chester. On 16 May he made what proved to be his farewell speech from
the Conservative benches, declaring that extravagant finance would drag
the Government to the ground and 'be written on the head of its tomb-
stone*.

1 Daily Mail: 23 April, 1904.

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 103

On 31 May, he crossed the floor and took his seat on the Liberal
benches. 'House resumed to-day after Whitsun holidays,' commented
Punch. 'Attendance small; benches mostly empty. Winston, entering with
all the world before him where to choose, strides down to his father's old
quarters on the front bench below the gangway to the left of the
Speaker, and sits among the ghosts of the old Fourth Party. "He's gone
over at last, and good riddance," say honest hacks munching their corn
in well-padded stalls of the Government stables. They don't like young
horses that kick out afore and ahint, and cannot safely be counted upon to
run in double harness. "Winston's gone over at last," they repeat whinny-
ing with decorous delight/ 1

Some years later Joseph Chamberlain confided to Margot Asquith:
'He was die cleverest of all the young men. The mistake Arthur [Balfour]
made was letting htm go.' 2

Winston found himself in strange company on the Liberal benches.
There were, of course, the Liberal Imperialists, known as the 'respectable
Liberals', made up of well-to-do sober, conservative aristocrats such as
Lord Rosebery and Sir Edward Grey. Then there was the radical group
led by Lloyd George which was composed of radicals, pacifists, teetotallers
and nonconformists, offering a marked contrast to the robust young
soldier-politician who had joined their ranks. These were the people that
Winston had once jeered at as 'prigs, prudes and faddists', and they still
treated him with a certain amount of suspicion. They remembered that
only a few years before, at Oxford in 1901, he had declaimed: 'The
Radical Party is not dead ... it is hiding from the public view like a toad
in a hole; but when it stands forth in all its hideousness the Tories will have
to hew tie filthy object limb from limb.' Indeed, shortly after Winston
joined the Liberals an anonymous pamphlet was printed quoting many of
his anti-Radical sayings, with the heading:

Mr. Winston Churchill on the Radical Party

Before he donned their livery and

Accepted their Pay.

Churchill paid little attention to these rearguard attacks and flung him-
self into the battle. He was welcomed warmly by Lloyd George, John
Morley and Herbert Asquith, all of whom were shrewd enough to know

1 Punch: 8 June, 1904.

1 The Autobiography of Margot Asquith.

104 WINSTON CHURCHILL

the value of their new recruit. He did not make any more radical speeches
in Parliament but continued along his well-worn path of Army reform
and financial expenditure. But he added one new target for his guns, and
that was the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.

Balfour was having a difficult rime in holding his Party together over
tariffs and the method he chose was to sit firmly on the fence. He skilfully
evaded all attempts to raise the matter in Parliament and was often absent
from the Chamber during fiscal debates when awkward questions might
have been asked him.

This gave Churchill the opportunity for one of the most spirited and
hard-hitting attacks the House has ever known. He jibed and jeered at
Balfour for his 'miserable and disreputable shifts', for 'his gross and
flagrant ignorance'. 'Queens never abdicate,' he announced sarcastically,
and he told the House that 'to keep in office for a few more weeks and
months there is no principle which the Government is not prepared to
abandon, no friend or colleague they are not prepared to betray, and no
quantity of dust and filth they are not prepared to eat.* 1

Once again Punch called attention to the similarity between father and
son, recalling Lord Randolph's onslaught against Sir Stafford Northcote
in 1880. 'The same direct hitting out from the shoulder; the same lack of
deference to age and authority; the same pained silence on the side where
the assailed Ministers sit; the same cheers and laughter in enemy's camp as
cleverly-planned, skilfully-directed blow follows blow . . . Prince Arthur
[Balfour] lolls on the Treasury Bench looking straight before him, with
studious air of indifference betrayed by countenance clouded by rare
anger/ 2

Mr. Balfour seldom deigned to answer Winston's attacks, but some-
times he was provoked too far. On 24 July Winston said in an insolent
voice: 'We have been told ad nauseam of die sacrifices which the Prime
Minister makes. I do not deny that there have been sacrifices. The House
ought not to underrate or deny those sacrifices. Some of them must be
very galling to a proud man. There were first sacrifices of leisure and then
sacrifices of dignity . . . Then there was the sacrifice of reputation ... For
some years the right hon. Gentleman has led the House by the respect and
affection with which he was regarded in all quarters. In future he will not
lead the House by the respect and affection of the Opposition at least . . .
It has been written that tie right honourable Gentleman stands between
pride and duty. Pride says "go" but duty says "stay". The right honour-
able Gentleman always observes the maxim of a certain writer that when-

1 Hansard: 28 March, 1905.
* Puttfh: 22, March,

BACKBENCHER: LIBERAL 105

ever an Englishman takes or keeps anything he wants, it is always from a
high sense of duty.' 1

This was too much for Balfour and he replied to Winston in icy tones:
'As for the junior Member for Oldham his speech was certainly not
remarkable for good taste, and as I have always taken an interest in that
honourable Gentleman's career, I should certainly, if I thought it in the
least good, offer him some advice on that particular subject. But I take it
that good taste is not a thing that can be acquired by industry, and that even
advice of a most heartfelt and genuine description would entirely fail in
its effect were I to offer it to him. But on another point I think I may give
him some advice which may be useful to him in the course of what I hope
will be a long and distinguished career. It is not, on the whole, desirable to
come down to this House with invective which is both prepared and
violent. The House will tolerate, and very rightly tolerate, almost any-
thing within the rule of order which evidently springs from genuine
indignation aroused by the collision of debate; but to come down with
these prepared phrases is not usually successful, and at all events, I do not
think it was very successful on the present occasion. If there is preparation
there should be more finish, and if there is so much violence there should
certainly be more veracity of feeling/ 2

It is perhaps only in England that friendship could survive these heated
duels. Although the relationship of Balfour and Churchill went through
its chilly periods, each time it moved again into the sunshine. And when
Balfour died many years later, Winston wrote a warm and generous
estimate of his work and character. In this essay he remarked: 'He was
never excited and in the House of Commons very hard to provoke. I tried
often and often, and only on a very few occasions, which I prefer to
forget, succeeded in seriously annoying him in public.' *

The General Election took pkce in January 1906. Everyone expected the
Liberals to win, but no one imagined such a sweeping victory. It was the
greatest electoral landslide since 1833. The Liberals won 401 seats and the
Conservatives were reduced to 157. The new era of social democracy had
begun.

1 Hansard: 24 July, 1905.

* Hansard: 27 July, 1905.

* Great Contemporaries: Winston S. ChurchilL

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE RADICAL MINISTER

IT is an odd twist of Fate that Winston Churchill's Victorian views on
finance should have led him into a Party which, under the leadership of
Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was destined to revolu-
tionize British financial thought.

The years from 1906 to 1914 are a milestone in English history. They
were the stormy, bitter, spectacular years which swept Britain along the
path of social democracy, a course which she once again began to pursue
in 1945. A flood of legislation was added to the statute books: old age
pensions, national health insurance, workmen's compensation, minimum
wages, trade boards, labour exchanges, and many other social measures.
But it was not only a period of reform, it was a period of fundamental
change. For the first time in history the Budget was used as a political
instrument to redress the vastly uneven balance of wealth. For the last
time in history the landed aristocracy exerted its rule; the Parliament Bill
stripped the House of Lords of the power to block the legislation of the
Commons, and transformed it at a stroke of the pen into a useful but
innocuous revising Chamber.

Needless to say, the rich and powerful fought for their money and their
privileges with all their might. 'Party animosity,' wrote Lord Campion
in 1952, 'reached a degree of virulence which is hardly conceivable in the
present generation.' 1 And the animosity was concentrated on the two
brilliant, glittering platform speakers who emerged as the Radical leaders
of the day: Lloyd George and Winston ChurcMl.

They were an oddly contrasting pair. One was the grandson of a Duke,
a Tory aristocrat, who had made the most of the advantages that position
and privilege could offer. The other was a poor Welsh boy, brought up
by a widowed mother and a shoe-maker uncle, articled to a solicitor at
the age of sixteen, who began his career by defending poachers in the
County Courts.

And yet these two had much in common. In their natures ran an
unusual mixture of emotionalism, impulsiveness and hard-headed am-
bition. Each possessed the spark of genius that lifted him above his more
erudite contemporaries. Each was an adventurer who loved the thrill and

1 Parliament: A Survey: Lord Campion (formerly Sir Gilbert Campion, Clerk
of the House of Commons).

THE RADICAL MINISTER 107

uncertainty of the political battle. And each had enough generosity to
fight his way through the years as friends first and rivals second.

By 1908 they shared a common platform which stood apart from the
rostrum of the more conservative Liberals in the Cabinet. 'Both were
opposed,' wrote Halevy, 'to a policy of heavy expenditure on the Army
and the Navy, both advocates of a policy of social reform which, they
maintained, the Liberal Party must pursue with an unprecedented daring,
if the Labour Party were not to grow strong on its lefr. They came for-
ward as the two leaders of the radical group of pacifists and advanced social
reformers as opposed to the three Imperialists Asquith, Grey and Haldane.' l

It is easy enough to understand the rise of Lloyd George as a great
Radical and pacifist leader. Lloyd George entered Parliament as a Welsh
nationalist. He was not interested in foreign affairs and regarded the army
and navy almost as the stage props of Tory Imperialism to which he was
bitterly opposed. At the root of his thinking was strong nonconformism
mixed with a deep hatred of the land-owning class which had been bred
in his bones by a hard childhood where he saw many examples of the
victimization of the poor by the squirearchy.

It is not so easy to picture Winston Churchill, the aristocrat and the
soldier, fitting himself to the Radical-pacifist mould. If Winston seemed a
slightly incongruous figure on the Liberal benches in 1904 sitting among
the 'prigs, prudes and faddists', he seemed even more out of place after
the election of 1906. Of the 401 Liberal candidates who were returned,
over 200 belonged to the League of Liberals Against Aggression and
Militarism, who were commonly known as the LLAMS. Nearly all of these
'lambs' were nonconformists. The aristocratic, landowning Liberal was
almost a thing of the past The new blood was drawn largely from the
professional classes; lawyers, journalists, university professors, and 'cham-
pions of all those eccentric causes which arouse the enthusiasm of British
philanthropy.* 2

Winston was not born with the nature of a reformer. His sense of
justice was not outraged by the great inequality of wealth, nor by the
hangover of feudal privileges. He did not bum with that indignation at
the lot of one section of the community which must always be the main
spring of the true Radical. His interest was far less concerned with the
individuals who made up the nation than with the nation itself. From the
earliest his outlook was die oudook of the historian. He saw Britain in her
most attractive perspective, as a strong, rich, law-abiding power spreading
her enlightened ideas across the world as she moved steadily forward by a

1 A History of the English People in 1905-1915: EHe HalSvy.
2 Ibid.

108 WINSTON CHURCHILL

wonderful chain of continuous and progressive action. A feeling of con-
tinuity was bred in his bones, a feeling as strong as Lloyd George's dislike
of the squirearchy. It satisfied his romantic nature. Just as he liked to think
of himself as the product of great men he liked to think of the nation as
the product of great episodes.

This strong and conservative traditionalism was recognized by most of
Winston's closest friends as a fundamental part of his make-up. 'Whereas
I am a Conservative by conviction/ a Tory colleague once remarked,
'Winston is one by prejudice/ Sir Ian Hamilton who saw much of
Winston during his soldiering days remarked along the same line: 'I have
always felt that Winston's coat of many colours was originally dipped in
a vat of blue; a good fast natural Tory background, none of your syn-
thetic dyes/ And Lord Birkenhead, who was Churchill's closest friend for
twenty years, testified in 1924: 'Fundamentally he has always been of our
generation the most sincere and fervid believer in the stately continuity of
English life.' 1

How, then, did Winston become a Radical? He certainly was not one
when he joined the Liberal Party in 1904. It is worth noting that he did
not deliver a single Radical speech until his relations with his own Party
were at breaking point. And in the last speech he made from the Con-
servative benches he pointed out, almost sadly: 'Since my quarrel with
the Government has become serious, I would like to say that it has been
solely and entirely on the question of finance. It was on finance that I was
drawn to attack the Army scheme of 1900; it has been mainly on finance
that I have been drawn to oppose the fiscal proposals of the right honour-
able Gentleman . . / a

Winston's Radicalism was fashioned by Conservative animosity. He
was not only provoked by Tory wrath but, unexpectedly, surprised and
wounded by it as well. He suddenly came to the conclusion that he had
been badly treated. First of all, the Tory leaders had refused to give him
office although they admitted his ability and did not hesitate to make use
of it at election time; secondly, although ultimately fifty Conservatives
withdrew their support from the Government over Protection, he was
the only one singled out for attack; thirdly, it was not he, but they, who
had changed their views on Free Trade. 'Change with a Party, however
consistent, is at least defended by the power of numbers,' he wrote many
years later. 'To remain constant when a Party changes is to excite invidi-
ous comparison.' 8

THE RADICAL MINISTER 109

However, Winston's picture of himself as an outspoken young man
martyred for the consistency of his political opinions was not shared by
the Conservatives. First and foremost, they did not helieve in his sincerity.
To them he was ambitious and unscrupulous, making wildly disloyal
speeches in a bold bid for power. And of course the fact that he was
brilliant and effective as well did nothing to soften their anger. These
were the two sides of the story and the truth probably lay somewhere in
the middle.

Once Winston became a Liberal, his powerful and imaginative mind
explored the possibilities of the Party creed. He grasped the strongest
threads of Liberalism and at once wove them into an exciting theme. He
made the Liberal idea sparkle and shine as he linked with it, exclusively,
the future glory of Britain.

However, the most interesting aspect of his change of Party ky in the
effect it had on the biography of his father. He did not finish it for a year
after he joined the Liberals. Lord Randolph was still his great inspiration
and Lord Randolph had said: 'No power on earth would make me join
the other side.' It was then obviously essential to Winston's peace of mind
that he should feel that his father would have approved of his action. First
he convinced himself that his father had been treated very badly by the
Conservatives. When people heckled him at the General Election of 1906
and called him a turn-coat he replied solemnly and almost embarrassingly:
1 admit that I have changed my Party. I don't deny it. I am proud of it.
When I think of all the labours which Lord Randolph Churchill gave to
the fortunes of the Conservative Party and the ungrateful way in which
he was treated by them when they obtained the power they would never
have had but for fam I am delighted that circumstances have enabled me
to break with them while I am still young and still have the first energies
of my life to give to the popular cause.' 1

Thus Winston built up the figure of Lord Randolph as the hero of the
piece and the Tory Party as the villain. If it had not been for Lord Ran-
dolph the Tory Party might have disappeared for ever. 'But for a narrow
chance they might have slipped down the gulf of departed systems. The
forces of wealth and rank, of land and Church, must always have exerted
vast influence in whatever confederacy they had been locked. Alliances or
fusions with Whigs and moderate Liberals must from time to time have
secured them spells of office. But the Tory Party might easily have failed
to gain any support among the masses. They might have lost their hold
upon the new foundations of power; and the cleavage in British politics

1 Extract from speech delivered at Manchester quoted in World, 16 January,
1906.

110 WINSTON CHURCHILL

must have become a social, not a political division upon a line hori-
zontal, not oblique/ 1

Lord Randolph had saved the Tory Party which had repaid him by
casting him aside. Would he have become a 'Tory-Socialist' in the new
century? his son asked. Or, 'would he, under the many riddles the future
had reserved for such as he, have snapped the tie of sentiment that bound
him to his party, resolved at last to "shake the yoke of inauspicious
stars" . , ,?* 2 Winston decided that his father would have done what he
himself had done: become a Progressive.

The fact that Winston painted the picture high-lighting the differences
between Lord Randolph and the Conservative Party, which he could
scarcely have done so vividly had he remained a Tory, made the book a
fascinating drama. It was beautifully written and carefully assembled. The
issues of the day became alive and the House of Commons stands forth as
'the best club in the world*.

The reviewers praised the book as a 'literary masterpiece', but politically
maintained their reservations. The Review of Reviews, one of the leading
periodicals of the day, devoted thirteen pages to its analysis, under the
heading Book of the Month. It called the biography 'shrewd*, 'acute' and
'brilliant' but when it dealt with the author's interpretation of Lord
Randolph's character and contribution the tone grew ironical. 'Mr.
Winston's Lord Randolph dawns upon us as a kind of demi-god tran-
scending all his contemporaries by his piercing insight and demonic
energy. In the midst of the dash of parties, and even while he was appar-
ently engaged in the fiercest strife, he stands aloof, alone and apart. More
Liberal than the Liberals, he was nevertheless the idolized gladiator of the
militant Tories; but for him the Tory Party, that great instrument which
had governed Britain for the last twenty years, would have perished
miserably. To his genius, to his prescience, to his statesmanlike grasp of the
great verities of the situation, is due the realization of the great ideal of a
Tory democracy, Primrose-leagued around an Imperial crown. Such a
concept of Lord Randolph Churchill may be true: it is certainly new, but
it is put forward with such sincerity of conviction, and such plausible and
persistent arguments, that it is certain to win much more acceptance than
anyone could have believed to be possible before Mr. Winston Churchill
took in hand the apotheosis of his father ... I will only say that it is
difficult to account for Lord Randolph's resignation on any other theory
than that of a swelled head, manifesting itself in an impatient determina-
tion to force the hand of Lord Salisbury and constitute himself master of

1 Lord Randolph Clturchitt: Winston S. Churchill
Ibid.

THE RADICAL MINISTER III

the Cabinet. Mr. Winston disguises, excuses and extenuates die supreme
miscalculation of his father's lifetime. But bcneadi all the excuses due to
filial respect the fact stands out clearly that Lord Randolph believed the
time had come when he could dictate to Lord Salisbury. It was a fatal
miscalculation.' 1

The political battle did not reach its full force for over two years. When
the Liberals formed their new Government in 1906, Campbell-Banner-
man, a good-natured Scot of upright character but no startling ability,
became Prime Minister for the simple reason that he had fewer enemies
than other likely contenders. Mr. Asquith became Chancellor of die
Exchequer, Sir Edward Grey went to the Foreign Office, and Winston
Churchill, aged thirty-one, became Under-Secretary of State for the
Colonies.

Churchill was first offered the job of Financial Secretary to the Treasury
but he preferred the Colonies, first because the Colonial Office would
handle die settlement with die South African Republics, and second, and
probably more important, because his chief, Lord Elgin, sat in the Lords,
which gave his Under-Secretary more scope in the Commons.

Winston found plenty of opportunity for his talents. The Liberal
Government soon made the daring and enlightened decision to give im-
mediate and complete self-government to the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State, and die Conservatives opposed it. Although the Treaty of
Peace had stated that 'as soon as circumstances permit, representative
institutions leading up to self-government will be introduced', the Tories
insisted that the right conditions did not yet prevail. Mr. Balfour viewed
with 'alarm and distrust* what he referred to as 'this most reckless develop-
ment of a great colonial policy'; and in the Upper House Lord Milner and
Lord Lansdowne, the Tory leaders, painted dark forecasts of the poor
harvest such precipitous action would reap.

Winston was wholeheartedly in favour of the Bill which became his
responsibility to pilot through the Commons. In his maiden speech five
years before, he had pleaded for a vigorous finish to the war with a
humane and just setdement to follow. Now his emotions were involved
as well. The reader will remember that Winston was taken prisoner after
the armoured train was wrecked, by a Boer horseman who came gallop-
ing up and covered him with his rifle. In 1902, shortly after the war had
drawn to a dose, several Boer generals visited London to ask for assistance
for their devastated country, and Winston was introduced at a luncheon

1 Review of Reviews: January 1906.

112 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to their leader, General Botha. They talked about the war and Churchill
told him the story of his capture. 'Botha listened in silence; then he said,
"Don't you recognize me? I was that man. It was I who took you prisoner.
I, myself/' and his bright eyes twinkled with pleasure.' 1 In 1906, shortly
after Winston was appointed Under-Secretary, Louis Botha became the
first Prime Minister of the Transvaal. He came to London to attend
the Imperial Conference and was present at a great banquet given to the
Dominion Prime Ministers in Westminster Hall. As Botha strode through
the hall to his place at the banquet table he passed Churchill who was
accompanied by his mother. He paused and said to Lady Randolph with
a twinkle: 'He and I have been out in all weathers/

Churchill's friendship with Louis Botha, whom he later described as
'one of the most interesting men I have ever met', strengthened his
already firm faith in the Boers. He answered the Conservatives in uncom-
promising language. 'We do not ask honourable Gentlemen opposite to
share our responsibility/ he said in his closing speech. 'If by chance our
counsels of conciliation should come to nothing, if our policy should end
in mocking disaster, then the resulting evil would not be confined to
South Africa. Our unfortunate experience would be trumpeted forth all
over the world wherever despotism wanted a good argument for bayonets,
wherever an arbitrary government wished to deny or curtail the liberties
of imprisoned nationalities.

'But if, on the other hand, as we hope and profoundly believe, better
days are in store for South Africa, if the long lane it has been travelling has
reached its turning at last, if the near future should unfold to our eyes a
tranquil, prosperous, consolidated Afrikander nation under the protecting
aegis of the British Crown, then I say, the cause of the poor and the weak
all over the world will have been sustained, and everywhere small peoples
will get more room to breathe, and everywhere great empires will be
encouraged by our example to step forward it only means a step into
the sunshine of a more gentle and a more generous age/ 2

The result of this bold experiment was entirely successful. Louis Botha
remained Prime Minister of the Transvaal until 1910. During that year the
four colonies were federated and Botha became the first Prime Minister
of the Union of South Africa. When he died in 1918 his second-in-
command, Jan Smuts, succeeded him. Both men were life-long friends
of Churchill; and it is perhaps worth reminding the reader that when
Britain went to war in 1914 Louis Botha and Smuts also declared war
on Germany and attacked German Southwest Africa. It is also worth

1 My Early Life: Winston S. ChurcML
1 Hansard: 17 December, 1906.

THE RADICAL MINISTER 113

recording that at home, as soon as the Conservatives saw that the Con-
stitution Bill transformed the Boer Republics into staunch supporters of
the British Commonwealth, they changed their tune. Three years later
Mr. Balfour swallowed his words of criticism and described it in the
House of Commons as 'one of the most important events in the history of
the Empire, one of the great landmarks of Imperial policy ... the most
wonderful issue out of all those divisions, controversies, battles and out-
breaks, the devastations and horrors of war, the difficulties of peace. I do
not believe the world shows anything like it in its whole history!' 1

South Africa was not the only subject that occupied Mr. Churchill during
the first two years of the Liberal Government. Although he was serving
in the comparatively humble capacity of an Under-Secretary, he was
regarded as one of the leading figures in the Government In 1907 he was
made a Privy Councillor, an honour rarely accorded to a politician below
the rank of a full Minister, a certain indication that as soon as he had served
his apprenticeship he would step into the Cabinet He already had the
approach of a Cabinet Minister. His ideas were not confined to his depart-
mental duties but were on a national, policy-making scale. Although 1906
and 1907 are regarded by present-day historians as 'the lull before the
storm', Mr. Churchill made several strong Radical speeches during this
period which fanned Conservative emotions into bright, angry flames.

One of these speeches, given at Glasgow in October 1906, might have
been delivered by Clement Attlee in 1951. It attacked Marxist Socialism
but praised the solid ranks of Labour. It defended private enterprise but
spoke in favour of further collectivization. It was in fact the doctrine of
the middle course; of a mixture of competition and co-operation, of
public ownership and private initiative, which has been accepted as the
Labour Party's 'democratic Socialism* of to-day.

'No view of society can possibly be complete,' he declared, 'which does
not comprise within its scope both collective organization and individual
incentive. The whole tendency of civilization is, however, toward the
multiplication of the collective functions of society. The evergrowing
complications of civilization create for us new services which have to be
undertaken by the State, and create for us an expansion of the existing
services. There is a growing feeling, which I entirely share, against allow-
ing those services which are in the nature of monopolies to pass into
private hands. The .e is a pretty steady determination, which I am con-
vinced will become effective in the present Parliament, to intercept all

1 Hansard: 16 August, 1909.

114 WINSTON CHURCHILL

future unearned increment which may arise from the increase in the
speculative value of the land. There will be an ever-widening area of
municipal enterprise. I go farther: I should like to see the State embark
on various novel and adventuresome experiments. I am delighted to see
that Mr. Bums is now interesting himself in afforestation. I am of the
opinion that the State should increasingly assume the position of the
reserve employer of labour. I am very sorry we have not got the railways
of this country in our hands. We may do something better with the canals,
and we are all agreed, everyone in this hall who belongs to the Progressive
Party, that the State must increasingly and earnestly concern itself with
the care of the sick and the aged and, above all, of the children.

'I look forward to the universal establishment of minimum standards of
life and labour, and their progressive elevation as the increasing energies of
production may permit I do not think that Liberalism in any circum-
stances can cut itself off from this fertile field of social effort, and I would
recommend you not to be scared in discussing any of these proposals, just
because some old woman comes along and tells you they are Socialistic.
If you take my advice, you will judge each case on its merits. Where you
find that State enterprise is likely to be ineffective, then utilize private
enterprise, and do not grudge them their profits/ 1

Despite the Government's huge Liberal majority in the Commons, it soon
became dear that trouble was brewing. The House of Lords, which was
overwhelmingly Conservative, coolly began to reject the Government's
legislation. First they butchered the Education Bill by amending so many
clauses that it was almost unrecognizable and finally had to be dropped.
When Augustine Birrell, the Minister, received it back in its massacred
condition he told the Commons that he felt like Macduff after the
slaughter of his children: 'All gone? All my pretty ones?*

Liberal anger began to rise. No one had forgotten Arthur Balfour's
arrogant declaration after the Election that 'whether in power or opposi-
tion the Unionist [Conservative] Party will continue to control the
destinies of the Empire.' Sir Henry CampbeU-Bannerman, the Prime
Minister, put down a motion 2 in the House 'that in order to give effect to
the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives' it was
necessary that the power of the Lords to alter or reject Bills passed by the
Commons 'should be so restricted by law as to secure that within the
limits of a single Parliament the final decision of the Commons shall pre-

1 Liberalism and the Social Problem: Winston S. Churchill
* In the session of 1907.

THE RADICAL MINISTER 115

vail*. And Winston at once plunged into the attack: 'Has the House of
Lords ever been right?' he asked die Commons. 'Has it ever been right in
any of the great settled controversies which are now beyond the reach of
Party argument? Was it right in delaying Catholic emancipation and the
removal of Jewish disabilities? Was it right in driving this country to the
verge of revolution in its effort to defeat the passage of reform? Was it
right in passing the Ballot Bill? Was it right in the almost innumerable
efforts it made to prevent this House dealing with the purity of its own
electoral machinery? Was it right in endeavouring to prevent the abolition
of purchase in the Army? Was it right in 1880 when it rejected the Com-
pensation for Disturbance Bill? I defy the Party opposite to produce a
single instance of a settled controversy in which the House of Lords was
right/ 1

However, the Liberal Government decided that the time was not ripe
to 'fight it out' with the Lords, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's
motion died a quiet little death. Winston Churchill seized the opportunity
to tour East Africa in his official capacity, and came back full of praise for
the beauties of Uganda butterflies. He published a book about his trip
entitled My East African Journey. Shortly after his return to London,
Sir Henry Campbcll-Banncrman died. The year was 1908. Mr Asquith
succeeded him as Prime Minister; Lloyd George succeeded Asquith as
Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Churchill succeeded^ Lloyd George
as President of die Board of Trade. At the age of diirty-four Winston
had reached die Cabinet.

In those days entry into the Cabinet necessitated fighting a by-election.
This gave the Conservatives a chance to demonstrate that they still con-
sidered Winston Churchill as Enemy No. I. They talked of him not only
as an 'opportunist' and a 'bounder', but what was even worse in their eyes,
as 'a traitor to his class*. The very fact that these unpraiseworthy qualities
had led him to the dizzy heights of the Cabinet was more than they could
bear. They flung themselves into the campaign against him with eager
hostility, enlisting the support of every formidable Conservative speaker
they could find. From the beginning it was obvious it was going to be a
stiff fight. Northwest Manchester was traditionally a Tory seat which
had been won by the Liberals for the first time two years before. However,
Winston was now a national figure and a brilliant platform speaker and
many people believed he would hold his own.

If he had his detractors, he also had his admirers. Henry Massingham,

1 Hansard: 29 June, 1907.

Il6 WINSTON CHURCHILL

the Liberal journalist who had predicted in 1901 that Winston would one
day be Prime Minister, wrote an article for the Daily Mail which appeared
under the heading: A Character Sketch of the Man of the Hour. 'He is without
the baser faults of politicians. There is not an atom of malice in his com-
position. Mature as is his intellect in many of its aspects he is still a boy,
high spirited, friendly, delighting to get his blow in, but abstaining from
poisoned weapons, from speech barbed with the cruelty that the hard,
fierce warfare of politics so often engenders. Depth he still wants; only
experience brings that. And in taste he sometimes fails, as do most young
men who are not prigs/ 1

Winston flung himself into the campaign with characteristic zeal. He
worked nearly eighteen hours a day organizing canvassers, receiving depu-
tations, mustering speakers, and writing letters. The motor car in which
he toured his constituency was fitted with a small ladder by which he
climbed to the roof and addressed open-air meetings. His opponent, Mr.
Joynson-Hidb, was a man of personality and ability and Churchill did not
make the mistake of underrating him. Besides, a new element soon
entered the contest which added to Winston's difficulties.

The Suflfragettes' Campaign was entering a violent phase and Churchill
was singled out as a target: the reason being that Manchester happened to
be the home of the celebrated feminist leader, Mrs. Pankhurst, and her two
daughters Chrijtabd and Sylvia. Winston's assurances that he, personally,
was converted to the Suffragette Cause were not sufficient; they demanded
the official support of the Prime Minister which, of course, he was unable
to give. As a result they tried to break up his meetings. 'Painful scenes were
witnessed in the Free Trade Hall,' wrote Mr. Churchill, 'when Miss
Christabel Pankhurst, tragical and dishevelled, was finally ejected after
having thrown the meeting into pandemonium. This was the beginning
of a systematic interruption of public speeches and the breaking up and
throwing into confusion of all Liberal meetings. Indeed, it was most pro-
voking to anyone who cared about the style and form of his speech to be
assailed by the continued, calculated, shrill interruptions. Just as you were
reaching the most moving part of your peroration or the most intricate
point in your, argument, when things were going well and the audience
was gripped, a high-pitched voice would ring out, "What about the
women?" "When are you going to give women the vote?" and so on.
No sooner was one interrupter removed than another in a different part
of the hall took up the task. It became extremely difficult to pursue con-
nected arguments.' 2

1 21 April, 1908.

^Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. ChurcML

THE RADICAL MINISTER 117

The result was that Churchill was beaten by his Conservative opponent.
Mr. Joynson-Hicks polled 5,517 votes and Winston 4,988. As he left the
Town Hall after a count a Suffragette seized his arm and cried: It's the
women who have done this, Mr. Churchill. Now you will understand
that we must have our vote/

The joy of the Conservatives at Winston's defeat was reflected by the
Morning Post which almost became abandoned in tone. 'At this moment
Mr. Joynson-Hicks is the member for Northwest Manchester, and Mr.
Winston Churchill, though a Cabinet Minister, is a political Ishmaelite
wandering around as an object of compassion and commiseration. Man-
chester has washed its hands of him. The juveniles have for days past been
singing to a popular air "Good-bye, Winnie, you must leave us", and
"Winnie" has gone. On the whole Manchester appears to be taking the
sorrowful parting with composure.' 1

Winston did not escape criticism from his own leaders. Some believed
that the odds had been stacked against him too heavily for he not only had
the Suffragettes to contend with but a strong anti-Liberal tide due to bad
trade. Others were inclined to think that if he had conducted his campaign
differently he might have won. They felt that the boyish enthusiasm which
Massingham praised gave the electorate the impression of a young man
willing to employ any stunt and make any promise in order to win his
seat. Mr. John Morley, Winston's colleague and dose friend, wrote in
his diary: 'The belief among competent observers in the place is that the
resounding defeat of Winston at Manchester was due to wrath at rather
too naked tactics of making deals with this, that, and the other group
without too severe a scrutiny in his own political conscience of the
terms that they were exacting from him. It is believed that he lost three
hundred to four hundred of these honourably fastidious electors.' 2

However, the joy of the Conservatives was short-lived. Exactly seven
minutes after Churchill's defeat he received a telegram asking him to
contest Dundee, one of the great Liberal strongholds in the country. This
time victory was certain.

At the Kinnaird Hall in Dundee Mr. Churchill delivered a speech which
many years later he described as the most successful election speech of his
career. First he attacked Marxist Socialists and appealed to the sound,
sober-minded Radicals; second, he attacked the reactionary Conservatives
and appealed to the tolerant, sensible Progressives. 'An inconclusive verdict
from Dundee, the home of Scottish Radicalism an inconclusive, or still
more, a disastrous verdict would carry a message of despair to everyone

1 Morning Post: 25 April, 1908.
* Recollections: Viscount Morley.

118 WINSTON CHURCHILL

in all parts of our island and in our sister island who is working for the
essential influences and truths of Liberalism and progress. Down, down,
down would fall the high hopes of the social reformer. The constructive
plans now forming in so many brains would melt into air. The old regime
would be reinstated, reinstalled. Like the Bourbons, they have learned
nothing and will have forgotten nothing. We shall step out of the period
of adventurous hope in which we have lived for a brief spell; we shall
step back to the period of obstinate and prejudiced negotiations. For Ire-
land ten years of resolute government; for England dear food and
cheaper gin; and for Scotland the superior wisdom of the House of
Lords! Is that the work you want to do, men of Dundee?'

Then he moved to the other flank. 'I turn to the rich and the powerful,
the Unionist and Conservative elements, who, nevertheless, upon Free
Trade, upon Temperance, and upon other questions of moral enlighten-
ment, feel a considerable sympathy with the Liberal Party ... I turn to
those among them who complain that we are too Radical in this and that,
and that we are moving too quickly, and I say to them: Look at this
political situation, not as Party men, but as Britons; look at it in the light
of history; look at it in the light of philosophy; and look at it in the light
of broad-minded, Christian charity.

'Why is it that life and property are more secure in Britain than in any
other country in the world? . . . The security arises from the continuation
of that very class struggle which they lament and of which they complain,
which goes on ceaselessly in our country, which goes on tirelessly, with
perpetual friction, a struggle between class and dass which never sinks
into lethargy, and never breaks into violence, but which from year to year
makes possible a steady and constant advance. It is on the nature of that
dass struggle in Britain that the security of life and property is funda-
mentally reposed. We are always changing; like nature, we change a great
deal, although we change very slowly. We are always reaching a higher
level after each change, but yet with" the harmony of our life unbroken
and unimpaired. And I say also to those persons here, to whom I now
make my appeal: Wealthy men, men of light and leading, have never been
all on one side in our country. There have always been men of power and
position who have sacrificed and exerted themselves in the popular cause;
and that is why there is so little dass hatred here, in spite of all the squalor
and misery which we sec around us. There, gendemfcn, lies the true
evolution of democracy. That is how we have preserved the golden
thread of historical continuity, when so many other nations have lost it
forever. *
* Liberalism end the Social Problem: Winston S. ChnrdulL

THE RADICAL MINISTER 119

The Dundee campaign did not escape the attention of the Suf&agettes.
They followed him from Manchester and one of them, a Miss Malony,
assiduously attended Churchill's meetings and tried to drown his words
with a huge dinner bell. Once he gave up the struggle, sat down, lit a cigar
and announced: 'I won't attempt to compete with a young and pretty
lady in a high state of excitement.' However, this time the feminists were
unable to score a triumph. Churchill was elected by a margin of three
thousand votes which, in those days, was considered a huge majority.
The Times described him as 'the greatest platform asset possessed by the
Liberal Party'.

Despite Winston's oratorical successes the political battle was never
easy for a man constantly attacked as a 'political renegade'. The Con-
servatives continued to hate him and Liberals continued to regard him
with reservation. Was he really a Radical or, as the Tories insisted, merely
an adventurer ready to use any means to take him to the top? They were
not certain. A. G. Gardiner, the Editor of the Liberal Daily News, expressed
this wondering attitude in a character sketch published in his paper in 1908.

'What of his future? At thirty-four he stands before the country as the
most interesting figure in politics, his life a crowded drama of action, his
courage high, his vision unclouded, his boats burned. "I love Churchill,
and trust him," said one of his colleagues to me. "He has the passion of
democracy more than any man I know. But don't forget that the aristocrat
is still there latent and submerged, but there nevertheless. The occasion
may come when the two Churchills will come into sharp conflict, and I
should not like to prophesy the result."

'Has he staying power? Can one who has devoured life with such
feverish haste retain his zest to the end of the feast? How will forty find
him? that fatal forty when the youth of roselight and romance has faded
into the light of common day and the horizon of life has shrunk incalcul-
ably, and when the flagging spirit no longer answers to the spur of external
things, but must find its motive and energy from within, or find them not
at all.

'That is the question that gives us pause. For with all his rare qualities,
Mr. Churchill is the type of "the gentlemen of fortune". He is out for
adventure. He follows politics as he would follow the hounds. He has no
animus against the fox but he wants to be in "at the kill". It is recorded
that, when a fiery headed boy at Harrow, he was asked what profession he
thought of taking up, he replied, "The Army, of course, so long as there's
fighting to be had. When that's over I shall have a 'shot at polities' "not
so much concerned about who the enemy may be or about the merits of
the quarrel as about being in the thick of the fight and having a good time.

I2O WINSTON CHURCHILL

With the facility of the Churchill mind he feels the pulse of Liberalism
with astonishing sureness and interprets it with extraordinary ability. But
the sense of high purpose is notyetapparent through the fierce joy of battle
that possesses him. The passion for humanity, the resolve to see justice
done though the heavens fall and he be buried in the ruins, the surrender
of himself to the cause these things have yet to come. His eye is less on
the fixed stars than on the wayward meteors of the night. And when the
exhilaration of youth is gone, and the gallop of high spirits has run its
course, it may be that this deficiency of abiding and high-compelling pur-
pose will be a heavy handicap. Then it will be seen how far courage and
intellectual address, a mind acutely responsive to noble impulses, and a
quick and apprehensive political instinct will carry him in the leadership
of men.' 1

One can only smile at this writer asking so earnestly in 1908 whether
Winston had 'staying power*. How surprised he would have been to
know that forty-five years later Churchill would still be in the race, and
what is more, leading the field.

1 Prophets, Priests and Kings: A. G. Gardiner.

CHAPTER NINE

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT

THE THREE years from 1908 to 1911 mark the phase in Mr. Churchill's
life when he reached his zenith as a Radical, a reformer, and an Isolationist.
During this period Lloyd George and Winston were the two most con-
troversial and publicized figures on the political stage. Both were loyal
friends, both were men of genius, both were possible and probable Prime
Ministers. Which of these two colleagues and rivals would reach die
highest office first? Max Beerbohm drew a cartoon showing the pair
standing on the terrace of the House of Commons fingering a coin.

Mr. Churchill: 'Come, suppose we toss for it, Davey.'
Mr. Uoyd George: *Ah, but, Winsie, would either of us as loser
abide by the result?'

Although the public saw the two friends as men of almost equal stature,
behind the scenes the relationship was that of the master and the pupil.
Lloyd George was the dominating force and wielded an unquestioned
authority. First of all he was eleven years older which gave him a natural
advantage. Secondly, he knew how to enthral the younger man with his
humour and sparkling personality. Winston not only admired the Welsh-
man's spell-binding, facile oratory but he was fascinated by the provoca-
tive, radical ideas which had not been assimilated from books but were
part of Lloyd George's very being. Now that Winston had convinced
himself that Lord Randolph Churchill's liberal mind had saved the hope-
lessly reactionary Tories from political extinction, and that if Lord Ran-
dolph had lived he would undoubtedly have been a Radical like Winston
himself, he was willing to turn from the guidance of his father's memory
and accept a new leader. And Lloyd George was the man he chose to
follow.

This exciting friendship aroused all his competitive instincts. The idea of
social reform caught his imagination and dominated his thoughts.
Characteristically, once his enthusiasm had been aroused, he could talk of
nothing else. Charles Masterman, a dose friend and a Liberal colleague,
wrote to his wife on 12 February, 1908: 'Winston swept me off to his
cousin's house and I lay on the bed while he dressed and marched about
the room gesticulating and impetuous, pouring out all his hopes and plans
and ambitions. He is full of die poor whom he has just discovered. He

zai

122 WINSTON CHURCHILL

thinks he is called by providenceto do something for them. "Why have
I always been kept safe within a hair's breadth of death," he asked, "ex-
cept to do something like this? I'm not going to live long," was also his
refrain. He is getting impatient; although he says he can wait. I challenged
him once on his exposition of his desire to do something for the people.
"You can't deny that you enjoy it all immensely the speeches the
crowds, the sense of increasing power." "Of course I do," he said. "Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. That shall be my
plea at the day of judgment." He is just an extraordinarily gifted boy, with
genius and astonishing energy. I always feel of immense age when I am
with him though he's only a year younger than I am. "Sometimes I feel
as though I could lift the whole world on my shoulders," he said last
night.' 1

Lloyd George was Winston's inspiration, but at the same time the
young man was eager to impress the Welshman with his own originality
and ability and show him in friendly rivalry that he could outdo him at bis
own game. When he took over the Board of Trade from Lloyd George in
1908 he is said to have remarked: 1 have got this pie too late. L.G. has
pulled out all the plums/ It was true that Lloyd George had made a great
reputation for himself during the preceding two years. He had put the
Patents Act on the statute books; he had pushed through the Merchant
Shipping Bill which raised standards of food and accommodation for the
seamen; he had nationalized London's chaotic private dock companies and
welded them together into the Port of London Authority; and he had
successfully intervened in a railway dispute and averted a national strike.
His actions had won appkuse from both sides of the House.

Winston was not the sort of man to sit back and sigh for triumphs that
had been won by someone else. He set about looking for his own plums,
even if they happened to be in other people's pies. He fastened on two
important reforms. One was in the 'sweated industries'. There had been
much talk about these industries in which slum dwellers, mostly women,
worked fantastically long hours for little pay, unprotected by Trade
Unions or Factory Acts. Charles Booth had printed unpleasant statistics on
the subject in his Life and Labour in London, and Sir Charles Dilke, a
Radical M.P., had suggested the establishment of 'trade boards' composed
of an impartial committee to determine minimum wages and hours in each
industry. But the Home Office, to whom the subject belonged, refused to
do anything about it. Winston saw his chance, grabbed the idea and drove
a Trade Boards Act through Parliament. The system proved a great
success and was- steadily expanded.

1 C. F. G. Masterman: Lucy Masterman.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 123

His second reform was in the field of unemployment. Beatrice and
Sidney Webb, the Fabian leaders, had suggested some time before that a
system of Labour Exchanges should be Established so that people out of
work could find new jobs. The Local Government Board to whom they
appealed was not interested and once again Churchill saw his chance. He
borrowed the idea and established Labour Exchanges.

It seems strange to-day to think of Winston working in close co-opera-
tion with Beatrice and Sidney Webb, those astonishing, statistically-
minded, super-intellectuals who converted the Trade Unions to their own
particular brand of Fabian Socialism and thus fashioned the soul of the
present Labour Party. Beatrice was a tall, handsome blue-stocking and
Sidney was a little man with a huge head and small, tapering body which
his wife said was the 'delight of caricaturists*. The letters they exchanged
during their courtship are famous for their solemn comments on social
investigation; and they appropriately spent their honeymoon in Glasgow
looking up Trade Union records.

The Webbs were the great experts on social reform. They wrote the
standard works on Trade Unionism, Industrial Democracy and the Co-
operative Movement. They scintillated with ideas for new reforms which
they gladly proffered to progressive politicians and which progressive
politicians gladly accepted. They were not the sort of people, however,
whom one would single out for a jolly evening. When Asquith suggested
that Winston should take charge of the Local Government Board he is
said to have declined, announcing that he did not wish 'to be shut up in a
soup kitchen with Mrs. Sidney Webb*. Nevertheless he recognized the
Webbs as experts; and for experts he had a high regard. Evidence of his
respect for Mrs. Webb may be gleaned from the latter's diary. On 3 Octo-
ber, 1908, she wrote: "Winston and his wife dined here the other night
to meet a party of young Fabians. He is taking on the look of the mature
statesman bon vivant and orator, somewhat in love with his own phrases.
... In the course of the evening he took a fancy to my organizing secretary,
Colegate, and told him to apply to the Board of Trade. . . . Winston
Churchill said that anyone, if really recommended "on my honour", he
would take on.* 1

Thus with Lloyd George supplying the inspiration and the Webbs &e
guidance Winston threw all his energies into the field of social reform.
Mrs. Webb's opinion of this energetic and overpowering young man had
changed greatly since she first met him in 1903. No doubt she was in-
fluenced by the fact that now he was a Radical 'He is brilliantly able not
a phrase-monger, I think . . .' she wrote. And although she conceded that

1 Our Partiursttp: Beatrice Webb.

124 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Lloyd George was a 'clever fellow' she thought that he liad 'less intellect
than Winston, and not such an attractive personality more of the
preacher, less of the statesman.' 1

Winston's activities did not stop with the Board of Trade. In 1910 he
was transferred to the Home Office where he at once interested himself in
prison reform. He believed that prisoners should have libraries, lectures
and entertainments. He succeeded in establishing his ideas and thus started
a ball rolling which has continued to roll far. His humane attitude towards
prisoners sprang from first-hand knowledge of what confinement was
like. 'I certainly hated every minute of my captivity more than I have
ever hated any other period in my whole life,' he wrote in My Early Life.
'Looking back on those days I have always felt the keenest pity for
prisoners and captives. What it must mean for any man, especially an
educated man, to be confined for years in a modern convict prison strains
my imagination. Each day exactly like the one before, with the barren
ashes of wasted life behind, and aU the long years of bondage stretching
out ahead. Therefore in after years, when I was Home Secretary and had
all the prisons of England in my charge, I did my utmost, consistent with
public policy, to introduce some sort of variety and indulgence into the
life of their inmates, to give to educated minds books to feed on, to give
to all periodical entertainments of some sort to look forward to and to
look back upon, and to mitigate as far as is reasonable the hard lot which,
if they have deserved, they must none the less endure.'

Winston's magnanimous and warm-hearted nature was often deeply
stirred by the prisoners under his control. The fact that the Home Secre-
tary had the authority to quash or confirm a death sentence was a tor-
ment to him. He was always torn with pity. He told Wilfrid Blunt how
*it had become a nightmare to him the having to exercise his power of life
and death in the case of condemned criminals, on an average of one case a
fortnight. . . . The Home Secretary can go into a prison and on his sole
authority can order a release, which if once notified to a prisoner cannot
be changed afterwards by any power in England. He had several times
done this, and just before leaving the office he had ordered a number of
remissions of sentences, notwithstanding the protests of the judges in the
case. He spoke of these cases with emotion, and giving us all particulars.' 2

The vibration of Winston's energy shook the Home Office as it had the
Board of Trade before, and was so far reaching that it penetrated to the
most obscure civil servants of the Department. Everyone was aware that a
new master had arrived. Some of Winston's ideas were good and some

1 OUT Partnership: Beatrice Webb.
1 My Diaries: W. S. Blunt.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 12$

were bad, but there was never a shortage of them. Sir E. Troup, the
Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, wrote: 'There is no period of
my time at the Home Office of which I have pleasanter recollections than
when Mr. Churchill was my chief and Mr. (Charles) Masterman his par-
liamentary lieutenant. Once a week, or oftener, Mr. Churchill came down
to the office bringing with him some adventurous and impossible projects:
but after half an hour's discussion something was evolved which was still
adventurous, but no longer impossible.' 1

However, some of Winston's colleagues found his constant flood of
opinions, and his obsession with whatever he himself was doing, annoy-
ingly egotistical. Mrs. Lucy Masterman recorded in her diary as early as
March 1908 a conversation which she had with Sir Edward Grey, the
Foreign Secretary, and Augustine Birrell, the Minister of Education, 'I
forget whose the phrase was, but they agreed that the tendency in him to
see first the rhetorical potentialities of any policy was growing and becom-
ing a real intellectual and moral danger. "I think we are a very forbearing
Cabinet to his chatter," Birrell said. . . . "First time I met him we didn't
know each other. We were early for a dinner party, he picked up a book
and said "Matthew Arnold's poems who's Matthew Arnold do you
know anything about Matthew Arnold?" I said yes, he wrote poetry, etc.,
etc. "Oh," said Winston (shaking his fist), "this public school education.
If I ever get my chance at it!" Contrast a remark he made the other even-
ing after he had been lecturing Sir Edward on foreign politics: "The
longer I live, the more certain I am I know all there is to be known." Sir
Edward said: "Winston, very soon, will become incapable, from sheer
activity of mind, of being anything in a Cabinet but Prime Minister." ' 2

While Churchill was pushing through his departmental reforms, he was
also playing an even more important role on the great, national, centre-
stage where the real drama of the years 1908 to 1911 was taking place.
The scenery was floodlit, the play well-advertised and public attention
was soon captured. Lloyd George was not only author of the play but the
star as well, and Winston took the part of the bright young support who
occasionally stole the show.

The drama began when Lloyd George succeeded Asquith as Chancellor
of the Exchequer in 1908. Asquith had instituted Old Age Pensions, but
Lloyd George was left to find the money for them. Besides this, more
money was needed for building new dreadnoughts in the armaments race

1 Evening Standard, 22 April, 1925.

1 C. F. G. Masterman: Lucy Masterman.

126 WINSTON CHURCHILL

against Germany. Lloyd George's pacifism and Churchill's faithful adher-
ence to his father's views led them both to resist the proposed increase.
While the Welshman ridiculed the idea of building ships 'against night-
mares', Winston assured a gathering that Germany had 'nothing to fight
about, no prize to fight for, and no place to fight in'. 1 However, it was
plain that Conservative alarm, expressed by the cry: 'We want eight, and
we won't wait', was arousing widespread public support. Mr. McKenna,
the First Lord of the Admiralty, fought Lloyd (Jeorge and Churchill in
the Cabinet and told them if he could not have his ships he was prepared
to resign. He won the battle and the building of the dreadnoughts began.

Since Lloyd George regarded the Navy as a Tory stage prop, and
believed that it was mainly 'the rich' who were agitating for more ships, he
decided that they would have to pay for them; and pay for the Old Age
Pensions as well. The conception of the Budget not only as a means of re-
dressing the balance of wealth at the expense of the ruling class was a
brilliant new idea which fully appealed to his Radical instincts. And there is
no doubt that the scales needed tipping. 'The inequalities in those days
were glaring enough and attention was being focused on them,' writes one
historian. 'A popular writer on economic subjects had recently published
a widely read little book comparing the distribution of wealth in the
United Kingdom and France, from which it appeared, according to official
statistics in both countries, that in France there were twice as many small
estates ranging from 500 to 10,000 as in the United Kingdom, but in
the United Kingdom three times as many estates over 50,000 and four
times as many over 250,000, the population of the two countries being
approximately the same. The redressing of such inequalities was, from
Lloyd George's point of view, the most obvious method of securing
popular support* 2

This was not the only reason that prompted Lloyd George to produce a
budget aimed at the upper classes. Looming large on the horizon was the
increasing hostility between the Liberals and the Lords. Lord Lansdowne,
the Conservative Leader in the Lords, was working in dose concert with
Arthur Balfour, the Conservative Leader in the Commons. Since the
Upper House was overwhelmingly Tory, and all legislation had to win
the approval of both Houses before becoming law, the Lords were able to
block whatever Liberal Bills they wished, despite a huge Liberal majority.
In two and a half years they had wrecked three Education Bills; a Licens-
ing Bill; and a Scottish Land Valuation Bill Churchill had burst out
vehemently against them and Lloyd George had declared that the House

x Lloyd George: E. T. Raymond.

Brtosli Politics Since 1900: D. C. SomervdL

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 127

of Lords had 'ceased to be the watch-dog of the Constitution, and had
become "Mr. Balfour's poodle"; it barks for him; it fetches and carries for
him; it bites anybody that he sets it on to/

Lloyd George convinced Churchill that the time had come to have a
show-down with the Upper House. But they must be careful of their
issue for it was apparent from the by-elections that Liberal popularity was
slumping badly because of the war scare. Churchill paid a long visit to
Lloyd George at his home in Criccieth in September 1908, and most his-
torians assume that they planned their strategy at this time. If they could
publicize the Budget and make it appear really ferocious, they might
succeed in provoking the Lords to fall into the trap of rejecting it

Although Lloyd George and Winston both denied that they had ever
devised any such ingenious plan, contemporary diaries reveal that at least
the possibilities occurred to them. Mrs. Lucy Masterman describes Lloyd
George discussing the prospects of the Budget in the Lords and quotes
him as saying: Tm not sure we ought to pray for it to go through. I'm not
sure we ought not to hope for its rejection. It would give us such a
chance as we will never have again/ 1 Another prominent figure of the
day, Wilfrid Blunt, quotes Churchill talking along the same lines.
4 Winston gave us a very full account of what his policy in the Budget
dispute with the Lords would be. He began by saying that his hope and
prayer was that they would throw out the Bill, as it would save the
Government from a certain defeat if the elections were put off. . . /*

The thoughts of the two men were not only revealed in private conver-
sations but were hinted at in public speeches. In December 1908 Lloyd
George declared: 'We cannot consent to accept the present humiliating
conditions of legislating by the sufferance of Lord Lansdowne. This noble-
man has arrogated to himself a position he has usurped a sovereignty no
King has claimed since the ominous days of Charles I. Decrees are issued
from Lansdowne House that Buckingham Palace would not dream of
sending forth. We are not going to stand any longer the usurpation of
King Lansdowne and his Royal consort in the Commons/ 3 Winston
Churchill spoke even more plainly: 'For my part, I should be quite con-
tent to see the battle joined as speedily as possible upon the plain issue of
aristocratic rule against representative government, between the reversion
to Protection and the maintenance of Free Trade, between a tax on bread
and a tax on well, never mind.' 4

1 C. F. G. Masterman: Lucy Masterman.
1 My Diaries: W, S. Blunt.
8 Liverpool, 21 December.
* Birmingham, 13 January.

128 WINSTON CHURCHILL

At last the great day came. Lloyd George took four hours to deliver his
Budget speech to the House of Commons. Churchill watched him like
an anxious nannie; there was a short break half-way through and he took
him out for refreshments. Judged by to-day's standards the Budget was a
small affair. It showed an increase of only eleven per cent on the revenue
of the previous year. The fact that it had to be approved by a Cabinet
which did not have a Radical majority must be some indication that even
at the time it was not regarded by law makers as revolutionary. Income-
tax was steepened on incomes over ^3,000 a year from is. to is. 2d. in
the pound; whisky was raised from ss. 6d. to 45. a bottle; a tax was im-
posed for tie first time on petrol and motor cars; and there was a tax on
licensed premises. The particular tax designed to hit the rich was the
introduction of super-tax which amounted to 6d, in the pound on incomes
over ^5,000 a year. This measure affected only 11,500 people. But it
meant that the highest incomes in the country were now subject to a full
tax of is. 8d. in the pound. To-day this seems a modest demand, yet it
amounted to an increase of 66% over the rate of the previous year.
Besides this, death duties were raised, there was a tax on undeveloped
land, and another tax on 'the unearned increment of land 9 or, in other
words, on the increase in the value of land.

At first the Budget did not provoke any great remonstrance. But since
Lloyd George wished to provoke the House of Lords he soon began mak-
ing violent public speeches in which he drew a sharp distinction between
the wealthy business men and the wealthy landowners. The wealthy
business men were all right. They worked for their money, while the
wealthy landowners merely sat back and demanded it. The landowners,
he declared, squeezed everyone, whether for coal royalties, building de-
velopments, or household rents. They were the enemies of the entire
nation; of artisans and manufacturers, of engineers and merchants
alike.

The reason why Lloyd George concentrated on the landowners was
obvious; first, he had learned to hate them from childhood, and second,
they composed the largest dement in the House of Lords. He singled out
peers for special attack on every possible occasion. Lord Rothschild made
a speech protesting against the Budget at a meeting in the City of London.
'We are having too much of Lord Rothschild,* retorted Lloyd George
the following day. 'We are not to have temperance reform in this
country. Why? Because Lord Rothschild has sent a circular to the Peers to
say so. We must have more dreadnoughts. Why? Because Lord Roths-

IN THE THICK OP THE FIGHT 129

child has told us so at a meeting in the City. We must not pay for them
when we have got them. Why? Because Lord Rothschild says no. You
must not have an estate duty and a super-tax. Why? Because Lord Roths-
child has sent a protest on behalf of die bankers to say he won't stand it.
You must not have a tax on reversions. Why? Because Lord Rothschild
as chairman of an insurance company said he wouldn't stand it. You must
not have a tax on undeveloped land. Why? Because Lord Rothschild is
chairman of an industrial housing company. You must not have Old Age
Pensions. Why? Because Lord Rothschild was a member of a Com-
mittee that said it couldn't be done. Arc we really to have all the ways of
reform, financial and social, blocked by a notice board: "No thorough-
fare: By order of Nathaniel Rothschild"?'

However, it was on the dukes that Lloyd George concentrated the full
fury of his attack. The dukes were not merely the heads of the peerage;
they were the largest landowners in Britain. To critics who accused him of
driving capital out of the country, he answered that it was a lie and pointed
to figures which proved that imports and exports were steadily increasing.
'Only one stock has gone down badly; there has been a great slump in
dukes.' 'A fully-equipped duke,' he declared, 'costs as much to keep up as
two dreadnoughts; and dukes are just as great a terror and the) last
longer.' Lloyd George delighted his audience by describing a nobleman's
son as 'the first of the litter' and by attacking the nobleman because 'he has
one man to fix his collar and adjust his tie in the morning, a couple of men
to carry a boiled egg to him at breakfast, a fourth man to open the door for
him, a fifth man to show him in and out of his carriage, and a sixth and
seventh to drive him.*

Meantime Winston Churchill was not idle. He too was touring the
country making speeches and arousing as much feeling as possible. It is
interesting to compare his technique with that of Lloyd George. Lloyd
George's shafts were bubbling with humour; comic, vulgar, with the
sure mass appeal of the variety turn. Winston's were more solemn, more
reasoned, more dignified. Lloyd George was the demagogue and Winston
was the statesman. Here are some excerpts from Churchill's speeches dur-
ing the year 1909.

House of Commons, 4 May. *The chief burden of taxation is placed upon
the main body of the wealthy classes of this country, a class which in
number and in wealth is much greater than in any other community, if
not, indeed, in any other modem State in the world; and that is a class
which, in opportunities of pleasure, in all the amenities of life, and in free-
dom from penalties, obligations and dangers, is more fortunate than any
other equally numerous class of citizens in any age or in any country.

130 WINSTON CHURCHILL

That class has more to gain than any other class of His Majesty's subjects
from dwelling amid a healthy and contented people, and in a safely
guarded land.'

Edinburgh, 17 July. 'We say that the State and the municipality should
jointly levy a toll upon the future unearned increment of the land. A toll of
what? Of the whole? No. Of a half? No. Of a quarter? No. Of a fifth
that is the proposal of the Budget. And that is robbery, that is plunder, that
is communism and spoliation, that is the social revolution at last, that is the
overturn of civilized society, that is the end of the world foretold in the
Apocalypse. Such is the increment tax about which so much chatter and
outcry are raised at the present rime, and upon which I will say that no
more fair, considerate, or salutary proposal for taxation has ever been
made in the House of Commons.'

Norwich, 26 July. 'Is it not an extraordinary thing that upon the Budget
we should even be discussing at all the action of the House of Lords? The
House of Lords is an institution absolutely foreign to the spirit of the age
and to the whole movement of society. It is not perhaps surprising in a
country so fond of tradition, so proud of continuity as ourselves, that a
feudal assembly of tided persons, with so long a history and so many
famous names, should have survived to exert an influence upon public
affairs at the present time. We see how often in England the old forms are
reverently preserved after the forces by which they are sustained and the
uses to which they are put and the dangers against which they were de-
signed have passed away. A state of gradual decline was what die average
Englishman had come to associate with the House of Lords. Litde by litde,
we might have expected, it would have ceased to take a controversial
part in practical politics. Year by year it would have faded more completely
into the past to which it belongs, until, like Jack-in-the-Grcen or Punch
and Judy, only a picturesque and fitfully lingering memory would have
remained.

* And during the last tn years of Conservative government this was
actually the case. But now we see the House of Lords flushed with the
wealdi of the modern age, armed with a party caucus, fortified, revived,
resuscitated, asserting its claims in the harshest and in the crudest manner,
claiming to veto or destroy even without discussion any legislation, how-
ever important, sent to them by any majority, however large, from any
House of Commons, however newly elected. We see these unconscion-
able claims exercised with a frank and undisguised regard to party interest,
to class interest, and to personal interest. We see the House of Lords using
the power which they should not hold at all, which if they hold at all, they
should hold in trust for all, to play a shrewd, fierce, aggressive Party game

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 131

of electioneering and casting their votes according to the interest of the
particular political Party to which, body and soul, they belong/

Leicester, 5 September. 'Formerly the only question asked of the tax-
gatherer was "How much have you got?" We ask that question still, and
there is a general feeling, recognized as just by all parties, that the rate of
taxation should be greater for large incomes than for small. As to how
much greater, parties are no doubt in dispute. But now a new question has
arisen. We do not only ask to-day, "How much have you got?" we also
ask, "How did you get it? Did you earn it by yourself, or has it just been
left you by others? Was it gained by processes which are in themselves
beneficial to the community in general or was it gained by processes which
have done no good to anyone, but only harm? Was it gained by the enter-
prise and capacity necessary to found a business, or merely by squeezing
and bleeding the owner and founder of the business? Was it gained by sup-
plying the capital which industry needs, or by denying, except at an extor-
tionate price, the land which industry requires? Was it derived from active
reproductive processes, or merely by squatting on some piece of necessary
land till enterprise and labour, and national interests and municipal in-
terests, had to buy you out at fifty times the agricultural value? Was it
gained from opening new minerals to the services of man, or by drawing a
mining royalty from the toil and adventure of others? Was it gained by the
curious process of using political influence to convert an annual licence
into a practical freehold and thereby pocketing a monopoly value which
properly belongs to the State how did you get it?" That is the new ques-
tion which has been postulated and which is vibrating in penetrating
repetition through the land.'

In this last speech, Churchill made some opening remarks which roused
die Tory press to a storm of anger. The Daily Express printed a few of
them under a heading 'HIS OWN RECORD FOR ABUSE OUTDONE*. Churchill
had begun by complaining that the Tories had no effective speakers to
answer the Liberal charges. He referred to 'the small fry of the Tory
party splashing actively about in their proper puddles', then to Mr.
Balfour 'who aims to lead who has been meaning to lead for six years
if he only could find out where on earth to lead to. . . .' then finally
to the fact that in lieu of anything else the Tory Party was forced 'to
fall back on their dukes. These unfortunate individuals,' he continued,
'who ought to lead quiet, delicate, sheltered lives, far from the madding
crowd's ignoble strife, have been dragged into the football scrimmage,
and they have got rather roughly mauled in the process. ... Do not let
us be too hard on them. It is poor sport almost like teasing goldfish.
These ornamental creatures blunder on every hook they see, and there

132 WINSTON CHURCHILL

is no sport whatever in trying to catch them (Laughter). It would be
barbarous to leave them gasping upon the bank of public ridicule upon
which they have landed themselves. Let us put them back gently, tenderly
in their fountains; and if a few bright gold scales have been rubbed off in
what the Prime Minister calls the variegated handling they have received
they will soon get over it. They have got plenty more/ 1

Although this was very mild comment in comparison with Lloyd
George's attacks, the very fact that Churchill, member of a ducal family
himself, had dared to cast aspersions caused widespread indignation.
Councillor Howell, Tory candidate for one of the Manchester seats, de-
clared with great pomposity that what was 'neither excusable nor per-
missible was the lack of common decency shown by vulgar abuse of the
dukes on the part of a man who was the grandson of one duke, the nephew
of another, and the cousin of a third; who belonged to a family which had
produced nine dukes; who figured in Debrett as boasting a dozen titled
relatives; and who owed every advantage he possessed over those whom
he contemptuously called "the small fry of public life" to his ducal and
aristocratic connections.' 2

Councillor Howell was not the only opponent who hit back. During the
years 1908 to 1911 Winston was subjected to a steady stream of personal
abuse. Tories described him as 'utterly contemptible'. Here he was, they
said, betraying his class and belittling the institutions that had made his
country great, merely to gain a sordid political advantage. Of course, they
went on, it was not really surprising, for the Churchills were noted for their
bad blood; indeed they were one of the few powerful families in England
who had never produced 'a gentleman'. Everyone knew that the first
Duke was a blackguard, and that Lord Randolph was a cad and a bounder.
Winston had inherited the worst qualities of both.

It is difficult for the present generation to understand the furious resent-
ment Mr. Churchill aroused. But many English people in their late fifties
remember hearing their Conservative mothers and fathers refer to him as
an 'evil* man. One by one the doors of Society closed against him, for in
those days the fashionable world was controlled by the Tory aristocracyl
He was not invited anywhere, and when he attended public functions
many people, some of diem old family friends, were careful to look the
other way. One duke publidy announced that he would like to put Lloyd
George and Winston Churchill 'in the middle of twenty couple of fox
hounds*. But although Lloyd George was cordially disliked he did not
arouse nearly so much animosity as his colleague. George Smalley, the

1 The Times: 6 September, 1909.
* Daily Express: 6 September, 1909.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 133

American journalist who moved in London Society, explained this in a
quaintly Conservative way. 'Mr. Lloyd George/ he says, 'was from the
beginning an unregenerate Radical in whom all the natural and acquired
vices of Radicalism were fully developed at an early age. Nothing, there-
fore, but Radicalism in its most extreme, socialistic form, was ever
expected of him. But Mr. Churchill was born into the world a Conser-
vative, and a Conservative he remained till Mr. Balfour, then Prime
Minister, rejected his application for Cabinet office. Then he crossed the
floor of the House and has ever since acted with the Liberals, who knew
the value of their recruit and gave him what Mr. Balfour had denied. That
is what the Conservatives tell you, and that is why their dislike of Mr.
Churchill is so extreme. It does not stop short of something like social
ostracism.'

So Winston became the chief target of the Opposition, and in the House
of Commons was attacked tirelessly as a cynical careerist. Here are a few
samples of the repetitious phrases used by Members of Parliament to
describe him during the year 1909.

16 January: Austen Chamberlain declared that 'his conversion to Radi-
calism coincided with his personal interests/

13 February: Alfred Lyttelton said: 'One might as well try to rebuke a
brass band. He trims his sails to every passing air/

14 September: Evelyn Cecil said: 'He has an entire lack of principle', and
'He is ready to follow any short cut to the Prime Ministership'.

10 December: Keir Hardie declared he 'well knew how to trim his sails to
catch votes/

14 June, 1910: A. B. Markham said: 'Whenever the Churchills "ratted"
they thought it was going to be of benefit to themselves 9 .

The House of Commons was not the only place in which he was abused.
Their lordships went for him as well. The following item, rather comic in
its seriousness, printed in The Times on 4. November, 1909, is the sort of
report which frequently appeared. 'Lord St. Oswald, in opening a Con-
servative Bazaar yesterday afternoon at Golcar, in the Colne Valley, said
he belonged to a House which had got into very bad repute lately in some
quarters. "We may be blackguards," continued Lord St. Oswald, "but I
don't think we are. . . . We have got men just as good as Mr. Lloyd
George, Mr. Winston Churchill and a lot more Ministers like them
(Cheers). I have known Mr. Winston Churchill since he was so high, and I
don't think he has improved since then, and I think many people think the
samq as I do. The longer he lives the more he will go back, in my opinion. In
a few years the people of this country will realize what an "outsider" he is/

1 Anglo-American Memories: George Smalley.

134 WINSTON CHURCHILL

* * * *

The outcome of the quarrel with the Lords long ago became part of his-
tory. They fell into Lloyd George's trap and rejected the Budget. To-day,
historians are almost unanimous in declaring it one of the most stupid and
inept political acts of the century. Ever since 1860 when all the taxes of the
year, for the first rime, were centred in a single Finance Bill, it had been an
understood practice that the Lords did not amend or reject it. King
Edward VII foresaw the crisis such an action would provoke and strongly
urged Lord Lansdowne to secure the passage of the Budget, but the latter
was too weak to stand up against the hot-headed reactionaries in the Party.
Peers from all over Britain, known as 'the backwoods men' because they
lived on their country estates and rarely attended the House of Lords,
arrived on the great day to register their votes. The story soon circulated
that most of them had to ask their way to Parliament.

The Liberals promptly went to the country on the slogan of 'the People
versus the Peers'. Without this cry there is no doubt that the Liberals
would have been soundly beaten. The middle classes were worried by
'socialist' talk. Perhaps Lloyd George was trying to establish a one-
Chamber Government, perhaps even a dictatorship. The Budget was not
too severe but maybe it was only a beginning; first taxes on the land and
then, who knows, maybe gradual confiscation of the land. Besides this,
there was still a German menace. Could this party of Radicals and pacifists
be trusted to make Britain safe? These were some of the doubts and fears.
'The People versus the Peers' was strong enough to return the Liberals to
power, but with a majority reduced by a hundred seats and a majority that
was now dependent on the Irish nationalists.

The new Liberal Government set about drafting a Bill for the reform of
the Upper House. Then King Edward died. Since the issue was a constitu-
tional one, and the new King was bound to be involved, a moratorium
was declared and both parties agreed to sit on a committee in an attempt
to work out a compromise. The months dragged on, however, and the
committee could not agree; finally the Liberals came out with their own
solution. First, the Lords' veto was to be abolished on bills certified by the
Speaker as money bills; second, any Bill passed by the House of Commons
in three successive sessions was to become law despite the Lords' veto.
The Liberals went to the country again to ask for a mandate for this re-
form. It was the second election in the same year and the result was almost
the same as the first.

There was no doubt now that the Parliament Bill asking for a reform of
the Upper House was 'the will of the people*. However, the Lords were
still obstinate and resentful. The term 'die-hard*, a regimental nickname,

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 135

came into currency for the first time to describe their attitude. They dras-
tically amended the House of Commons Parliament Bill and returned it
triumphantly in its emasculated form. But the Prime Minister, Mr.
Asquith, had a trump card up his sleeve. He wrote a letter to Mr. Balfour
making it known that the King had agreed, if the Lords refused to pass the
Bill, to swamp the Upper House by creating two hundred and fifty new
Peers who would out-vote the present Conservative majority. This know-
ledge finally forced the Lords to capitulate, but even so it was a close call.
The Bill was passed by only 131 against 114.

During these tempestuous years two important events took place in
Winston's personal life. The first was the beginning of his friendship with
F. E. Smith, later Lord Birkenhead, Lord Chancellor of England.

Mr. F. E. Smith was a Tory who began his political career as a dark
horse. He had neither connections nor wealth to help him. His grandfather
was a miner and his grandmother was a gypsy. The miner would not
allow his son to go into the pits and consequently F. E's father became a
barrister. He died when F. E. was only sixteen, leaving the boy to make
his own way in life. The latter won a scholarship to Oxford, took his bar
examinations, and five years later was earning six thousand pounds a year.

He entered Parliament in 1906 and decided to stake everything on his
opening speech. Most maiden speeches are modest and uncontroversial,
but F.E.'s was a fierce attack on the Government, full of lightning shafts
and humorous but stinging invective. When he rose to speak Members
looked at the tall, languid figure with the black patent-leather hair and the
sallow unsmiling face, and asked who he was. An hour later the lobbies
were ringing with his name. Never before had a newcomer scored such a
triumph with a single speech. He was acknowledged at once as one of the
new forces within the Tory Party. His merits continued to be recognized
and soon he was famous throughout the country for his brilliant repartee
and merciless wit.

At first F.E. refused to meet Winston. He did not like what he had heard
of him and disapproved strongly of his desertion from the Tory Party.
But one night, in 1906, the two men were introduced in the smoking-room
of the House of Commons. 'From that hour our friendship was perfect,'
wrote Winston. 'It was one of my most precious possessions. It was never
disturbed by the fiercest Party fighting. It was never marred by the
slightest personal difference or misunderstanding. It grew stronger as
nearly a quarter of a century slipped by, and it lasted until his untimely
death.' 1

1 Great Contemporaries: Winston S. Churchill

136 WINSTON CHURCHILL

This friendship was perhaps even more remarkable than Churchill's
relationship with Lloyd George, for it had to stand the stress and strain of
bitter Party strife, with the two men facing each other from opposite
camps and doing battle on almost every important issue of the time. Both
men, however, possessed the rare capacity to divorce politics from per-
sonal feelings. They argued hody, but they never allowed their differ-
ences to hinder the mutual enjoyment derived from each other's company.
Often they treated the House of Commons to a fierce verbal dual which
their enemies liked to suggest had been carefully rehearsed beforehand.
Once FJs. remarked that Winston 'had devoted the best years of his life to
his impromptu speeches.*

On another occasion Churchill showed F.E. a cartoon in which both of
them appeared. The artist had drawn his characters comically, but so
cleverly that there was no mistaking them. F.E. was dressed in a bearskin
hat widi a slighdy sardonic expression on his face; Winston was short and
round like a happy bulldog. 'What a wonderful caricaturist!' said Winston
cheerfully. 'He gets you to a nicety. It's astonishing how like you are to
your cartoons.' F.E. gazed at the picture a moment then handed it back,
saying solemnly: 'You seem to be the only one who's flattered.' 1

The Conservatives disapproved of FJB.'s friendship with Winston and
warned him that it would do his career no good. But F.E. paid no atten-
tion. The two men met regularly; they spent week-ends together; they
went on summer cruises; they served together in die Oxfordshire Hussars;
they even founded a dining dub, known as 'The Other Club', to enable
politicians of opposite Parties to meet and exchange views. 'Never did I
separate from him without having learnt something, and enjoyed myself
besides,' 2 wrote Winston.

Many years later these two men sat in the same Cabinet together.

The second personal event of diese memorable years was die greatest hap-
pening of Winston's life. In 1908 he was married. He met his bride, appro-
priately enough, in die smoke of an election batde. When he went to
Scotland in 1908 to contest Dundee he was introduced to a beautiful
young lady, Miss Clementine Hozier. She was die daughter of the late
Colonel EL M. Hozier and Lady Blanche Hozier, and a granddaughter of
die Countess of Airlie, a staunch and powerful Liberal supporter.

Miss Hozier was just twenty-three. The pictures of her published at this
time show a charming oval face, hair parted in die middle, finely cut
classic features and large wide-set eyes. As far as Winston was concerned

1 Great Contemporaries: Winston S. Churchill
'Ibid.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 137

it was love at first sight. Miss Hosier was not only beautiful but she was
high spirited, intelligent, liberal minded, and passionately interested and
amused by politics herself. Up to this time Winston had taken little
interest in the female sex. Once or twice he had fancied himself enamoured
but the spell had been of short duration; politics were so much more excit-
ing than women. Besides, Winston was hard to please. Mr. George
Smalley described the visit he made to New York when he was twenty-six
years old and when the matchmakers had their eyes on him. 'He met
everybody, but would sit in the midst of the most delightful people, ab-
sorbed in his own thoughts. He would not admire the women he was
expected to admire. They must have not only beauty and intelligence, but
the particular kind of beauty and intelligence which appealed to him; if
otherwise, he knew how to be silent without meaning to be rude. ... It
was useless to remonstrate with him. He answered: "She is beautiful to
you, but not to me".' 1

Miss Hozier's mother approved of Winston as a future son-in-law. 'He
is gentle and tender, and affectionate to those he loves, much hated by
those who have not come under his personal charm,' she wrote to Wilfrid
Blunt. 2 The wedding took pkce at St. Margaret's, Westminster; Lord
Hugh Cecil, the ardent Tory, was best man; wedding presents were
received from Winston's three most formidable opponents, Balfour and
the two Chamberlains; the church was packed; the newspapers interested;
and Wilfrid Blunt wrote in his diary: 'The bride was pale, as was the
bridegroom. He has gained in appearance since I saw him last, and has a
powerful if ugly face. Winston's responses were dearly made in a pleasant
voice, Clementine's inaudible.' 8

The marriage, as everyone knows, proved to be one of the great mar-
riages of the century. The bride was not a partie. Indeed, Mrs. Sidney
Webb wrote approvingly in her diary: 'On Sunday we lunched with
Winston Churchill and his bride a charming lady, well-bred and pretty,
and earnest withal but not rich, by no means a good match, which is to
Winston's credit/ It was also to Winston's enduring advantage for
Clementine Churchill will go down in history as a wife who loyally shared
her husband's political vicissitudes and enjoyed his complete devotion for
over forty years. She is a woman of courage, character and shrewd
political judgment. Winston always carefully considers her opinions, and
if he does not always follow her advice he is at least very much aware of
what the advice was. Although Mrs. Churchill would never allow any

1 Anglo-American Memories: George Smalley.

1 My Diaries: W. S. Blunt.

'Ibid.

138 WINSTON CHURCHILL

disagreement to arise between herself and her husband in public, she does
not hesitate to argue with him at home. Often her attitude towards him is
protective, like a mother with a precocious, unruly child; his towards her
is attentive and devoted.

The first years of their marriage were not easy for a young, gay and
beautiful bride. Mrs. Churchill was not only taking on a husband, but the
wrath of Society as well. Docility, however, was not part of her character
and far from regretting the circumstances she welcomed them as a chal-
lenge. By instinct she was more of a Liberal than Winston. She had been
brought up to distrust Tory politics, and she had a natural interest in re-
form. She regarded Conservative ostracism as something of a compliment
and soon had created an agreeable existence for herself and her husband
among a small circle of intimate friends. Blenheim was the only Tory
house open to them, and in order to please Winston who was deeply
sentimental about his family ties, she occasionally accompanied him on a
visit. Although Churchill was censored by the Tories for being disrespect-
ful to the dukes, his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, managed to over-
look his jibes. Consequently Churchill was criticized by his own side for
seeing too much of his relative. 'The fact that Mr. Churchill thoughtlessly
went to Blenheim for Christmas [1910],' writes E. T. Raymond, one of
Lloyd George's biographers, 'somewhat diminished the effects of his com-
rade's oratory.' However, on one occasion, when the Duke of Marl-
borough made disobliging remarks about Mr. Asquith, Mrs. Churchill
packed her bags and left; and she could not be induced to go there for
many months.

The fact that the Churchills began their life together cut off from
Society and dependent on their own resources, gave their marriage a sure
foundation.

Although Winston was hated more than Lloyd George, the Welshman
was the undisputed master. As Chancellor of the Exchequer he held the
Radical leadership firmly in his hands; he made the decisions; he conceived
the strategy; he played the trump cards. While Winston was almost as
great a figure in die public eye, behind the scenes he acknowledged Lloyd
George as his leader. People who remember them together say that Lloyd
George was the only man to whom Churchill ever deferred. The quick-
witted Welshman knew how to charm and control his high-spirited
subordinate as nobody else had ever succeeded in doing. Indeed the
relationship of the master and the pupil continued throughout the years,
long after Churchill ceased to be under Lloyd George's political influence

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 139

in any way. Robert Boothby, a Tory M.P., who was Winston's Parlia-
mentary Private Secretary when the latter became Chancellor of the
Exchequer in the Conservative Government of 1924, says that for a time
Churchill and Lloyd George drifted apart. Then one day Winston asked
Boothby to make an appointment for him to see L.G. 'Lloyd George,'
writes Mr. Boothby, 'came to his room in the evening, and remained there
for about half an hour. When he had gone, I waited for the summons.
None came, so I went in and found the Chancellor sitting in his armchair
before the fire, in a brown study. "It is a remarkable thing," he observed,
"but L.G. hadn't been in this room for three minutes before the old
relationship was completely re-established." I was delighted. He then
looked up with a twinkle in his eye, and added: "The relationship of
master and servant".' 1

What was unusual about the association of these two titans was an
almost total lack of jealousy. Once Lloyd George remarked: 'Sometimes
when I see Winston making these speeches I get a flash of jealousy and I
have to say to myself, "Don't be a fool. What's the use of getting jealous
of Winston?" ' And occasionally Winston felt a twinge of envy over the
limelight Lloyd George won with the Budget. When he was not asked to
speak in the Commons on the third reading of the Bill he was annoyed
but made up for it by airing his views on the public platform. 'You see,' he
said to Lloyd George, 'in spite of your trying to keep me out of the
Budget, I made a show after all.' 'I like that,' said Lloyd George. 'I offered
to hand you over the whole of Part II, the income tax.' 'Oh, that's detail,'
said Winston scornfully, Tin not going to do detail.' 2

Mrs. Masterman goes on to tell how amusing they were together 'with
their different weaknesses and their different childishnesses'. She describes
them one night at dinner. 'At one point Winston said "I am all for the
social order." George, who had had a glass of champagne, which excites
him without in the least confusing him, sat up in his chair and said: "No!
I'm against it. Listen. There were six hundred men turned off by the G.W.
works last week. Those men had to go out into the streets to starve. There
is not a man in that works who docs not live in terror of the day when his
turn will come to go. Well, I'm against a social order that admits that
kind of thing." And he made a beckoning gesture I have seen him use
once or twice. "Yeth, yeth," said Winston, hurriedly, subdued for a
moment, and then rather mournfully: "I suppose that was what lost us
Criddade." "Yes, and Swindon," said George. Winston cocked his nose
in a way he does when he knows he's going to be impertinent. "That's

1 1 Fight to Live: Robert Boothby.

1 C. JF. G. Masterman: Lucy Masterman.

140 WINSTON CHURCHILL

just what I say," he answered, "y u are not against the social order, but
against those parts of it that get in your way," and George crumpled up
with amusement/ 1

Although Churchill was constantly attacked, in conjunction with Lloyd
George, as the wicked inspiration of the 'class war' and nobody would
deny that his speeches were formidable assaults against the fortress of
privilege behind the scenes he was a moderating influence. Indeed, it is
obvious from reading the memoirs and diaries of the time that from the
middle of 1910 onwards, Churchill's Radicalism began to diminish. Mrs.
Masterman quotes Lloyd George as declaring that Winston was not in
favour of the heatedly controversial Land Tax which probably encouraged
the Lords to reject the Budget more than any other item. Winston was
eager for reform but did not want to impose any unnecessary penalties on
the ruling class. What he called 'revolutionary talk' upset him, and Mrs.
Masterman describes an evening she spent with Winston, Lloyd George
and her husband. When the last two began talking in fun 'of die revolu-
tionary measures they were proposing next: the guillotine in Trafalgar
Square; the nominating for the first tumbril,' Winston became more and
more indignant and alarmed, 'until they suggested that this would give
him a splendid opportunity of figuring as the second Napoleon of the
revolutionary forces, when, still perfectly serious, Winston, as George
put it, seemed to think there was something in it. "It is extraordinary,"
said George, "I had no idea anyone could have so little humour." ' 2 That
night Winston walked home with Masterman. He was still very much
perturbed by the conversation. 'If this is what it leads to/ he said
solemnly, 'you must be prepared for me to leave you!" f

Winston, it appears from this diary, was not in favour of abolishing the
Lords' Veto. He was willing to reform the Upper House but he did not
wish to lessen their powers, and on more than one occasion he had heated
arguments with Lloyd George on the subject. Mrs. Masterman describes a
dinner which she and her husband had with Lloyd George, in the course
of which the latter said: 'Winston was up here last night and he got just as
he did that time in the spring. You remember, Masterman, he began to
fume and kick up the hearth rug, and became very offensive, saying: "You
can go to Hell your own way, I won t interfere. I'll have nothing to do

with your policy," and was almost threatening until I reminded Kim

that no man can rat twice.* Mrs. Masterman commented on this by writ-

1 C. F. G. Masterman: Lucy Masterman.
Ibid.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 141

ing: 'Winston, of course, is not a democrat, or at least, he is a Tory
democrat. He cursed Charlie one night when they dined together a deiix,
swearing he would resign sooner than accept a Veto policy again and
spend four years with Sir Ernest Cassel, getting rich: then again and again
repeating: "No, no, no; I won't follow George if he goes back to that
d d Veto." Three weeks afterwards he was making passionate speeches
in favour of the Veto policy. He became cantankerous and very difficult,
and, said George, "for three weeks while he is at a thing, he is very per-
sistent, but he always comes to heel in the end," which is a very true
description.

'Once in the spring he made a quite excellent speech on the Veto in the
House of Commons, although that very morning he had been abusing the
Government policy up hill and down dale to Charlie. "If we," said George,
"put a special clause in the Budget exempting 'Sonny* (the Duke of
Marlborough) from taxation, Winston would let us do what we liked." '

Although Winston argued and fought with Lloyd George behind the
scenes, in public he presented an absolutely united front. He never
stooped to intrigue, or allowed himself to belittle his leader in any way.
He was completely loyal; and the reward of this loyalty was a friendship
unique among politicians.

Winston's deflection from the Radical and Isolationist line he had
adopted for four years began with his appointment as Home Secretary in
1910, and was completed by the time he was appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty in 191 1 . During the year he spent as Home Secretary he accom-
plished important prison reforms. But he also took actions which were
most bitterly resented by the Leftist and Labour circles and are held against
him to this day.

As Home Secretary Winston was responsible for the maintenance of
kw and order. The years 1910 to 1911 heralded an epidemic of serious
strikes, and his task was neither easy nor enviable. First came a bitter coal
strike in South Wales in which his actions were misunderstood and deeply
resented by the miners. As recently as the 1950 General Election Welsh
Socialists revived the events of that time, now generally grouped together
and referred to as 'Tonypandy', declaring that he had sent soldiers to
attack the miners. Churchill hody denied the charge, and informed a
Cardiffaudience that the allegation was a 'cruel lie'. 1

Here are the facts. The coal strike broke out during the first week in
November. There were riots and a number of mines were partially

1 Daily Mail: 9 February, 1950.

142 WINSTON CHURCHILL

flooded. On the morning of 8 November Churchill received a telegram
from the Chief Constable of Glamorgan declaring that the local police
were incapable of maintaining order and that he had applied for troops
from Southern Command. The Liberal Party was facing a General Elec-
tion and Winston at once realized the undesirability of using the military
against miners. He prevented the War Office from sending troops on a
large scale, and quickly made plans to reinforce the Welsh police with
850 Metropolitan police. At the same time, however, after a consultation
with Mr. Haldane, the Secretary of State for War, Churchill agreed to
send a limited number of troops as a safeguard. 1 Churchill asked that both
soldiers and police be placed under the command of a high Army officer,
General Macready, and made it clear that the latter must be responsible,
not to the War Office, but to himself as Home Secretary. 2

On that same morning, 8 November, he sent a telegram to the Chief
Constable of Glamorgan, informing him that 250 constables of the
London Metropolitan Police would arrive at Pontypridd that evening.
'Expect these forces will be sufficient/ his telegram read, 'but as further
precautionary measure, 200 cavalry will be moved into district to-night
and remain there pending the cessation of trouble. General Macready will
command the military, and will act in conjunction with civil authorities as
circumstances may require. Military will not, however, be available, un-
less it is clear that police reinforcements are unable to cope with the
situation.' 3

In relating the events to the House of Commons on n February, 1911,
Churchill said that shortly after this message was sent he was able to get
into telephonic communication with the Chief Constable who told him
that he believed the Metropolitan Police would be sufficient, and that
there was very little accommodation for soldiers as well as police at Ponty-
pridd. Churchill then sent a message, through the War Office, for the
cavalry to detrain at Cardiff. 'But orders were also sent to General
Macready/ he continued in his speech to the House of Commons, 'who
was also travelling to Cardiff, that if any further request of special emer-
gency reached him from the Chief Constable on the spot he could use his
own discretion about going forward with the cavalry that night. . . .
About eight o'clock telephonic communication was received that there

1 When Keir Hardie asked in the House of Commons on 15 November, 1910,
'at whose instance* the troops had been sent to Wales, Haldane replied: 'they
were sent at my instance after careful consultation with my rt. hon. Friend, the
Home Secretary.'

1 Annals of an Active Life: General Sir Nevil Macready.
9 Hansard: n February, 1911.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 143

was rioting in progress, and we immediately telegraphed to General
Macready to move into die district with his squadrons, only one of which
had up to that time arrived at Cardiff. He had already received authority
to do so, and had, in fact, acted in anticipation of that message half an hour
earlier/^

Macready had strict instructions that the soldiers were to be kept apart
from the strikers, and used only to guard mine premises in conjunction
with the poKce, unless the latter found themselves unable to deal with the
situation. He meticulously observed his orders, and in most cases police
proved equal to the task, and troops were not brought into direct contact
with the miners.

On two or three occasions, however, he found it necessary to call out
the military to prevent the police from being heavily stoned. 'In order to
counter these tactics on the part of the strikers on the next occasion when
trbuble was afoot,' wrote General Macready, 'small bodies of infantry on
the higher ground, keeping level with the police on the main road, moved
slowly down the side tracks, and by a little gentle persuasion with the
bayonet drove the stone-throwers into the arms of the police on the lower
road. The effect was excellent; no casualties were reported, though it was
rumoured that many young men of the valley found that sitting down was
accompanied by a certain amount of discomfort for many days. As a
general instruction the soldiers had been warned that if obliged to use their
bayonets they should only be applied to that portion of the body tradi-
tionally held by trainers of youth to be reserved for punishment/ 2

No matter how 'gentle' the 'persuasion' of the bayonet the very fact that
this weapon was used, and men were hurt by it, aroused the miners
to fury. Wild and exaggerated stories spread throughout South Wales.
And thus Mr. Churchill fell between two stools. His desire to avoid the
use of the military, successful in 99% of the instances, was not appreciated.
As a result for nearly forty years he has been accused of sending troops 'to
attack the miners'. Keir Hardie, one of the founders of the Labour Party
and a Member of Parliament, contributed to this interpretation by publish-
ing a powerful little booklet entitled Killing No Murder in which he wrote:

1 One of the riots that took place on the evening of 8 November was in Tony-
pandy Square. The strikers attempted to attack the colliery in protest against the
owners' lock-out notices, and were driven away by the local police. On their way
back they smashed and looted the shops in Tonypandy Square in what The Times
described as 'an orgy of naked anarchy'. In view of the many erroneous accounts
given of this well-known incident it is necessary to emphasize that neither London
police nor troops arrived in die district in. time to take any part in the scene. Order
was restored by the local police. (See Hansard, 7 February, 1911, p. 231.)

* Annals of an 'Active Life: General Sir Nevil Macready.

144- WINSTON CHURCHILL

'Once more the Liberals are in office and Asquith is Prime Minister, and
troops are let loose upon the people to shoot down if need be whilst thev
are fighting for their legitimate rights. They will give you Insurance Bills,
they will give you all kinds of soothing syrups to keep you quiet, but in
the end your Liberal Party, just like your Tory Party, is the Party of the
rich and exists to protect the rich when Labour and Capital come into
conflict/

In the House of Commons Winston took full responsibility for the
presence of troopsin the Welsh valleys, declaring that they would be with-
drawn when he decided they were 'no longer necessary'. 1 In the light of
after events it seems dear that it would have been wiser if Churchill had
not stationed them in South Wales at all, but had held them in reserve in
a neighbouring county. However, the ironical part of the story is the fact
that Churchill was strongly criticized in the House of Commons for exactly
the opposite reason by the powerful Conservative Opposition, which was
eager to prove Liberal inefficiency at the imminent General Election. The
Tories argued that he should have sent troops a week earlier to take charge
of the situation, and if this had been done all damage to property would
have been prevented. But General Macreadyinafair and unbiased account
praises Churchill for having sent the London police. 'It was entirely due to
Mr. Churchill's foresight in sending a strong force of Metropolitan Police
directly he was aware of the state of affairs in the valleys that bloodshed
was avoided, for had the police not Been in strength sufficient to cope with
the rioters there would have been no alternative but to bring the military
into action/ 2

Next came the dock strikes and railway strikes of August 1911. The
anger 'Tonypandy* had aroused among the working people had not fully
impressed itself on Churchill, for this time he did not hesitate to call upon
die military in force. He declared that the nation was on the brink of a
national railway strike and dispatched troops in all directions without even
waiting for the local authorities to ask for them.

Once again he was furiously attacked by Labour Members in the House,
and defended himself by saying: 'The task which was entrusted to the
military forces was to keep the railways running, to safeguard the railways,
to protect the railwaymen who were at work, to keep the railways run-
ning for the transportation of food supplies and raw materials. And it
was necessary, if they were to discharge that task, that the General com-
manding each area into which the country is divided, the General respon-
sible for each of the different strike areas, should have full liberty to send
1 Hansard: 24 November, 1910, p. 426.
Annals of an Active Life: General Sir Nevil Macready .

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 145

troops to any point on the line so that communications should not be
interrupted. That is how it arose, of course, that on Saturday the soldiers
arrived at places to protect railway stations and signal boxes, goods yards,
and other points on the line without their having been requisitioned by
the local authorities/ 1

There was a feeling in Parliament, however, that Churchill revelled in
strong measures; that in this case instead of using troops as a last resort his
first instinct has been to turn to the military. Ramsay MacDonald re-
minded him in biting tones that these were not the sort of methods that
the average Englishman liked, whether his party was Liberal, Tory or
Socialist.

'This is not a mediaeval State, and it is not Russia. It is not even Ger-
many. We have discovered a secret which very few countries have
hitherto discovered. The secret this nation has discovered is that the way
to maintain law and order is to trust the ordinary operations of a law-
abiding and orderly-inclined people If the Home Secretary had just a

little more knowledge of how to handle masses of men in these critical
times, if he had a somewhat better instinct of what civil liberty does mean,
and if he had a somewhat better capacity to use the powers which he has
got as Home Secretary, we should have had much less difficulty in the last
four or five days in facing and finally settling the very difficult problem
we have had before us.' 2

Indeed, the sending of troops was so deeply resented by the labour
ranks it nearly resulted in a General Strike. 'This military intervention/
wrote Elie Halevy, 'was not always successful. If in London the dispute
was peaceably settled by an agreement concluded on August n, it was not
so at Liverpool where die presence of the Irish element no doubt gave the
strike a peculiarly violent character. One day the offices of the Shipping
Federation were burnt down. Another day the soldiers used their rifles and
there were casualties. They were, to be sure, local disturbances. But by the
indignation they aroused throughout the working class they provoked, or
came within an ace of provoking, another social crisis of a more formid-
able character/ 3

At this point Lloyd George stepped in with permission from the
Cabinet to act as a negotiator. He was completely successful. He not only
brought the railway strike to an end, but left the impression that if his tact
and persuasiveness had been employed sooner labour relations would
never have reached such a pitch. Winston on the other hand had merely

1 Hansard: 22 August, 1911.

'Ibid.

* A History of the English People: Elie Halevy.

146 WINSTON CHURCHILL

widened the deep antagonism which was now firmly established between
himself and the working class.

In January, before the railway strike and after the Welsh coal stoppage,
an incident took place which provided the country with a certain amount
of comic relief, but at the same time gave further ammunition to
Churchill's enemies. It was known as 'The Siege of Sidney Street'. In
January 1911 the police telephoned the Home Secretary and informed him
that they had cornered a gang of desperadoes, among whom was 'Peter
the Painter', an anarchist responsible for recent murders of the police in
Houndsditch. The men were entrenched in a house in Sidney Street in
Stepney. No one knew how many there were but they appeared to have
plenty of ammunition and probably some home-made bombs. Churchill
could not resist the excitement. Dressed in a top-hat and a fur-lined over-
coat with an astrakhan collar, and accompanied by the Chief of the C.I.D.,
the Commissioner of the City Police and the head of the political section
of Scotland Yard, he hurried to the scene. The house was surrounded by
several hundred armed police reinforced by a small file of Scots Guards,
equipped with a Maxim gun, who had been summoned from the Tower.
The Guards were firing on the house and occasionally from the broken
windows a bullet answered back. One policeman had been wounded.

Hugh Martin, a journalist who was present at the scene, described Mr.
Churchill as 'altogether an imposing figure'. 'Peeping round corners he
exposed himself with the Scots Guards to the random fire of the besieged

burglars, or consulted with his "staff" in tones of utmost gravity He

agreed that it might be an excellent thing to have in reserve a couple of
field guns from the Royal Horse Artillery depot at St. John's Wood, and
that a party of Royal Engineers from Chatham might be useful if mining
o'perations had to be undertaken against the citadel. He even suggested
that casualties might be avoided if steel plates were brought from Wool-
wich to form a portable cover for the military sharpshooters an early
version of one of his ideas in the Great War.' 1

Soon wisps of smoke began to rise from the windows, and half an hour
later the house was burning fiercely. Fire engines arrived and quickly got
to work. When the police finally entered the ruins, instead of a formidable
gang, they found only two charred bodies; and neither belonged to Peter
the Painter.

The Conservatives made as much of the story as they could. They
ridiculed Churchill for the troops and the field gun, for the false excite-
1 Battle: The Life Story of Winston Churchill: Hugh Martin.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 147

ment and self-advertisement. Arthur Balfour commented sarcastically in
the House: 'We are concerned to observe photographs in the Illustrated
Papers of the Home Secretary in the danger zone. I can understand what
the photographer was doing but not the Home Secretary.'

Winston's Liberal colleagues were also sarcastic. The soldier seemed to
be much more prominent these days than the Radical. Were the Tories
right? Was he purely an adventurer at heart? In 1912 A. G. Gardiner
published a character sketch in the Daily News which showed how far
Liberal feeling had changed towards him:

'He is always unconsciously playing a part an heroic part. And he is
himself his most astonished spectator. He sees himself moving through the
smoke of battle triumphant, terrible, his brow clothed with thunder,
his legions looking to him for victory, and not looking in vain. He thinks
of Napoleon; he thinks of his great ancestor. Thus did they bear them-
selves; thus in this rugged and awful crisis, will he bear himself. It is not
make-believe, it is not insincerity; it is that in this fervid and picturesque
imagination there are always great deeds afoot, with himself cast by
destiny in the Agamemnon role. Hence that portentous gravity that sits on
his youthful shoulders so oddly, those impressive postures and tremendous
silences, the body flung wearily in the chair, the head resting gloomily in
the hand, the abstracted look, the knitted brow. Hence that tendency to
exaggerate a situation which is so characteristic of him the tendency that
sent artillery down to Sidney Street and during the railway strike dis-
patched the military hither and thither as though Armageddon was upon
us. "You've mistaken a coffee-stall row for the social revolution," said
one of his colleagues to him as he pored with knitted and portentous
brows over a huge map of the country on which he was making his
military dispositions.' 1

This paragraph was often gleefully quoted by Winston's Tory oppo-
nents during the next few years. But once World War I had begun, they
found it convenient to omit the three sentences that followed. Gardiner
had gone on to say: 'Hence his horrific picture of the German menace.
He believes it all because his mind once seized with an idea works with
enormous velocity round it, intensifies it, makes it shadow the whole
sky. In the theatre of his mind it is always the hour of fate and the crack
of doom.'

Alas,' that fete was not only in Winston's imagination.

1 Reprinted in Pillars of Society: A. G. Gardiner.

I

CHAPTER TEN

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY

THE YEAR 1911 marked a turning point in Winston Churchill's life. On
i July, a German gunboat, the Panther, suddenly stationed itself off the
obscure Atlantic port of Agadir on the North African coast. This was a
direct threat to French expansion in the Mediterranean. The Chancelleries
of Europe were electrified and for three months the western world hovered
on the brink of war. Churchill's eyes opened with a start as he at last
became conscious of the peril that threatened England. For eleven years
he had followed first in his father's footsteps, and then in Lloyd George's,
as an apostle of 'Peace, Retrenchment and Reform'. The championing of
these ideas had cast him in the strangely incongruous role of 'The Little
Englander'; the opponent of a strong Army and Navy; the darling of the
pacifists; the provincial reformer so engrossed in tidying up his house that
he could not see the approaching tornado.

Overnight he abandoned retrenchment. His ardour for prison reform
died as his powerful mind swung on to world affairs. For the first time
since he had become a Member of Parliament he began to think inde-
pendently. And although neither he nor anyone else realized it at the time,
he had finally veered on to his true course, 'as a champion of the might
and right of Britain.

The Agadir incident, as it became known, was a highlight in a series of
events which began at the beginning of the century when Germany
decided to build a large Navy. Germany was young and virile. She was
already the strongest military power on the Continent. This fact had
worried the French for some time, but it had not aroused much concern
among the English who believed they could remain safely aloof in their
island fortress with their Navy the undisputed ruler of the sea lanes of the
world. But when Germany published a new Fleet Law in 1900 revealing
that the Emperor not only wished to control the greatest army in Europe
but to rival English sea power as well, the British Foreign Office became
alarmed. The preamble of the Fleet Law stated: 'In order to protect
German trade and commerce -under existing conditions, only one thing
will suffice, namely, Germany must possess a battle fleet of such strength
that, even for the most powerful naval adversary, a war would involve
such risks as to make that Power's own supremacy doubtful'

Why did Germany want this vast Navy? Against whom was it in-

152 WINSTON CHURCHILL

tended? The British could find only one answer: and that was the begin-
ning of the fear that led to protective alliances; and the alliances that
involved them in war. Throughout her history Britain had always allied
herself with the second strongest power on the Continent, gathering to her
banner small states eager to maintain their independence. It therefore
seemed natural to the English that in 1904, when the Kaiser in a flam-
boyant speech was proclaiming himself 'The Admiral of the Atlantic',
that Britain should be making an entente with France.

The entente proved of mutual advantage to both countries. The French
agreed to give the British a free hand in Egypt and the British agreed to
help France round off her North African Empire by the acquisition of
Morocco. In the minds of both nations was the belief that it would be a
good thing to keep Germany out of the Mediterranean. The Kaiser was
indignant. In 1905 he paid a visit to Tangier, in Morocco, and made a
speech declaring that his friend, the Sultan, must remain absolutely
independent. The result was a twelve months' 'cold war', but Britain
stood steadfastly by France and in the end the Germans sulkily backed
down.

It is well to remind the reader that in those days diplomacy was for the
few and the very few. The British public had little say in Foreign Affairs.
And when one speaks of 'the Government* deciding this or that, one means
the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, and perhaps one or two other
leading Ministers, but by no means the whole of the Cabinet. With this
in mind it does not seem so strange that while 'the Government' was
strengthening its relations with France and keeping an anxious eye on
Germany, the Cabinet also decided, in 1906, to cut down Britain's ship-
building programme. Winston Churchill and Lloyd George led the attack
on naval armaments, while Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary,
quietly went on his way building up a diplomatic bulwark against Ger-
many.

In 1907 Sir Edward made an alliance with France's ally, Russia, which
led to another 'cold war' scare in 1908. Germany's ally, Austria, stole a
march on Russia by proclaiming the annexation of Bosnia, a Turkish pro-
vince which Russia regarded as within her 'sphere of influence'. Russia
was compelled to forgo her authority, but British public opinion was
stirred; and that was the year that the clamour for eight new warships
reached its height.

Meantime France went ahead with her conquest of Morocco, offering
Germany as compensation a part of French Equatorial Africa. When the
German gunboat was sent to Agadir in 1911 to enforce French generosity
the situation reached its third climax. Once again the Anglo-French

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 153

entente held firm and once again Germany retreated from her stand. Lloyd
George played a sudden and surprising part in the crisis, making it dear
that Britain was in no mood to be bullied.

Up to this time there had been a cleavage between Sir Edward Grey as
leader of the Liberal Imperialists and Lloyd George as leader of the Liberal
pacifists. Churchill relates in The World Crisis how he met Lloyd George
several weeks after Germany had shown her mailed fist. Lloyd George was
due to make a speech to the City bankers that evening, at an annual dinner
at the Mansion House. 'He saw quite clearly the course to take ... He
pointed out that Germany was acting as if England did not count in the
matter in any way; that she had completely ignored our strong repre-
sentation; that she was proceeding to put the most severe pressure on
France; that a catastrophe might ensue; and that if if was to be averted we
must speak with great decision and act at once.'

Consequently Lloyd George's speech contained a passage that fell on
German ears like a thunderbolt. If a situation were forced upon us/ he
said, 'in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great
and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and
achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were
vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then
I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intoler-
able for a great country like ours to endure/

The Germans were not only astonished but furious. The German
Ambassador was recalled in disgrace for portraying Lloyd George as a
'pacifist'; and once again after three agitated months, the crisis passed.
'People think/ complained Lloyd George, 'that because I was a pro-Boer
I am anti-war in general, and that I should faint at the mention of
a cannon/

The Agadir episode was a turning point in Churchill's life. Some men are
so exhilarated by a sense of danger that a sudden surge of new power
seems to rise within them. Winston was one of these. The prospect of
a great conflict obsessed him and he could think of little else. How could
he keep his mind on Home Office matters when life and death were
in the balance? How could he interest himself in strikes and Suffragettes
when at any moment Germany might strike at Britain? He had always
believed himself to be a Man of Destiny. His colossal self-confidence,
which some people unkindly referred to as egotism, and his almost super-
stitious attitude towards life had led him to analyse his position a hundred
times. He often dwelt on the chance encounters, the narrow escapes, the

154 WINSTON CHURCHILL

impulsive decisions that had carried him so far along the road to power. It
must all be for some definite purpose. First he had thought his destiny lay
in avenging his father; then in helping the poor; now he was certain his
mission was to save England. In the middle of August, a few weeks after
the Agadir incident, he went to the country and sat on a hilltop looking
over the beautiful green fields and meditating about the perils of war.
The words of Housman's A Shropshire Lad kept running through his head:

On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the sound of streams,
Far I hear the distant drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.
Far and near and low and louder,
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die.

With the gathering storm ''fiercely illuminated* in his mind, he set out
to learn all he could of military and foreign affairs. Parliament was not
sitting, but he remained in London throughout the hot weeks of August
devouring documents and picking the brains of General Wilson, the
Director of Military Operations, and Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign
Secretary. Grey and Churchill often met in the late afternoon, and strolled
across the park together to the Royal Automobile Club for a swim.

Churchill did not suffer from timidity and before a fortnight had passed
he was offering advice to both Wilson and Grey. He began to bombard
the Cabinet with suggestions and directives signed 'W.S.C.' The first of
these was entitled Military Aspects of the Continental Problem Memoran-
dum by Mr. Churchill. This outline suggested that the War Office took
too sanguine a view of the potential resistance of the French Army.
Winston prophesied that by the twentieth day the French would be
'driven from the line of the Meuse and will be falling back on Paris and
the South'. He then went on to say that he believed by the fortieth day
the Germans would be extended at full strength both internally and on
their war fronts, and that if the French Army lad not been squandered the
Allies should be able to execute their main counterstroke. General Wilson
referred to the document as 'ridiculous and fantastic a silly memoran-
dum*, but events proved Churchill right; the Battle of the Marne was lost
by Germany on the forty-second day,

Winston's passionate concern with the German menace induced the
Prime Minister to invite him to join the Committee of Imperial Defence.
This was virtually an Inner Cabinet. Its members consisted of the Prime

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 155

Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the
War Minister, Lord Haldane. The Committee met on 23 August to
consider what action Britain would take if France were attacked. And at
this particular meeting it was disclosed that a vital and astonishing differ-
ence of opinion existed between the War Office and the Admiralty. Lord
Haldane, as War Minister, had built up an Expeditionary Force to go
abroad as soon as war started. Plans had been drawn up in conjunction
with French staff officers for British troops to strengthen the French left
wing as rapidly as possible.

Incredible as it may seem, there had been no joint consultation with the
Navy, and the Admiralty had made no plans for conveying the Force
across the Channel. In fact, the Admiralty did not want an army sent
across the Channel. The sailors were certain that the Navy could handle
the situation alone. They would sink the German Fleet, and blockade the
German ports, and soon the whole conflict would be over. This was the
gist of the remarks made at the meeting by the Admiralty spokesman who
urged that Lord Haldane's Expeditionary Force be abandoned and that the
Army concentrate its attention on small raids on the German coast in con-
junction with the Navy.

Needless to say Lord Haldane left the meeting greatly perturbed. He
could expect no help from his colleague, Reginald McKenna, the First
Lord of die Admiralty, for although McKenna had courageously pressed
for a full-blooded naval programme, he supported the Admiralty view as
far as strategy was concerned. It was clear to Haldane that McKenna must
be removed to another office and a new First Lord appointed. He wrote
the Prime Minister a strong letter: 1 have after mature consideration come
to the conclusion that this, in the existing state of Europe, is the gravest
problem which confronts the Government to-day; and that, unless it is
tackled resolutely, I cannot remain in office. Five years' experience of the
War Office has taught me how to handle the Generals and how to get the
best out of them; and I believe that the experience makes me the best
person to go to the Admiralty and carry through as thorough a reorganiza-
tion there as I have carried out at the War Office. In any event, I am
determined that things at the Admiralty shall not remain any longer as
they are/ 1

Haldane was a man of intellect and broad vision. He had done a brilliant
job in reorganizing the Army along modern lines. He was admired by his
colleagues and respected by his opponents. He was a lifelong Liberal and
a dose friend of Asquitk He was eager to take on the Admiralty job.
What made Asquith choose Churchill instead?
1 Haldane: Sir Frederick Maurice.

156 WINSTON CHURCHILL

There is no doubt that Asquith was deeply impressed by Winston's
dynamic ability. He always read his memoranda carefully; they were
unfailingly concise and well-written, which appealed to his legal mind.
1 believe I owed the repeated advancements to great offices which he
accorded me/ wrote Winston, 'more to my secret writing on Government
business than to any impressions produced by conversations or speeches on
the platform or in Parliament/ 1 Besides, Asquith was amused by Winston
whom he often referred to as 'my right honourable and picturesque col-
league*. There were several strong arguments in Churchill's favour; firstly,
the Admiralty might be induced to accept the policy of the War Office if
someone other than the War Minister took on the job; secondly, it would
be an advantage to keep the First Lord in the Commons; thirdly, Asquith
undoubtedly felt that it was wise to keep the rebellious Churchill fully
occupied and using his energies constructively. Lloyd George urged
Asquith strongly to appoint Churchill.

The Prime Minister invited the two Ministers to join him on a holiday
in Scotland. Winston arrived two days before Haldane and on the second
afternoon, as they were leaving the golf course, Asquith suddenly asked
him if he would like to go to the Admiralty. 'Indeed I would/ replied
Winston. The Prime Minister then said they must discuss the matter with
Haldane when he arrived the following day. It must have been an ex-
traordinary meeting, with Asquith sitting as the imperturbable judge, and
Haldane and Churchill advancing with all their skill and forensic ability
the reasons why each considered himself the right man for the job. Haldane
gave an account of it in a letter to Sir Edward Grey: 'Asquith asked me to
see him first alone and then with Winston. I did so without mincing
matters. Winston was very good, reasoned that if he went there [the
Admiralty] he would work closely with me at the War Office, in the
spirit of his father, who had always said that there ought to be a common
administration. I felt, however, that, full of energy as he is, he does not
know his problem or the vast field of thought that has to be covered.
Moreover, though I did not say this to him, I feel that it was only a year
since he had been doing his best to cut down mechanized armies, and that
the Admiralty would receive the news of his advent with dismay; for they
would thinly wrongly or rightly, that as soon as the financial pinch begins
to come eighteen months from now, he would want to cut down. He is
too apt to act first and think afterwards, though of his energy and courage
one cannot speak too highly/ 2

Several days later the Prime Minister wrote to Haldane that he had

1 Great Contemporaries: Winston S. Churchill
* Haldane: Sir Frederick Maurice.

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 157

decided in favour of Churchill. 'The main and, in the longer run, the
deciding factor with me in a different sense, has been the absolute necessity
for keeping the First Lord in the Commons.' 1

Churchill was overjoyed with the appointment. Now he was sure of his
mission. When he was undressing for bed, on the night Asquith had first
suggested the Admiralty to him, he picked up the Bible from his table
and opened it at random. His eyes fell on the following passage: 'Hear,
O Israel, Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess
nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to
heaven.

'A people great and tall, and children of the Anakims, whom thou
knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the
children of Anak!

'Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth
over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall
bring them down before thy face; so shalt thou drive them out, and
destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said unto thee/

To Churchill's strangely superstitious mind it seemed 'a message full of
reassurance'. 2

Churchill threw himself into his new job heart and soul. Like the other
Government departments which he had controlled, the Admiralty at once
felt the impact of his powerful personality. He began by heightening the
drama of an already dramatic situation. First of all he ordered that Naval
Officers, as well as resident clerks, must remain on duty all night at the
Admiralty so that if a surprise attack came not a moment would be lost in
giving the alarm. Secondly, he gave instructions for a huge chart of the
North Sea to be hung on the wall of his room. Every day a staff officer
marked the positions of the German Fleet with flags. *I made a rule to look
at this chart once every day when I first entered my room. I did this less
to keep myself informed, for there were many other channels of informa-
tion, than in order to inculcate in myself and those working with me a
sense of ever present danger. In this spirit we all worked.' 8

Churchill's overall commission was to put the Fleet into 'a state of
instant and constant readiness for war in case we are attacked by Germany/
Behind these broad instructions two immediate tasks confronted him:
first, to set up a Naval War Staff, such as the Army possessed, which

1 Hattane: Sir Frederick Maurice.

* The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

'Ibid.

158 WINSTON CHURCHILL

would give all its rime to the study of strategy and tactics; second, to main-
tain close co-operation with the War Office and concert the fighting plans
of the two services.

Churchill at once put himself in touch with Lord Fisher, that brilliant,
explosive, astonishing old man of seventy-one, who had recently retired
as First Sea Lord and was regarded by many as 'the greatest sailor since
Nelson'. Fisher was living in retirement in Italy. He had burning black
eyes, a rugged face and a fiery temperament. The passion of his life was
the Navy, and in .this field he was a genius. When he first joined the
service in 1854 the Navy's ships still carried sails, many had no auxiliary-
steam and none had armour. He grew up in a period of change and was
fascinated by the amazing new developments. When he became First Sea
Lord himself the changes came fast and furiously and soon the British
Fleet was" far ahead of all others in modern and efficient design. Fisher
scrapped dozens of ships which he declared could 'neither fight nor run
away'. He reorganized the Navy's educational system, introduced the
submarine, and replaced the Battle Fleet's twelve-inch guns with thirteen
point fives, the biggest ever tried.

In carrying out these changes 'Jackie' Fisher made many enemies.
'Ruthless, relentless and remorseless' were words that he often repeated
proudly to describe himself. With his terrific drive and his pig-headedness
he struck at his opponents savagely. He branded as traitors those who
opposed him either secretly or openly, and boasted childishly that 'their
wives should be widows, their children fatherless, and their homes a dung-
hill*. This threat was not altogether meaningless for he ruined the pro-
fessional career of more than one officer who opposed his policies. Those
in Fisher's favour were described as being 'in the Fish-pond', and woe
betide those who were not. Needless to say, Fisher's enemies grew in
number. His chief adversary was Lord Charles Beresford, the Commander-
in-Chief of the Channel, or principal, Fleet Soon the Navy was divided
into two camps Fisher's men and Beresford's men and every sort of
intrigue and warfare was carried on between the two rival sections. The
final result was Fisher's resignation. Nevertheless when 1914 came it was
the ships that Fisher and the First Lord, McKenna, had built between the
years 1906 and 1911, in the face of Winston Churchill's powerful oppo-
sition, that were ready to face the enemy.

Winston had first met Sir John Fisher, as he was then, in Biarritz in
1907. They had talked far into the night and although the young man did
not agree with the old man's belief in the necessity for a large Navy, they
recognized each other as kindred spirits; they were unconventional, force*
ful and daring. They both liked a storm. Churchill now sent for Fisher

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 159

who came home from Italy and the two men spent three days discussing
naval problems. Fisher's ideas were as vehement, as brilliant and stimu-
lating as ever. He impressed Churchill so deeply that the latter toyed with
the idea of reappointing him First Sea Lord then and there. If Fisher had
dropped the slightest hint, Churchill would have spoken, but for the
moment the thought passed.-

Nevertheless, Lord Fisher became Churchill's inspiration and ally.
From then on the old man bombarded the young First Lord with dozens
of forceful, amusing and valuable letters which arrived at the Admiralty
fastened together, sometimes with a ribbon, sometimes with a pearl pin.
The letters began breezily: 'My beloved Winston' and ended 'Yours to a
cinder', 'Yours till hell freezes', or 'Till charcoal sprouts'. 'Alas,' wrote
Winston in The World Crisis, 'there was a day when hell froze and char-
coal sprouted and friendship was reduced to cinders; when "My beloved
Winston" had given place to "First Lord: I can no longer be your col-
league".' But that belongs to another chapter.

Meanwhile, with Lord Fisher's unofficial aid and backing, Winston set
about to learn his business and do his job. Out of two years and nine
months that remained before war was to begin, he spent" nearly eight
months afloat in the Admiralty yacht Enchantress. He visited every im-
portant ship. At the end he knew 'what everything looked like and where
everything was, and how one thing fitted into another. I could put my
hand on anything that was wanted and knew the current state of our naval
affairs.' He not only worked for the Navy, he lived for it. His sense of
drama was deeply stirred, for he saw beyond the ships themselves to the
broad horizon. The following extract from The World Crisis reveals how
romantically he visualized the charge that had been entrusted to him.
'Consider these ships, so vast in themselves, yet so small, so easily lost to
sight on the surface of the waters. Sufficient at the moment, we trusted,
for their task, but yet only a score or so. They were all we had. On them,
as we conceived, floated the might, majesty, dominion and power of the
British Empire. All our long history built up century after century, all our
great affairs in every part of the globe, all the means of livelihood and
safety for our faithful, industrious, active population depended upon them.
Open the sea-cocks and let them sink beneath the surface as another Fleet
was one day to do in another British harbour far to the North, and in a
few minutes half an hour at the most the whole outlook of the world
would be changed. The British Empire would dissolve like a dream; each
isolated community struggling forward by itself; the central power of
union broken; mighty provinces, whole Empires in themselves, drifting
hopelessly out of control, and falling a prey to strangers; and Europe after

I6O WINSTON CHURCHILL

one sudden convulsion passing into the iron grip of the Teuton and of all
that the Teutonic system meant/

With this conception of the Navy's great role it is not surprising that
Churchill was thrilled by his task. He kept his promise to Haldane and
worked in the closest co-operation with die military experts. The War
Minister quickly overcame his disappointment at not being appointed to
the Admiralty himself, and soon wrote to his mother: 'Winston and L.G.
dined with me last night, and we had a very useful talk. This is now a very
harmonious Cabinet. It is odd to think that three years ago I had to fight
these two for every penny for my Army Reform. Winston is full of
enthusiasm about the Admiralty, and just as keen as I am on the war staff.
It is delightful to work with him. L.G. has too quite changed his attitude
and now is very friendly to your bear, whom he used to call the Minister
of Civil Slaughter.' 1

Lloyd George, however, did not share Winston's emotional excitement
over the danger of Germany. Winston thrived on the drama. He flung
himself into the preparations with grim determination but at the same
time with a certain exhilaration. Lloyd George, on the other hand, was
not convinced that war was inevitable. He insisted that every effort should
be made to placate Germany; to remove her grievances, and to try to
arrive at a sensible understanding about armaments. He impressed Sir
Edward Grey with his arguments and an unofficial emissary was sent to
Berlin to contact the Kaiser and pave the way for serious conversations.
The basis of the British point of view was quite simple: Britain had no
objection to German military strength or German colonial expansion; but
if Germany insisted on rivalling British sea-power, on which the whole
security of the British Island depended, a dash would indeed come. The
Kaiser sent word that he would be glad to discuss the problem with the
British Government, and consequently Lord Haldane was sent to Berlin.-

While Haldane was on his mission Churchill went to Glasgow to
inspect some shipbuilding works on the Clyde. He picked up an evening
newspaper and read a speech by the Kaiser to the Reichstag announcing
large increases both in die Army and the Navy. Once again Churchill felt
a sensation of approaching danger. A sentence which particularly struck
him was this: 'It is ifiy constant duty and care to maintain and to strengthen
on land and water, tie power of defence of German people, which has no
tack of young men Jit to bear arms. 9

Churchill's ire was roused. He decided that someone should speak pub-
licly, speak plainly and speak now. Consequently he spoke himself in

1 Hal Jane: Sir Frederick Maurice.

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY l6l

Glasgow the following day. 'This island/ he declared, 'has never been,
and never will be, lacking in trained and hardy marines bred from their
boyhood up to the service of the sea.' The Germans did not object to this
warning; after all it was tit for tat. But what enraged them was the open-
ing paragraph of Winston's address: 'The purposes of British naval power
are essentially defensive. We have no thoughts, and we have never had
any thoughts of aggression, and we attribute no such thoughts to other
great Powers. There is, however, this difference between the British naval
power and the naval power of the great and friendly Empire of Ger-
many. The British Navy is to us a necessity and, from some points of view,
the German Navy is to them more in the nature of a luxury. Our naval
power involves British existence. It is existence to us; it is expansion to
them. . . .'*

The word 'luxury', it appeared, had an unfortunate significance when
translated into German. 'The luxus Flotte, 9 wrote Churchill, 'became an
expression passed angrily from lip to Up.' But the Germans were not only
angry; they were shocked. The Kaiser regarded young Churchill as a per-
sonal friend. After all, the latter had twice been the monarch's guest at
manoeuvres in 1906 and 1909; besides, the Crown Prince had been a fellow
visitor with Winston at a week-end house party and they had even had a
pillow fight together. Winston had been one of the leaders of the pacifist
wing in England, and had always spoken kindly of Germany. The Kaiser
had been delighted when he read of the appointment and had interpreted
it as a triumph for the pro-German element in England. It was as rude an
awakening as Lloyd George's Mansion House speech. The English were
unpredictable indeed.

Churchill's speech was not only criticized in Germany but at home.
The Government considered it precipitous and rash, and the Tories went
around saying, 'What can you expect from a fellow like that?* Haldane,
however, returned from Germany and declared that it had helped rather
than hindered. It had emphasized the very points he had been making.
However, as far as the Germans were concerned, it failed to produce the
desired result. Germany continued her naval programme and in March
Churchill declared that Britain would build two more ships than she had
the previous year. He made one more conciliatory gesture. 'Suppose we
were both to take a naval holiday in 1913 and introduce a blank page
into the book of misunderstanding.' This proposal was received by
Germany in icy silence. Churchill returned his attention to preparations

for war.

* * * *

1 The Times: 10 February, 1912.

162 WINSTON CHUR.CHILL

One of Winston's first tasks at the Admiralty was to create a Naval War
Staff in the face of stiff naval opposition. The professional sailors declared
that a War Staff would undermine and divide the all-powerful authority
of the First Sea Lord, diminishing rather than increasing efficiency. Fisher
wrote to a friend on 7 November, 1911: 'The argument for a War Staff
is that you may have a d d fool as First Sea Lord, and so you put him
in commission, as it were.' Churchill, however, had agreed to set up the
new Staff and he pushed ahead with his task despite the fact that the First
Sea Lord resigned, and the Second and Third Sea Lords had to be re-
placed.

Haldane helped him to work out the plans for the organization but
when Winston announced his startling intention of bringing the Naval
War Staff directly under himself, a politician, rather than under the First
Sea Lord, a sailor, Haldane objected stoutly and won his point.

Despite this concession, many admirals were still far from satisfied.
Even though the new body was under the direction of the First Sea Lord
they felt that the Chief of die Naval Staff was bound to clash in authority
with his superior. Lotd Fisher advised Winston to overcome the difficulty
by declaring that the First Sea Lord would automatically become Chief
of the Naval Staff, but Churchill did not accept his suggestion. Time
proved Fisher right but it was not until Winston had left the Admiralty
and Jellicoe had become First Sea Lord that the two offices were combined.
Since Lord Fisher's position was completely unofficial he had no power
to alter decisions of high policy. He therefore concerned himself with
influencing appointments. Who, for instance, was to command the prin-
cipal Fleet when war broke out? Fisher was an ardent supporter of Jellicoe
and argued his case strongly with Winston. The latter acted on his recom-
mendation and some idea of Fisher's triumphant satisfaction may be
gleaned from a letter he wrote to a friend: 'My two private visits to
Winston were fruitful. I'll tell you the whole secret of the changes to get
Jellicoe Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet prior to October 1914,
which is the date of the battle of Armageddon. He will succeed Callaghan
automatically in two years from December 1911, so will have all well in
hand by the before-mentioned date. Nunc Dimittis. Everything revolved
around Jellicoe!' 1 Fisher's forecast of the beginning of die war, correct
within two months, gives some idea of die shrewd judgment of the old
man.

About the same time that Churchill appointed Jdlicoe he picked the
youngest Flag Officer in the Fleet for his private secretary. This was the
same young man who had moved his gunboat up the Nile in support of
1 The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 163

the Lancers in their charge against the Dervishes at Omdurman, and the
same young man who had thrown the soldiers a botde of champagne. His
name was David Beatty and before World War I had ended he succeeded
to Jellicoe's command.

Fisher approved of Beatty, but he did not approve of several other
important appointments that Churchill made on his own initiative. In
fact, he was furious. He wrote to Winston in heated indignation and
announced that their relations were at an end. 'I consider,' he said, 'you
have betrayed the Navy by these three appointments, and what the
pressure could have been to induce you to betray your trust is beyond my
comprehension.' 1 With that he packed his bags and left for Naples.

Winston behaved almost like a love-lorn suitor, sending a stream of
letters begging Fisher to return. Then he badgered him with requests for
his advice on this matter and that, and got other people to do the same.
Fisher remained obdurate. Finally Churchill went after him. It so hap-
pened that the Prime Minister had agreed to accompany Winston through
the Mediterranean in the Admiralty yacht with the object of visiting
Kitchener in Egypt, where the latter was serving as British Agent and
Consul-General, and talking over problems of strategy. When the con-
versations finished Churchill headed for Naples, and Asquith reinforced
Churchill's pleas for the old man to return. Still Lord Fisher remained
adamant. Then Churchill employed feminine subtlety. On Sunday morn-
ing they all went to the English service. In the middle of the sermon the
chaplain looked at Fisher and said solemnly: 'No man possessing all his
powers and full of vitality has any right to say: "I am now going to rest,
as I have had a hard life/' for he owes a duty to his country and fellow
men!' Fisher relented and returned to England; and the powerful, un-
official combination once more went into action. Considering the fact
that both men were pugnacious, opinionated and autocratic, quarrels
were to be expected; what is surprising is the feet that the alliance worked
as well as it did.

The two most formidable decisions taken by the Churchill-Fisher com-
bination were first, to advance from the thirteen-point-five-inch gun to
the fifteen-inch, and second, to change the entire Navy over from coal to
oil. These innovations took place during 1912-13. At this time a fifteen-
inch gun had not even been designed. Yet there was no time to test it A
valuable year would be lost On the other hand if the ships would not stand
the stress the Navy might become a ghastly fiasco. However, the experts
all assured Churchill that the gun would work and declared that they were
ready to stake their professional careers upon it; and Lord Fisher urged

164 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill forward with passionate insistence. 'What was it that enabled
Jack Johnson to knock out his opponents?' he argued. 'It was the Big
Punch.* Winston went ahead; and as the Germans were soon to learn, the
result was more than satisfactory.

The new guns led to the change-over from coal to oil. Striking power,
Fisher declared, was not enough. Speed was absolutely essential, and ships
run by oil gave a large excess of speed over coal. Furthermore they had
another advantage; they could be refuelled, if necessary, at sea. The
obvious drawback to the whole idea was the fact that Britain produced
coal and not oil. Churchill pondered over the difficulties, while once again
Lord Fisher pressed him furiously on. Winston set up a Royal Commission
on Oil Supply and appointed the old man as chairman. The final outcome
was a long term contract with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company which,
for an initial investment of ^2,000,000, kter increased to 5,000,000,
secured the necessary oil and gave the Government a controlling share in
oil properties which increased their value many hundred per cent. In 1951
this same British interest became the subject of dangerous controversy.

The new guns and the change-over to oil involved enormous expense.
Churchill's Naval Estimates presented to the Cabinet at the end of 1913
were the highest in British history, and thehighest in the world. The figure
was over 50,000,000. The Cabinet gasped; and for the first time since
Lloyd George and Churchill had been colleagues in the same Govern-
ment they found themselves desperately opposed to one another. Each
threatened to resign unless the other gave way.

The relationship between Lloyd George and Churchill altered during the
years 1911 and 1912. The two men remained staunch friends but the
political affinity ended. No longer did they fasten on their armour and
walk out to do battle on the same ground. They stood firmly together
over the Agadir incident but when the crisis faded Churchill was a differ-
ent man. He could not turnback to domestic affairs. His interest in reform
had evaporated and he no longer found it amusing to bait rich landlords.

Lloyd George had the opposite reaction. As soon as the scare had passed
he returned eagerly to the battle on the home front. How could the
destruction of war compare for excitement with the construction of peace?
As Chancellor of the Exchequer he had a finger in every pie, and 1911-12
were foil yean. They were the years of the stormy Parliament Bill; of the
railway strike, the dock strike and the coal strike; of growing violence in
die suffrage movement; of a new Home Rule Bill and a Welsh Disestab-
lishment Bill; and most important of all, the years of Lloyd George's

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 165

greatest triumph the National Health Insurance Act. This was the first
step towards the Health Service that exists in Britain to-day and its
initiation aroused as much furious opposition among the doctors and the
Tories as its successor did in 1946. The Insurance Act operated by both
employers and employees contributing to weekly 'stamps. Punch ran a
cartoon with an angry Duchess exclaiming: 'What! Me lick stamps!* and
a correspondent, in a letter to the Daily Mail, declared: 'If the Insurance
Bill becomes law it will be advisable for us to leave England/

Lloyd George was puzzled and a little irritated that Winston was unable
to arouse any enthusiasm over these exciting measures. He told Mrs.
Masterman that Churchill was taking 'less and less part in home politics,
and getting more and more absorbed in boilers'. It was true that Winston
could never take up a subject without overflowing, a fact to which some
of his colleagues objected strongly. Lloyd George complained that he
would bear down on him saying: 'Look here, David, I want to talk to
you/ and then he would 'declaim for the rest of the morning about his
blasted ships!' l 'You have become a water creature,* Lloyd George once
told him in a reproving voice. 'You think we all live in the sea, and all
your thoughts are devoted to sea life, fishes and other aquatic creatures.
You forget that most of us live on land.' 2

Thus the friendship survived while each man marched along his own
particular path. Lloyd George still regarded the landed proprietors as
enemies of society. 'The land,' he declared, 'is still shackled with the chains
of feudalism;' and he began to formulate a Land Act that would revive
agriculture; fix rents and tenures; tackle housing and slum clearance.
'The squire is God/ he announced, 'the parson, the agent, the gamekeeper
these are his priests; the pheasants, the hares these are the sacred birds
and beasts of the tabernacle/ Lloyd George was just getting under way
when the 'Marconi scandal' broke, which, as it turned out, proved no
scandal at all. The Tories claimed that Lloyd George and two other
Liberal Ministers had used inside knowledge to gamble in Marconi shares.
The House of Commons set up an inquiry which found that (a) the
Ministers held very few shares, (b) they had made a loss and not a profit.
They had done nothing dishonourable; the worst they could be accused of
was indiscretion. During the ordeal Winston stood by Lloyd George
firmly. When it was over the National Liberal Club gave a dinner in
honour of the three pilloried Ministers. Winston arrived at the dub late,
found the door locked, and climbed through the pantry window. He
made a rousing speech declaring that these men 'had been vilely and

1 C F. G. Mastennan: Lucy Masterman.
1 More Pages from My Diary: Lord Ridddl.

166 WINSTON CHURCHILL

damnably ill-treated in our cause for our sakes'. The agitation, he con-
tinued, had been concocted 'by the pole-cats of polities'.

Thus the friendship between these two rivals continued steadfastly in
spite of vicissitudes and differing opinions. Then came Winston's huge
Naval Estimates, and for the first time loyalty underwent a severe strain.
Lloyd George needed all the revenue he could raise for his social reforms.
Besides, he did not believe in big ships. He took the view, which had some
important naval support, that destroyers and light cruisers were just as
effective as dreadnoughts and far less costly. Also, Winston had made a
bargain with him over expenditure and had not kept it. Winston, on the
other hand, refused to budge. *L.G. is accustomed to deal with people who
can be bluffed and frightened, but I am not to be bluffed and fright-
ened!' he told a friend. 'He says that some of the Cabinet will resign. Let
them resign!' 1

As the weeks passed the situation became more and more critical for
neither man would give way. Each said he would rather resign. Early in
January Lloyd George gave an astonishing interview to the Daily Chronicle
calling for a reduction in armaments on the grounds that the international
sky had never been 'more perfectly blue'. Lord Riddell, a newspaper
proprietor who was a dose friend of both, recorded the following excerpts
in his Diary:

17 January, 1913: Lloyd George said: 'The P.M. must choose between
Winston and me ... We now ascertain for the first time that Winston
has exceeded the estimates by no less than .5,000,000. That is gross
extravagance ... I am not a "little Navy" man. I don't want to reduce the
Navy. I only want reasonable economy. I am not fighting about that.
Winston says he can make no more reductions. The truth is he is not a
Liberal. He does not understand Liberal sentiment.'

1 8 January: Churchill said: 'I don't know how long I shall be here
[at the Admiralty]. The position is acute. I cannot make further economies.
I cannot go back on my public declarations. L.G. will find the Cabinet
with me. The P.M. is committed to the expenditure up to the hilt. I can
make no further concessions. I cannot agree to the concealment of the
actual figures. I think I know the English people. The old Cromwellian
spirit still survives. I believe I am watched over. Think of the perils I have
escaped.' Lord Riddell then inserted in the diary: '(L.G., as I have already
recorded, believes the same about himself. If there is a row it will be
interesting to see which guardian angel is stronger.)' 2

Churchill played every card he possessed. He let it be known that his

1 More Pages from My Diary: Lord RiddelL
'Ibid.

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 167

resignation 'would be accompanied by that of all four Sea Lords; he
allowed a rumour to spread that he was considering rejoining the Con-
servative Party; he hinted at a compromise with the Tories over Home
Rule. The Liberals took fright and a few weeks later Winston and Lloyd
George reached a compromise which, although it saved L.G/S face, was,
in fact, a triumph for Winston. The latter agreed to knock 1,000,000
off his 52,000,000 Bill; and Lloyd George agreed to remain in the
Government.

A politician can afford to be hated by the Opposition; but he cannot
run die risk of alienating too many members of his own side. Churchill
was still vehemently distrusted by the Tories. Although they approved of
his naval programme they continued to regard him as unscrupulous and
dangerous. Until the moment he had become First Lord of the Admiralty
he had opposed the Naval Estimates; now, they said, when he thought
he could reap personal glory he was in favour of them. The World called
him a 'boneless wonder* for his change of policy, an epithet which
Winston was to employ effectively against Ramsay MacDonald some
years later.

Churchill ignored the Tory attack but he regarded the rising feeling
against him among the Radical section of his own party with concern. The
Radicals objected strongly to his increased naval expenditure. More and
more it was being said that he was 'not a Liberal*. Largely to appease
Radical sentiment Winston decided to fling himself into the Irish con-
troversy. The Asquith Government was dependent on the votes of the
eighty-four Irish Nationalist Members of Parliament for its majority;
consequently it had pledged itself to introduce a Home Rule Bill This
Bill was popular with the Radicals, so Churchill took up the cause.

For over thirty years the passionate affairs of Ireland, with their almost
insuperable difficulties, had occupied the attention of successive British
Governments. The Catholic South did not wish to be ruled from West-
minster despite the fact that they were represented in the Westminster
Parliament by their eighty-four Members; they insisted that Dublin should
have its own Parliament, and furthermore, and here the insoluble element
came in, that Dublin should rule a united Ireland including the Pro-
testants of the North. Ulster rebelled furiously. 'Home Rule,' they
declared, was 'Rome rule/ They loudly emphasized their 'loyalty' to
British authority.

In the latter years of his life Gladstone twice attempted to bring in a
Home Rule BiU, but on both occasions it was defeated. Lord Randolph
Churchill played a leading part in the opposition, declaring that 'Ulster

168 WINSTON CHURCHILL

will fight; and Ulster will be right/ For some years the sleeping dog slept
fitfully; then came the elections of 1910 which gave Asquith's Liberals a
majority only with the votes of the eighty-four Irish Nationalists. The
price demanded of him was a third attempt at a Home Rule Bill. At once
the Irish question was brought into the arena of Party politics. The
Liberals drew up the Bill: the Conservatives opposed it to a man.

Churchill played a leading part in the controversy and in one of the
most brilliant performances of his career, piloted the second reading of the
Bill through the House of Commons. When Lord Randolph's dictum
was flung at him he denounced it as one from which 'every street bully
with a brickbat and every crazy fanatic fumbling with a pistol may draw
inspiration.'

In February 1912 he plunged into the hornets' nest itself by making a
daring speech in Belfast, the capital of Ulster. The Irishmen refused to let
him speak in the Ulster Hall, saying they would smash up the meeting,
so he hired a marquee and addressed a huge open air meeting. Ten
thousand troops were sent out to keep order, and the story was circulated
that if Mrs. Churchill had not accompanied her husband the Orangemen
would have thrown Churchill into the river.

The House of Commons was also the scene of wild confusion. Once a
debate grew so stormy that an Ulsterman picked up the Speaker's manual
on parliamentary procedure and flung it at Winston's head. It reached its
target and Churchill had to be restrained by force from returning the
blow. The next day the offender apologized handsomely and Winston
assured him that 'I have not, nor have I at any time, any personal feelings in
the matter, and if I had any personal feelings the observations he has thought
proper to address to the House would have effectually removed them.'

The strife of party politics in Westminster was steadily fanning the
flames of Irish discord. In the middle of 1912 Bonar Law, the Conservative
leader, made an astonishing declaration which amounted to an incitement
to civil war. 'Ireland is two nations,' he said. 'The Ulster people will
submit to no ascendancy, and I can imagine no lengths of resistance to
which they might go in which they would not be supported by the over-
whelming majority of the British people.' Meanwhile, Sir Edward Carson,
a former Conservative Minister and now the accepted leader of the
Northern Irish, was making fiery speeches in Belfast. In the summer of
1913, Carson held a monster rally and opened enlistments for the 'Ulster
volunteers'; by the end of the year the volunteers had grown to one
hundred thousand men. Gun running, in defiance of the law, began to
take place. Before the winter was over rifles and ammunition were being
" only too willingly by Germany.

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY l6p

One of the most extraordinary aspects of this turmoil was that while
Churchill was playing a leading role on the Home Rule side, his most
intimate friend, F. E. Smith, was a prominent figure on the Ulster front.
F.E. was Sir Edward Carson's right hand man and he was making
vehement speeches to the Northerners to hold their ground whatever the
price. How the friendship of the two men survived such a crisis is perplex-
ing; one is driven to the conclusion that neither was emotionally involved
in the affair but both were playing politics. However, Winston secured
his main objective. In the heat of the controversy his Naval Estimates
were passed by the House with surprisingly little opposition.

In March 1914 Irish events began to move towards a climax. Asquith
forced the Irish Nationalists in the House of Commons to agree to a plan
which would enable the Northern Counties to vote themselves out of the
Home Rule Bill until two British General Elections had taken place. If the
Conservatives won either of these they could amend the Bill to their
liking. The Tories, however, turned down the idea flatly, and a few days
later Churchill, who had worked hard for the Clause excluding Ulster,
made a speech at Bradford in which he said: 'There are worse things than
bloodshed . . . We are not going to have the realm of Britain sunk to the
condition of the Republic of Mexico/ 1

Then he made a move which nearly had fatal and terrible conse-
quences. In collaboration with his friend and colleague, Colonel Seely,
who had succeeded Haldane as Secretary of State for War, he worked out
a plan by which the British Army would occupy all munition dumps and
arsenals, and all strategic positions in Ulster. A flotilla was ordered to Lam-
lash where it ky ready to transport troops to Belfast if the railways
refused to carry them.

Churchill declares in The World Crisis that this scheme was evolved to
protect the Army stores in Northern Ireland in case civil war %roke out at
the same time that war with Germany was declared. However, the most
eminent historians do not accept this version any more than the Tories
did at the time. Halev^ describes the move as 'nothing less than a plan of
campaign against Northern Ireland*. Needless to say, the action aroused a
storm of fury. The British Army contained many officers and men of
Ulster origin. General Gough, in command of a cavalry brigade at the
Curragh in Ireland, resigned rather than carry out the order, and was
immediately replaced. The following day Lloyd George spoke warn-
ingly: *We are confronted with the gravest issue raised in this country
since the days of the Stuarts. Representative government in this land is
at stake ... I am here this afternoon on behalf of the British Government

1 14 March, 1914.

170 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to say this to you that they mean to confront this defiance of popular
liberties with a most resolute, unwavering determination whatever the
hazard may be.'

But during the twenty-four hours following Cough's resignation nearly
all the British officers of the two cavalry brigades at the Curragh had
resigned in sympathy with the General. Asquith saw that the Government
was facing a large-scale mutiny unless an immediate retraction was made.
He announced in Parliament that a military campaign against Ulster had
never been intended. General Gough was hurriedly reinstated and given a
written assurance by War Minister Seely that Ulster would not be
coerced by force.

These actions were described in the Unionist Press as a 'complete sur-
render' and, although they pacified the Conservatives, they threw the
Liberal Party into a storm of anger. Northern Ireland, declared the
Liberals furiously, must be made to comply. The Prime Minister had now
jumped from the frying pan into the fire. In a prevaricating speech he told
the House of Commons that the pledge given to Gough had not received
the assent of the Cabinet. Then, in order to produce a scapegoat, he
accepted Colonel Seely's resignation and took over the War Office him-
self.

Asquith's parliamentary statement about Gough was, in effect, a repu-
diation of the promise that Seely had given to the General, but the latter
was not 'officially' informed of what had happened and calmly remained
at his post Thus the almost unbelievably muddled events of March 1914
dragged on. A month later forty thousand rifles and a million cartridges
were distributed throughout Northern Ireland. They had come from
Hamburg and the rifles were Mausers. 'Was it astonishing,' wrote Chur-
chill, c that German agents reported, and German statesmen believed, that
England was paralysed by faction and drifting into civil war, and need not
be taken into account as a factor in thfc European situation?' 1

The King summoned a conference of the leaders of the two factions at
Buckingham Palace but after three days an impasst was reached. Rioting
broke out in Dublin where thousands of men were flocking to join the
Irish Nationalist Volunteers. Then suddenly an event occurred which
swung British attention from the anxieties of Ireland and riveted it
permanently on the European scene. Four weeks previously a Serbian
peasant had assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne. Now on 24 July
the Austrians had sent Serbia an ultimatum which amounted to annexa-
tion. The curtain was rising on World War I.

1 The'World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

PROLOGUE AT THE ADMIRALTY 171

The pistol shot at Sarajevo gave the Germans their pretext for war. Serbia
refused to accept the harsh ultimatum flung at her and the next day
Austria declared war. The day after, the Russians began to mobilize on
the Austrian frontier; three clays later Germany sent an ultimatum to
Russia to disperse her troops, then declared war. On 3 August, this time
without any declaration, Germany invaded Belgium and France.

Ten tense and fearful days had passed between the Austrian ultimatum
and the German invasion. During this time the British Cabinet was
overwhelmingly pacifist. Every attempt was made to stop the conflagra-
tion from spreading, every hope was sustained, and every argument
advanced, why Britain could remain aloof. However, England had guar-
anteed Belgian neutrality; and when the news was received that German
troops were pouring through Flanders all thought of peace vanished. An
ultimatum was sent to Germany demanding her withdrawal from Belgium
within twenty-four hours. When the chimes of Big Ben struck eleven on
the warm summer evening of 4 August, Britain was at war.

"Winston had played his part well. Lord Fisher had prophesied repeatedly
that 1914 was the crucial year. As a result the Fleet was not sent on its
usual manoeuvres to the North Sea. Instead, Churchill ordered a mobiliza-
tion exercise, which meant putting not only the main Fleet but the ships
and men of the Second and Third Reserve Fleets, on active service footing.
This exercise took place in the middle of July. It ended on 17 and 18 July
in a grand review of the Fleet by the King at Spithead.

After this the normal course would have been dispersal. Instead, on
20 July, the newspapers carried an Admiralty notice: 'Orders have been
given to the First Fleet, which is concentrated at Portland, not to disperse
for naval leave for the present. All vessels of the Second fleet arc remain-
ing at their home ports in proximity to their balance crews/

The following week when Austria attacked 'Serbia, Winston acted
quickly. With the assent of Sir Edward Grey he gave instructions for the
Fleet to take up its station in Scottish waters, at Scapa Flow, opposite the
German Fleet, in order to prevent it being bottled up in the face of a
surprise attack. The operation was carried out in the greatest secrecy; the
ships moved through the Straits of Dover at night with their fires banked.

During the ten days that the Government debated the terrible issue of
war and peace, Churchill was the strongest force for intervention in the
Cabinet. While his colleagues hesitated, worried and uncertain, Churchill
was longing to act. Asquith describes him in his memoirs as Very bellicose,
demanding instant mobilization 9 . On Friday, 3 1 July, Churchill asked his
friend, F. E. Smith, to sound his Conservative leaders on the question of
coalition in case the Liberal Government remained hopelessly divided.

172 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Bonar Law refused to consider coalition unless he was approached by the
Prime Minister himself, but made it clear that the Administration could
count on loyal Conservative support.

On Saturday, i August, Germany declared war on Russia. Churchill,
on his own authority and without the sanction of the Cabinet (which he
received the following morning), ordered the full mobilization of the
Fleet. Lord Beaverbrook describes Churchill's reactions when he heard
the news of the fateful act. Beaverbrook had been invited with Mr. F. E.
Smith to Admiralty House for dinner and bridge. 'Suddenly an immense
dispatch box was brought into the room. Churchill produced his skeleton
key from his pocket, opened the box and took out of it a single sheet of
paper . . . On that sheet was written the words "Germany has declared
war against Russia".

'He rang for a servant and asking for a lounge coat, stripped his dress
coat from his back, saying no further word. ... He left the room quickly
... He was not depressed; he was not elated; he was not surprised . . .
Certainly he exhibited no fear or uneasiness. Neither did he show any
signs of joy. He went straight out like a man going to a well-accustomed
job. In fact, he had foreseen everything that was going to happen so far
that his temperament was in no way upset by the realization of his fore-
cast. We have suffered at times from Mr. Churchill's bellicosity. But what
profit the nation derived at that crucial moment from the capacity of the
First Lord of the Admiralty for grasping and dealing with the war situa-
tion/ 1

Not many months later, in one of the bleakest periods of his career,
Lord Kitchener was to say to him: 'There is one thing they cannot take
from you: the Fleet was ready/

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ANTWERP

WINSTON CHURCHILL'S star had been rising steadily for eight years,
and when war broke out he stood as one of the three most powerful men
in Britain. He was only thirty-nine years old, yet he was head of the
greatest fighting service of the greatest Empire in the world. Fortune was
smiling as far as his own opportunities were concerned and the path ahead
seemed straight and sure. He was a forceful orator, an accomplished writer
and an able administrator. He was blessed with boundless energy. He
enjoyed the dose friendship of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the
admiration of the Prime Minister. With his dazzling gifts and his pug-
nacious spirit it seemed certain that he would play a leading role in the
great struggle against Germany, and even his enemies began to reckon on
him as a probable successor to Asquith.

But Fortune is a fickle mistress. Only ten months later he was dismissed
from the Admiralty and five months after that he was excluded from the
War Cabinet. His power was broken; he had no further voice in the con-
duct of the war. Even though Lloyd George brought him back into the
Government in 1917 he never regained die great position he held at the
outset. He was given a purely administrative job, while questions of high
policy were carefully shielded from his influence. His contribution to
World War I, therefore, was sensational but brief. What brought about
his downfall?

The answer undoubtedly lay in Churchill's personality. The Tories still
hated and mistrusted him and lost no opportunity to discredit him; but
leaving politics aside, Churchill was not popular as a man. His parliamen-
tary colleagues recognized his genius but they did not warm to him for the
simple reason that he offended their amour propre. Ideas, not people, in-
terested him, and his absorption with his own affairs and his own opinions
at times could be almost childlike in its vanity and intensity. He treated
his colleagues to brilliant monologues but the fact that he seldom wanted
to hear their views in exchange often left them ruffled and offended while
he, in turn, was completely oblivious to their reactions. His was the insen-
sibility of the headstrong child, warm-hearted, and generous when taken
to task, but too utterly engrossed in his own pursuits to have much heed
for others. This insensibility was a serious defect in a democratic statesman
whose task it was not only to expand ideas but to persuade others to follow

173

174 WINSTON CHURCHILL

them. As a result Churchill was unable to command the personal sym-
pathy and loyalty necessary to sustain him through precarious times.

But let the events of the day unfold the story. At the outbreak of hosti-
lities Churchill's Navy was more than ready. Its main task was to ensure
the safe transport of the British Expeditionary Force to France, which it did
without the loss of a single life. Winston was eager and bellicose. He was
brimming over with ideas and longed for a show-down. The Grand Fleet
patrolled the North Sea majestically, challenging the German Navy to
come out and fight. But why wait for them, asked Churchill? What about
a raid on the German ships in the Heligoland Bight? As a result a plan was
drawn up and put into operation with brilliant success. Two flotillas of
British destroyers and cruisers made a sudden drive near the island of Sylt,
sank one cruiser, smashed two others and crippled three more. They also
sank a destroyer. Churchill declared triumphantly that c the nose of the
bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting

go'-

The Army was not having such a successful time. The Germans had
thrown their whole strength into the attack against France, and were
staking everything on one conclusive gamble: the complete destruction of
French military power. At the end of three weeks a million men of the
French Army were falling back on Paris, leaving the Channel ports dan-
gerously exposed. Surprise and alarm swept through England, but
Churchill was not dismayed. In order to reassure his colleagues he re-
printed the memorandum he had written in 1911 which predicted these
very happenings, but went on to declare confidently that by the fortieth
day the Germans would be fully extended, which would allow the Allies
to stage a counterstroke. He sent a copy of the memorandum to Sir John
French, the Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, who replied
in a letter on i o September: 'What a wonderful forecast you made in 191 1 .
I don't remember the paper, but it has turned out almost as you said. I
have shown it to a few of my staff/

Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, was worried. As the
Allied line fell back in France he began to fear that the Germans might
strike at London by zeppelin raid. Three-quarters of the planes the English
possessed were under the control of the War Office and were being used
in support of the retreating armies. The other quarter, planes that
Churchill himself had scraped together in 1912 and 1913 to form a 'Naval
Air Service', were under the jurisdiction of the Navy and lying idle.
Consequently Lord Kitchener asked Winston if he would undertake the
aerial defence of Great Britain, and the latter eagerly assented. This led to a
series of unusual events, some comic, some tragic, which contributed to

ANTWERP 175

Churchill's final downfall. It also led to an invention destined to revolu-
tionize modern warfare the birth of the Tank.

This is how the tank idea came into being. Churchill knew that if the
German zeppelins were to be destroyed they must be attacked in their
hangars. In those days aeroplane engines were not strong enough to reach
the height at which zeppelins flew in the necessary time. Aviation was
in its infancy, night flying was only beginning, and location of aircraft by
sound was not then known. Churchill, therefore, set up air bases at Dun-
kirk and Calais, as near to the enemy lines as possible. From then on
intrepid pilots in uncertain machines conducted innumerable sweeps over
Cologne, Dusseldorf, Friedrichshaven and Cuxhaven; and before twelve
months had passed the Royal Naval Air Service could claim to have
destroyed no less than six of the great gas-filled monsters.

However, it soon became apparent that Churchill's new air bases were
in danger of direct attack from German patrols. Winston immediately
ordered a hastily improvised armoured car equipped with a machine gun;
next he ordered the formation of armoured car squadrons under the
Admiralty. But once again difficulties arose. German cavalry units suc-
ceeded in warding off these mobile attacks by digging themselves in
behind trenches. And as the days passed the trenches stretched out further
and further until they finally reached the sea. There was no way for the
cars to get round them.

Winston refused to bow to such an obstacle. Something must be done
at once to 'beat the trench'. On 23 September, he wrote a letter to Admiral
Bacon, the General Manager of a large ordnance works, asking for a
design of an armoured car that could cross trenches by means of a folding,
portable bridge. 'The air was the first cause that took us to Dunkirk, 9 he
explains in The World Crisis. 'The armoured car was the child of the air:
and the tanlc jt$ grandchild.'

Admiral Bacon produced the design, but the armoured car with the
portable bridge was never manufactured; for, a month later, the Admiral
showed Churchill a caterpillar tractor which he decided was more suitable.
This, too, had a folding bridge. He ordered several of these machines to be
made but when the first one was tested in May 1915 the Admiralty per-
versely rejected it because it could not descend a four-foot bank or go
through three feet of water.

However, Winston had other irons in the fire. Some idea of his per-
sistence may be gathered from a letter which he wrote in January 1915 to
the Director of the Air Division: 'I wish the following experiment made
at once: Two ordinary steam-rollers are to be fastened together side by
side by very strong steel connections, so that they are to all intents and

176 WINSTON CHURCHILL

purposes one roller covering a breadth of at least twelve to fourteen feet.
If convenient, one of the back inside wheels might be removed and the
other axle joined up to it. Some trenches are to be dug on the latest prin-
ciples somewhere near London in lengths of at least 100 yards, the earth
taken out of the trenches being thrown on each side, as is done in France.
The roller is to be driven along these trenches one outer rolling wheel on
each side, and the inner rolling wheel just clear of the trench itself. The
object is to ascertain what amount of weight is necessary in the roller to
smash the trench in. For this purpose as much weight as they can possibly
draw should be piled on to the steam-rollers and on the framework buck-
ling them together. The ultimate object is to run along a line of trenches,
crushing them all flat and burying the people in them.' 1

This experiment also failed. The steam-rollers merely bogged down in
the centre and refused to budge.

But Winston persevered. The following month he talked to an Army
major who suggested the creation of huge 'land battleships'. This idea led
to the formation of the Landships Committee of the Admiralty under
whose auspices two designs were finally produced, one on large wheels,
the other on a caterpillar tractor. He ordered eighteen of these machines
to be built at a cost of 70,000. The money was not authorized by the
Treasury but he assumed the responsibility himself. When he was dis-
missed from the Admiralty a few months later his successor cut down the
order jo one. This one was the exact prototype of the tank used for the
first time in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Churchill began the war as Asquith's, blue-eyed boy, but his triumphs
were short-lived. Before eight weeks had passed his position with the
Prime Minister had begun to deteriorate. According to Lord Beaver-
brook, who was a dose friend of the most powerful political figures of the
day, the thing which first attracted Asquith's attention and made Him
doubt in the long run whether Churchill was a 'wise war counsellor* was
the Dunkirk Circus. This project was born from the fear, which persisted
for many months, that the Germans might capture the Channel ports. On
16 September, Marshal Joffre asked Lord Kitchener if a brigade of
Marines could be sent to Dunkirk to reinforce the garrison and give the
enemy the idea that British, as well as French troops, were operating in the
area. Once again Kitchener turned to Churchill, and once again Churchill
assented.

The Marines were sent across die Channel and Winston requisitioned

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

ANTWERP 177

fifty motor omnibuses from the streets of London to give them the neces-
sary mobility. Soon British detachments were showing themselves in
Ypres, Lille, Tournai and Douai. The Marines suffered no casualties and
had a good deal of fun; so did the First Lord of the Admiralty. Winston
began to spend a good deal of time in France inspecting his air bases and
thinking up new escapades for his Circus.

It is not difficult to understand the criticism that began to arise. Why
wasn't the fellow at his desk in the Admiralty where he belonged, the
Tories began to growl, instead of racing off to France poking his nose into
other people's business, and making himself ridiculous? Armoured cars
and London buses; what on earth did they have to do with the Navy?
Even his colleagues in the Government began to be annoyed. 'There were,
on more than one occasion,' wrote Lord Beaverbrook, 'unexplained
absences on the part of the First Lord of the Admiralty, which were often
inconvenient and caused a growing sense of annoyance among other
members of the Government. The Prime Minister, who at the outset had
approved of the "Circus", found himself tolerating these absences and
trying to conceal the whereabouts of his colleague from other Ministers.
Subsequently he discovered that he must take charge at the Admiralty
during an absence of Churchill. On a later occasion still he could not find
the First Lord when the date of the sailing of a New Zealand contingent
was at stake so that, Asquith complained, a very serious delay in dispatch-
ing this force occurred.' 1 Asquith soon saw that the Dunkirk Circus was
wound up.

Then an unfortunate incident occurred. On 21 September Churchill
delivered a flamboyant speech in which he made a boastful and unwise
observation that was destined to be flung back at him for years to come.
'So far as the Navy is concerned we cannot fight while the enemy remains
in port. ... If they do not come out and fight they will be dug out like
rats from a hole,' he cried. The English public did not like this sort of talk.
They recognized the Germans as a formidable foe and had an uneasy feel-
ing that Winston was tempting fate. Their reaction was swiftly justified,
for the very next day three British ships, the Aboukir, the Hogue and the
Cressy, which were steaming along on patrol duty off the Dutch coast,
were torpedoed and sunk. Churchill had ordered the withdrawal of this
'live-bait' squadron three days before and if his order had been carried out
promptly the loss would have been avoided; but this could not be known.
His speech had been a political gaffe and disaster following it so promptly
placed fy'm in a ridiculous light His opponents had every right to seize
on the incident and discredit him, but one Tory M.P., Captain Bowles,

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

I?8 WINSTON CHURCHILL

circulated an outrageous pamphlet which contained the preposterous
statement: 'The loss on 22 September of the Aboukir, the Cressy, and the
Hogue, with 1,459 officers and men killed, occurred because, despite the
warnings of the admirals, commodores and captains, Mr. Churchill
refused, until it was too late, to recall them from a patrol so carried on as
to make them certain to fall victims to the torpedoes of an active enemy/
Shortly after this sensation, the Antwerp episode damaged Churchill
still further. Once again he undertook a mission at Lord Kitchener's
request. 1 seem to have been too ready to undertake tasks which were
hazardous or even forlorn,' he wrote many years later in The World Crisis.
'I believed, however, that the special knowledge which I possessed and the
great authority which I wielded at this time of improvisation, would
enable me to offer less unsatisfactory solutions of these problems than
could be furnished in the emergency by others in less commanding
positions/ Thus Churchill was driven on by his supreme self-assurance,
into positions which wiser statesmen might have avoided. The circum-
stances were these; the Batde of the Marne, fought between 6 and 16
September over a i8o-mile front, had flung the Germans back from the
Marne to the Aisne and severely damaged their hope of a speedy victory.
There was one more chance: the immediate capture of Antwerp. This
would enable them to sweep to the Channel ports and perhaps roll up the
Allied line in total defeat. Consequently the Kaiser gave an imperative
order for the capture of Antwerp, regardless of cost, and on 28 September
the German ly-inch howitzers began their bombardment. The heavy
fortifications were destroyed with astonishing ease and four days later the
King of the Belgians sent out an urgent call for aid; if reinforcements did
not arrive at once the Belgian Army might be captured intact. Plans to
evacuate the city were already in hand.

Churchill was on his way to Dunkirk when this desperate news was
received. He raced back to London and attended a conference at Lord
Kitchener's house. Kitchener explained that reinforcements would not be
ready for three or four days; could Churchill hurry to Antwerp, explain
the position to the King and Prime Minister, and urge them to hold on
with the help of a brigade of Marines until further aid arrived? Once again
Churchill said yes, and departed.

Asquith was not in London when this decision was taken but made the
following entry in his diary. 'I was away but Grey, Kitchener and Winston
held a late meeting and, I fancy, with Grey's rather reluctant consent, the
intrepid Winston set off at midnight and ought to have reached Antwerp
about nine o'clock. He will straight away see the Belgian Ministers. Sir J.
French is making preparations to send assistance by way of Lille. I had a

ANTWERP 179

talk with K. this morning and we are both anxiously awaiting Winston's
report. I do not know how fluent his French is, but if he is able to do
justice to himself in a foreign tongue the Beiges will have to listen to a dis-
course the like of which they have never heard before. I cannot but think
that he will stiffen them up.' 1

The Prime Minister was correct in his opinion. Winston's arrival at
Belgian Headquarters in the uniform of an Elder Brother of Trinity House
had a slightly comic flavour about it, but his force and his eloquence put
new heart into the Belgians. 'At one o'clock in the afternoon,' wrote an
American correspondent, 'a big drab-coloured touring-car filled with
British Naval officers drove down the Place de Mer, its horn sounding a
hoarse warning, took the turn into the March-aux-Souliers on two wheels,
and drew up in front of the hotel. Before the car had fairly come to a stop
the door of the tonneau was thrown violently open and out jumped a
smooth-faced, sandy-haired, stoop-shouldered, youthful-looking man in
undress Trinity House uniform.

'As he darted into the crowded lobby which, as usual in the luncheon
hour, was filled with Belgian, French and British staff officers, diplomatists,
Cabinet Ministers, and correspondents, he flung his arms out in a nervous
characteristic gesture, as though pushing his way through a crowd. It
was a most spectacular entrance, and reminded me for all the world of a
scene in a melodrama where the hero dashes up bare-headed on a foam-
flecked horse, and saves the heroine, or the old homestead, or the family
fortune as the case may be

'The Burgomaster stopped him, introduced himself, and expressed his
anxiety regarding the fate of the city. Before he had finished Churchill
was part way up the stairs. "I think everything will be all right now, Mr.
Burgomaster," he called in a voice which could be distinctly heard
throughout the lobby. "You needn't worry. We're going to save the
city." '*

Although the outer defences of Antwerp had been smashed, the water
supply cut, and guns, ammunition and entrenching materials were run-
ning low, Winston succeeded in convincing the Belgian staff that with the
help that was arriving it was possible to hang on for some time yet.
When Jack Seely, the ex-Secretary of State for War, arrived from Sir
John French's Headquarters to report on the situation, he wrote: 'From
the moment I arrived it was apparent that the whole business was in
Winston's hands. He dominated the whole place the King, Ministers,
soldiers, sailors. So great was his influence that I am convinced that with

1 Memories and Reflections: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

2 Fighting in Flanders: E. Alexander Powell

ISO WINSTON CHURCHILX

twenty thousand British troops he could have held Antwerp against almost
any onslaught/ 1

Winston had the same belief himself. If only he were in command he
was certain the city could be saved. He was thrilled by the situation and, as
with all things that captured his imagination, absorbed in it to the exclusion
of all else. Consequently he sent a message to the Prime Minister which
seemed sensible to him but struck his colleagues as extraordinary. He
asked Asquith to relieve him of his post at the Admiralty and give him the
proper rank so that he could take over the military command himself.
1 am sure this arrangement will afford the best prospects of a victorious
result to an enterprise in which I am deeply involved,' he added con-
fidently.

Asquith gasped at the impertinence of an ex-subaltern of cavalry asking
to command major-generals, and so did most of the Cabinet. However,
it is interesting to note that Kitchener had a more open mind on the
subject. 'I will make him a major-general if you will give him the com-
mand,' he told Asquith.

The Prime Minister remained obdurate. That night he wrote in his
diary: C I at once telegraphed to him warm appreciation of his mission
and his offer, with a most decided negative saying that we could not spare
him at the Admiralty. I had not meant to read it at the Cabinet but, as
everybody, including K., began to ask how soon he was going to return, I
was at last obliged to do so. Winston is an ex-Lieutenant of Hussars and
would, if his proposal had been accepted, have been in command of two
distinguished major-generals not to mention brigadiers, colonels, etc.,
while the Navy are only contributing their light brigade.' 2

In the meantime Winston had wired Kitchener to send two Naval
brigades, which he knew could be dispatched at once. This detachment
amounted to about six thousand men, inexperienced, ill-equipped and
only partially trained. They fought stubbornly and well and played a vital
part in prolonging the resistance, but before the battle ended nine hundred
were taken prisoner, and another two and a half battalions crossed into
Holland by mistake and were interned.

Antwerp fell only five days after Winston's arrival. But according to
the British official history of the war these five days were of incalculable
value. 'Until Antwerp had fallen, the troops of the investing force were
not available to move forwaEioa Ypres and the coast; and though, when
they 313, they secured Zeebragge and Ostend without struggle, they were
too late to secure Nieuport and Dunkirk and turn the Northern fla^y of

1 Adventure: Major-General the Rt. Hon. J. E. B. Sedy.
8 Memories and Reflections: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

ANTWERP l8l

the Allies, as was intended/ What seems incredible is that Kitchener failed
to grasp the strategic significance of Antwerp. Military historians declare
that it could have been held if he had sent even one division of Territorials
which were available, but, apart from his lack of understanding, like many
other professional soldiers of his day he had a disdain for the Territorials;
so, incongruously enough, he allowed Winston to try his luck with his
half-trained Naval brigades.

At the time it was impossible for the public to gauge the full significance
of the five days of added resistance. People only saw the obvious facts.
Churchill had dashed over to Belgium in an effort to save a city and a few
days later the city had capitulated. Furthermore, to the layman it seemed
an act of incredible folly to fling raw and badly equipped recruits into
the battle. Even the Prime Minister's son, Brigadier-General Asquith, who
took part in the Antwerp fighting, condemned Winston on this account.
'I had a long talk with him (my son) after midnight,' wrote the Prime
Minister in his diary, 'in the course of which he gave a full and vivid
account of the expedition to Antwerp and the retirement. Marines, of
course, are splendid troops and can go anywhere and do anything, but
Winston ought never to have sent the two Naval brigades. I was assured
that all the recruits were being left behind and that the main body at any
rate consisted of seasoned Naval Reserve men. As a matter of fact, only
about a quarter were Reservists and the rest were a callow crowd of the
most raw recruits most of whom had never fired off a rifle while none of
them had ever even handled an entrenching tool.' 1

The Antwerp expedition damaged Winston's reputation badly. The
Conservative Press was beginning to attack him savagely: 'Mr. Churchill's
characteristics make him in his present position a danger and an anxiety
to the nation,* stated the Morning Post on 15 October.

It was apparent that even the Prime Minister was losing confidence in
him. Although Mr. Asquith was still amused by the latter's highly original
approach to matters, a derisory note was now creeping into his diary.
Even so, it is difficult to suppress a smile when one reads the Prime
Minister's account of an interview with Churchill shortly after his return
from Belgium. 'I have had a long call from Winston who, after dilating in
great detail on the actual situation, became suddenly very confidential
and implored me not to take a conventional view of his future.

'Having, as he says, tasted blood these last few days he is beginning like
a tiger to raven for more and begs that sooner or later, and the sooner the
better, he may be relieved of his present office and put in some kind of
military command. I told him that he could not be spared from the

1 Memories and Reflections: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

182 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Admiralty. He scoffed at that, alleging that 'the naval part of the business is
practically over as our superiority will grow greater and greater every
month.

'His mouth waters at the thought of Kitchener's Armies. Are these
glittering commands to be entrusted to dug-out trash, bred on the obso-
lete tactics of twenty-five years ago, mediocrities who have led a sheltered
life, mouldering in military routine?

*For about an hour he poured forth a ceaseless invective and appeal and
I much regretted that there was no shorthand writer within hearing as
some of his unpremeditated phrases were quite priceless. He was, however,
three parts serious and declared that a political career was nothing to him
in comparison with military glory/ 1

As the reader has seen, Churchill's prestige had declined sharply during
the first three months of the war in which the events I have related took
place. Much of the blame was unfair. The truth was that he had rendered
valuable service to his country. His small but gallant Naval Air Force was
busy scouting for enemy zeppelins; his Dunkirk Circus had fooled the
Germans into believing that their flank was threatened by forty thousand
men and finally stimulated a German retreat; the prolongation of the
resistance of Antwerp delayed the enemy's movement towards Ypres and
prevented the capture of Dunkirk.

The mounting criticism against Churchill was almost entirely due to his
self-assured manner. All his life he had irritated people by his belief in his
own importance. But now that he was in a position of great power, his
exuberance of spirit and his supreme self-confidence had become almost
overwhelming, and he seemed to be indulging in a form of exhibitionism
which his colleagues watched not only with annoyance but growing
alarm. Many of them, including the Prime Minister, genuinely began to
doubt his suitability as a Cabinet Minister. He seemed so rash and unstable.
First there was the speech about 'digging the Germans out of their holes'
the day before three British ships were sunk, then the spectacle of the First
Lord rushing back and forth from Dunkirk like an excited schoolboy
instead of leaving the direction of his Circus to someone else.

Even at the Admiralty things were not going too well. It was felt that
Churchill was wielding far too much authority over the Navy for a
civilian, largely due to the indulgent attitude of the First Sea Lord, Prince
Louis of Battenbcrg, father of the present Lord Mountbatten. Prince
Louis, it was believed, lacked the necessary vigour and decision to control

1 Memories and Reflections: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith.

ANTWERP 183

the dynamic politicians, and Churchill was now dubbed 'the amateur
Commander-in-Chief'.

As the problems confronting the Navy increased, criticism mounted.
The Emden and Konigsberg were sinking Allied ships in the Indian Ocean;
the Goeben and Breslau had successfully slipped into the Sea of Marmora;
and the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst were menacing Allied shipping off the
west coast of Africa.

Winston was hotly attacked and for the first time realized that his
position at the Admiralty was far from secure. Besides this, criticism of
Prince Louis was mounting; not, however, because of the latter's work as
First Sea Lord, but for the cruel reason that he was of German origin.

Winston knew that he could not defend Prince Louis much longer
against the rising tide of anti-German feeling; he knew, also, that it was
imperative to bolster his own position. He therefore sent for Lord Fisher.
'Churchill co-opted Fisher to relieve pressure against himself,' wrote
Lord Beaverbrook, 'but he had no intention of letting anyone else rule the
roost. Here, then, were two strong men of incompatible temper both bent
on autocracy. It only required a difference of opinion on policy to produce
a dash, and this cause of dissension was not long wanting.' 1

However, at first the Churchill-Fisher combination proved a distinct
success. Within a few weeks of swinging into action it scored a notable
victory. Lord Fisher took over as First Sea Lord just as the British Navy
was sustaining a sharp defeat. A cruiser squadron was attacked in over-
whelming force off the coast of Chile, by five German warships under the
Kri11ia.nl; command of Admiral von Spee. The British Admiralty was
blamed for having sent as a reinforcement an old battleship capable of
steaming only thirteen knots.

Lord Fisher acted with characteristic force, dispatching the Invincible
and the Inflexible to the scene of action although this meant seriously
weakening the Grand Fleet. Some idea of Fisher's drive may be gathered
from the fact that these two ships were undergoing repairs when their
sailing orders arrived. Word came back to the First Sea Lord that the date
of their departure would have to be delayed, to which the old Admiral
replied that they could sail with the workmen if necessary, but sail they
would.

These two magnificent battle-cruisers went straight to the Falklands,
and ran into von Spee by a brilliant stroke of luck. His famous squadron,
including the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst, was annihilated and von Spee
and his two sons were killed. Fisher's triumph was complete. The country
was ringing with his praise and Winston wrote to him: 'My dear, This

1 Politicians, and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

184 WINSTON CHURCHILL

was your show and your luck. I should have sent only one "Greyhound"
and "Defence". These would have done the trick. But it was a great coup.
Your flair was quite true. Let us have some more victories together and
confound all our enemies abroad and (don't forget) at home.* 1

At about this time Fisher wrote to a friend: 'I am working hard. ... It is
long and arduous to get back to a good position with a consummate good
player for an enemy. But Fm trying. Let him not that putteth his armour on
boast himself like him that taketh it off.' 2

Churchill and Fisher agreed not to take any action without each other's
knowledge. They manned the Admiralty almost the twenty-four hours
around, forming what they called a 'perpetual clock'. Fisher rose at four
in the morning and finished his work in the early afternoon; Winston
began in the late morning and worked through the night. Winston wrote
his minutes in red ink, and Fisher in green, and both referred to them as
the Port and Starboard Lights.

Lord Fisher had strong ideas on strategy. He believed that the fighting
in France would prove a fatal deadlock. The proper way to end the war,
he argued, was to carry out a huge combined naval and military operation
in the Baltic and pkce an army behind the enemy's lines. An enormous
naval programme had been authorized by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Fisher now extended it, and began to concentrate on the
design of special ships for his Baltic plan. Churchill supported him and the
two men agreed that the operation should take pkce some time in 1915.

Thus, for the first two months, the old Admiral and the young politi-
cian worked in dose harmony. Then suddenly a fly appeared in die oint-
ment. Turkey had entered the war on Germany's side two months pre-
viously. On 2 January, 1915, an urgent appeal was received from the
Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia for the Allies to take some action in the
Middle East that would draw off Turkish pressure from the Caucasus.
Lord Kitchener pondered over the request but said that he could not spare
troops from France. He wrote to Winston: C I do not see that we can do
anything that will seriously help the Russians in the Caucasus. . . . The
only place where a demonstration might have some effect on stopping re-
inforcements going East would be the Dardanelles. We shall not be ready
for anything big for some months.' 8

Churchill at once seized upon the idea of forcing the fortresses that
flanked the narrow Straits of die Dardanelles by a naval operation alone.
This idea had been contemplated more than once in the past but had

1 The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R H. Bacon.

'Ibid.

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill.

ANTWERP 185

always been abandoned because it was considered too risky. Although
Lord Fisher consented to the plan his instincts were against it and the
quarrel that gradually developed between himself and Winston was the
greatest political sensation of World War I. It brought Asquith's Liberal
Government tumbling down; it ended Lord Fisher's naval career; and it
resulted in the curt dismissal of Churchill from the Admiralty.

CHAPTER TWELVE

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES

THE FAILURE of the attack on the Dardanelles was the most tragic episode
of the Hrst World War. And blame for the failure, fastened on Winston,
pursued hire all the way to World War n. Shortly after he became Prime
Minister in 1940, a Conservative politician who had fought at Gallipoli,
remarked to me grimly: 'Whatever Winston does, he does on a colossal
scale; he'll either pull us through in a colossal way, or we'll have a colossal
muck-up like the Dardanelles.*

What makes the failure seem even more tragic to-day is the fact that
when the first war ended* and evidence from both sides was available,
most experts came to the conclusion that if a combined military and naval
attack had been launched against the Dardanelles it would have succeeded.
As a result Turkey would have capitulated, Bulgaria would have been pre-
vented from joining Germany, Russia would not have collapsed, and in all
probability World War I would have ended in 191 5, saving millions oflives.

What is the truth of this bitter, half-forgotten story? Was Churchill
really responsible or merely the scapegoat for the mistakes of others? The
root of the trouble ky in the haphazard, almost amateurish way in which
high political decisions were reached in the opening period of the war.
'During the first two months . . . there was no established War Council/ 1
wrote Iloyd George in his Memoirs. 'There were sporadic and irregular
consultations from time to time between the Secretary of State for War
and the First Lord, between each of them individually and the Prime
Minister and, now and again, between the two War Lords and the Prime
Minister sitting together. The Foreign Secretary was occasionally brought
in. I was not summoned to these conferences except when there were
matters to be decided that directly affected finance/

This irregular method of consultation was remarkable enough; but
even more remarkable was the feet that, although Churchill had encour-
aged a spirit of co-operation with the War Office, there was no machinery
for consultation between chiefs of staff of the two great services; no com-
mittee of military and naval experts to study joint planning or review
joint strategy. The two services operated, from a technical point of view,

1 The War Council was not set up until 25 November, and it replaced the
Committee of Imperial Defence, an Advisory body composed of the Prime
Minister and five or six other Ministers.

186

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 187

in water-tight compartments, while questions of strategy became an open
tussle between all those who held strong views. In the autumn of 1914
Winston was in favour of a combined attack on Turkey; Lord Fisher was
pressing his plan for an amphibious attack in the Baltic; Lloyd George was
loudly in favour of an offensive in the Balkans; and Lord Kitchener
believed the decisive theatre was in France.

Lord Kitchener dominated the scene. He was admired, feared, and
respected. As a professional soldier raised to the office of Secretary of State
for War, he was virtually a Commander-in-Chief and a Cabinet Minister
rolled into one. Besides this, he had an immense following in the country.
He was the hero of the British public and no government would have
dared to oppose him and face his resignation. As a result, even when a
War Council was set up by the Prime Minister, his voice predominated.
Although the Council included such eminent men as Sir Edward Grey,
the Foreign Secretary, Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Arthur Balfour, the Leader of the Conservative Opposition, and the
Marquis of Crewe, Secretary of State for India, the only two members
who could talk to Kitchener with authority were the Prime Minister,
Mr. Asquith, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Churchill. Thus the
main responsibility for the war rested in effect with these three men.

But despite the fact that Winston was on an equal political footing with
Kitchener he was well aware that he lacked the War Minister's prestige
and authority. Not only did the great soldier have the backing of the
British public, but the fact that he was a famous general in Egypt when
Churchill was an unknown subaltern gave him an automatic ascendancy.
Kitchener remembered how young Winston Churchill had begged to
join his army in 1898; how, as Commander-in-Chief, he had said 'no* and
Winston had come anyway; and how when the campaign was over
Winston had criticized him for 'desecrating the Mahdfs tomb'. But all
these incidents were respectably buried in the past and both men now
regarded each other with genuine good will and esteem. Nevertheless,
Kitchener could not help Aitilritig of Winston as a subordinate and as a
result did not encourage any real equality or intimacy. Besides, he was
cold and reserved and did not make friends easily. Naturally silent, he dis-
liked communicating his views to anyone save his own military staff.
Winston on the other hand was a born talker, warm and volatile, bubbling
over with political and strategic ideas which he liked to develop in con-
versation. Neither an was attracted to the personality of the other, and
the barrier of temperament added one more obstacle in the way of dose
co-operation between the two fighting services.

This was the background of the story that opened on 2 January, 1915,

188 WINSTON CHURCHILL

when the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia asked for a diversion in the
Middle East to ease Turkish pressure on Russian troops in the Caucasus.
Kitchener wrote Churchill a memorandum suggesting a Naval 'demon-
stration' at the Dardanelles. But Lord Fisher at once came forward with a
plan for a combined operation which called for seventy-five thousand
troops. This scheme was promptly rejected, for Kitchener repeated em-
phatically that no divisions could be spared from the European theatre;
every British soldier must be held in reserve in case of an early spring
offensive.

Winston began to study the possibilities of a purely naval assault. He
had always believed that an attack on Turkey was the right strategy. But
there seemed so little hope of persuading Kitchener to consider it that he
had lately given his support to Lord Fisher's project for a combined
offensive in the Baltic. Now it seemed as though events were playing into
his hands, and he returned to the idea of an operation in the Middle East
with high enthusiasm.

Lord Fisher's discarded scheme for the Dardanelles had included a naval
attack on the outer fortresses of the long, curving straits which led into
the Sea of Marmora, on the far shores of which rose Constantinople, the
Turkish capital. The strategic advantages of a successful assault at once
became illuminated in Winston's mind. If the fleet could get past the many
fortresses that dotted the steep banks of the Straits and force its way into
the Sea of Marmora, Constantinople might capitulate, and the Allies
would be able to join hands with their Russian Allies. Arms could be
shipped in and wheat sent out. Besides, the whole Balkan area would be
neutralized, leaving Germany and Austria fighting alone.

The more Winston thought of the project the more enthusiastic he
became. On 3 January he wired Admiral Garden, commanding at the
Dardanelles: 'Do you think that it is a practicable operation to force the
Dardanelles by the use of ships alone? It is assumed that older battleships
would be employed, that they would be furnished with minesweepers and
that they would be preceded by colliers or other merchant vessels as
sweepers and bumpers. The importance of the results would justify severe
loss. Let me know what your views are/ 1 Two days kter Garden replied:
'I do not think that the Dardanelles can be rushed but they might be forced
by extended operations with a large number of ships.' 2 This was not a
particularly enthusiastic answer, but it was sufficiently encouraging for
Churchill. He wired back asking the Admiral to draw up a plan of attack,
which he received a week kter.

1 Report of the Dardanelles Commission.
Ibid.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES l8p

Garden's outline was divided into four parts; first the destruction of the
outer defences; second, the intermediary defences; third, the defences of
the Narrows; and fourth, the sweeping of a clear channel through the
minefields and into the Sea of Marmora. From this moment on, Winston
was wholeheartedly in favour of an attack by ships alone, and set out
determinedly to put the plan into operation. Mr. Lloyd George wrote
in his Memoirs: 'Mr. Winston Churchill has been in constant touch with
Lord Kitchener and when the former has a scheme agitating his powerful
mind, as everyone who is acquainted with his method knows quite well,
he is indefatigable in pressing it upon the acceptance of everyone who
matters in the decision ... he was prepared to act without waiting for an
immediate dispatch of troops. His proposal was a purely naval operation
in its initial stages/

On 13 January the War Council met. Winston put forward his project
and all the members, with the exception of Lloyd George, agreed to it.
Lord Fisher and Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson were present and
made no comment. The conclusions of the Ministers resulted in the
following directive: 'The Admiralty should prepare for a naval expedition
in February to bombard and take the Gallipoli Peninsula with Con-
stantinople as its objective.'

This meeting of the 1 3th is now famous for both the importance and
the confusion of its decisions. At that time there was no Cabinet Secretary,
and Cabinet Minutes were not taken. 1 As a result neither Lord Fisher nor
Admiral Wilson was aware that any decision had been taken. * Very likely
the Prime Minister went and wrote it down when the meeting was over,'
Lord Fisher commented caustically some time later. 2 The Prime Minister,
however, claimed that he read it out before the meeting adjourned, but
that perhaps Lord Fisher and Admiral Wilson had already left. The next
point of confusion was the fact that half the members of the Council were
under the impression that the Navy had been ordered merely to prepare
for an expedition, while the other half, including Mr. Churchill, assumed
that definite approval had been given. The third point of confusion con-
cerned the directive itself. The instructions given to the Admiralty to
bombard and take the Gallipoli Peninsula with Constantinople as its objec-
tive, 'were odd to the point of grotesqueness if a purely Naval expedition
was envisaged ... it was obviously an impossible task for a fleet acting by
itself/ comments Cruttwell in a standard History of the Great War. 3

1 It was not until Lloyd George became Prime Minister that a Secretariat was
established.

1 Report of the Dardanelles Commission.
8 A History oftlie Great War: C. R. M. F. Cruttwell.

IpO WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston, however, speculated that if the Fleet could force its way into
the Sea of Marmora, the Greek Army might join the Allies; furthermore,
that a revolution might take place in Constantinople. He told the War
Cabinet that he believed victory could be won without military aid; the
Army, he declared, would only come in to 'reap the fruits'.

The Sea Lords, on the other hand, regarded the project in an entirely
different light. In the Naval Staff conferences that were held at the Admir-
alty between 3 and 13 January, not a single Naval expert favoured the
attack by ships alone. All of them expressed a strong preference for a com-
bined operation; and on the very day that Churchill first wired Garden,
Admiral Sir Henry Jackson, a high authority at the Admiralty, wrote a
memorandum in which he stated: 'Assuming the enemy squadrons
destroyed and the batteries rushed, they would be open to the fire of field
artillery and infantry and to torpedo attack at night, with no store ships
with ammunition, and with no retreat without re-engaging the shore
batteries, unless' these had been destroyed while forcing the passage.
Though theyanight dominate the city and inflict enormous damage, their
position would not be an enviable one, unless there were a large military
force to occupy the town . . . J1

How, then, did Winston persuade the Admirals to agree to the Naval
operation? He swung them over on the grounds, first, that it was vital to
take some action that would help the Russians; second, that the strength
of the Grand Fleet would be unimpaired, for only old battleships unfit for
service in the North Sea would be used; and third, and most important,
that if the operation did not prove successful the Navy could withdraw at
any time. On these conditions the Admirals consented, without enthusi-
asm. But at the same time that Winston was assuring the Sea Lords that
they could break off the bombardment whenever they wished, he sent the
Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia a telegram (19 January) saying: It is our
intention to press the matter to a conclusion/ Thus from the very begin-
ning the politician and the Admirals were at cross purposes; and the rift
made itself more and more apparent as each week passed.

First of all, soon after the meeting on 13 January, Lord Fisher's luke-
warm consent began to harden into opposition. He strongly urged Chur-
chill not to proceed with the Naval plan unless the Army agreed to send
troops and make it a joint operation. He could not say that the Naval
bombardment would fail, but he had little faith in it: and now he began
to fear that the expedition might interfere with his own pet project
amphibious operations in the Baltic. He wrote to the Prime Minister that
he did not want to attend any more War Councils, and in a private meet-

1 Report of Ac Dardanelles Commission.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES Ipl

ing with Asquith and Churchill on 28 January, he told them both that he
was becoming increasingly opposed to the Dardanelles. Since he did not
base his objections on the technical difficulties involved but on his prefer-
ence for his Baltic operation, the two men finally persuaded him. to attend
the War Council meeting which was being held the same morning. How-
ever, when the old Sea Lord saw that the Dardanelles expedition was
receiving its final blessing, he rose from the table and walked over to the
window on the verge of resignation. Lord Kitchener followed him and
persuaded him to remain at his post. That same afternoon Churchill and
Fisher thrashed the subject out again, and the young politician finally
secured the old sailor's support on the grounds, emphasized again, that the
Navy could break off the operation when it liked. Thus the struggle
between the two men continued, with one buoyant and confident and the
other doubtful and disapproving.

Two and a half weeks later Lord Kitchener made an announcement
which changed the whole complexion of the operation. Early in February
he told the War Council that the situation in France had altered and he felt
he might be able to send troops to aid the Naval attack after all Lord
Fisher at once took heart and weighed in eagerly with a letter to Winston.
'I hope you were successful with Kitchener,' he wrote on the evening of
16 February, 'in getting divisions sent to Lemnos to-morrowl Not a grain
of wheat will come from the Black Sea unless there is military occupation
of the Dardanelles, and it will be the wonder of the ages that no troops
were sent to co-operate with the Fleet with half a million soldiers in Eng-
land. The war of lost opportunities!!! Why did Antwerp fall? The Haslar
boats might go at once to Lemnos, as somebody will land at Gallipoli some
time or another/ 1 Churchill comments on this letter in The World Crisis:
1 still adhered to the integrity of the Naval plan.'

The rest of the story is well known. For a week Kitchener vacillated,
then finally decided to commit troops to the operation, and on 24 February
informed the War Council that 'if die Fleet did not get through the Army
would see the business through. 9 The effect of a defeat in the Orient would
be very serious, he added, and there could be no turning back; and this, of
course, altered the whole basis on which the Admiralty had consented to
the proposition.

Kitchener sent General Birdwood and, a few weeks later, Sir Ian
Hamilton, to the scene of action to report on developments. The Fleet had
opened its bombardment of the fortresses on 19 February. For the first ten
days all went well, the outer fortresses fell and the attention of the world
became riveted on the action. Then suddenly progress stopped. The Turks

1 Tlie World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

192 WINSTON CHURCHILL

were putting up a much stiffer resistance and the mine-sweeping trawlers
were unable to stand the fire. General Birdwood telegraphed to Kitchener:
'I am very doubtful if the Navy can force the passage unassisted/ The
following day he sent another telegram: 'I have already informed you that
I consider the Admiral's forecast is too sanguine, and ... I doubt his ability
to force the passage unaided.'

However, on 18 March, Admiral de Robeck, who had assumed the
Command of the Fleet from Admiral Garden, who was suddenly taken
ill, massed all his ships for a decisive attempt. The forts were subjected to
an intense bombardment which lasted nearly all day, and by 4 p.m. such
damage had been inflicted the enemy had practically ceased firing. As the
ships steamed forward victory seemed in sight, but suddenly the vessels
struck a row of mines, three were sunk, and four put out of action. This
meant that nearly half the Fleet was crippled. Admiral de Robeck wired
the Admiralty that the plan of attack must be reconsidered and means
found to deal with floating mines, but that he hoped to renew the opera-
tions in a few days 9 time.

But during the course of the next four days he changed his mind. At a
conference on the 22nd he told General Sir Ian Hamilton that 'he was now
quite clear' he could not get through without a large military force.
In order to maintain communications when the Fleet penetrated the Sea
of Marmora all gun positions guarding the Straits must be destroyed, and
he had come to the conclusion that only a small percentage could be
rendered useless by attack from ships. Hamilton had already formed a
similar impression himself and wired Kitchener three days earlier, 'I am
being most reluctantly driven to the conclusion that the Straits are not
likely to be forced by battleships as at one time seemed probable . . .' 1

Churchill received de Robeck's decision with consternation. He drew
up a telegram ordering de Robeck to continue the attack but Lord Fisher
and the other Admirals refused to send it, declaring that they were not
willing to overrule the Commander on the spot. Naval operations were
never resumed, and from then on the attack became a purely military
af&ir. As everyone knows, it ended in heart-breaking failure.

First of all, five long precious weeks were allowed to lapse between the
breaking off of Naval operations and the initial assault of the Army; and
during these weeks, while rumours spread that a military force was gather-
ing, the Turks feverishly strengthened their defences. When troops finally
stormed the Gallipoli beaches on 25 April the precious element of surprise
was gone, and they were unable to capture vital key points. Then, a week
or so later, German submarines began to appear in the Mediterranean,

1 Gallipoli Diary: Sir Ian Hamilton.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 193

and the Admiralty ordered its most valuable and powerful battleship
home. Gradually the Navy pulled out and left the whole task to the Army,
which struggled on the rocky beaches, overlooked by high cliffs in the
hands of the enemy, for eight desperate months with an ever-mounting
death roll. In December 1915 Gallipoli was evacuated with a cost of a
quarter of a million French and British casualties. 1

But long before the final evacuation, the British public was aware that
something was wrong. People saw the Naval attack had failed and assumed
that the Army had been called in to pull the Navy's chestnuts out of the
fire. If troops were available why hadn't they been sent earlier? Who
was responsible for the whole blundering idea of an attack by ships
alone?

Churchill makes a powerful case for himself in The World Crisis. This
brilliant and fascinating book is half history and half autobiography.
Sometimes the narrative sweeps forward on a tide of facts, sometimes on a
long swell of argument and opinion. The book was written not only to
present the events of the time, but to silence the author's critics and
vindicate his statesmanship.

Winston's account of the Dardanelles reaches an impressive climax, for
after the war facts and figures were collected from the enemy, and it
became known for certain that the Turkish gunners in the Dardanelles
forts had only enough ammunition to fight one, or possibly two, more
actions such as that on 18 March. 'The Turkish Commander in the Dar-
danelles was weighed down by a premonition of defeat,' writes the official
historian. 'More than half the ammunition had been expended, and it
could not be replaced. The antiquated means of fire control had been
seriously interrupted. The Turkish gun crews were demoralized and even
the German officers present had, apparently, little hope of successful
resistance if the Fleet attacked the next day ... A German journalist
describes the great astonishment of the defenders of the coastal forts when
the attack suddenly ceased. He records that the German Naval gunners
who were manning the batteries at Chanak told him later that they had
made up their minds that the Fleet would win, and that they themselves
could not have held out much longer/ 2

But even if the Fleet, or what was left of the Fleet, had forced the
Straits and sailed into the Sea of Marmora, what would have happened
then? Would Constantinople have fallen? Could the Navy have sustained
its position?

1 This figure includes sick.

1 Military Operations Gallipoli: Compiled by Brig.-General C. F. Aspinwall-
Oglander.

194 WINSTON CHURCHILL

The greatest authority on the subject, General Liman von Sanders, the
German Commander-in-Chief of the Dardanelles defence, who is 'usually
quoted by the historians and whom Mr. Churchill himself quotes in other
contexts, did not believe that a break-through would have been decisive.
'In my opinion even if the Allied Fleet had been successful in breaking
through die Dardanelles and victorious in a sea-fight in the Sea of Mar-
mora, its position would have been scarcely tenable unless the entire shore
of the Straits of the Dardanelles were strongly occupied by enemy forces.
Should the Turkish troops be successful in holding their positions along
the shores of the Straits, or should they be successful in recapturing these,
then the necessary flow of supplies [NachschuV\ through ships and coaliers
would be rendered impossible. Measures of defence taken rendered a land-
ing by troops near Constantinople, who might have lived on the country,
almost without prospect of success.

'A decisive success could only be. gained by the enemy if a landing by
troops upon a great scale occurred either simultaneously with the break-
through by the Fleet or if it preceded this. A landing by troops following
the break-through would have been obliged to renounce artillery support
by the Fleet which would have had to occupy itself with other tasks.' 1

However, the argument as to whether or not the ships could have got
through, and if they had got through whether or not Constantinople
would have fallen, must always remain in the realms of speculation. No
one will ever know the answer. But this is not the main point. Experts
agree that a combined operation against the Dardanelles would have
succeeded. If Winston had not been captivated by the idea of a Naval
attack alone, and had exercised more patience in working out the scheme,
would a co-ordinated plan have emerged? 'I have asked myself in these
later years, 9 he writes in The World Crisis, 'what would have happened if
I had taken Lord Fisher's advice and refused point blank to take any action
at the Dardanelles unless or until the-War Office produced on their respon-
sibility an adequate army to storm the Gallipoli Peninsula? Should we by
holding out in this way have secured a sufficient army and a good plan?
Should we have had all the advantages of the Dardanelles policy without
the mistakes and misfortunes for which we had to pay so dearly?' He goes
on to say that although no one can probe this 'imaginary situation* he does
not think that anything less than the 'oracular demonstration and practical
proof of the strategic meaning of the Dardanelles' would have made men
sufficiently conscious of the importance of an attack on Turkey, to agree
to send troops.

This, however, is a weak defence, for it must be remembered that on
1 Five. Years in Turkey: Liman von Sanders.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 195

16 February, only two and a half weeks after the Naval operation had
received sanction from the War Council, and three days before the bom-
bardment actually began, Kitchener declared that the possibility of send-
ing troops was opening up. If Winston had paused then, as both Lord
Fisher and Sir Henry Jackson begged him to do, there is every reason to
believe that a combined operation might have been planned and put into
operation.

In 1916, Parliament authorized the setting up of a Royal Commission,
composed often of the ablest and most distinguished men in public life,
Tor the purposes of inquiring into the origin, inception, and conduct of
operations of war in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli/ Lord Kitchener died
before he could give evidence, but the Commissioners made it clear that
the three most responsible members of the War Council were the Prime
Minister, the War Minister and the First Lord of the Admiralty. They
then went on to say: 'We do not think that the War Council were justi-
fied in coming to a decision without much fuller investigation of the pro-
position which had been suggested to them that "the Admiralty should
. . . bombard and take Gallipoli Peninsula with Constantinople as its
objective". We do not consider that the urgency was such as to preclude
a short adjournment to enable the Naval and military advisers of the
Government to make a thorough examination of the question. We hold
that the possibility of making a surprise amphibious attack on the Gallipoli
Peninsula offered such great military and political advantages that it was
mistaken and ill-advised to sacrifice this possibility by hastily deciding to
undertake a purely Naval attack which from its nature could not attain
completely die object set out in the terms of the decision. 51

The Royal Commission declared that Churchill had not been guilty of
any 'incorrect' behaviour, and had always acted with the concurrence,
unwilling though it may have been, of his naval advisers. Their final judg-
ment was that although he bore a heavy responsibility he did not bear it
alone. Asquith and Kitchener were just as much to blame. But the judg-
ment of his colleagues in the House of Commons was more severe. They
knew that Winston was the most dynamic member of the trio. They also
knew that he possessed formidable powers of persuasion. This, coupled
with his impetuosity, made him a danger to the country. He may not have
been solely responsible, but without him, they argued, the whole disas-
trous operation would never have taken place. As far as strategy was con-
cerned, he was right. Tactically, he blundered. Thirty years later he wrote:
1 was ruined for the time being over the Dardanelles, and a supreme
enterprise was cast away, through my trying to carry out a major and

1 Report of the Dardanelles Commission.

196 WINSTON CHURCHILL

cardinal operation of war from a subordinate position. Men are ill-advised
to try such ventures.' 1

Now we must return to the events that led to Lord Fisher's sensational
resignation on 15 May which brought down the Government. Ten days
previously the Army had stormed the rocky beaches on the Gallipoli
Peninsula at a cost of twenty thousand men, and secured only a precarious
foothold. Fisher regarded the situation with alarm. The combined opera-
tion was taking place too late. The vital element of surprise was gone, the
Turks had had time to fortify their defences, and it was obvious that
military operations would be long and costly.

In Naval circles two conflicting opinions were gathering strength.
The first was that the Navy should once again attempt to force the Straits
because of the severe losses the Army was sustaining; the second was that
the Navy should on no account attempt an operation until the Army had
effectively occupied the shores. Churchill stood between the two views.
He was in favour of a limited operation. He wanted the Fleet to engage the
forts of the Narrows and test their supposed shortage of ammunition. At
the same time he believed that the minefields could be swept.

Lord Fisher was adamant. He was strongly against Naval action until
the Army had secured the shores, and he was determined, this time, that
his view would prevail. He distrusted Winston's plan, for he felt that if
the operation were successful the latter would insist on penetrating the
Sea of Marmora. The old Admiral was under an added strain because of
the increasing German submarine menace in home waters; and he also
had received intelligence that these submarines would soon make their
appearance in the Mediterranean. Then the Lusitania was sunk, which
heightened his anxieties.

Consequently, on 12 May Lord Fisher declared that he was no longer
prepared to risk the Queen Elizabeth atthe Dardanelles and demanded her
return to the Grand Fleet. Lord Kitchener was furious. In a stormy meet-
ing he accused the Navy of deserting the Army. Lord Fisher announced
flatly that 'either the Queen Elizabeth left the Dardanelles that afternoon
or he left the Admiralty that night'. Lord Fisher won his point and was
proved right; a dummy ship equipped to represent the Queen Elizabeth
was left at the Dardanelles while the real vessel came home. Two weeks
later the dummy was torpedoed and sunk.

On the same day that Lord Fisher had his altercation with Kitchener
he sent a memorandum to Winston and the Prime Minister stating his

1 Their Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 197

reasons for refusing to allow a Naval attack to take place until the Army
was in occupation of the shores. He enclosed the following covering letter
to the Prime Minister:

'My dear Prime Minister,

'It will be within your recollection that you saw me and the First Lord
of the Admiralty in your private room, prior to a meeting of the War
Council (28 January, 1915), to consider my protest against the Dardanelles
undertaking when it was first mooted. With extreme reluctance, and
largely due to the earnest words spoken to me by Kitchener, I by not
resigning (as I now see I should have done) remained a most unwilling
beholder (and, indeed, a participator) of the gradual draining of our Naval
resources from the decisive theatre of the war. The absence, especially at
this moment, of destroyers, submarines, and mine-sweepers (which are
now) at the Dardanelles most materially lessens our power of dealing with
the submarine menace in home waters a menace daily becoming greater
as foreshadowed in the print I submitted to you six months before the war.

'I have sent the enclosed memorandum to the First Lord, and I ask for it
to be circulated to the War Council.' 1

Churchill and Lord Fisher talked things over that evening and as a
result the latter seemed more content. But on the next day .the quarrel
flared up again. Lord Fisher wrote the Prime Minister once more.

'My dear Prime Minister,

'Thank you for your letter of yesterday, in which you state that you
had been given to understand that an arrangement had been come to
between the First Lord and myself, and you kindly added that you were
very glad. But I regret to say that within four hours of the pact being con-
cluded, the First Lord said to Kitchener "that in the event of the Army's
failure, the Fleet would endeavour to force its way through", or words to
that effect. However, for the moment, with your kind assurance of no
such action being permitted, I remain to do my best to help the Prime
Minister in the very biggest task any Prime Minister ever had not
excepting Pitt and his Austerlitz! Still, I desire to convey to you that I
honestly feel that I cannot remain where I am much longer, as there is an
inevitable drain daily (almost hourly) on the resources in the decisive
theatre of the war. But that is not the worst. Instead of the whole rime of
the whole of the Admiralty being concentrated on the daily increasing
submarine menace in home waters, we are all diverted to the Dardanelles,
and the unceasing activities of the First Lord, both by day and night, are

1 The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.

198 WINSTON CHURCHILL

engaged in ceaseless prodding of everyone in every department afloat and
ashore in the interest of the Dardanelles Fleet, with the result of the huge
Armada now there, whose size is sufficiently indicated by their having as
many battleships out there as in the German High Seas Fleet! Therefore
this purely private and personal letter, intended for your eye alone and not
to be quoted, as there is no use threatening without acting, is to mention
to one person who I feel ought to know that I feel that my time is short.
13 May, 191 s/ 1

The quarrel between the two men had now reached its climax. Each
had has toes dug in. Churchill was determined that the Navy should
continue to take part in the Dardanelles operation, and Fisher was deter-
mined that it should not. Both were ready to get rid of the other if it
proved necessary. On 14 May the War Council met and Fisher reiterated
his views, declaring that he had been against the Dardanelles from the
start. That afternoon Winston wrote to the Prime Minister:

'I must ask you to take note of Fisher's statement to-day that he "was
against the Dardanelles and had been all along" or words to that effect.
The First Sea Lord has agreed in writing to every executive telegram on
which the operations have been conducted; and had they been imme-
diately successful, the credit would have been his. But I make no complaint
of that. I am attached to the old boy and it is a great pleasure to me to
work with him. I think he reciprocates these feelings. My point is that a
moment will probably arise in these operations when the Admiral and
General on the spot will wish and require to run a risk with the Fleet for a
great and decisive effort. If I agree with them, I shall sanction it, and I
cannot undertake to be paralysed by the veto of a friend who whatever
the result will certainly say: "I was always against the Dardanelles."

'You will see that in a matter of this kind someone has to take the respon-
sibility. I will do so provided that my decision is the one that rules
and not otherwise . . .

'But I wish now to make it clear to you that a man who says, "I dis-
claim responsibility for failure," cannot be the final arbiter of the measures
which may be found to be vital to success.

'This requires no answer and I am quite contented with the course of
aflairs/ 2

That evening Churchill and Fisher had another long interview, and
once again appeared to have settled their differences. Fisher was adamant

1 The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.
The World Crisis; Winston S. Churchill.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 199

that no more reinforcements should go to the Dardanelles, and Churchill
apparently agreed. When the old Admiral returned to his room he called
his Naval Assistant 'You need not pack up just yet/ he told him. He went
on to say that the matter of reinforcements was not settled with the First
Lord and added: 'But I suppose he will soon be at me again/

That night, however, Winston sent the Admiral a long minute. Para-
graph 6 contained a fatal sentence. 'In view of the request of the Vice-
Admiral, I consider that two more "E" boats should be sent to the
Dardanelles/ When Churchill's secretary brought the minute to Fisher's
Naval Assistant he asked, 'How do you think the old man will take it?*
The Naval Assistant said that he had no doubt whatever that Lord Fisher
would resign instantly if he received it. Churchill's secretary took it away,
then came back and said that the First Lord was certain that Lord Fisher
would not object to his proposals, but that, in any case, it was necessary
that they should be made. Lord Fisher resigned his office of First Sea Lord
the following morning. 1

Lord Fisher's resignation caused a sensation. First he went to Lloyd George
who was just leaving Downing Street for the week-end. 'I want to speak
to you/ he said. 'I have resigned. I can stand it no longer. Our ships are
being sunk, while we have a Fleet in the Dardanelles which is bigger than
the German Navy. Both our Army and Navy are being bled for the
benefit of the Dardanelles/ Then the old Admiral, smouldering and indig-
nant, retired to his official residence which adjoined the Admiralty. He
pulled down the blinds and refused to admit anyone. Mr. McKenna, who
had preceded Churchill as First Lord, forced his way in and tried to argue
with him, but Fisher was adamant.

Winston now began to realize the political storm he would have to
face if the First Sea Lord remained obdurate and he wrote him a long and
persuasive letter, which gives some idea of the pressure Churchill was will-
ing to apply. 'In order to bring you back to the Admiralty I took my
political life in my hands as you well know,* the letter began. This
assertion was something of an exaggeration, for Winston had brought
Fisher back largely to fortify his own position. 'You then promised to
stand by me and see me through,' he continued. 'If you now go at this
bad moment and therefore let loose on me the spite and malice of those
who are your enemies even more than-they are mine, it will be a melan-
choly ending to our six months of successful war and administration. The
discussions that will arise will strike a cruel blow at the fortunes of the

1 See The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.

200 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Army now struggling on the Gallipoli Peninsula and cannot fail to invest
with an air of disaster a mighty enterprise which with patience can, and
will, certainly be carried to success.

'Many of the anxieties of the winter are past The harbours are pro-
tected, the great flow of new construction is arriving. We are far stronger
at home than we have ever been, and the great reinforcement is now at
hand.

'I hope you will come and see me to-morrow afternoon. I have a pro-
position to make to you, with the assent of the Prime Minister, which
may remove some of the anxieties and difficulties which you feel about the
measures necessary to support the Army at the Dardanelles.

'Though I stand at my post until relieved, it will be a very great grief
to me to part from you; and our rupture will be profoundly injurious to
every public interest/ 1

Lord Fisher wrote Winston the following reply:

"YOU ARE BENT ON FORCING THE DARDANELLES AND NOTHING WILL

TURN YOU FROM n NOTHING. I know you so well I could give you no
better proof of my desire to stand by you than my having remained by
you in this Dardanelles business up to the last moment against the strongest
conviction of my life.

*YOU WILL REMAIN AND I SHALL GO it is better so. Your splendid stand
on my behalf I can never forget when you took your political life in
your hands, and I have really worked very hard for you in return my
utmost; but there is a question beyond all personal obligations. I assure
you it is only painful to have further conversations. I have told the Prime
Minister I will not remain. I have absolutely decided to stick to that
decision. Nothing will turn me from it. You say with much feeling that
it will be a very great grief to you to part from me I am certain that you know
in your heart no one has ever been more faithful to you than I have since
I joined you last October. I have worked my very hardest. 9 *

It is well known that people seldom see themselves as others see them.
Winston knew that he had many political enemies but he did not seem to
understand the intensity of the feeling against him. This was curious in
view of the savage attack which the Tory Press had launched during the
previous few weeks, largely inspired by high ranking Army officers in
France who were violently opposed to what they called 'side-shows'. The
Conservatives had been hostile ever since Antwerp, but now the Morning
Post outdid itself. Almost daily they struck out at Winston under a series

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

* The Life of. Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 2OI

of headlines: 'The Amazing Amateur', 'The Amateur Admiral', 'Politician
versus Expert', 'Too Much Churchill*. Some idea of the virulence of their
campaign may be seen from an extract printed on 30 April: 'Mr. Churchill
is still his own Party, and the chief of the partisans. He still sees himself as
the only digit in the sum of things, all other men as mere cyphers, whose
function it is to follow after and multiply his personal value a million-fold
... He has not ceased to be the showman of a one-man show. He is
none the less true to himself because, indulged by the larger opportunities
of world-wide war, his instinct for the melodramatic has blossomed into
megalomania.'

Winston discounted these attacks as ordinary Tory propaganda. But he
lived so much in a world of his own, the world of great and stirring events,
that he made the mistake of forgetting he was a politician and, as such,
dependent on the confidence of his Parliamentary colleagues.

He attended the House of Commons infrequently and only as a matter
of form. 'He failed in 1915,' wrote Lord Beaverbrook, 'because he showed
himself too confident to be prudent. He neither tied the Liberals to him
nor conciliated the Tories.' 1

The day after Rsher's resignation Winston dined with the Prime
Minister. He told the latter that Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson had agreed
to serve under him as First Sea Lord, and showed him the list he had
drawn up of the new Board of Admiralty. Asquith approved the names
and assured Winston of his support.

But in the meanwhile, other events were taking place. Bonar Law, the
Leader of the Conservative Opposition, had learned of Lord Fisher's
departure and at once went to see Lloyd George at n Downing Street.
He told him bluntly that the Conservatives were not willing to continue
to support the Government unless Churchill left the Admiralty. Lord
Fisher was the darling of the Tory Party; Winston was its bete noire. Why
should they allow a man they admired to be sacrificed for a man they
utterly distrusted? He said flatly he would be unable to control the storm
in the House of Commons. 'Of course,' replied Lloyd George, 'we must
have a Coalition, for the alternative is impossible.' He took him by the
arm and led him through the private passage to 10 Downing Street where
they had an interview with Mr. AsquitL

Winston was ignorant of these proceedings and on Monday appeared
at the House ready to announce his new Board. The next forty-eight hours
were filled with bitter disappointments for him. First of all, Asquith and
Lloyd George informed him that a Coalition Government was being
formed and that, as part of the bargain the Tories had demanded his
1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

202 WINSTON CHURCHILL

removal from the Admiralty. Just as they were breaking this news to him
a message came asking him to return to his office at once on urgent
business. He hurried back to learn that the German High Seas Fleet was
emerging. Was the great battle in the North Sea at last to be fought?
Churchill gave orders for every available ship to be dispatched to the
scene of action. Perhaps he would return to the House to announce a
great victory. If so, could they let Him go? One can imagine the anxious
and tense hours he passed; but by morning it was dear that the Germans
were not looking for a fight; they had returned to their bases.

On Tuesday it was certain that nothing could save Churchill's position,
yet he still dung to hope. Lord Beaverbrook called on him at the Admir-
alty with F. E. Smith, and kter wrote: 'One felt rather as if one had been
invited "to come and look at fallen Antony" . . . What a creature of
strange moods he is always at the top of the whed of confidence or at
the bottom of an intense depression . . . That Tuesday night he was cling-
ing to the desire of retaining the Admiralty as though the salvation of
England depended on it I believe he would even have made it up with
Lord Fisher if that had been the price of remaining there. None the less,
so litde did he realize the inwardness of the whole situation that he still
hoped.' 1

As well as hoping, he wrote a long and pleading letter to Bonar Law.
This was a strange act, for Bonar Law was more implacable in his dislike
and distrust of "Winston than almost any other Tory. A melancholy, hum-
drum, unimaginative man, Law was utterly devoid of gaiety or exuber-
ance. Winston's flamboyant personality was anathema to him. He regarded
him as a boastful buccaneer upon whom no reliance could ever be pkced.
Besides, he found it hard to forgive Winston's patronizing airs. Lord
Beaverbrook, who, as Max Aitken, was Bonar Law's dosest friend and
confidant, gives a sample of the interchanges that took place between the
two men when Churchill was at the height of his power as First Lord and
Law was merdy the Leader of the Opposition.

'The words which you now tell me you employed,' wrote Churchill in
a letter to Law, 'and which purport to be a paraphrase, if not an actual
quotation, are separated by a small degree of inaccuracy and misrepresenta-
tion from the inaccuracy and misrepresentation of the condensed report.'
And on another occasion: 1 resist afl temptation to say, "I told you so!" '
Lord Beaverbrook goes on to say that he never heard Bonar Law use but
one kind of language about Churchill: 1 consider Churchill a formidable
antagonist. None the less, I would rather have him in opposition to me
than on my side/
1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 203

It was obvious to everybody but Winston that Bonar Law was im-
movable. Nevertheless, Winston sent him a letter containing the following
extracts:

Admiralty,

Whitehall.

17 May, 1915.
'My dear Bonar Law,

The rule to follow is what is best calculated to beat the enemy and not
what is most likely to please the newspapers. The question of the Dardan-
elles operations and my differences with Fisher ought to be settled by
people who know the facts and not by those who cannot know them.
Now you and your friends, except Mr. Balfour, do not know the facts.
On our side only the Prime Minister knows them. The policy and conduct
of the Dardanelles operations should be reviewed by the new Cabinet.
Every fact should be laid before them. They should decide and on their
decision the composition of the Board of the Admiralty should depend . . .

'My lips are sealed in public, but in a few days all the facts can be placed
before you and your friends under official secrecy. I am sure those with
whom I hope to work as colleagues and comrades in this great struggle
will not allow a newspaper campaign necessarily conducted in ignorance
and not untinged with prejudice to be the deciding factor in matters of
such terrible import.

'Personal interests and sympathies ought to be strictly subordinated. It
does not matter whether a Minister receives exact and meticulous justice.
But what is vital is that from the outset of this new effort we are to make
together we should be fearless of outside influences and straight with each
other. We are coming together not to work on public opinion but to wage
war: and by waging successful war we shall dominate public opinion.

'I would like you to bring this letter to the notice of those with whom
I expect soon to act: and I wish to add the following: I was sent to the
Admiralty four years ago. I have always been supported by high pro-
fessional advice; but partly through circumstances and partly no doubt
through my own methods and inclinations, an exceptional burden has
been borne by me~ I had to procure the money, the men, the ships and
ammunition; to recase with expert advice the war plans; to complete in
every detail that could be foreseen the organization of the Navy. . . .

'Many Sea Lords have come and gone, but during all these four years
(nearly) I have been according to my patent "solely responsible to Crown
and Parliament" and have borne the blame for every failure; and now I
present to you an absolutely secure Naval position; a Fleet constantly and
rapidly growing in strength, and abundantly supplied with munitions of

204 WINSTON CHURCHILL

every kind, an organization working with perfect smoothness and
efficiency, and the seas upon which no enemy's flag is flown.

'Therefore I ask to be judged justly, deliberately and with knowledge.
I do not ask for anything else.' 1

Lord Beaverbrook tried to use his influence with Bonar Law on
Churchill's behalf but to no purpose. The following reply came from the
Conservative leader: 'My dear Churchill, I thank you for your letter
which I shall show to my friends beginning with Austen Chamberlain;
but, believe me, what I said to you last night is inevitable.' 2

Once again Lloyd George proved a staunch friend. He begged Asquith
to offer Winston an important office such as the Colonies or the India
Office, but Asquith insisted that the Conservatives would not hear of any-
thing but a minor post and that the Duchy of Lancaster was the best he
could do. 'It was a cruel and unjust degradation,' wrote Lloyd George. 'It
was quite unnecessary in order to propitiate them to fling him from the
masthead whence he had been directing the fire, down to the lower deck
to polish the brass/ 3

Just before Winston moved out of the Admiralty Lord Riddell called
on him and found him harassed and worn. 'I am the victim of a political
intrigue. I am finished,' he said. Riddell replied: 'Not finished at forty,
with your remarkable powers!' 'Yes,' he said. 'Finished in respect of all I
care for the waging of war: the defeat of the Germans. I have had a
high place offered to me a position which has been occupied by many
distinguished men, and which carries with it a high salary. But all that
goes for nothing. This is what I live for. I have prepared a statement of
my case, but cannot use it.' Riddell then asked him if he thought Asquith
had been weak in the conduct of the war. 'Terribly weak,' said Winston.
'Supinely weak. His weakness will be the death of him.' 4

Lord Fisher was not recalled as First Sea Lord. He might have been had
he not made an astonishing mistake. While the Prime Minister was look-
ing for a successor to Churchill Fisher suddenly took up his pen and wrote
him an extraordinary memorandum: 'If the following six conditions are
agreed to, I can guarantee the successful termination of the war, and the
total abolition of the submarine/ Fisher then laid down a series of pre-

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.
*Ibid.

War Memoirs of David Lloyd George.

* Lord RiddetTs War Diary.

DOWNFALL OVER THE DARDANELLES 2O$

posterously dictatorial terms; that 'Winston Churchill is not in the Cabinet
to be always circumventing me. Nor will I serve under Mr. Balfour'; that
Sir Arthur Wilson left the Admiralty as 'his policy is totally opposed to
mine, and he accepted the position of First Sea Lord in succession to
me . . .'; that there should be a new Board of Admiralty and so forth. The
memorandum ended with a P.S. 'The 60 per cent of my time and energy
which I have exhausted on nine First Lords in the past I wish in the future
to devote to the successful prosecution of the war. This is the sole reason
for these six conditions. These six conditions must be published verbatim
so the Fleet will know my position/ 1

Needless to say Lord Fisher's resignation was accepted. And thus the
quarrel between two brilliant, impulsive and autocratic men of genius
came to its sorry end.

Churchill accepted the sinecure office of the Duchy of Lancaster, which
carried no departmental work, in order that he could remain a member
of the War Council and press for the continuance of the Gallipoli cam-
paign. He believed, and believed rightly, that Turkey was the key to the
war, and he wanted the Government to persevere with courage. In
November, however, the military losses were so heavy and hope of success
so limited, the Council decided on a final evacuation. The tragic story had
ended, and Churchill was not to be included in the new War Committee
which was being formed to replace the War Council. He decided that he
could no longer remain in 'well-paid inactivity* and that the time had
come for him to join his regiment in France. He resigned his office and on
15 November made a farewell speech to the House of Commons which
filled twenty-two columns of Hansard. He began by telling his listeners
that he was entering upon 'an alternative form of service to which no
exception can be taken, and with which I am perfectly content*. Then he
went on to offer a vindication of his record over the previous fourteen
months, mainly centred on the Dardanelles. *I have gone through this
story in detail in order to show and to convince the House that the Naval
attack on the Dardanelles was a Naval plan, made by Naval authorities on
the spot, approved by Naval experts in the Admiralty, assented to by the
First Sea Lord, and executed on the spot by Admirals who at every stage
believed in the operation ... I will not have it said that this was a civilian
plan, foisted by a political amateur upon reluctant officers and experts/

The speech was warmly received and Churchill sat down amid a hub-
bub of congratulations and 'Hear hears' that might almost be described as

1 The Life of Lord Fisher: Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon.

2O6 WINSTON CHURCHILL

cheers. But as so often happens after dramatic occasions, a cool and critical
reaction set in. As Members reflected on what he said their doubts came
creeping back. They felt he had spoken the truth but not the whole truth,
and a week later The Times ran a four-column letter by the foremost
correspondent of the day, Ashmead Bardett, with the headline: 'Mr.
Churchill's Defence A Criticism'. The letter pointed out a number of
discrepancies in Winston's explanation, and restored to many readers the
same opinions they had held before his vindication.

Three days after the speech, on 18 November, 1915, Major Churchill
of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry was on the eve of his departure for
France. 'The whole household was upside down while the soldier-
statesman was buckling on his sword,' wrote Lord Beaverbrook who had
dropped in to pay his farewell respects. 'Downstairs Mr. "Eddie" Marsh
his faithful secretary was in tears . . . Upstairs, Lady Randolph was in a
state of despair at the thought of her brilliant son being relegated to the
trenches. Mrs. Churchill seemed to be the only person who remained
calm, collected, and efficient.' 1

The next day Winston landed at Boulogne.

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Bcaverbrook.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS

THE NEXT twenty months stand out as the most disappointing, frustrat-
ing, unproductive and unhappy period of Churchill's life. The Great War
was raging; ^the future of die Empire was at stake; history was being
made; and British statesmen were making it. Yet the creative, dynamic
Winston, confident of his ability to lead his country to victory, was
banished from the political scene. For him it was a tragedy.

It required all the strength of character he possessed to turn his attention
from high policy to the battlefields of France, which he believed was the
only honourable course left to him. He plunged into his new life witfc
determination and at first things went well. When he reached Boulogne
he was told that Sir John French's car was waiting for Him, and he was
whirled off to the Commandcr-in-Chief's headquarters near St. Omer.
French was a loyal friend. He provided Churchill with an excellent dinner
and accorded him the same ceremony and courtesy as though he were
still First Lord of the Admiralty. The next morning he asked him what he
would like to do. 'Whatever I am told,' replied Winston. Sir John then
confided that his own position was far from secure and that he might soon
be replaced by a new Commander-in-Chief. 'I am, as it were, riding at
single anchor. But it still counts for something. Will you take a brigade?'
A Brigade Commander had the rank of Brigadier-General and the control of
four thousand men. Winston assented gladly, stipulated that he must first
haveamonth'straining in trench warfare, andsuggestedthattheGuards Div-
ision would give him the best experience. A few days later he was attached
to one of the Grenadier Battalions due to move into the line at once.

The Guards received Major Churchill with reserve. Why was this
politician being foisted upon them? True, he had been a soldier once, but
what did he know about modern conditions? The Grenadiers had a proud
and exacting tradition; if Major Churchill thought he was to be accorded
any special privileges because he had been a Cabinet Minister he was very
much mistaken. The Colonel greeted him coldly, and after half an hour's
silence, as the two men jogged along on their horses towards the front,
he remarked: 'I think I ought to tell you we were not at all consulted in
the matter of your coming to join us.' Winston was not offended. He
understood the Colonel's feelings. 'Knowing the professional Army as
I did and having led a variegated life, I was infinitely amused at die

208 WINSTON CHURCHILL

elaborate pains they took to put me in my pkce and to make me realize
that nothing counted at the front except military rank and behaviour,'
he wrote. 'It took about forty-eight hours to wear through their natural
prejudice against "politicians" of all kinds, but particularly of the non-
Conservative brands.' 1 Winston won the officers over by his good
humour, his politeness, and above all, by his determination to lead a
soldier's life and his ability to lead it well.

Although the Guards did not undertake any major actions during the
few weeks he was with them, the trenches were always disagreeable and
dangerous. It was November and the weather alternated between driving
rain and hard frost. There was an almost unceasing cannonade; bullets and
shells whined and whistled across the faulty parapets, and at night men
and officers went out together to mend the wire and strengthen the fortifi-
cations. As a result the casualty list mounted steadily. Despite the mud and
the noise Winston preferred the trenches to Battalion Headquarters,
established in a ruined farm a short distance away. Headquarters was
almost as uncomfortable as the line and with a further serious disadvan-
tage: only tea was allowed. Winston asked to move forward.

Major Churchill was subjected to a constant glare of mass scrutiny. He
was a famous figure and the troops wrote home about him as their chief
topic of news. Every action he took and almost every word he spoke was
noted. The officers were nearly as vigilant as the men in their observations
but their interest was more politely masked. However, on one occasion
the curiosity of a general saved Winston's life. A week after he joined the
Guards he received a message that the Corps Commander would like to
see him and would send a car to fetch him at a certain crossroads that after-
noon. This order obliged Churchill to walk three miles across muddy and
dangerous fields. When he arrived at the rendezvous he found no one;
after an hour's wait a staff officer appeared on foot and explained that the
car had been sent to the wrong place and it was now too late for the
General to see him. It was not important, the officer added airily. The
General had merely wished to have a chat with him. Winston made his
way back, angrily cursing the Corps Commander, but when he arrived
his attitude changed. He was congratulated on his 'luck* and discovered
that his dug-out had received a direct hit from a shell a few minutes after
he had left, and had been completely demolished.

Meanwhile rumours began to reach the House of Commons that
Winston was to be given a brigade. It should be remembered that in
1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 20p

those days England was very much a land of privilege, and 'gentlemen*
automatically became officers. Winston had spent a few years as a profes-
sional soldier and Sir John French regarded it as perfectly reasonable to
entrust him with a relatively important command. But in Parliament his
Tory opponents were indignant, for they looked upon him as a dangerous
fraud. They knew his adroitness at string-pulling and thrusting himself
into central positions, so with a smugly patriotic air they decided it was
their duty to thwart him. They attacked him on the ground of 'privilege'
which they, as Conservatives, so gladly defended when it concerned them-
selves. On 1 6 December a Tory M.P. asked a question in Parliament
which was reported in The Times the following day: 'Major Sir C. Hunter
(Bath, U.) asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether Major
Winston Churchill had been promised the command of an infantry
brigade; whether this officer had ever commanded a battalion of in-
fantry; and for how many weeks he had served at the front as an infantry
officer.

'Mr. Tennant: I have no knowledge myself and have not been able to
obtain any, of a promise of command of an infantry brigade having been
made to my right honourable and gallant Friend referred to in the ques-
tion. On the second point I have consulted books of reference and other
authentic sources of information, and the result of my investigations is that
my right honourable and gallant Friend has never commanded a battalion
of infantry. No report has been made to the War Office of the movements
of Major the Right Honourable Winston L. S. Churchill since he pro-
ceeded to France on 19 November. If he has been serving as an infantry
officer between that date and to-day the answer to the last part of the
question would be about four weeks/ (Laughter.)

'Sir C. Hunter: Will the right honourable Gentleman let me know
whether the right honourable and gallant Gentleman has been promised
the command of an infantry battalion? (Cries of "Why not?") Sir C.
Scott Robertson: Is not the question absurd on the face of it, Major
Churchill being under sixty years of age? (Laughter.) Mr. E. Cecil: Is the
right honourable Gentleman aware that if this appointment were made it
would be thought by many persons inside the House and outside to be a
grave scandal? (Cries of "Oh".)'

At the same time that questions were being asked in Parliament,- Sir
John French paid a visit to London. When he told the Prime Minister that
he was giving Winston a brigade, Asquith protested strongly, saying that
the House of Commons would not like it. He urged French not to offer
him more than a battalion. French was not in a position to insist on having
his own way for he knew his days were numbered; less than a month later

210 WINSTON CHURCHILL

he was succeeded as Commander-in-Chief by Sir Douglas Haig. As a
result, Churchill was made a Lieutenant-Colonel, not a Brigadier-General,
and given a battalion of the Sixth Royal Scots Fusiliers, not a brigade.

He was bitterly disappointed and for many months nursed a deep
grievance against Asquith. He felt that the Prime Minister had not de-
fended him over the Dardanelles as he should have done, and now he was
treacherously interfering with his military life. Although both Bonar Law
and Lloyd George believed that Winston should not receive special
favours, Lord Beaverbrook shared the latter's indignation. 'A Premier
may have to throw a colleague overboard to save the ship,' he wrote, 'but
surely he should not jerk from under him the hen-coop on which the
victim is trying to sustain himself on the stormy ocean.' 1

Winston swallowed his chagrin as best he could and turned his attention
to his new job. The Scots Fusiliers were in a billeting area, preparing to
move into the line near Armenti&res, at Ploegstreet Village, known to the
British as 'Plugstreet'. Battalion Headquarters was in a squalid, filthy farm-
house, half of which was still occupied by French peasants. Colonel
Churchill summoned his officers to die orderly room and the peasants,
who had got wind that a man of great importance had arrived, clustered
around, peering through the door and exclaiming in loud whispers:
'Monsieur It ministre? Ah, cest lui? C'est votre ministre?'

The Scots Fusiliers were no more pleased than the Grenadiers to have a
politician thrust upon them, but Winston won them over the following
day when he gathered the officers together and announced solemnly:
'War is declared, gentlemen, on the lice.' This was followed by an erudite
and dramatic lecture on the origin, growth and nature of the louse, with
particular emphasis on the decisive role it had played throughout history
as a vital factor in war. The officers were not only amused but impressed;
'Thus/ wrote one of them, 'did the great scion of the House of Marl-
borough first address his Scottish captains assembled in council.' After
that the ice was broken and the battalion set to work to 'delouse' itself
with scrubbing brushes and hot irons. The result was completely
successful.

Winston was hardworking, cheerful and bursting with new ideas. The
spectacle of a great creative mind being focused full strength on the
humble needs of a small battalion provided the officers with plenty of
excitement. In an amusing little booklet With Churchill at the Front,
Captain Gibb describes the period under Winston as his 'most treasured
war-memory*. This was a high compliment, for Colonel Churchill be-
lieved in keeping his men busy. When the battalion reached 'Plugstreet'

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 211

he set his men to filling sandbags and strengthening and repairing their
trenches for hours on end. Yet he was so energetic himself no one could
object. Early and late he was in the line. 'On an average he went around
three times a day, which was no mean task in itself,' wrote Captain Gibb,
'as he had plenty of other work to do. At least one of these visits was after
dark, usually about i a.m. In wet weather he would appear in a complete
outfit of waterproof stuff, including trousers or overalls, and with his
French light-blue helmet he presented a remarkable and unusual figure. He
was always in the closest touch with every piece of work that was going
on, and, while at times his demands were a little extravagant, his kindliness
and the humour that never failed to flash out made everybody only too
keen to get on with the work, whether the ideal he pointed out to them
was an unattainable one or not/

Winston not only took an interest in everything that was going on but
gave his men long and learned dissertations on all sorts of subjects includ-
ing bricklaying, the handling of sandbags and master masonry. But some
of his ideas, wrote Gibb, were 'too recherches, too subtle to stand the
practical test of everyday fighting*. For instance, he gave an order that
when a parapet was hit it was not to be repaired before nightfall so that
the enemy would not know what damage he had done. However, bullets
came through the gaps, casualties resulted, and the order was ignored.
Another time Churchill suddenly declared that all batmen must serve as
bodyguards to their officers while they were in the line in order to protect
the latter's precious lives; this too was utterly impractical and laughed out
of court. On the other hand Churchill devised wondeful schemes for
'shelters and scarps and counterscarps and dugouts and half-moons and
ravelins' which made sleep far safer than ever before.

Colonel Churchill believed that an officer should not live in discomfort
because he happened to find himself in a trench, and took pains to
acquire what amenities he could. He got hold of a tin bath which became
the envy of the battalion, and stocked the mess with the best cigars and
the best brandy he could find. But at the same time he was making himself
comfortable he was also establishing a reputation for complete indifference
to danger. Apparently he was a man entirely devoid of fear. "War is a
game to be played with a smiling face,' he often announced, and to Win-
ston the smiles seemed to come naturally. Captain Gibb describes an
occasion when Churchill suggested that they look over the parapet to
get a better view. They felt the sickening rush of air as shells whined
overhead, and then he remembers Churchill saying dreamily: 'Do you like
war?' 'At the moment/ wrote Gibb, 'I profoundly hated war. But at that
and every moment I believe Winston Churchill revelled in it. There was

212 WINSTON CHURCHILL

no such thing as fear in him.* 1 Stories of Winston's bravery had already
spread, and on 28 December, 1915, The Times printed an interview with
Corporal "Walter Gilliland, of die Royal Irish Fusiliers, who said: 'Near
here Mr. Winston Churchill is stationed and a cooler and braver officer

never wore the King's uniform He moves about among the men in

the most exposed positions just as though he was wandering in the lobbies
of the House of Commons. During the Ulster business before the war
there was no man more detested in Belfast, but after what we have seen of
him here we are willing to let bygones be bygones and that is a big con-
cession for Ulstermen to make. The other night his regiment came in for
a rough time. . . . Bullets spluttered around him knocking over his men
left and right but he seemed to bear a charmed life and never betrayed the
least sign of nervousness. His coolness is the subject of much discussion
among us, and everybody admires him.*

And yet, despite his success at the front, Winston could not keep his
mind on soldiering. At first he enjoyed himself. The danger, the fresh air
and the physical exercise, all acted as a tonic after years of strenuous mental
effort. But soon the novelty began to pall, and he found that he could not
keep his thoughts from questions of high policy. Early in December, at the
request of French, he wrote a paper entitled Variants of the Offensive in
which, among other things, he urged the use of caterpillar tanks to lead
and protect infantry assaults. Tanks were at last being produced but they
had not yet been employed. Winston stressed that they must not be flung
in piece-meal but kept back until they could be used in large numbers to
secure both maximum strength and Tnayjimiitp surprise. He sent a copy of
his paper to the Committee of Imperial Defence but, as the reader will see,
his advice was not heeded.

Meanwhile many distinguished visitors came to Winston's Battalion
Headquarters including the regal Lord Curzon, the lion-hearted General
Seely, and the indignant F. E. Smith, who was arrested en route by the
military authorities for not having a pass. With these political friends
Winston unburdened himself and talked far into the night; soon he found
himself hankering after Westminster with increasing nostalgia. His
buoyancy began to fade and he had long spells of deep dejection. As early
as March, when he had only been in France four months, he wrote a letter
to Lord Beaverbrook indicating that he was tTiinlring of abandoning his
soldiering and returning to England in the hope of exerting some influence
on events which he believed were being mishandled. It would be awk-

1 With Churchill at the Front: Captain Gibb.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 213

ward: he had left the House of Commons with a flourish for 'an alter-
native form of service to which no exception can be taken, and with which
I am perfectly content*. It would not be easy to meet the natural criticism
that would arise. 'The problem which now faces me is difficult/ he said in
his letter. 'My work out here with all its risk and all its honour which I
greatly value: on the other hand the increasingly grave situation of the
war and the feeling of knowledge and power to help in mending matters
which is strong within me: add to this dilemma the awkwardness of
changing and the cause of my, I hope, unusual hesitations is obvious. In
principle I have no doubts: but as to time and occasion I find very much
greater difficulties/ 1

Churchill could keep away from the political arena no longer, and in
March he travelled to London to speak on the Naval Estimates. He made
a long and critical speech on the conduct of the Naval war and urged
Arthur Balfour, his successor at the Admiralty, to take more vigorous steps
against the German U-boat campaign which was taking a heavy toll of
merchant shipping. He ended his speech with the startling advice that Mr.
Balfour, the First Lord, should 'vitalize and animate his Board by recalling
Lord Fisher as First Sea Lord/ 2 This suggestion was characteristic of
Winston's refusal to allow personal rancour to deflect him from a course
he believed was right; but die House of Commons did not receive it in the
same spirit. They refused to give him credit for magnanimity, suspecting
him of some deep game. The following day the Daily Express political
correspondent wrote: 'So far as one can gather in the lobby to-night, most
members, irrespective of Party, are of the opinion that Colonel Churchill
has done himself and the State no good. "What I think about the Churchill
speech is this/' said a leading M.P. to-night. "I think he was merely out
to strafe Balfour. It will have no effect." The general interpretation of the
speech is "Lord Fisher and I can run the Admiralty fine; have us back."
Here are a few representative statements made in lie lobby to-night by
various Members. "It was a bid for the leadership"; "It was a good sign
that the big blow at the enemy is coming off soon"; "It was an attempt to
get back into the Cabinet"/ 8

Despite this criticism Churchill began to receive overtures from various
public men including Sir Edward Carson and Sir Arthur Markham, both
Members of Parliament, and C. P. Scott, the Editor of the Manchester
Guardian, pressing him to come back to England and take part in a
patriotic Opposition. He made up his mind to follow their advice. In the

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

* Hansard: 7 March, 1916.

1 Daily Express: 8 March, 1916.

214 WINSTON CHURCHILL

summer his battalion was amalgamated with another and he was without
a command. By this time he could probably have had a brigade but he
was now firm in the conviction that his duty lay at home. He wrote to
the Secretary of State for War asking to be released from the Army. This
placed the latter in a difficult position. If he allowed Winston to return, he
would be accused of favouritism; if he refused him, he would be told he
was trying to avoid opposition. He finally accepted his resignation on the
understanding that he would not apply again for military service.

Back in London in June 1916, Winston was not much happier than he
had been in France. One of his friends described him as 'a character de-
pressed beyond the limits of description. . . .When the Government was
deprived of his guidance, he could see no hope anywhere/ He hung about
Westminster trying to win back his fickle mistress, Power, like a love-
lorn suitor. He grew pale and dispirited and complained to all his friends
how badly and unjustly he was being treated. 'I am finished/ he told Lord
Riddell once again. *I am banished from the scene of action/

Meanwhile the Conservatives had not softened towards him. The fact
that he had thrown up his commission had not raised their estimate but
merely confirmed their view of him as an opportunist. His friends, how-
ever, believed that his avidity for office was due to his self-assurance and
self-confidence. c He cared for the Empire profoundly, 9 wrote Lord
Beaverbrook, 'and he was honestly convinced that only by his advice and
methods it could be saved. His ambition was in essence disinterested. He
suffered tortures when he thought that lesser men were mismanaging the
business.* 1

There was plenty to worry about in 1916. That was the year of the
terrible Battle of the Somme in which the British Army was hurled, wave
after wave, against the enemy's strongest defences. The conflict raged,
off and on, for nearly five months, k cost Britain half a million of her
finest soldiers, yet it did not alter the Allied position to any advantage.
Winston was horrified by Sir Douglas Haig's strategy. Haig believed that
France was the decisive theatre of war; that the only way to defeat the
enemy was by frontal attack, or in plain language 'by killing Germans in
a war of attrition*. Winston had always opposed this conception. From
the first he was convinced that the Allies should open a new theatre and
strike where the enemy's defences were weakest, not strongest; an offen-
sive through Turkey, or the Balkans or even the Baltic, would give a
better and quicker chance of victory than the bloodbath on the Western

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 215

Front. As early as June 1915 he had written to the Prime Minister: It is a
fair general conclusion that the deadlock in the West will continue for
some rime and the side which risks most to pierce the Knes of the other will
put itself at a disadvantage.' 1

Very few military men defend Sir Douglas Haig's strategy to-day; most
experts acknowledge that Winston was right. Yet throughout 1916 he was
forced to sit back, powerless, and watch the appalling slaughter. At the
beginning of August, a month after the Battle of the Somme had opened,
he wrote a memorandum which F. E. Smith circulated to the Cabinet, on
the terrible futility of these offensives against the enemy's deeply en-
trenched positions. Already in this one battle alone the British losses
were a hundred and fifty thousand men and the German only sixty-five
thousand. 'Leaving personnel and coming to ground gained, we have not
conquered in a month's fighting as much ground as we were expected to
gain in the first two hours. We have not advanced three miles in the direct
line at any point. . . .' he wrote. 'In personnel the results have been disas-
trous; in terrain they have been absolutely barren. And, although our brave
troops on a portion of the front, mocking their losses and ready to make
every sacrifice, are at the moment elated by the small advances made and
the capture of prisoners and souvenirs, the ultimate moral effect will be
very disappointing. From every point of view, therefore, the British
offensive per se has been a great failure/ 2 A copy of this memorandum
found its way to G.H.Q. in France where it was hody repudiated, and its
author severely criticized; to-day no one would deny that the facts were
true.

A few months later another event occurred which caused Winston
much distress. With the casualty list mounting by leaps and bounds, Haig
decided to experiment with caterpillar tanks, now beginning to roll off
the stocks. However, instead of using them in strength, in an attempt to
achieve a complete break-through, only fifty were thrown in. Churchill
pleaded with Asquith to prevent the generals from using the weapon pre-
maturely, but the Prime Minister refused to overrule the military decision.
The effect was startling and the enemy flabbergasted. The Times corres-
pondent described the tanks as 'huge, shapeless bulks resembling nothing
else that was ever seen on earth which wandered hither and thither like
some vast antediluvian brutes which Nature had made and forgotten.'
Unfortunately, just as Winston had warned, the tanks were too few in
number to achieve a decisive result.

* * * *

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

216 WINSTON CHURCHILL

It is strange to think that Churchill was out of office for twenty months,
nearly half of the Great War. As his frustration grew, his thoughts began
to centre more and more on himself. He wrote a long report vindicating
all that he had done in connection with the Dardanelles operation, and was
indignant when the Cabinet refused to allow him to publish it on the
grounds of secrecy. He remarked dejectedly to Lord Riddell that it was
hard to 'remain under a stigma'. 'Although we are at war,' he added,
'there is no reason why injustice should be done to individuals/ 1 He wrote
Asquith to this effect and the Prime Minister finally agreed to appoint a
Royal Commission to gather evidence and make a report; but even this
judgment was withheld from the public because it 'might give informa-
tion to the enemy'; and Winston was more morose than ever.

These were his darkest days. The public was still hostile, and the feeling
against him in Conservative families still intense. When one reads over the
press cuttings of the day, one is struck by the anger that runs through
them. Here is an extract from The World* of 14 November, 19161 'Mr.
Churchill, in his frantic effort to reinstate himself in public esteem, is en-
listing the support of some powerful newspaper interests. . . . But if a
serious attempt is being made to foist Winston once more on the British

public the matter would assume a different aspect Winston Churchill

was responsible for the op&ra boujfe Antwerp expedition which made the

British nation ridiculous in the eyes of the world He was responsible

for the disastrous Dardanelles expedition which ranks with Walcheren as
one of the greatest military disasters of our time '

His chief consolation throughout this difficult period was his happy
family life. By 1916 he had three children: Diana, age 7, Randolph, age 5,
and Sarah, age 2. He had a house in Cromwell Road, London, and did a
good deal of entertaining, mostly of a political nature. The mainspring of
his existence was his wife. Mrs. Churchill used all her tact and resourceful-
ness to take his mind away from his personal worries. She reassured him,
gathered interesting people around him, backed up his political views and,
above all, remained confident and cheerful.

She encouraged him in his new hobby, painting. He had first begun to
paint in the summer of 1915, soon after he left the Admiralty. One
Sunday he picked up a box of children's water-colours and experimented
with them. The next day he went out and bought an expensive set of oils.

1 Lord Riddeffs War Diary.

The World was a weekly Society journal which carried a widely read political
column.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 217

He tells how he made a mark the size of a bean on a canvas, then stood
back, brush poised in air, surveying the white expanse with trepidation.
He heard a voice behind him. 'Painting? But what are you hesitating
about?' It was Lady Lavery, the wife of the well-known artist Sir John
Lavery, who had recently completed Winston's portrait 'Let me have the
brush a big one/ she said. 1 Then she slashed the canvas with fierce, bold
strokes. That was the end of Winston's inhibitions. He was living in a
farmhouse in Surrey which he had rented for the summer and after that he
was seen every day in a long cream-coloured smock which came to his
knees; he set up his easel in the garden or along the country lanes, and when
it was hot he stuck a huge umbrella in the ground beside him. He became
fascinated by his pursuit and told Lord Riddell that painting was his
greatest solace. On the rare occasions when he visited friends, he arrived
with his painting equipment. Lord Beaverbrook describes such an occasion
and tells how, as Winston arranged his easel, he announced that he could
not paint and talk too. 'But I have not left you unprovided for/ he
remarked, and unloaded from his dispatch case a huge manuscript his
defence of the Dardanelles.

In December 1916, the Asquith Government fell, and Lloyd George
became Prime Minister. This was brought about by a manoeuvre, that
could almost be described as a plot, in which Lord Beaverbrook played a
leading part. There was growing dissatisfaction with Asquith's direction
of the war. Despite his fine brain he secerned to lack the drive and decision
necessary to harness a great effort, and was continually at the mercy of
advisers who were often pulling in opposite directions. Lord Northcliffe,
the great newspaper magnate who owned the most popular and the most
influential papers in England, the Daily Mail and The Times, detested
Asquith. He depicted him to the public as the man of 'Wait and See' and
built up Lloyd George as the man of 'Push and Go*.

However, it is not easy to get rid of a Prime Minister. A man in this
position is always protected by the loyalty of those who enjoy his favour
and fear that they will fall with him. In this situation Bonar Law, die Con-
servative leader, was the key. No Coalition Government could be con-
trolled by a Liberal Prime Minister who did not have the approval of the
Conservatives. Here Lord Beaverbrook stepped into the picture. Beaver-
brook was then Sir Max Aitken. He was a fascinating, speculative, even
romantic figure, who had arrived from Canada when he was barely
thirty, a self-made multi-millionaire. He was the son of a poor Methodist

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill.

218 WINSTON CHURCHILL

parson and, according to gossip, had made his vast fortune as a company
promoter. In 1913 he bought tie Daily Express which, in the post-war
period, eventually rivalled in circulation and finally surpassed die Daily
Mail

He was quick, amusing and provocative, and he possessed a rare talent;
he could charm whoever he set out to capture. People have found it
strange that the dour, humourless, unimaginative Bonar Law should have
come under his spell, but the very difference between the two men ob-
viously proved the attraction. Beaverbrook became Law's confidant; the
latter asked his advice on every sort of matter, ranging from policy to
people, and accepted it often enough for Beaverbrook to be treated with
great respect. But besides winning Law's friendship Beaverbrook also
became an intimate of Lloyd George, F. E. Smith and Winston Churchill.
These men, each a genius in his own way, had much in common. They
were all brilliant conversationalists; they were all individualists and adven-
turers, with a zest for conflict and a marked indifference to convention.
They were the most gifted group of friends in public life and all of them,
separately and together, were distrusted and disliked by the average Con-
servative 'gentleman'.

Beaverbrook convinced Bonar Law that Asquith must be removed;
and persuaded him to back Lloyd George as Prime Minister. But the up-
heaval would require careful handling and was well rehearsed. Lloyd
George delivered an ultimatum to Asquith designed to remove the direc-
tion of the war from the latter's hands and place it with an Inner Cabinet.
Asquith refused, as he was intended to do, and Lloyd George resigned.
Asquith then was forced to resign himself as he could not continue to
govern with his Party split in two. The King followed customary pro-
cedure by sending for Bonar Law who declined the offer to form a
Government, suggesting that His Majesty entrust the task to Lloyd George
instead.

Thus a new Prime Minister took over the reins. Churchill's spirits
soared as he thought his chance had come, but once again he was doomed
to disappointment. Although Beaverbrook had succeeded in reconciling
Bonar Law to Lloyd George's leadership he could not persuade him to
accept Churchill. Law flatly refused to support any Government that
included Winston. He recognized the latter's brilliance; indeed, he had
declared in the House of Commons, on the eve of Churchill's departure
for France, that 'in mental power and vital force he is one of the foremost
men in the country*; yet he did not believe that brilliance was enough.
Lloyd George used every argument he could summon to change his mind.
'The question is, even though you distrust him, would you rather have

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 219

him FOR you or AGAINST you? 9 he queried. 'I would rather have him
against me every time/ Law replied obdurately. 1

Winston had no idea of the difficulties Lloyd George was encountering
on his behalf, and firmly expected to be a member of the new Govern-
ment. He regarded office as a certainty when, at Lloyd George's request,
F. E. Smith invited him to a small dinner party of close colleagues. But
Lloyd George had extended the invitation impulsively and realizing
almost at once that Winston's hopes might be raised falsely, asked Beaver-
brook, who was also one of the guests, to drop a hint to him that it would
not be possible to include him in the Administration at the present time.
Lord Beaverbrook did as he was bid, and in the course of the dinner said
to Churchill: 'The new Government will be very well disposed towards
you. All your friends will be there. You will have a great field of common
action with them.'

'Something in the very restraint of my language,' wrote Beaverbrook,
'carried conviction to Churchill's mind. He suddenly felt that he had been
duped by his invitation to dinner, and he blazed into righteous anger. I
have never known him address his great friend Birkenhead in any other
way except as "Fred", or "F.E." On this occasion he said suddenly:
"Smith, this man knows that I am not to be included in the new Govern-
ment." With that Churchill walked out into the street carrying his coat
and hat on his arm. Birkenhead pursued him, and endeavoured to per-
suade him to return, but in vain.' 2

Lloyd George finally smoothed things over by assuring Winston
privately that he would do two things for him. First, he would release the
Report of the Dardanelles Royal Commission; second, after publication,
he would find him a job. He kept his word. The Report came out in
March 1917, and although many people did not consider that its con-
clusions exonerated Winston, they at least were forced to admit that both
Asquith and Kitchener were equally to blame. Then, in May, Churchill
made a passionate and moving speech in the House, delivered at a secret
session, in which he once again attacked the principle of the war of attri-
tion. 'I was listened to for an hour and a quarter with strained attention,
at first silently but gradually with a growing measure of acceptance and at
length approval,' he wrote. 'At the end there was quite a demonstration.' 3
His argument was that Britain and France must not squander the remain-
ing strength of their armies in costly and futile offensives, but wait until
American power had made itself felt; in the meantime Britain must

1 War Memoirs: David Lloyd George.

1 Politicians and the War: Lord Beaverbrook.

* Tlie World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill.

2,20 WINSTON CHURCHILL

concentrate on the anti-submarine war and keep its sea communications
intact. His speech made a deep impression but when Lloyd George replied
he refused to commit himself against a renewed offensive; Winston learned
later that he did not feel able to overrule Haig and Robertson. 'He pro-
ceeded to lead a captivated assembly over the whole scene of the war,
gaining the sympathy and conviction of his hearers at every stage/ wrote
Winston, 'When he sat down the position of the Government was
stronger than it had been at any previous moment during his Adminis-
tration/ 1

Indeed Lloyd George's stock was so high he now felt strong enough to
include Winston in his Government. In July 1917 he offered him the
Ministry of Munitions. This did not include a seat in the War Cabinet,
but at least it was the end of exile. The Prime Minister knew that he would
have to take a barrage of criticism but he had no idea of its intensity. The
publication of the Dardanelles Report and Winston's moving speeches
had apparently done little to alky the hostility against him. For days the
storm raged. Admiral Beresford told a large audience at Queen's Hall:
'The P.M. has no right to make such appointments in opposition to public
opinion/ 2 Furious letters appeared in tie Conservative newspapers: 'We
cannot forget that his name is associated with disaster/ A formal protest
was made by the Committee of Conservative Associations; and in the
House of Commons an M.P., Mr. Evelyn Cecil, put down a question to
Lloyd George: 'Whether, in view of die feeling which exists in many
quarters in this House and in the country that the inclusion of Mr.
Churchill in the Government and particularly at this time, as Minister of
Munitions, is a national danger, he will give time for the discussion of the
appointment?' 8

This was not all. Lloyd George was inundated with angry letters from
his Cabinet colleagues, and for a time the Government tottered. Why were
they so bitter and implacable? Lloyd George attempted to answer this
question in his Memoirs in a fascinating summary of tie feelings and pre-
judices of Winston's adversaries. 'They admitted he was a man of dazzling
talents, that he possessed a forceful and a fascinating personality. They
recognized his courage and that he was an indefatigable worker. But they
asked why, in spite of that, although he had more admirers, he had fewer
followers than any prominent public man in Britain? They pointed to the
fact that at the lowest ebb of their fortunes, Joseph Chamberlain in
Birmingham and Campbell-Bannerman in Scotland could count on a

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill.

1 26 July, 1917.

9 Hansard: 20 July, 1917.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 221

territorial loyalty which was unshakable in its devotion. On the other
hand, Churchill had never attracted, he had certainly never retained, the
affection of any section, province or town. His changes of Party were not
entirely responsible for this. Some of the greatest figures in British political
life had ended in a different Party from that in which they had com-
menced their political career. That was therefore not an adequate explana-
tion of his position in public confidence. They asked: What then was the
reason?

'Here was their explanation. His mind was a powerful machine, but
there lay hidden in its material or its make-up some obscure defect which
prevented it from always running true. They could not tell what it was.
When the mechanism went wrong, its very power made the action disas-
trous, not only to himself but to the causes in which he was engaged and
the men with whom he was co-operating. That was why the latter were
nervous in his partnership. He had in their opinion revealed some tragic
flaw in the metal This was urged by Churchill's critics as a reason for not
utilizing his great abilities at this juncture. They thought of him not as a
contribution to the common stock of activities and ideas in the hours of
danger, but as a further danger to be guarded against.

'I took a different view of his possibilities. I felt that his resourceful mind
and tireless energy would be invaluable under supervision. ... I knew
something of the feeling against him among his old Conservative friends,
and that I would run great risks in promoting Churchill to any position
in the Ministry; but the insensate fury they displayed when later on the
rumour of my intention reached their ears surpassed all my apprehensions,
and for some days it swelled to the dimensions of a grave Ministerial crisis
which threatened the life of the "Government".

Lloyd George went so far as to declare that 'some of them were xaore

excited about his appointment than about the war It was interesting

to observe in a concentrated form every phase of the distrust and trepida-
tion with which mediocrity views genius at dose quarters. Unfortunately,
genius always provides its critics with material for censure it always has
and always will. Churchill is certainly no exception to this rule'.

'Not allowed to make the plans,' wrote Winston, 'I was set to make the
weapons.' Strictly speaking this was true, but Winston was not one to keep
his fingers out of the policy-making pie for long. The Ministry of Muni-
tions gave hi the opportunity to increase his exertions in favour of the
one idea that gripped and dominated his mind: tanks. For many months
he had watched the battle of attrition in France with increasing dislike.

222 WINSTON CHURCHILL

War was a great art, but how low it had fallen. Where was the skill, the
ingenuity, the surprise? The only method the Allied commanders under-
stood was the repeated hurling of flesh and blood against the strongest
fortified positions, arguing that if they could slaughter more Germans than
the Germans could slaughter in return they were bound to win in the end.
Winston had wanted to leave France in its deadlock and strike through the
back door of Turkey. If that was impossible, new methods must be
developed to beat the trench, and the methods were obvious: a mechani-
cal blow. But so far the tank had been badly misused. Not only had a mere
handful been employed at the Battle of the Somrne, but at Passchendaele
they had been kept back until all element of surprise had vanished, then
'condemned to wallow in the crater fields under the first blast of German
artillery'.

The War Cabinet could not understand the importance of the new
weapon. Although Lloyd George, as Minister of Munitions, had ordered
the manufacture of several hundred tanks, the military mind still regarded
them with a marked lack of enthusiasm. Now Winston redoubled his
efforts. On 21 October, 1917, he wrote a memorandum: 'Someone must

stop the tiger It is becoming apparent that the "blasting power" of the

artillery is only one of the factors required for a satisfactory method of the
offensive. "Moving power" must be developed equally with "blasting

power" When we see these great armies in the West spread out in thin

lines hundreds of miles long and organized in depth only at a very few
points, it is impossible to doubt that if one side discovered, developed and
perfected a definite method of advancing continuously, albeit upon a
fairly limited front, a decisive defeat would be inflicted upon the other.
If, therefore, we could by organized mechanical processes and equipment
impart this faculty to our armies in 1918 or in 1919, it would be an
effective substitute for a great numerical preponderance in numbers.
What other substitute can we look for? Where else is our superiority
coming from?' 1 "

Sir Douglas Haig was still unimpressed by the possibilities of tanks.
Winston constantly had Passchendaele thrown in his face. 'They cannot
cope with mud.' 'The Army doesn't want them any more.' 'General
Headquarters does not rank them very high in its priorities.' However,
on 20 November, only a few weeks after Churchill's memorandum,
General Sir Julian Byng gave the Tank Corps its first great opportunity by
employing the new weapon as it was designed to be used. No artillery
barrage was laid down until the tanks were actually launched; and nearly
five hundred were put into the field. 'The attack,' say the historians of the

1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill.

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 223

Tank Corps, 'was a stupendous success. As the tanks moved forward with
the infantry following dose behind, the enemy completely lost his
balance, and those who did fly panic-stricken from the field surrendered

with little or no resistance By 4 p.m. on 20 November one of the most

astonishing battles in all history had been won and, as far as the Tank
Corps was concerned, tactically finished, for no reserves existing it was
not possible to do more.' 1 The German trench system had been penetrated
to a depth of six miles; ten thousand prisoners and two hundred guns had
been captured; and the British had lost only fifteen hundred men.

'Moving power' now began to have its ardent supporters. Lloyd George
stated that tank production must be rapidly increased; recruiting for the
Tank Corps was redoubled; training establishments were expanded. Despite
the urgency Winston met more obstacles. The Admiralty had first
priority on steel plates. These were needed for ship-building but they
were also needed for tanks. The only method by which Winston could
secure any at all was to gorge the Admiralty until they held stocks far
beyond their most excessive demands; then he took the remainder for his
tanks.

At last a programme was in operation that would transform the conflict,
should it continue in 1919, into a mobile, mechanical war. Winston's
victory was won. Had he been able to convince the Cabinet of the impor-
tance of tanks in 1915, he believes the war would have ended in 1917.
To-day most people agree with him.

The Ministry of Munitions was a huge organization staffed by twelve
thousand civil servants and divided into fifty departments. It was operat-
ing smoothly when Winston took over, but he tightenedit up still further.
He combined the fifty groups into less than a dozen new ones; he referred
to each group by a letter F for finance, D for design, P for projectiles,
X for explosives; he set up a Council of business men rather like the Board
of Admiralty; and over the business men he established a small, powerful
'damping committee'. The organization was a triumph. 'Instead of
struggling through the jungle on foot I rode comfortably on an elephant,
whose trunk could pick up a pin or uproot a tree with equal ease, and
from whose back a wide scene lay open,' 2 he wrote.

The Ministry of Munitions covered an enormous field. It was not only
responsible for guns and shells, but for all sorts of moving and rolling
stock, and for the design and production of aircraft as well. 'Owing to the

1 The Tank Corps: Clough and A. Williams-Ellis.
* The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill

224 WINSTON CHURCHILL

energy which Mr. Winston Churchill threw into the production of muni-
tions,* wrote Lloyd George in his Memoirs, 'between i March and I August
the strength of die Tank Corps increased by twenty-seven per cent, and
that of the Machine Gun Corps by forty-one per cent, while the number
of aeroplanes in France rose by fort}' per cent/

On top of this effort came American demands. The United States had
declared war in April 1917, three months before Churchill was brought
back into the Government. The Americans planned to put forty-eight
divisions in the line, which amounted to six armies each requiring twelve
thousand guns. But owing to the difficulty of switching peace-time
factories to war production they could only produce a small proportion
of their needs.

Winston accepted a contract for .100,000,000 to supply the American
Army with all its medium artillery. This was done under a 'gentleman's
agreement' by which the United Kingdom promised not to make a profit
and the United States promised to make good a loss. The bargain worked
to the complete satisfaction of both countries. Indeed, the'cordial relations
which Winston established with his opposite number in Washington, Mr.
Bernard Baruch, whom he had never met, grew into a warm friendship
after the war and continues to-day. Mr. Baruch was influential in seeing
that Churchill received the United States Distinguished Service Medal
which was awarded him at the end of the war by General Pershing.

The Ministry of Munitions had large establishments in France which gave
Winston the opportunity of crossing the Channel whenever he wished.
He seized the excuse to visit the front regularly and often appeared at Sir
Douglas Haig's headquarters. Here he studied the flagged maps and talked
strategy and tactics to his heart's content. Finally Sir Douglas Haig
assigned him his own quarters in a French chateau near Verochocq, and he
became almost a daily visitor. He found that he could work at the
Ministry of Munitions in the morning, fly to Verochocq at lunchtime,
and have a whole afternoon at the front. 1 managed to be present at nearly
every important battle during the rest of the war,' he wrote with pride.

These trips probably were not strictly essential to his work as a Minister,
but he was blissfully happy. The fact that aeroplanes were uncertain
quantities in those days seemed to add to his pleasure. Once when he was
over the Channel on his return to London a valve burst, the engine
spluttered and the plane descended towards the grey water. The pilot
made a gesture indicating that there was nothing he could do, and it
seemed as though the end had come. Then the engine coughed, the plane

SOLDIERING, PAINTING, MUNITIONS 225

rose unsteadily, and the pilot headed back to France where he managed to
land the machine without damage. On another occasion the same pilot
had to make a forced landing on English soil. 'He side-slipped artistically
between two tall elms, just missing the branches,' wrote Winston in
Thoughts and Adventures; and later, when someone asked him whether he
was not afraid at such moments he replied: 'No, I love life, but I don't fear
death.'

Winston was at the front when the great and final offensive against the
British opened in March 1918. He heard the enemy barrage begin and
listened to the Allied guns thunder back in reply. This was Ludendorff's
last hope of winning the war. Both Russia and Italy had collapsed and the
Germans were free to concentrate most of their force in the West. Al-
though the United States had been in the war for a year it had only two
hundred thousand men in the line. Ludendorff knew the Americans would
be arriving in strength throughout the summer, and decided to stake
everything on a final, knock-out blow before that time.

This offensive was the climax of the war. It lasted forty days and cost
Britain three hundred thousand casualties. Everyone knows how the
British lines recoiled with the terrific impact; how the French nearly
broke contact with their Allies; how for the first time an electric whisper
went through England: 'What if the Germans should win, after all?'
Winston returned to London three days after the battle had begun and
went to 10 Downing Street at once. Lloyd George asked him anxiously:
'If we cannot hold the line we have fortified so carefully, why should we
be able to hold positions farther back with troops already defeated?' 1
Winston explained that an offensive was like throwing a bucket of Water
over the floor; it lost its force as it proceeded.

But during the next days an alarming rumour spread that the French
regarded the defeat of the British armies as inevitable and, instead of send-
ing reinforcements, were planning to break contact with them. Lloyd
George summoned Winston and asked him to hurry to France and find
out what was happening. 'Go and see everybody,' he said. *Use my
authority. See Foch. See Clemenceau. Find out for yourself whether
they are making a really big move or not.' 2

The story of the trip has been recounted dramatically by Churchill him-
self. /Clemenceau greeted him with the message: *Not only shall Mr.
Winston Churchill see everything, but I will myself take him to-morrow

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill
Ibid.

226 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to the battle and we will visit all the Commanders of Corps and Armies
engaged/ 1

The next day the two statesmen set forth, accompanied by high officials
and staff officers, in a fleet of military cars decorated with satin tricolours.
First, they visited Foch who gave them a brilliant exposition of the battle
ending emotionally with the assurance that the enemy effort was nearly
exhausted. 'Alors, General, ilfaut queje vous erribrasse? said Clemenceau,
and the two Frenchmen clasped each other tightly. Next, they went to the
headquarters of the British Fourth Army where they had lunch with Sir
Douglas Haig. Clemenceau and Haig withdrew to an adjoining room.
When they came out Winston noticed that Haig seemed content and the
Tiger was smiling. 'It is all right,* he said, 'I have done what you wish.
Never mind what was arranged before. If your men are tired and we have
fresh men near at hand, our men shall come at once and help you. And
now/ he added, *I shall claim my reward/

The reward was to see the battle. The Army commanders protested,
but Clemenceau insisted on being driven as far forward as possible. Shells
whistled overhead, and even Winston finally protested that he ought not
to go under fire too often. 'CW mon grand plaisir, 9 replied the old
Frenchman.

As everyone knows the British lines held, and the British and French
armies did not break contact. By the summer the Americans were pouring
into France and the Germans no longer had a chance of victory. The war
ended on n November, 1918. Winston was in his office in the Hotel
Metropole when Big Ben struck the hour of eleven, the signal that the
worst conflict in history had ended. Mrs. Churchill joined him and
together they drove down to Whitehall to see the Prime Minister.

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

PART FIVE
THE AFTERMATH

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WAR AND PEACE

THE TEN restless years between 1919 and 1929 did little to advance Mr.
Churchill's reputation as a statesman. It was a turbulent decade of clashing
colours and dark shadows; of booms and slumps, of Bolshevism and a
League of Nations, of flappers, cocktail parties and Bright Young People.
It was a decade of strikes, unemployment, of tKe rise of the Labour Party,
of civil wars, of pacifism, of demoralization, of a half-hearted belief in
collective security. It was a decade that was to usher in a new factor in
world politics: the Common Man.

When the First World War ended there was only one statesman in
England who counted. That was Lloyd George. The prophecy made by
John Morley that 'if thfere is a war Churchill will beat L.G. hollow* had
proved utterly false. Winston was forced to stand in the wings of the
political stage while Lloyd George took all the bows. Mr. Churchill had
no following from any party or any group. The Liberals were suspicious
of him, the Labour leaders opposed him, and the Conservatives disliked
him. His only strength lay in his friendship with Lloyd George.

The two men sat together on Armistice night and discussed the great
problems that peace would bring. Winston was not a vindictive man, and
now that the terrible conflict was over his instinct was to hold out the
hand of friendship to Germany. It was essential to the future of Europe,
he argued, that Germany should be brought into the democratic family as
soon as possible, and he urged Lloyd George to send a dozen food ships
to Hamburg. But public opinion was strongly hostile to the idea with the
result that nothing was done until Plumer, in command in Germany,
threatened to resign if food were not sent, and got his way.

A month after the Armistice Lloyd George's Coalition Government
went to the country in what was known as the 'Coupon* Election. All
candidates supporting the Coalition, mainly Conservatives, received
coupons guaranteeing their loyalty. They were opposed by Labour can-
didates and Asquithian- Liberals over whom they scored a resounding
victory, winning five hundred and twenty-six seats which gave them a
clear majority of three hundred and fifty-seven over all other parties. But
the election was fought on a swelling tide of public opinion symbolized
by national slogans: 'Hang the Kaiser' and 'Make the Germans Pay*. No
candidate was elected who tried to withstand the pressure. Even Winston

230 WINSTON CHURCHILL

was forced to knuckle under, and when the Government returned to
Whitehall it found itself committed to a policy of reparations which many
regarded with deep misgivings.

A few weeks after the election Lloyd George appointed Winston
Minister of War with the Air Ministry amalgamated under him. He
wanted a strong man to iron out the demobilization tangle, which Chur-
chill promptly did. Lloyd George recognized his colleague's brilliant
qualities and he was also conscious of his headstrong and impetuous nature.
He undoubtedly believed that while the War Office would absorb
Winston's energies and interests, it also had the advantage of being a 'safe'
post, for in peace time a Service Department was not likely to offer much
scope for sensational action. Sir Henry Wilson, the Chief of the Imperial
General Staff, evidently did not share this view, for when he heard of the
appointment he wrote in his diary: 'Whew!'; and at his first meeting with
his new boss he asked caustically why the Admiralty had not been thrown
in as well. As things turned out the 'whew* was not unreasonable. The
world was still in a troubled state, and most troubled of all was Russia,
which was torn by civil war, and which still contained British troops.

Russia became Winston's chief preoccupation; and since Lloyd George
was fully absorbed by the Paris Peace Conference he had something of a
free hand. The gigantic country was in an appalling state of disintegration.
The Czar had been overthrown in 1917, and a few months kter the
Bolsheviks had captured the Central Government. In the spring of 1918
they had signed a separate peace with the Kaiser which had allowed
Germany to release a million more men to fight the Allies on the Western
Front. Britain had sent troops to Archangel, the Caucasus and Siberia to
prevent oil supplies and Allied materials from falling into the enemy's
hands. In the meantime White Russian counter-revolutionary forces many
hundred of miles apart ^those in the South under the leadership of General
Dcnikin, and those in the East under Admiral Kolchak had remained
faithful to their commitments and continued the war as best they could.
Now these forces were fighting the Bolsheviks and desperately begging
England for help. Lord Mflner, Winston's predecessor at the War Office,
had more or less promised aid. Was Britain to abandon them? All
Winston's chivalrous instincts bade him send assistance. Besides this, look-
ing at the picture objectively, it would not be in Britain's interests to allow
Bolshevik leaders who believed in organized terror and who were preach-
ing world-wide revolution to gain the final power. Germany lay prostrate.
What would prevent Russia from overrunning the whole of Europe?

This was the practical argument. But as far as Winston was concerned,
the emotional argument was even stronger. He was disgusted by the

WAR AND PEACE 231

Bolshevik atrocities. He understood wars between soldiers and nations,
but he could not forgive wars between families, neighbours and classes,
where thousands of civilians were murdered in the name of humanity.
To him the Russian spectacle was sordid and evil. 'For all its horrors/ he
wrote many years later, 'a glittering light plays over the scenes and actors
of the French Revolution. The careers and personalities of Robespierre,
of Danton, even of Marat, gleam luridly across a century. But the dull
squalid figures of the Russian Bolsheviks are not redeemed in interest
even by the magnitude of their crimes. All form and emphasis is lost in
the vast process of Asiatic liquefaction. Even the slaughter of millions and
the misery of scores of millions will not attract future generations to their
uncouth lineaments and outlandish names/ 1

It was characteristic of Churchill that when he took up a cause he fought
for it wholeheartedly. All his vigour was concentrated on a campaign
against the Bolsheviks. In the House of Commons and on the public plat-
form he attacked the Reds in a flow of rich and merciless invective. On
ii April, 1919, speaking at a luncheon at the Aldwych Club in London,
he declared: *Of all the tyrannies in history, the Bolshevist tyranny is the
worst, the most destructive, the most degrading. It is sheer humbug to
pretend that it is not far worse than German militarism. The miseries of
the Russian people under the Bolshevists far surpass anything they suffered
even under die Czar. The atrocities of Lenin and Trotsky are incomparably
more hideous, on a larger scale and more numerous than any for which the
Kaiser is responsible. The Germans at any rate have stuck to their allies.
They misled them, they exploited them, but they did not desert or betray
them. It may have been honour among thieves, but it is better than dis-
honour among murderers.'

The next month Winston alluded to 'the foul baboonery of Bol-
shevism* and came out openly in favour of sending arms and supplies to
their adversaries. But there was no action he could take without the
approval of the Supreme Council, a body which sat in Paris and repre-
sented the five leading Allied powers. He went to France in February and
talked to President Wilson who told him affably that he did not pretend
to know the solution to the Russian problem. There were the gravest objec-
tions to every course, and yet some course must be taken sooner or later.

For three months the Allies vacillated. Winston pleaded his cause without
ceasing. He argued with members of the British Cabinet, with foreign re-
presentatives, with anyone who would listen. He sent a flow of memoranda
to every influential quarter. Finally, in May, the Supreme Council came to
a decision. It sent a note to Admiral Kolchak informing him that the object

1 Great Contemporaries: Winston S. ChurchilL

232 WINSTON CHURCHILL

of Allied policy was 'to restore peace within Russia by enabling the Rus-
sian people to resume control of their own affairs through the agent of a
freely elected Constituent Assembly . . .' If Kolchak would agree to this,
and certain other conditions, the Allies would assist him with munitions, sup-
plies and food, to establish a Government of all Russia; at the same time
the Allies made it clear that the time was approaching when they must with-
draw their own troops e to avoid interference in the internal affairs ofRussia' .

This note was obviously designed to have the best of two worlds. It was
ambiguous and vague, yet Winston seized it eagerly. At last he had the
authority to act. For the next eight months he poured ammunition and
material worth many millions of pounds into Russia. He also made plans
for the evacuation of the British forces. In order to cover the withdrawal
it was necessary to stage a diversion; and for this he called for a volunteer
army of eight thousand men.

The British public stirred with alarm. They had not forgotten Winston's
excursion to Antwerp and his impetuosity over the Dardanelles. Was he
trying to plunge them into another war? Apart from this fear, there was a
growing dislike of his attitude towards the Soviets. Most people in Eng-
land believed that Britain should mind her own business and let the
Russians settle their own affairs. As to the pros and cons of Bolshevism
itself, the country was divided into two distinct camps, Left and Right.
The Right shared Winston's dislike of the Reds, but die Left, which was
composed of Radical liberals and Labour Party followers, cast sympathetic
glances at the new 'social experiment 5 which was taking pkce. The Labour
Party, backed by the Trade Unions, was particularly sympathetic for they
had recently acquired a new constitution, drafted by Sidney Webb, which
committed them to Socialism. True, British socialism was not Marxist,
but Fabian, democratic and Christian. Nevertheless, the Labour leaders
believed many of the Bolshevik slogans: that war was engineered by
capitalist societies; that the ownership of the means of production and dis-
tribution would automatically create a new Utopk.

Lloyd George was far from being a Socialist, but his Radical instincts
bade him look upon Russia with a tolerant eye. Alter all, the oppression
and tyranny of the Czarist regime had brought about the revolution. One
could not blame the people for trying to throw off the yoke. He believed
that trade with Russia was economically important, and both he and
President Wilson would have liked to recognize the Soviets and establish
friendly relations with them but they knew they could not carry Parlia-
ment and Congress with them. Lloyd George disliked Winston's passion-
ate denunciations and some years later in his Memories of the Peace Confer-
ence wrote acidly: 'The most formidable and irresponsible protagonist of

WAR AND PEACE 233

an anti-Bolshevik war was Mr. Winston Churchill. He had no doubt a
genuine dislike for Communism . . . His ducal blood revolted against the
wholesale elimination of Grand Dukes in Russia.'

A storm was gathering around Winston's head but in the end it never
really broke. Although he was hody attacked by almost every Labour
leader in England, as soon as the Allied forces had been withdrawn in the
autumn of 1919 it became apparent that the White Russians were doomed
to failure. They fought without conviction and hung on for only a few
months. In the spring of 1920 they finally collapsed and Soviet authority
was complete. Up to the very end Churchill sustained his attack on the
Bolsheviks. In a speech at Sunderland on 3 January, 1921, he said: 'Was
there ever a more awful spectacle in the whole history of the world than
is unfolded by the agony of Russia? This vast country, this mighty branch
of the human family, not only produced enough food for itself, but before
the war it was one of the great granaries of the world, from which food
was exported to every country. It is now reduced to famine of the most
terrible kind, not because there is no food there is plenty of food but
because the theories of Lenin and Trotsky have fatally, and it may be
finally, ruptured the means of intercourse between man and man, between
workman and peasant, between town and country; because they have
shattered the systems of scientific communication by rail and river on
which the life of great cities depends; because they have raised class against
class and race against race in fratricidal war; because they have given vast
regions which a little while ago were smiling villages and prosperous
townships back to the wolves and the bears; because they have driven
man from the civilization of the twentieth century into ar condition of
barbarism worse than the Stone Age, and have left him the most awful
and pitiable spectacle in human experience, devoured by vermin, racked
by pestilence and deprived of hope.

'And this is progress, this is liberty, this is Utopia! Tliis is what my
friend in the gallery would call an interesting experiment in Social
Regeneration (Laughter). What a monstrous absurdity and perversion of
the truth it is, to represent the Communist theory as a form of progress,
when, at every step and at every stage, it is simply marching back into the
Dark Ages.'

Winston not only supported the White Armies to the bitter end, but in
the early months of 1920 when Poland attacked Russia, in a ridiculous act
of aggression, he was instrumental in seeing that British arms were sent to
their aid as well. The Russians drove the invaders out, then invaded
Poland themselves, and for a few weeks Churchill had visions of his worst
fears being realized with all Europe overrun. He sent a memorandum to

234 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Lloyd George pleading for the rehabilitation of Germany as the only hope
of erecting a barrier against the Russian giant a line of argument which
is again being used to-day*

'Since the Armistice/ he wrote, 'my policy would have been "Peace
with the German people, war on the Bolshevik tyranny". Willingly or un-
avoidably, you have followed something very near the reverse. Knowing
the difficulties, and also your great skill and personal force so much greater
than mine I do not judge your policy and action as if I could have done
better, or as if anyone could have done better. But we are face to face with
the results. They are terrible. We may well be within measurable distance
of universal collapse and anarchy throughout Europe and Asia. Russia has
gone into ruin. What is left of her is in the power of these deadly snakes.

'But Germany may perhaps still be saved You ought to tell France

that we will make a defensive alliance with her against Germany if, and
only if, she entirely alters her treatment of Germany and loyally accepts a
British policy of help and friendship toward Germany.' 1

The British Left vehemently opposed any aid being given to Poland,
and the British Right seemed strangely uninterested. Indeed, many people
were more concerned with Winston's activities than with Russia's. In
May 1920 a sensation was caused by the publication of a memorandum
which was alleged to have fallen into Soviet hands after the Allied with-
drawal from Archangel, and was brought back to London by a Labour
Party deputation. The note claimed to be an account of an interview which
Colonel Golvin, a White Russian emissary, had had with Winston, in
which the latter had promised the White Russians an indefinite postpone-
ment of the evacuation of the British forces, and twelve thousand volun-
teers to form a new garrison. Winston indignantly declared that the docu-
ment was a complete travesty of the truth but it caused a Parliamentary
storm. Labour Members even went so far as to draft a resolution for Mr.
Churchill's arrest, on the grounds that he was using British military re-
sources against the Soviet without the consent or knowledge of Parliament.
The Civil War had come to an end; and Poland, in the inspired Battle
of the Vistula, had managed to repel the Russian hordes. For the time
being the urgency of the Bolshevik menace subsided. In January 1921 Lloyd
George transferred Mr. Churchill from the War Office to the Colonial
Office and Mr. Churchill transferred his attention from Europe to the East.

Throughout his life Winston had never received any credit as a peace-
maker, yet in the brief eighteen months he was at the Colonies he was
1 The World Crisis: Winston S. Churchill.

WAR AND PEACE 235

largely responsible for bringing about two vitally important and lasting
peace settlements. The first was in the Middle East. This part of the world
was in a state of ferment. Despite the bitter opposition of the Arabs, the
Peace Conference had given the mandate of Syria to the French, who
then threw out the Emir Feisal from Damascus. As a result Palestine and
Egypt were smouldering with discontent, and a bloody uprising had been
suppressed in Iraq. The British were obliged to keep forty thousand
troops stationed in Iraq to preserve order, which was costing the Govern-
ment ^30,000,000 a year. This was thought to be far too expensive and
the Prime Minister asked Winston to see what he could do to restore
harmony and save the British taxpayer some money.

Winston set about the matter in his usual independent fashion. First he
enlisted on his side that strange and romantic genius, 'Lawrence of
Arabia.' This fascinating Englishman was the uncrowned king of the
Arab world. He had lived and fought with them throughout the war and
now lived and worked to secure them a just peace. He identified his
interests with them so completely that he appeared in London and Paris
in flowing Arab robes. He even refused a high decoration from the King
in order to impress the public with the seriousness of his cause.

Winston called a conference in Cairo, and with Lawrence as his chief
adviser and all the experts and authorities of the Middle East at his service
he worked out a plan. A month later he sent the following proposals to
the Cabinet. First, that the British must repair the injury done to the
Arabs by placing the Emir Feisal on the throne of Iraq as King, and trans-
ferring to the hands of his brother, the Emir Abdulla, the Government of
Transjordan. Secondly, that the troops must be withdrawn from Iraq,
and order maintained by the Air Force rather than the Army, which
would cut down the cost from .^30,000,000 to .5,000,000 a year. And
third, that an adjustment must be made in Palestine between the Arabs
and the Jews which would serve as a foundation for the future.

It was a brilliant settlement As soon as the Cabinet accepted it tension
in the Arab world subsided. When Lawrence wrote his great classic
Seven Pillars of Wisdom he sent Winston a copy with the following in-
scription: 'Winston Churchill who made a happy ending to this show
. . . And eleven years after we set our hands to making an honest settle-
ment, all our work still stands: the countries have gone forward, our
interests having been saved, and nobody killed, either on one side or the
other. To have planned for eleven years is statesmanship. I ought to have
given you two copies of this work!' 1

* * * *

1 Great Contemporaries: Winston S. Churchill.

236 WINSTON CHURCHILL

During the time that Winston was negotiating a settlement in the Middle
East he was also a member of the Cabinet Committee dealing with the
problem of Ireland. Since the war, relations between the Irish and the
Mother Country had deteriorated badly. In the 1918 'Coupon* Election
the Irish Nationalists had been swept away and in their place had arisen a
far more extremist group, the Sinn Fein Party (Ourselves Alone). The
Sinn Feiners wanted to sever all connection with England and establish a
republic, and they were prepared to use any methods to realize their aims.
In 1919 they began to burn down houses and murder English officials. The
British Government retaliated by sending a special police force manned
by ex-officers from the wartime army, who wore dark caps and khgld
uniforms and became known as the 'Black and Tans'. They were instructed
to take severe reprisals, and as a result punished outrage by still further
outrage. By the end of the year Ireland was gripped in a reign of terror.

The situation was intensely complicated. The Northern and Protestant
part of Ireland was loyal to the British Empire and determined to stay with-
in it, while Southern and Catholic Ireland, which represented a majority
of the population, was bent on gaining complete independence. Should
the British crush the rebellion by overwhelming force, or should they par-
tition the country and let the South have its freedom? Winston Churchill
was in favour of doing both. He told his colleagues on the Cabinet
Committee Lloyd George, F. E. Smith (later Lord Birkenhead), Austen
Chamberlain, Sir Hamar Greenwood and Sir Laming Worthington-
Evans that he believed it was essential to prove to the Irish that Britain
was not giving way through weakness and fear; then when they had been
soundly beaten he was in favour of granting them Dominion status which
would make them independent and self-governing, yet at the same time
would preserve a link with the Empire through loyalty to the Crown.

About this time King George V went to Northern Ireland and delivered
a speech which had been carefully prepared by his Ministers. In it was a
reference to the South and a plea for reconciliation which met with a start-
lingly large response from the Irish public itself. This started the ball roll-
ing. The Government invited the Irish leaders to London to negotiate, and
the leaders accepted. Thus negotiations started before Britain had proved
herself the master, as Churchill and his colleagues would have liked.

The tense, charged atmosphere and the protracted discussions which
finally led to the signing of the Irish Treaty have provided the theme for
many books. It would have been possible in i886/ wrote Winston, 'to
have reached a solution on a basis infinitely less perilous both to Ireland
and to Great Britain than that to which we were ultimately drawn.* 1 At

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

WAR AND PEACE 237

that rime Mr. Gladstone was begging the House of Commons to pass his
Home Rule Bill. 'Think, I beseech you think well, think wisely, think
not for a moment but for the years that are to come, before you reject
this Bill.' But the Bill was defeated and Winston's father was one of Glad-
stone's most powerful opponents. Now the son was trying to find a
solution to a problem grown fierce and strong on the mistakes of the
older generation.

Although Winston did not pky a major part in the Treaty negotiations
he did much to smooth the relations between the two sides by friendliness
alone. 'Our settlement with the Boers,' he wrote, 'with my own vivid
experiences in it, was my greatest source of comfort and inspiration in
this Irish business. Indeed it was a help to all. I remember one night Mr.
Griffith and Mr. Collins [the leading Irish statesmen] came to my house to
meet the Prime Minister. It was at a crisis, and the negotiations seemed to
hang only by a thread. Griffith went upstairs to parley with Mr. Lloyd
George alone. Lord Birkenhead and I were left with Michael Collins
meanwhile. He was in his most difficult mood, full of reproaches and
defiances, and it was very easy for everyone to lose his temper.

' "You hunted me day and night!" he exclaimed. "You put a price on
my head."

' "Wait a minute," I said. "You are not the only one." And I took from
my wall the framed copy of the reward offered for my recapture by the
Boers. "At any rate it was a good price ^5,000. Look at me ^25 dead
or alive. How would you like that?" ' l

In the end Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith signed the Treaty which
gave Ireland Dominion status. But when they returned to Dublin they
found the Sinn Fein Party split in two. One half backed the Treaty, but
the other half, led by de Valera, declared that Dominion status was not
enough; nothing short of recognizing Ireland as a republic would suffice.
Members of this faction became known as the Anti-Treatyites and worked
fanatically to prevent Griffith and Collins carrying out the agreement made
in London. They provoked acts of violence against Northern Ireland and
soon began murdering the members of their own party who believed in
the Treaty. Only nine months after Collins had put his signature to the
document he was killed in an ambush. Before long Ireland was again in
the grip of civil war.

It was at this point that Winston Churchill became Colonial Secretary
and, as such, Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Irish affairs. His task
was to help Griffith and Collins establish a Provisional Government, and
at the same time to protect die integrity of Northern Ireland which had

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

238 WINSTON CHURCHILL

voted for a partition. The world seldom thinks of Churchill in the role of
a conciliator and yet in this case he worked tirelessly, patiently and
sagaciously to achieve his purpose. He handled innumerable situations
with delicacy and tact, writing repeatedly to the various leaders, both
North and South, smoothing away misunderstandings, emphasizing good
will, minimizing foolish and petty actions, cajoling, praising, encouraging
and suggesting. In the end the Treatyites won; the Provisional Govern-
ment was established, and tragic Ireland settled down to peace, and finally
to isolation. From that time on she gradually ceased to be an issue or to
play a part in the internal affairs of Great Britain.

Mr. Churchill's role as peace-maker was not long remembered. In the
middle of 1922 trouble arose with Turkey, and events threw Churchill
into the more familiar role of a belligerent 'man of action*. The seeds of
the Turkish discord had been sown by Lloyd George. At the Peace Treaty
the Prime Minister had come under the spell of the Greek statesman,
M. Venizelos, and as a result had sanctioned a Greek occupation of a large
part of Anatolia, Turkey's homeland, which was completely Turkish in
population save for a few Greek coastal towns. France and Italy objected
to this settlement; so did Britain's Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon; so did
Winston Churchill; nevertheless Lloyd George pushed it through, signing
the Treaty of Sfcvres which not only confirmed a Greek occupation of
Smyrna but gave Greece most of Turkey's possessions in Europe as well.

Fighting soon broke out. In 1921 the Greeks in an effort to enforce the
Treaty advanced on Ankara, the Turkish capital, but were stopped by the
Turks fifty miles away. They remained there for a year; then in the
summer of 1922 Mustapha Kemal, the head of the Turkish Government,
attacked them, routed their armies, and massacred most of the Greek
population.

The Western powers were alarmed. Was Kemal planning to recapture
Turkey's European possessions? If so, he would have to cross the Straits
which were under international protection, guarded by small contingents
of British, French and Italian troop. The French and Italians saw trouble
coining and immediately withdrew leaving only the British at Chanak on
the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles. The situation was electric. Would
Turkey move? And if she did, would this mean war with Britain?

Haifa dozen men in the British Cabinet decided that firm action must
be taken to stop Turkey. They were the same men who had sat together
on the Committee for Irish affairs Lloyd George, Churchill, Birkenhead,
Chamberlain, Balfour and WorthingtonrEvans. 'We made common

WAR AND PEACE 239

cause,' declares Churchill in The Aftermath. 'The Government might break
up, and we might be relieved of our burden. The nation might not sup-
port us; they could find others to advise them. The Press might howl; the
Allies might bolt. We intended to force the Turk to a negotiated peace
before he set foot in Europe/

Winston then sat down and drafted a bold and determined communique
calling on the British Dominions and the Balkan States to co-operate with
Great Britain in resisting Turkish aggression, and announcing flatly: 'It
is die intention of His Majesty's Government to reinforce immediately . . .
the troops at the disposal of Sir Charles Harington, the Allied Commander-
in-Chief at Constantinople, and orders have been given to the British
Fleet in the Mediterranean to oppose by every means any infraction of the
neutral zones by the Turks or any attempt by them to cross the European
shores.'

The uncompromising tone of this statement startled the British public.
It also startled the Turk who changed his mind and ordered his troops
away from Chanak. Two weeks later Mustapha Kemal signed an armistice.
And a year later the grievance was removed by the Treaty of Lausanne
which gave Turkey the Straits and Constantinople.

But even though the incident ended peacefully, the public was still un-
nerved. Anger quickly took the place of fear, and Conservatives and
Socialists alike denounced diplomacy 'based on wild and reckless gambles 9 .
Bonar Law declared that Britain could not police the world alone, and the
Labour Party attacked Winston with the familiar charge that he was trying
to 'dragoon the Empire into war'.

Since that time his action has been appraised more favourably. 'To Mr.
Lloyd George and above all to Mr. Churchill,' writes Harold Nicolson in
a biography of Curzon, 'is due our gratitude for having at this juncture
defied not the whole world merely, but the full hysterical force of British
public opinion/ 1 Nevertheless, tie two men paid a high price. The
Chanak incident brought down the Government.

Lloyd George's Coalition Government was three-quarters Tory and one-
quarter Liberal. The Tories decided that the wave of public enthusiasm
which had given the Government its renewed lease of life at the end of
the war had vanished. The inevitable disillusion which awaited any post-
war government had at last set in, and the time had come for the Con-
servatives to march ahead under their own banner.

Besides, the Tories haiplenty of quarrels with the Government. When

1 Curzon, the Last Phase: Harold Nicolson.

240 WINSTON CHURCHILL

the war ended Lloyd George had become so deeply involved in the Paris
Peace Conference that he had practically withdrawn from the House of
Commons, leaving Bonar Law to run it for him. Thus he fell into the
habit of ignoring Parliament, surrounding himself with personal advisers,
dealing with any matter that caught his fancy and deliberately by-passing
Secretaries of State whenever it suited him. The Tories were highly
critical of this state of affairs and declared that 'Cabinet responsibility' had
become a joke.

They were also critical of his handling of the Irish question. They felt it
was nothing short of lunacy first to initiate a policy of severe reprisals then
to turn around and give the Irish everything they wanted short of a
republic. Finally, they were indignant over die Chanak communique.
They not only disliked its bluntness but were shocked by the fact that the
Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, was not even consulted, and that it had
been issued to the press before the Dominions had received it. Bonar Law
wrote a letter to The Times on this subject which was almost a vote of
censure.

A few of the leading Conservative Ministers who held office under
Lloyd George remained steadfastly loyal. Among these Lord Birkenhead
and Austen Chamberlain were the most conspicuous. They did their best
to dissuade their Tory colleagues from breaking up the Government but
their arguments were unavailing. Largely through die organization of Mr.
Leo Amery, who was then Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the
Admiralty, a meeting was held at die Carlton Club on 17 October, 1922,
which later became known as the 'Revolt of the Under-secretaries*. Bonar
Law, who had resigned the Conservative Party leadership a year earlier on
grounds of ill-health, made a strong and telling speech, believed to have
been inspired by Lord Beaverbrook, which completely carried the
assembly widi him. Then Stanley Baldwin, a figure almost unknown to
the public but recendy appointed President of the Board of Trade by
Iloyd George, introduced a resolution to end the Coalition. Baldwin told
die meeting diat L.G. was a dynamic force but diat *a dynamic force is a
very terrible diing'. His resolution was passed by 187 votes to 87.

When Lloyd George heard of the vote he at once resigned and Bonar
Law consented to form a Government. The new Prime Minister asked for
the dissolution of Parliament and went to the country. The Conservatives
scored a sweeping victory. Lloyd George never held office again.

Winston Churchill fought die election at Dundee, the great Radical
working-dass stronghold which had welcomed him joyously in 1908

WAR AND PEACE 24!

when he had been the formidable antagonist of Tory privilege. 'I stand as
a Liberal and a Free Trader, but I make it quite clear that I am not going
to desert Lloyd George . . .' he announced in his election address.

But Dundee was not at all convinced that Winston really was a Liberal.
Ever since he had become First Lord of the Admiralty he had shown
practically no interest in domestic matters but concentrated exclusively on
military and foreign affairs. During the previous eleven years he had been
repeatedly the strongest advocate of Coalition government. On three
occasions before the war-time Coalition came into being he had urged that
Conservatives qnd Liberals merge their differences; and in the four years
since the close of the war he had- floated publicly the idea of a Centre Party
composed of moderates from both sides.

Why was Winston so eager to end the traditional warfare between the
two great parties? The Times ran a series of articles entitled 'Front Bench
Figures' and on 15 November, 1920, summed up Mr. Churchill's position
as follows: 'Some men hang themselves on their politics, others hang their
politics on themselves, and these need to be stout pegs, well screwed into
the scheme of things, as indeed Mr. Churchill is. He manages it very well.
His first party will still have no good said of him, his second believes him
to be hankering after his first love, and latterly he has been advertising for
a new Centre Party which is to combine the charms of the other two. But
even if this third match came off and then turned out ill, Mr. Churchill
would not be greatly embarrassed, for wherever he is there is his party/

The truth was that Winston disliked wearing a party tag of any descrip-
tion. He could not see that there was any longer a deep, dividing line
between Liberals and Conservatives. How much more gratifying from
his own personal point of view it would be to heal the old wounds be-
tween himself and the Party which was his by birth and inheritance. How
much more sensible to receive a mandate from the people to govern, and
then to govern to the best of one's ability, untrammelled by stupid Party
slogans. However, British politics do not operate in such a free and easy
way. The Centre Party came to nothing and Winston was forced to pro-
claim his colours. The Conservatives would not accept him and besides,
he was not prepared to desert his leader. So he stood as a Lloyd George
Liberal.

Was there any trace of the Radical left in Winston? In the years since the
war had ended there had been much hardship in Britain. In 1922 there
were a million and a half unemployed. Housing conditions were appalling
and 'Homes fit for heroes' remained only an election slogan. During these
four years of booms and slumps Winston had taken practically no interest
in the conditions of the great mass of the wage earners. He had no new

242 WINSTON CHURCHILL

ideas to offer. His thinking was on conservative lines. The Times com-
mented on this orthodox streak, in the article already quoted: 'One could
imagine a r"*" of Mr. Churchill's great intellectual power carrying out
reforms at the Admiralty that would have made the early Naval history of
the war a very different thing, for the Navy was ready for war in every-
thing but that which mattered most, the habit of independent and uncon-
ventional thought, and this he might have supplied. At the War Office at
the end of the war the same opportunity seemed to offer and again there
was the same disappointment. There is tremendous efficiency and business
ability, and feats of organization are accomplished, but of the man himself
with his shea: intellectual power and his fertility of ideas there is no sign.
It may be after all that the fabric of his thinking is conventional, and only
its colours and expressions are original; or it may be that his mind does not
gear readily to other minds, and that he must either think and act inde-
pendently for himself, or when that is impossible tumefy the conven-
tions. . . .'

Winston fought the election tinder the most adverse conditions that could
be imagined. Three days before the contest opened he was stricken with
appendicitis and rushed off to the hospital for an operation. He was unable
to appear in Dundee until two days before the poll, and even then was in
pain and mounted the platform only with the aid of a walking stick.

All over Britain it was apparent that there was a rising tide of opinion in
favour of Conservatism. But it was not so in Dundee. Dundee's Radical
heart was beating more strongly than ever. If Winston wished to retain
his seat he had to convince the electors that he still retained his reforming
zeal and was not leaning towards thtf Right. He had prepared his speech
with great care. He told the audience how important it was to steer a
middle course between the extremes of die-hard Toryism on the one hand
and Socialism on the other. 'I do not think/ he said, 'that the country is
in a fit condition to be torn and harried by savage domestic warfare.
What we require now is not a period of turmoil but a period of stability
and recuperation. Let us stand together and tread a middle way.' 1

But in his election address, issued the week before, he had been careful
to establish himself as a progressive. He talked about housing, larger unem-
ployment benefits, and an improvement in the public services. He attacked
the Tories as the retrograde party. 'Mr. Bonar Law has described his policy
as one of negation. Such a message of negation will strike despair in the
heart of every earnest social worker and of every striver after social justice.

1 The Times: 13 November, 1922.

WAR AND PEACE 243

It cannot be accepted by any generous-hearted man or woman. . . . Over
the portals of 10 Downing Street the new Prime Minister has inscribed
his words: "All hope abandon ye who enter here"/ 1

But the Dundee electorate was not impressed. They felt that Winston's
interest in domestic affairs and his concern with the condition of the
working classes were only political opportunism. Besides this, they dis-
approved of his attitude in foreign affairs. Winston, on the other hand, felt
that he had never done so well politically as he had in the post-war years.
'I had in two years,' he wrote, 'successfully conducted the settlement of
our affairs in Palestine and Irak, and had carried through the extremely
delicate and hazardous arrangements necessitated by the Irish Treaty. I
think I may say that the session of 1922 was the most prosperous I have
ever had as a Minister in the House of Commons.' 2

But Dundee had forgotten Palestine and Iraq; and Winston's patient
negotiations over the Irish question were overshadowed by the fact that
hd had been Minister of War in a Government which had instituted the
Black and Tans. Most of all they resented his interference in Russia and
Poland. The Radicals had a firm belief that nations must be allowed to
handle their own affairs and that all interference came under the hated
head of Tory Imperialism.

On the evening of 14 November, Winston attempted to address a mass
meeting of nine thousand jpeople in the Drill Hall. The hall was packed
with opponents, seething with emotion, discontent and ill-will. He was
carried on to the platform in an invalid chair. 'I was struck by looks of
passionate hatred on the faces of some of the younger men and women.
Indeed but for my helpless condition I am sure they would have hit me.'

He was unable to deliver his speech. Every time he started the audience
burst into song, swelling the hall with the strains of: 'Tell me the old, old
story.' And above the din were bitter, hysterical cries of: 'This time we'll
do the same as Manchester/

When the poll was announced Winston and his National Liberal
partner, Mr. D. J. MacDonald, were defeated by the two Left-wing
candidates, both of whom emerged with the huge majorities of ten
thousand each. For the first time since 1900 Winston was out of Parlia-
ment. 'In the twinkling of an eye I found myself without an office, with-
out a seat, without a party, and even without an appendix.' 3

1 The Times: 7 November, 1922.

* Tlwughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill.

3 Ibid.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

BACK TO THE TORIES

AssooNasthe Dundee result of 1922 was known, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill
left for the South of France. Winston was still weak from his appendicitis
operation and the doctor agreeably recommended the sunshine and sea air
of Cannes. Accompanied by a maid, a valet and a secretary, and equipped
with plenty of foolscap and his painting kit, he cheerfully set off. Winston
loved bright colours and since the dull English sky often prevented him
from transmitting them to his canvas he made the most of the brilliant
days that stretched out before him. Every afternoon he put up his easel on
the beach or along the quiet country lanes and painted to his heart's con-
tent. 'I agree with Ruskin,' he wrote, c in his denunciation of that school of
painting who "eat slate-pencil and chalk, and assure everybody that jiey
are nicer and purer than strawberries and plums". I cannot pretend to feel
impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am
genuinely sorry for the poor browns. When I get to heaven I mean
to spend a considerable portion of my first million years in painting,
and so get to the bottom of the subject. But then I shall require a
still gayer palette than I get here below. I expect orange and vermilion
will be the darkest, dullest colours upon it, and beyond them will be a
whole range of wonderful- new colours which will delight the celestial
eye.' 1

To Winston painting was a solace, a relaxation and an infinite pleasure.
Although Augustus John found that he had 'extraordinary talent' and
Orpen proclaimed that he was 'most promising' he did not attempt to
enter the ranks of the professionals. In 1921, however, he exhibited five
landscapes in Paris under the name of Charles Morin and sold four of them
for ^30 each. Yet his head was not turned. He understood enough to
appreciate the genius of the great artist and consequently was aware of his
own limitations; but this in no way diminished his enjoyment. He found
that painting opened out a fascinating new world. He was noticing
shadows and lights and colours he had never been aware of before, and
even his travels took on an added excitement. He began to fed sorry for
the people who rushed around Europe searching for pleasure in 'mam*
moth hotels', unaware of the priceless gifts they were missing. Once one
was interested in painting, 'the vain racket of the tourist gives way to the

1 Thoughts and Adventures: Winston S. Churchill

244

BACK TO THE TORIES 245

calm enjoyment of the philosopher, intensified by an enthralling sense of
action and endeavour.'

But whereas painting was a pastime, writing was a business. In this field
Winston was the true professional for in it he earned his living when
politics failed, and took pride in the large sums his work commanded.
Although he had not produced a book since the biography of his father
appeared sixteen years earlier, when he was out of office in die war he had
found no difficulty in providing for his family by newspaper and magazine
articles. Now he no longer had to write for a living for in 1919 he in-
herited a fortune under the will of his great-grandmother, the Marchioness
of Londonderry, and he had an income in the region of .5,000 a year. Yet
he still regarded the creation of books as his chief occupation after politics,
and as soon as he reached the South of France he settled down to work.

For some years he had been carefully filing letters, documents and
memoranda for a book on the war. It was to be a major effort, published
in four or five volumes and entitled The World Crisis. He had already
outlined and prepared much of the first two volumes, one of which dealt
with the years from 1911 to the outbreak of the war, and the second with
the first year of the conflict and his part in the Dardanelles tragedy. The
chapters on the Dardanelles had been written during the war and sub-
mitted to the Royal Commission appointed to investigate the matter, as a
justification of his actions. These went into the book almost as they stood.

He worked every morning dictating to his secretary, often pacing up
and down the room chewing a cigar. He could talk a book better than
write one and he often got through three or four thousand words a day.
The first volume of The World Crisis appeared in April 1923 and. the
second in October of the same year.

The book attracted wide attention. It was a brilliant effort, the argument
was lucid and persuasive, the characters stood out boldly, the prose
sparkled and flowed, the narrative was compelling, and the theme was
presented in the grand manner worthy of a great drama. Yet it was not
history. It lacked the purpose of the scholar eager to present his story with
scrupulous objectivity, and revealed the purpose of the politician anxious
to explain and justify his actions. It was carefully done, for it breathed an
air of neutrality, yet by its skilful emphasis was strongly partisan. This was
no reflection on Winston. The book was an artistic triumph and he had
recorded events as he saw them. He was capable of great generosity, but
not of impartiality. He believed in his own ideas and his own powers with
such an intensity that he could rarely see the merits of an approach to a
problem other than his own.

The reviewers hailed the two volumes as an absorbing contribution,

246 WINSTON CHURCHILL

but they all fastened on its personal character. Professor Pollard, professor
of English history at London University, reviewed the book in The Times
under the heading: 'Apologia for the Admiralty First Class Material for
History'. He described it as 'more brilliant and fascinating than the
biography of his father', then went on to say: 'Wide vision and a vivid
imagination lift alike his matter and his style far above the pedestrian scope
of the mere chronicler of naval and military events or the retailer of official
information. His book will therefore appeal to a vastly wider public than
the more precise and impersonal histories of the naval and military opera-
tions of the war. Serious students will not need, and others will not heed,
the warning that an apologia may be first-class material for history but
cannot be history itself.' 1

Winston's friends could not refrain from being malicious at his expense.
Lord Balfour told someone that he was immersed in Winston's brilliant
autobiography disguised as a history of the universe, and another colleague
commented: 'Winston has written an enormous book about himself and
called it The World Crisis. 9 However, the books netted him ^20,000
and he spent the money on buying his country house, Chartwell Manor.

Despite his literary triumph, his new country house, his painting and his
other countless activities, Winston was not happy. He was a creature of
moods, and when he was out of office his pleasures were disturbed by a
hankering for power which increased as the days passed. His thoughts
were always on politics. It was some comfort to be able to reconstruct
events as he saw them in a political book, but how much more exciting
it was to create the events themselves. He followed every debate in the
House of Commons, and every move the Government made; and when
people came to dine with him he sat at the table until midnight discussing
the personalities and questions of the day. The men in power were a
mediocre lot; how much better he would handle things, he thought, if
only he were given the chance.

But at this point the future looked bleak, for the General Election of
1922, at which he had been defeated, had returned the Conservatives with
344 seats. It had left the Liberals weak, divided and impotent. The Lloyd
George Liberals had won only 57 seats and the Asquith. Liberals 60. lie
Labour Party had emerged as the official Opposition with its 142 Members,
by far the most they had ever sent to the House of Commons. Did this
mean that Liberalism was dead? If so, where did Winston fit in? The
Conservatives would have nothing to do with him and he would have

1 10 April, 1923.

BACK TO THE TORIES 247

nothing to do with the Labour Party. Besides, Labour cordially detested
him. There was only one answer: somehow he must make his peace with
the Tories.

Winston's friends regarded his future dubiously. Even Lloyd George
and Lord Birkenhead, who appreciated his brilliant gifts, predicted that he
would make a greater contribution to history as a writer than as a states-
man. He was out on a political limb, and it seemed doubtful if he could
ever climb back.

It was apparent to anyone who took an interest in national affairs that an
important change was taking place in English political life. For over a
century the two great parties of the State, Liberal and Conservative, had
fulfilled opposing but complementary functions- The duty of Con-
servatives was to 'conserve'. Their hands were seldom off the brake. They
defended the status quo and resisted most changes until they saw that
change was absolutely inevitable, then accepted it with as good a grace as
possible. The Liberals, on the other hand, constituted a reforming Party.
William Ewart Gladstone summed up their outlook when he said: 'I will
back the masses against the classes the world over.' The Liberal function
was to spread democratic rights, many of which were enjoyed only by
the privileged class.

But whereas, to the bulk of the people, the struggle of the working man
in the nineteenth century was mainly concerned with political freedoms
such as the right to vote, and the right of Trade Unions to organize and
expand, in the twentieth century the struggle took on a different aspect.
Political freedom was clearly defined and dearly established. The working
man was now concerned with economic freedom. Britain was the richest
manufacturing country in the world and London the greatest capital city.
Yet at the turn of the century in London itsdf thirty per cent of die popu-
lation was suffering from malnutrition. Nowhere in the Western world
were there greater extremes of riches and poverty. The wealth of the
nation ky in the hands of a tiny minority. Even as late as 1936 it was
estimated that only one per cent of the population owned fifty-five per
cent of the nation's private property. 1

Lloyd George understood and sympathized with the discontent of the
working dasses. He made British history by using the budget as an instru-
ment for re-distributing the national income. Taxation of the rich was
made to pay for a whole system of social benefits and security. But
Lloyd George's legislation was only a first step in satisfying the aspirations

1 Public and Private Property in Great Britain: U. Campion.

248 WINSTON CHURCHILL

of the wage-earning population. During the war progress came to a halt,
but when the conflict was over the demands were more pressing than ever.
The working classes had been promised 'homes fit for heroes' and they
were determined to get them. However, there was little reforming zeal
about Lloyd George's Coalition Government, which was mainly domi-
nated by Conservatives. And Lloyd George himself, preoccupied with the
Paris Peace Treaty, seemed to have lost his Radical outlook. Up till this
time the bulk of the working class had voted Liberal. Now they began to
turn towards the Labour Party as their only hope.

But the Labour Party itself had undergone a drastic change. When it
was formed in 1900 the idea of- its leader, Keir Hardie, was to mould a
political organization, backed by the Trade Unions, strong enough to
send working men to Parliament to represent the interests of their own
class. Hardie resented the fact that the Liberals, despite their progressive
ideas, generally refused to accept miners or factory hands as their candi-
dates. He was convinced that the case of the working man would never be
placed forcibly before the country until the working man himself had
the opportunity to state it.

Until 1918 this remained the simple object of Keir Hardie's party. But
when the war ended Labour broadened its aims. A new constitution was
drafted by Sidney Webb, designed to end Labour's narrow class appeal by
addressing itself to all those who 'produced by hand or brain*. It also
adopted Socialism as its faith, but it was not the Socialism of Karl Marx. It
was Christian Socialism which rejected revolutionary methods, basing
itself firmly on democratic institutions and the theory of 'gradualism'.
Its aim, it declared, was by these orthodox methods 'to secure for the
producers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most
equitable distribution thereof that may be possible, upon a. basis of com-
mon ownership of the means of production and the best obtainable system
of popular administration and control of each industry and service/

The widened appeal of the Labour Party attracted new recruits from all
walks of life. Professional men from the middle classes and even aristocrats
began to flock to its banner. Several leading Liberals such as Mr. Noel
Buxton and Sir Charles Trevdyan joined its ranks. The historic division
between the English Conservative and the English Radical was now becom-
ing a division between wage earners backed by a large number of pro-
fessional men and women, and property owners supported by a cross-
section of all classes who believed that the well-to-do made the best rulers.
The argument between the two parties was the age-old quarrel over
money.

BACK TO THE TORIES 249

If the Liberal Party was dead, and the struggle of the future lay between
Labour and Conservatism, Winston had no difficulty in making his
choice. Before the war Lloyd George's immense driving power had
carried him along the path of Radicalism but now that that impetus had
subsided, he reverted instinctively to his natural aristocratic background.

He had a genuine desire to see a minimum standard of living established
below which no one would be allowed to fall, and he vigorously held the
opinion that compulsory insurance was the answer. But he never had any
patience with the idea that the manual labourer, simply because he was in a
majority in the country, should rule or dominate it. He felt that the
nation's prosperity depended on brains and enterprise, and his Liberalism
took the form of denouncing privilege in favour of 'the golden ideal* of
"careers open to talent'. But that is as far as it went. If the working man
wanted power and responsibility let him climb up the ladder; but he
should not sit at the bottom and demand the prizes by virtue of number
rather than ability.

The problem for Winston, therefore, was not in making a choice be-
tween the two parties, but in finding a way of installing himself in the
good graces of die Conservatives. Only one bridge was possible: an issue
that transcended the differences between Liberals and Conservatives and
ranged them on the same side. Ever since the war Winston had been a
relentless enemy of Bolshevism. If he could convince the electorate that
the British Labour Party had an affinity with the tyrants of Russia, no
one could blame him for deserting a weakened Liberal Party to lend his
strength to the only force capable of real opposition.

It is difficult to judge a man's motives fairly. They are often made up of
an elaborate mixture of idealism and calculation. Winston may have had a
genuine fear that the Labour Party would prove unconstitutional if it got
into power. In those days the Movement contained a good many ex-
tremists, and it was even rumoured that the Daily Herald was supported by
Russian funds. Some of the extremists advocated a General Strike as a basic
tenet of policy, and the Government took the threat so seriously that as
early as the summer of 1920 preparations were begun to set up a volunteer
organization to operate in case of an emergency. On the other hand many
people considered these provisions hysterical, for the Labour Party leaders,
who represented the majority of their followers, were deeply pledged to
democratic methods and repeatedly and publicly had repudiated the
'catastrophic' theories of the Marxists.

Whenever Winston embraced a cause, however, it impressed itself upon

hirp with iyigrraging fnrr? ati<^ ** * result, he treated the public to a. horrific

picture of strife and upheaval in the event of Labour reaching fiill power.

250 WINSTON CHURCHILL

But most Liberals and even a large number of Conservatives did not share
his belief that the Socialist leaders were such a sinister lot. Many of them
were openly embarrassed by his extreme point of view, but this only
strengthened his fervour. On 4 May, 1923, he addressed the Aldwych
Club in London: 'We see developing a great, vehement, deliberate attack

upon the foundations of society We see not only Liberals of the Left

but Conservatives of the Right, assuring the country that there is no
danger of Socialism or of a Socialist Government, that it is a mere bogey
or bugbear not worthy of serious attention; that the Labour leaders are
very sensible and honest men, who would never think of carrying out
their pledges. Finally we are told that in any case we must not resist them
or organize effectively against them, because it would not be democratic
or modern-minded to oppose Labour. Thus all resistance to violent change
is paralysed or reduced to feebleness and futility/

Winston was only happy when he was fighting a dangerous foe and as
a result most of those attacks lost their effect through over-statement, and
more than once he received a biting indictment from H. G. Wells. 'He
believes quite naively,' Wells wrote, *that he belongs to a peculiarly gifted
and privileged class of beings to whom the lives and affairs of common
men are given over, the raw material of brilliant careers. His imagination
is obsessed by dreams of exploits and a career. It is an imagination closely
akin to the d'Annunzio type. In England, d'Annunzio would have been a
Churchill; in Italy, Churchill would have been a d'Annunzio. He is a great
student and collector of the literature of Napoleon I, that master adven-
turer. Before all things he desires a dramatic world with villains and one
hero/

When one reads these scathing vignettes one can only ponder on the
narrow line between political failure and success. In those days it was the
fashion to ridicule Churchill and if he had died before the age of sixty his
obituary notice would not have praised him as a statesman. The political
genius was there but the occasion was lacking. When it finally presented
itself H. G. Wells, and millions of his countrymen, were thankful that
Churchill was there to play the part.

In 1923 an event occurred which proved advantageous for Mr. Churchill.
Bonar Law, the Conservative Prime Minister and Winston's firm political
enemy, resigned and soon afterwards died, and Stanley Baldwin, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, succeeded to the Premiership. Baldwin, a
shrewd, kind, stolid Englishman, who liked the countryside, smoked
pipes and was a cousin of Rudyard Kipling, was worried by the fact that

BACK TO THE TORIES 25!

unemployment still hovered at the million mark. He came to the con-
clusion that the only way to cure this national disease was by introducing
tariffs against foreign goods and thereby stimulating British trade. But in
view of pledges given by Bonar Law in the 1922 election he did not feel
that he could undertake such a drastic step without having a mandate
from the country. Consequently a general election took place.

Baldwin thus picked the only issue capable of uniting all Liberals in one
battle-line. Asquith and Lloyd George at once joined forces on the subject
of Free Trade. This put Winston in an awkward position. He had no wish
to fight against a Conservative candidate when he was trying to re-enter
the ranks of the Conservative Party. However, he found a way out of the
dilemma. He stood as a Liberal Free Trader at West Leicester where his
chief opponent in a three-cornered fight was not a Conservative but a
Socialist, Mr. F. W. Pethick-Lawrence.

Winston's campaign was noisy and excited. His violent attacks on the
Labour Party raised the temperature to boiling point and drew packed
meetings filled with irate hecklers. The Socialists flung up every accusation
they could find. Winston's The World Crisis had revived the old con-
troversy of Antwerp and the Dardanelles and these subjects were raised so
consistently that General Sir Ian Hamilton finally sent a telegram pointing
out to the public that the expedition had been 'triumphantly vindicated'
at a meeting of the Senior Naval and Army Officers. Winston himself
answered his opponents vigorously. 'The Dardanelles might have saved
millions of lives. Don't imagine that I run away from the Dardanelles:
I glory in it/

He was so bitterly hated by a large section of the working class, how-
ever, that when he spoke in London, at Walthamstow, on 3 December,
1923, the authorities were obliged to send both mounted and foot police
to protect him. A brick was hurled at the window of his car, and a man
who had shaken his fist in Churchill's face was hustled off to die police
station. Winston gave an interview to the Evening News describing the
hecklers as 'the worst crowd I have ever seen in England in twenty-five
years of public life. They were more like Russian wolves than British
workmen if they are British workmen howling, foaming and spitting,
and generally behaving in a way absolutely foreign to the British working
classes/ He was defeated by 13,000 votes to 9,000.

The result of the general election was that Conservatives, Liberals and
Labour were each returned in numbers that gave no single party a dear
majority over the other two. The only way a Government could be
carried on was by two parties forming a coalition. It was unthinkable at
this period that Conservative and Labour could work together, and the

252 WINSTON CHURCHILL

fact that Conservatives and Liberals had opposed each other on the main
issue of the election, Protection, made this second combination impossible.
The only alternative was a Liberal-Labour Government. And since Labour
had more seats than the Liberals it fell to them to form an Administration
with Liberal backing. Thus Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister
of England.

It must have been apparent to Mr. Churchill, as it was to everyone else
connected with politics, that a Labour Government held in power by
Liberal support could not introduce any drastic changes. It must also have
been apparent to him that the Labour leaders, Ramsay MacDonald, J. R.
Clynes, Philip Snowden and Arthur Henderson, were not the sort of men
for whom revolutionary tactics had any appeal whatsoever. Most of them
were nonconformists and all of them were democrats; they were high-
minded men whose main purpose was to alleviate the conditions of the
poor. There was nothing in Ramsay MacDonald's philosophy that could
have prevented him becoming a Liberal; indeed, only a short while pre-
viously MacDonald had advocated the dropping of Socialism as a party
label 'because there is a sort of bookish association about socialism'.

However, Winston's only hope of a reconciliation with the Con-
servatives was to keep the Socialist bogey alive and inflate it as much as
possible. On 17 January, 1924, he wrote a letter to the press stating the
following view: 'The currents of Party warfare are carrying us into
dangerous waters. The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government
will be a serious national misfortune such as has usually befallen great
States only on the morrow of their defeat in war. It will delay the return
of prosperity, it will open a period of increasing political confusion and
disturbance, it will place both the Liberal and the Labour Parties in a
thoroughly false position . . . The great central mass of the nation desires
to see foreign affairs and social reform dealt with by the new Parliament
on their merits without rancour- or prejudice, and in a sincere spirit of
good-will. All such prospects will be destroyed by the accession to office
of a minority party innately pledged to the fundamental subversion of the
existing social and economic civilization and organized for that purpose
and that purpose alone. Strife and tumults, deepening and darkening, will
be the only consequence of minority Socialist rule/

A month later, in February, a Conservative seat fell vacant in the Abbey
Division of Westminster. Winston at once set about trying to get himself
adopted as the Conservative candidate. His Tory friends, Lord Birken-
head, Austen Chamberlain and Lord Balfour, all used their influence on
his behalf. On 24 March an article about Winston written by Lord Birken-
head was spectacularly displayed in the Sunday Times. It dealt with Win-

BACK TO THE TORIES 253

ston's early career and told how, in the writer's opinion, Winston would
never have severed his connections with the Tory Party if the Tory Prime
Minister, Arthur Balfour, had encouraged him by offering him a job.
Winston had always been a Tory at heart. He was a 'restive young
thoroughbred* and his defection had been one of the 'tragedies of modern
polities' for no one believed in the 'stately continuity of English life* more
thoroughly than he. Birkenhead then went on to say: 'To those who
know him well it is very remarkable how complete is the public miscon-
ception of the man. He is looked upon as reserved, insolent and even
bullying. For these illusions his own demeanour is (unintentionally) much
to blame. He has no small talk, and says everything which comes into his
mind. Sometimes caustic and disagreeable things come into it though in
private life this never happens ... He has indeed, in the intimacy of
personal friendship, a quality which is almost feminine in its caressing
charm. And he has never in all his life failed a friend, however embar-
rassing the obligation which he felt it necessary to honour proved at the
moment.'

Despite the powerful intervention on his behalf the Conservative
Association of Westminster turned down Winston's application in favour
of Captain Otho Nicholson, a nephew of the retiring Member. Winston,
however, was undaunted and on 10 March the press carried his announce-
ment that he was standing as an 'independent and Anti-Socialist' candidate.
'My candidature,' he explained, 'is in no way hostile to the Conservative
Party or its leaders, on die contrary I recognize that the Party must now
become the main rallying ground for the opponents of die Socialist
Party. In the King's Speech of the late Government the Conservative
leaders have announced a broad progressive policy in social matters and
have made declarations which in their main outline might well have
served as the King's Speech of a Liberal Government.'

Winston's intervention almost comes under the heading of a schoolboy
prank. He often had an irresistible urge to make the 'stuffier element' of
the Tory Party sit up and take notice and die Westminster election pro-
vided him with a golden opportunity. Conservatives in the House of
Commons were divided into two groups; those who regarded his candida-
ture as a glorious knock-about turn and those who decried it as a mon-
strous act for a man who called himself an 'anti-Socialist'. Westminster
was a Conservative seat. The only possible hope of Labour winning the
contest ky in dividing die Tory vote, which easily might have been the
result of Winston's entry. Several angry letters appeared in The Times.
One by William Morris, a City Councillor, declared: 'Westminster Con-
servatives have selected Mr. Nicholson as their anti-Socialist candidate.

254 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Mr. Churchill's intrusion is an attempt to spoil his chances where, there-
fore, is Mr. Churchill's anti-Socialism?' 1

Winston answered his critics with an extraordinary piece of political
humbug. 'If I thought that the present Conservative candidate,' he said,
'really represented the force of character of the constituency I should not
have come forward as a candidate. An important public principle is
involved. The days of family preserves and pocket boroughs ought not to
be revived. It is not right that the Westminster Abbey Division should be
passed on from hand to hand as if it were a piece of furniture handed on
from father to son, or from uncle to nephew.' 2

The by-election was an exciting affair and front page news. The Abbey
Division was the most colourful seat in England; it included Buckingham
Palace, the Houses of Parliament, Soho, Pimlico, the Strand, Covent
Garden, a fashionable residential district, a slum area, and a slice of theatre-
land. A Conservative M.P. lent Winston a luxurious house in Lord North
Street, equipped with priceless Gainsborough pictures, as his headquarters.
A bevy of beautiful Society ladies canvassed for him, and the chorus girls
at Daly's sat up all night dispatching his election address.

Winston fought the campaign almost entirely against the Socialists.
His speeches were woven against a background of blood and thunder,
against the ruin and shame that a Labour Government would bring to
Britain. The fact that a Labour Government had been in office for three
months and was conducting affairs in an orderly and dignified way did
not dismay him. 'How well the Socialist Government is doing/ he jeered.
'How moderate, how gentle they are. How patriotic Mr. Thomas's
speeches. How lofty Mr. MacDonald's views of his functions. How pious
is Mr. Henderson. How prudent is Mr. Snowden, how careful of the
State. I say there is no correspondence between this glossy surface, and
the turbulent currents that are flowing beneath. These leaders can never
restrain their followers.' 3

Winston soon had a spectacular machine working for him. He had

1 ii March, 1924.

1 In February 1944, when Mr. Churchill was Prime Minister, Lord Harrington,
the Duke of Devonshire^ eldest son, stood as a Government candidate in the by-
election at West Derbyshire, which had previously been represented by his uncle.
Winston wrote him the following letter of support: *JMy dear Harrington, I see
that they arc attacking you because your family has been identified for about three
hundred years with the Parliamentary representation of West Derbyshire. It ought,
on the contrary, to be a matter of pride to the constituency to have such a long
tradition of such constancy and fidelity through so many changing scenes and
circumstances . . .'

* The Times: 12 March, 1924.

BACK TO THE TORIES 255

gathered over thirty Conservative M.P.S and a glittering array of peers
and peeresses to canvass for him. He also had the support of Lord Rother-
mere's Daily Mail. Nevertheless he did not feel he had a chance unless he
could persuade an important Tory political leader to back his cause. Lord
Balfour agreed to support him but Baldwin would not consent unless
some other Conservative leader came out in support of Nicholson. This
not only seems an extraordinary attitude for a Party leader to adopt to-
wards an official candidate, but the very fact that Baldwin himself delayed
issuing an endorsement of Nicholson prompted Mr. Leo Amery to write
a letter to The Times in his support. At once Balfour's letter was released
and broadcast through the constituency. He informed Winston of his
strong desire to see him once more in the House of Commons, 'once more
able to use your brilliant gifts in the public discussion of the vital problems
with which the country is evidently confronted.'

However, the rank and file of the Tory Party had not yet accepted
Winston. Many of them resented his intervention against the candidate
their Association had adopted. Captain Nicholson plastered the con-
stituency with posters. 'Dundee didn't. West Leicester laughed. West-
minster won't.' And Captain Nicholson proved to be right. Despite all
the great names, the glamour and glitter, Winston's forceful and spell-
binding oratory, the unknown Nicholson defeated him by forty-three
votes. 1 The following day The Times wrote acidly: 'The features of his
kte campaign that attracted legitimate criticism were his ill-timed insist-
ence on sheer anti-Socialism as the paramount claim on the electors at this
moment, and the impulse that drove him, holding these views, to
jeopardize a seat which without him was at least anti-Socialist. It is no
new thing, after all, to discover that judgment is not the most con-
spicuous of Mr. Churchill's remarkable gifts.' 2

But Winston was far from downcast His path was now dear. He had
severed his connection with the Liberals, he had a number of powerful
Conservative friends, he had the good will of the Conservative leader,
Mr. Baldwin, and every day he was establishing himself more securely as a
Conservative champion against the forces of 'revolution'. Although none
of his prophecies about the Labour Government were fulfilled and they
remained a Party of restraint and moderation, Winston was determined
not to let the public forget that they were there, and merely altered the
line of his attack. On 8 May he said at Liverpool: 'The present Government

1 The result was as follows: Captain Nicholson (Conservative) 8,187; Rt. Hon.
Winston S. Churchill (Independent and Anti-Socialist) 8,144; Fenner Brockway

ff* 1 \ .^ * ** *-*. T"v V /r *1 1 \

(Socialist) 6,165; Scott Duckers (Liberal) 291.
* 21 March, 1924.

256 WINSTON CHURCHILL

is one vast movement of sham and humbug ... It has deserted with the
utmost cynicism the whole of its Socialist principles so far as its present
finance, legislation and administration is concerned. . . .'

In the autumn of 1924, only nine months after the Labour Government
had taken over, the Liberals withdrew their support and Ramsay Mac-
Donald was forced to go to the country. The election is known in history
as 'The Red Letter Election'. A few days before the poll the Foreign Office
published a letter, purported to be from Zinovieff, head of the Bolshevik
Third International, calling on the British Communist Party to organize
an armed revolt in England. This was bitterly denounced by the Labour
Government as a forgery, and to this day the truth of the matter is not
known. But forgery or not, it secured the Conservatives a huge majority
over all parties.

The two years that Winston had been out of Parliament were to prove a
turning point in English politics. They were to mark the end of the Liberal
Party as a parliamentary power, and the rise of the Labour Party as the
official opposition to Toryism; they were also to mark the advent of
fifteen years of the most mediocre and incompetent Conservative rule the
nation had experienced for a century.

During this period Winston had fought and lost three contests, had
severed his connections with the Liberals, and made his way once more
back to the Conservative ranks. At the Red Letter Election, his fourth in
two years, he stood for Epping as a 'constitutionalist' with Conservative
support. This time he was successful. A few days after the result was
known the country learned that Stanley Baldwin had appointed him
Chancellor of the Exchequer.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

THE CONSERVATIVES were astonished by the news of Winston's
appointment. The Chancellorship was a glittering prize to be awarded to
a black sheep after nearly twenty years of wandering in heretical fields.
Besides, it was only the year before that Winston had stood as an ardent
Free Trader against the Tory policy of Protection. And lastly, what did he
know of finance? He had no knowledge of economics and no business
experience; indeed in the previous thirteen years he had taken less interest
in domestic affairs than almost any other leading politician.

Why had Stanley Baldwin made the appointment? Winston's bio-
graphers explain unconvincingly that Baldwin was tired of mediocrity
and had a particular liking for Winston's buoyant personality. Neither of
these reasons was the real one. The truth was that Baldwin feared
Churchill, and above all he feared the combination of Churchill and
Lloyd George. If he did not include Winston in the Government he was
afraid he might join forces again with Lloyd George in a Centre Party,
and perhaps take his friend, Lord Birkenhead, along with him. Baldwin
had no wish to find himself attacked by the three greatest orators of the
day. His first move, therefore, was to detach Churchill from Lloyd
George. And while he was doing the detaching he decided to put Winston
in a position where Conservative pressure would force him to water down
his views on Free Trade. It was a cleverly thought-out manoeuvre by an
astute politician.

If the Conservatives were astonished by Winston's appointment, he
was apparently even more astonished himself. A story was soon circulat-
ing that when Baldwin offered him the Chancellorship he nodded and
asked pleasantly: 'Of the Duchy of Lancaster?' His fortunes had changed
with a dazzling rapidity. The year before he had been a political outcast
with a bleak future; now he was reinstated in the Tory Party and held
the second most important position in the State. Once again he was in
line for the Premiership.

Winston was delighted by his new position for sentimental reasons as
well as political When his father had resigned from the Chancellorship
Lady Randolph Churchill had refused to hand on his robes to his
successor, as was the custom in those days, but had packed them away in
moth balls, declaring that one day Winston would need them. Although

258 WINSTON CHURCHILL

she was no longer alive to see her son's triumph Winston was immensely
proud to think that her prophecy had come true. Yet the victory was soon
to have a hollow ring for he was destined to preside over the Treasury for
five years of depression, bitterness and strife, accentuated by the gravest
industrial crisis the nation had ever known the General Strike. And
many of the difficulties were to be the direct result of his own financial
policy: the return to the Gold Standard at the pre-war parity of exchange.

Churchill's first Budget, presented to the Commons on 28 April, 1925,
was a masterly parliamentary performance. There were the usual crowds
outside No. n Downing Street waiting to see the Chancellor come out,
red dispatch box in hand, on his way to the House; there was the usual air
of smiling secrecy; the crowded Chamber; the galleries filled with distin-
guished visitors. But there was an atmosphere of added excitement for
people expected a lively 'show' and Winston did not disappoint them. His
long address was not the customary dry exposition but an artistic per-
formance that sparkled and flowed and even managed to amuse. In the
middle he broke off, filled a glass in front of him with excisable liquor, and
lifting it commented cheerfully: 'It is imperative that I should fortify the
revenue, and this I shall now, with the permission of the Commons, pro-
ceed to do.*

However, when the first effects of the Chancellor's speech had worn off
and Members had had time to reflect upon it they found that it contained
nothing very original. It was strait-laced, orthodox Tory finance. Indeed,
when Stanley Baldwin congratulated the Chancellor he said that 'one of
the reasons why my right honourable Friend's Budget commends itself
particularly to me, and will commend itself to our Party as also, I
believe, to the House, and, I am certain, to the country is because it
follows the soundest lines of prudence and Conservative finance/

The Opposition based its attack on these same grounds. Philip Snow-
den, the Labour ex-Chancellor, jeered at Churchill, the Free Trader, for
the Protectionist duties he had placed on silk. Winston declared that they
were not Protectionist but merely revenue duties. Snowden then twitted
him for having changed his views on taxing silk imports. 'There is nothing
wrong with change, if it is in the right direction,' retorted Churchill.
'You are an authority on that,* said Snowden. 'To improve is to change,'
recited Churchill blandly. 'To be perfect is to change often.*

Snowden also attacked the Budget for its partiality. 'There is not one
penny of relief for the wage-earning classes,* he declared. 'Shorn of all the
glamour of the right honourable Gentleman's eloquence this is his Budget.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 259

No more of a rich man's Budget has ever been presented. ... I congratu-
late the right honourable Gentleman. It will not take long for the glamour
to disappear, and then the great toiling masses of this country will realize
the true character of this Budget, and will realize, too, that the Tory
Party is still more than ever what Lord George Hamilton declared many
years ago: "A party that looks after its own friends, whether it be in office
or out of office".' 1

Churchill's Budget will be remembered in history, but not for its duties
on silk nor its reduction in taxation for the rich. It is remembered as the
Budget that announced Britain's return to the pre-war parity of gold.
To-day most economic experts agree that this was a disastrous step. It
accentuated the trade depression already in existence and indirectly
brought about an industrial upheaval destined to have far-reaching con-
sequences. As a result Churchill's critics like to claim that he was 'the worst
Chancellor Britain has ever had' and even to-day remind him angrily of
the responsibility he bore. In 1946 Ernest Bevin told the House of Com-
mons: 'Directly the right honourable Gentleman (Baldwin) got into office
they (the Government) started to contemplate our return to the Gold
Standard. No sooner had the right honourable Gentleman, the Member
for Woodford (Churchill) agreed to that course, than Sir Otto Niemeyer
left the Treasury to go back to the Bank of England. That was very signi-
ficant. We were brought back to pre-war parity of gold. No single trade
union or industrialist in this country, outside the bank directors, was ever
told. There was no notice in the Press that it had ever been discussed and
like a bolt from the blue we were suddenly met with the complete upset
of the wage structure in this country. . . ,' 2

Bevin's statement implies that sensible people understood the full impli-
cations of a return to gold at the pre-war rate, and that Winston's move
was deliberately rash and precipitate. This was not the case. Business men
and financiers were almost unanimous in their opinion that Britain should
take the step in order to re-establish herself as the financial centre of the
world, which they believed was essential to her future prosperity. A
standing committee of experts appointed by the Lloyd George Govern-
ment in 1918 to investigate the position, urged that the decision should be
taken, and the majority of politicians of all parties accepted it in principle.
Only one clear, emphatic voice was raised against it, and that was the
voice of the brilliant young Cambridge don, J. M. Keynes, whose books

1 Hansard: 29 April, 1925.
1 Hansard: 13 February, 1946.

2<50 WINSTON CHURCHILL

on economic theory were later to revolutionize the economic thought of
the Western world.

The truth of the matter was that in 1925 Britain was midway between
two economic concepts of society. The prevailing belief was in the school
of 'hard facts' which insisted that wages and prices must be adjusted
strictly by the laws of supply and demand. The other school, led by
Keynes, preached the idea of a 'managed economy'. But in 1925 Keynes'
theories were considered heretical. He had not yet fully developed his
ideas and although he could point out the risks and consequences of a
return to the Gold Standard, he had no convincing alternative to offer.
He had a few disciples among the young Labour Party economists, but the
leaders favoured the established view. As a result the Labour Party put
down an amendment against the 'timing* of the motion, but not against
the principle of it. The motion stated: 'That this House cannot at present
assent to the Second Reading of a Bill, which, by providing a return to
the Gold Standard with undue precipitancy, may aggravate the existing
grave condition of unemployment and trade depression.'

Philip Snowden, however, found even this motion hard to defend for
only a few weeks previously he had an article in the Observer arguing
in favour of a return to the Gold Standard. However, a young Socialist
by the name of Hugh Dalton, who was one of Keynes' greatest admirers,
and who was himself destined to become Chancellor of the Exchequer in
1945, had no such cramping limitations. 'We on these benches will hold
the Chancellor of the Exchequer strictly to account, and strictly respon-
sible/ he told the House of Commons, 'if, as we fear, there should be a
further aggravation of unemployment and of the present trade depression
as a result of his action, and should it work out, that men who are em-
ployed lose their jobs as a result of this deflation. Should that be so we will
explain who is to blame.' 1

After debating the amendment the Labour Opposition let the matter
drop. It did not even press a division and the Gold Standard Bill passed
through the House in two days. Only Keynes continued the attack. He
wrote a series of articles for the Evening Standard which were published
in a pamphlet entitled: The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill Why,
he asked, had Mr. Churchill made such a silly mistake? 'Partly, perhaps,
because he has no instinctive judgment to prevent him from making mis-
takes; partly, because, lacking this instinctive judgment, he was deafened
by the clamorous voice of conventional finance; and most of all, because
he was gravely misled by his experts.'

Keynes then went on to refer scathingly to the arguments of the experts

1 Hansard: 4 May, 1925.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 26l

as 'vague and jejune meditations'. In five brilliant paragraphs which
proved a startlingly accurate prophecy, he stated what the experts, if they
had any sense, should have told Mr. Churchill, 'Money-wages, the cost of
living, and the prices which we are asking for our exports have not adjusted
themselves to the improvement in the exchange, which the expectation
of your restoring the Gold Standard, in accordance with your repeated
declarations, has already brought about. They are about ten per cent too
high. If, therefore, you fix the exchange at this gold parity, you must
either gamble on a rise in gold prices abroad, which will induce foreigners
to pay a higher gold price for our exports, or you are committing yourself
to a policy of forcing down money wages and the cost of living to the
necessary extent.

'We must warn you that this latter policy is not easy. It is certain to in-
volve unemployment and industrial disputes. If, as some people think, real
wages were already too high a year ago, that is all the worse, because the
amount of the necessary wage reduction in terms of money will be all the
greater.

'The gamble on a rise in gold prices abroad may quite likely succeed.
But it is by no means certain, and you must be prepared for the other
contingency. If you think that the advantages of the Gold Standard are so
significant and so urgent that you are prepared to risk great unpopularity
and to take stern administrative action in order to secure them, the course
of events will probably be as follows.

'To begin with, there will be great depression in the export industries.
This, in itself, will be helpful, since it will produce an atmosphere favour-
able to the reduction of wages. The cost of living will fall somewhat. This
will be helpful too, because it will give you a good argument in favour of
reducing wages. Nevertheless, the cost of living will not fall sufficiently
and, consequently, the export industries will not be able to reduce their
prices sufficiently until wages have fallen in the sheltered industries. Now,
wages will not fall in the sheltered industries, merely because there is un-
employment in the unsheltered industries. Therefore, you will have to see
to it that there is unemployment in the sheltered industries also. The way
to do this will be by credit restriction. By means of the restriction of
credit by the Bank of England, you can deliberately intensify unemploy-
ment to any required degree, until wages do fall. When the process is
complete the cost of living will have fallen too: and we shall then be,
with luck, just where we were before we started.

'We ought to warn you, though perhaps this is going a little outside our
proper sphere, that it will not be safe politically to admit that you are inten-
sifying unemployment deliberately in order to reduce wages. Thus you

262 WINSTON CHURCHILL

will have to ascribe what is happening to every conceivable cause except
the true one. We estimate that about two years may elapse before it will
be safe for you to utter in public one single word of truth. By that time
you will either be out of office, or the adjustment, somehow or other,
will have been carried through/

The just complaint against Churchill's tenure at the Treasury is that he
was not a financial genius at a time when a financial genius was desper-
ately needed; that for once in his life he was orthodox when orthodoxy
should have been flung to the winds. Keynes' predictions came true and
the coal mines were the first to feel the consequences of Churchill's policy.
For some time the industry had been in an unhealthy state. By 1919 it
was apparent that such a large amount of capital equipment was necessary
to make the mines profitable that the Sankey Commission recommended
their nationalization. This was not done and by 1925 British coal, faced
with a German revival and burdened by an uneconomic organization,
was scarcely a paying proposition. Then came the return to the Gold
Standard which meant that British goods worth i8s. automatically cost
the foreign buyer i. The coal owners were forced to lower their prices
and consequently decided to lower the miners* wages.

The reduction would have made mining one of the worst sweated in-
dustries in the country. There was already a deep legacy of bitterness at the
coal face for the tragic way the workers had been exploited during the past
century. As a result the miners were the most politically conscious group
in the country and possessed one of the strongest unions. A miner, Keir
Hardie, was the founder of the Labour Party.

The men protested vigorously at the threatened cuts and the Trade
Union Congress and the Labour Party protested with them. The Union
chiefs declared that if the reductions were put into operation and the
miners struck, other unions would strike in sympathy with them. The
Government realized that serious trouble lay ahead and Baldwin opened
negotiations with the T.U.C. Two days before the cuts were to become
effective he declared that the Treasury would subsidize the miners so that
they could maintain the wage standard, until a Commission, under die
chairmanship of Lord Samuel, could investigate the matter.

The Commission took seven months to issue its report. During the
interim period Keynes championed the cause of the miners and tried to
make people see that they were the helpless victims of Winston's Gold
Standard policy. "Why should coal miners suffer a lower standard of life
than other classes of labour?' he asked. 'They may be lazy, good-for-

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 2<53

nothing fellows who do not work so hard or so long as they should. But is
there any evidence that they are more lazy or more good-for-nothing
than other people?

'On grounds of social justice no case can be made out for reducing the
wages of the miners. They are the victims of the economic Juggernaut.
They represent in the flesh the "fundamental adjustments" engineered by
the Treasury and the Bank of England to satisfy the impatience of the
City fathers to bridge the "moderate gap" between 4.40 and 4.86. They
(and others to follow) are the "moderate sacrifice" still necessary to ensure
die stability of the Gold Standard. The plight of the coal miners is the
first, but not unless we are very lucky the last, of the Economic Con-
sequences of Mr. Churchill/ 1

The Samuel Report was issued on n March, which gave the two sides
about six weeks to come to an agreement. It was generally felt that the
Report was a sensible and liberal-minded document. It made a mass of
practical suggestions for the improvement of the mines, which involved a
very large expenditure on the part of the coal owners for re-equipment.
But since the mines were not running as an economic proposition, and
since the Government was not prepared to continue a subsidy, it was
forced to the conclusion that during the period of reorganization the
miners should accept a temporary reduction in wages.

Short of nationalizing the mines, or of continuing a subsidy, the Samuel
Report was the best compromise that could be hoped for. But instead of
grasping it eagerly and urging it wholeheartedly upon the coal owners,
Baldwin took no trouble to conceal his distaste for it, then announced
unenthusiastically that if the parties to the dispute accepted it, the Govern-
ment would do likewise. This attitude merely encouraged both sides to
tear the recommendations to pieces and finally turn down the Report.
The wage cuts were introduced and a coal stoppage began on 30 April.

The next forty-eight hours are now a matter of history. A series of
events took place which ended in misunderstanding and recrimination
between the Government and the Trade Union leaders, and resulted in a
General Strike. Since that time Ernest Bevin, who became the virtual
leader of the strike, twice declared on public platforms that Winston
Churchill was responsible for the breaking off of negotiations which made
the strike inevitable, by a fateful last-minute intervention. What is the
truth of the story?

On i May, a day after the coal stoppage had begun, the Trade Union

1 Tlie Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill:]. M. Keyncs.

264 WINSTON CHURCHILL

General Council held a conference of the executives of its affiliated unions.
By an almost unanimous vote the meeting decided to call a National Strike
in support of the miners, which would begin at midnight on 3 May. At
the same time they sent a letter to the Prime Minister informing him that
all affiliated unions, including the miners, had handed over the conduct of
the dispute to the General Council of the Congress, which would under-
take negotiations and was willing to meet the Government at any time.
That same evening, i May, Baldwin sent for the General Council.
After a discussion lasting several hours the Prime Minister suggested that
the Government might be willing to continue the coal subsidy for another
two weeks so that talks could be reopened, if on their part the General
Council was 'confident that a settlement could be reached on the basis of
the Samuel Report*. Since this implied a reduction in the miners' wages,
and since the miners had now developed a burning slogan 'Not a penny
off the pay, not a minute on the day/ the General Council replied that it
could not give an answer until the miners' leaders were consulted. So
Baldwin left to put the proposition before the Cabinet, while the Council
sought the miners.

On Sunday morning, however, when the General Council summoned
the miners they found that they were not in London, but had returned to
their various districts. Telegrams were sent recalling them, but it was not
until late Sunday night that they finally assembled in Downing Street.

The General Council arrived at Downing Street first and immediately
started discussions with Baldwin and Lord Birkenhead about the exact
meaning and wording of the proposition that had been given to them.
Lord Birkenhead then presented them with a precise formula drawn up in
his own hand. 'We, the Trade Union Council, would urge the miners to
authorize us to enter upon discussion with the understanding that they
and we accept the Report as a basis of settlement, and we approach it with
the knowledge that it may involve some reduction in wages/ 1

While the Government and Trade Union leaders were discussing this
formula, it was announced that the miners' representatives had finally
arrived. It was now 11.15 p.m. The General Council immediately with-
drew with the miners to a room in Downing Street to explain to them
what had transpired and to try and secure their acceptance of the formula.
Baldwin and Birkenhead meanwhile went to 1 1 Downing Street where the
Cabinet was gathered to inform their colleagues of what was happening.
About an hour later the Union leaders suddenly had a message that the
Prime Minister would like to see them. The members of the General
Council Negotiating Committee, Mr. J. H. Thomas and Mr. Arthur
1 Hansard: p. 412, 5 May, 1926.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 265

Pugh, went down to his room. Mr. Thomas later gave the House of
Commons an account of what happened. 'Lord Birkenhead and himself
[Baldwin] were present. The right honourable Gentleman said, "Gentle-
men, I am sorry to say that our efforts for peace are unavailing. I have a
letter to give you, but I feel in honour bound, having regard to all our
efforts, at least to say a word to you personally." He said, "Something has
happened at the Daily Mail and the Cabinet has empowered me to hand
you this letter," and he said and this is very important, because none of
us knew what was in the letter he handed to us. We shook hands and he
said, "Good-bye; this is the end".' 1

The Union leaders then learned that the printers of the Daily Mail had
refused to set up a leader entitled 'For King and Country*. Baldwin told
the Commons that when the Cabinet heard of this action members felt
that 'the first active overt move in the General Strike was being actually
made, by trying to suppress the press. We felt that in those circumstances
the whole situation was completely changed/ 2

But since the Government knew that the General Council had nothing
to do with the printers' move, 3 which was a spontaneous and impulsive
action, why had they taken such a serious view of it? Ernest Bevin pkced
the blame on Churchill. In 1929 he told his tin-plate workers in Swansea:
'If Mr. Churchill had not come into the Cabinet room on that Sunday
night [2 May] with the Daily Mail business, the peace terms would have
been in the hands of the Prime Minister and there would have been no
National Strike. The two sides were in another room in Downing Street,
getting almost to the last clause for handing to the Prime Minister, when
Mr. Churchill saw red, walked in and upset the Cabinet, and we had an
ultimatum. That is a fact which can be corroborated.' 4 Bevin repeated this
same accusation in 1946 in the House of Commons. 'On Sunday, 2 May,
we were within five minutes of a settlement. . . . What happened? I am sorry
that the right honourable Member for Woodford [Mr. Churchill] is not in
his place. He dashed up to Downing Street, ordered a meeting of the Cabinet,
rushed Baldwin off his feet if he was awake and in a few minutes the
ultimatum was given to us and the country was thrown into this terrible
turmoil, when within the same few minutes it might have been saved.* 5

1 Hansard: p. 240, 5 May, 1926.

1 Hansard: p. 345, 5 May, 1926.

8 Baldwin admitted in the House of Commons on 5 May, 1926: "I think it is
quite likely that he [Mr. Thomas] had no knowledge of the [Daily Mail] incident.
But that does not affect the feck He may have repudiated it, but it showed that he
had entirely lost control'

4 Bevin: Trevor Evans.

6 Hansard: 13 February, 1946.

266 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Mr. Churchill was in America when Bevin made this charge, and there-
fore did not reply to it. But upon examining the facts there appears to be
no foundation to the story whatsoever. First of all, because the Trade
Unionists were meeting at 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet was held at n
Downing Street, Mr. Churchill's residence. So there was no question of
Winston Mashing up to Downing Street*. Secondly, according to Mr.
Baldwin's statement in the House of Commons the Cabinet was already
in session when news of the Daily Mail strike was received; thirdly, the
news was not delivered by Mr. Churchill but came through by
telephone.' 1

Apart from this inaccuracy, what truth was there in Mr. Bevin's asser-
tion that the two sides, miners and Union leaders, were within five
minutes of agreement? Sir Arthur Pugh, Chairman of the Trade Union
Congress in 1925-26, does not believe that this daim can be substantiated
in the light of the events that followed. Arthur Pugh was present at Down-
ing Street on the night of 2 May as a member of the Trade Union
Negotiating Committee, and in his book Men of Steel makes the following
comment: *In view, however, of the subsequent attitude of the miners'
leaders, it is fairly certain they would have accepted no formula that would
have given the necessary assurance that a return to the status quo would
result in a settlement on the basis of the Samuel Commission Report, . . .
The miners' leaders had committed their people to a slogan "Not a penny
off the pay, not a minute on the day," and this ruled out from their stand-
point any negotiations on the basis of compromise on the major questions
at issue. The conception of the miners' leaders about the sympathetic
strike appeared to be that it was the "big stick" which was to force the
implementation of the terms of the slogan, and their mental reasoning
that if the threat of the strike and an embargo on the movement of coal
could produce a subsidy in 1925, its actual execution in 1926 could hardly
fail to give a like reduction/ 2

The trouble ky in the fact that although the miners had authorized the
General Council to negotiate for them, they had not authorized the
General Council to compromise for them. Since successful negotiations
depended on concessions all round, including an acceptance by the miners
of a temporary reduction in wages, it was a blunder for the General
Council to accept a negotiating role without full powers to take a fi,n4
decision.

1 Hansard: p. 34.5, 5 May, 1926.

* Men of Steel is a chronicle of eighty-five years of Trade Unionism in the British
Iron and Steel Industry. It was published in 1951 by the Iron and Steel Trades
Confederation.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 267

A second blunder on the part of the T.U.C. was its failure to instruct its
affiliated unions to withhold all strike notices while discussions were tak-
ing place. All day on Sunday, 2 May, individual unions were sending out
precise instructions for the beginning of the strike. Sir Arthur Pugh states
in his book that 'it would perhaps have been better tactics,' and placed the
T.U.C. General Council in 'a stronger bargaining position' if die unions
'had delayed the notices for a sympathetic strike for twenty-four hours or
so, in order to see the outcome of the negotiations between the T.U.C.
and the Government Committee.' 1

However, the strike notices were not the cause of the breakdown.
Although the letter which Baldwin handed to Thomas and Pugh at mid-
night stated that negotiations could not be continued until the Union
leaders repudiated the action of the Daily Mail printers and ordered their
unions to withdraw their instructions for a General Strike, the Prime
Minister knew early on Sunday afternoon that instructions were flowing
out and yet was still ready to negotiate. 2 The notices, therefore, were
merely used by the Government as a final argument to strengthen their
case.

It was impossible for the General Council to comply with the Govern-
ment's request, for by Sunday evening, with coal pits closing down all
over the country, feeling was running so high in the Unions there was
little hope that such an order would have been obeyed. The Government
obviously was aware of this, for as soon as the letter had been delivered
the Cabinet adjourned and Baldwin went to bed. Proof that the General
Council was desperately anxious to avoid a breakdown lies in the fact that
they drew up a reply repudiating the Daily Mail incident and sent a depu-
tation to the Prime Minister requesting him to discuss the matter of the
strike notices. 'But when the deputation arrived at that room/ Ramsay
MacDonald told the House of Commons, 'they found the door locked and
the whole pkce in darkness.* 3

As a result of these happenings the Conservatives have always insisted
that the Trade Union General Council was not the true master of the
situation; that the extremists had control and that there was no use in con-
tinuing the discussions until the General Council wielded full authority.
On the other hand, the Trade Union leaders have always believed that
a majority of the Cabinet were not averse to 'teaching the Unions a
lesson'.

Undoubtedly there is truth in both these assertions. Many Conserva-

1 Men of Steel: Sir Arthur Pugh.
1 See Hansard: p. 69, 3 May, 1926.
Hansard: 5. May, 1926.

268 WINSTON CHURCHILL

tives were so preoccupied with the fear of Bolshevism they had come to
regard the Trade Union leaders as revolutionaries who wished to destroy
the parliamentary system. This was far from the truth but the fact that the
secretary of the Miners' Federation, Mr. Cook, was a Communist,
strengthened their arguments, and was used to discredit the national
leaders. There had been the threat of a National Strike in support of the
miners in 1921 and again in 1925. Tory opinion was hardening towards
the view that it might be a good thing if the matter came to a Show-
down.*

Although the Trade Union leaders made serious blunders, it is difficult
to excuse the Conservative Government for their refusal to grapple with
the problem of the mines much earlier. It was no secret that for the last
century the coal and royalty owners had bled the industry by taking out
huge profits instead of re-introducing the necessary capital equipment.
Coal was Britain's basic industry. Quite apart from the fact that the
Cabinet was pursuing a financial policy bound to depress the coal indus-
try, it is difficult to understand how any Government, either in the
interests of humanity or the nation itself, could drift along in such an
irresponsible manner, refusing to interfere while the coal owners neglected
the mines year after year, until the only solution involved forcing an
inadequate standard of living upon the miners.

The General Strike began on 4 May, 1926, and lasted for rine days. Every-
where work came to a halt The press shut down, transport ceased, the gas
and electricity works dosed, the iron and steel industry and many others
came to a standstill But the Government was prepared. The organization,
designed in 1920, was called into action. The country was divided into
nine sections, each run by a central controller with semi-military appara-
tus. The police were fully mobilized and in London Hyde Park became a
military camp. The Home Secretary sent out appeals for volunteers and
thousands of men and women, mostly from the middle and upper classes,
came forward to drive trains, lorries and cabs.

Ernest Bevin emerged as the leader of the General Strike, and once the
strike had begun "Winston Churchill stood forth as his counterpart on the
Government side. These two men who opposed each otter so strongly
when the country was in a state of upheaval were destined to work
together as colleagues and faithful friends when the nation was faced
with a far greater danger in 1940. But in 1926 they were formidable
antagonists. Winston Sung himself into the fight with all his energy.
Since there were no newspapers he persuaded the proprietor of the

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 269

Morning Post to lend him his plant, and with the help of several of Lord
Beaverbrook's type-setters he^published a daily paper called the British
Gazette.* The paper presented the struggle as a constitutional issue: the
nation versus a group of revolutionary union leaders who, by trying to
force a democratically elected Government to subsidize the miners' wages,
were striking at the very roots of the democratic system. *For King and
Country' became Winston's own battle-cry.

Lloyd George looked askance at his old friend and former Liberal col-
league. He did not approve of the General Strike but, with his deep,
humane outlook, he sympathized with the reasons for it. The day before
the strike started he defended the Union leaders in the House of Com-
mons. *I know a great many of the people responsible. They are as little
revolutionaries as any men in this House. They have fought the rebellious
ones in their own Party. Therefore, I want to put this to the House of
Commons in all earnestness, that this is not a threat by people using it
merely for revolutionary propaganda/ 2

To-day, most people in Britain, including a large section of the Labour
Party, agree that the General Strike was unconstitutional and, as such, a
reckless act. But that is a far cry from being *a sinister and revolutionary
plot 9 . If Lloyd George had been in Churchill's shoes it is probable that the
whole disaster would have been averted. Winston, on the other hand, flung
himself into the fray with unconcealed relish. The British Gazette was a
sensation. Labour Members attacked Winston in the House of Commons
for falsifying the news, and Lloyd George accused him of deliberately
suppressing an attempt by the Council to negotiate a settlement. But
Winston gloried in the fight. Why shouldn't a Government put out
Government propaganda? At the end of the week the Gazette had a
circulation of over two millions.

The General Strike collapsed on 13 May. Public opinion was strongly
against the Unions, and the General Council realized that the Govern-
ment's policy of attrition was bound to be successful The Trade Union
Movement was treading the path to bankruptcy and in order to prevent
its strength and morale from being permanently damaged in a hopeless
struggle, the T.U.C capitulated. The miners' stoppage went on for an-
other six months but in the end they were starved back to work on the
owners* terms.

1 The Times issued a one-page typewritten sheet on 5 May, the day the British
Gazette made its appearance, and die next morning printed a four-page paper
which it continued throughout the strike. The Trade Unions also put out a four-
page paper, The British Worker.

1 Hansard: 3 May, 1926.

270 WINSTON CHURCHILL

This whole period in Churchill's life seem? strangely out of tune with
his character as a man. He will not be remembered in history as a humani-
tarian, for his interests have led him to other fields; yet by nature he is
warm-hearted and magnanimous. But throughout the nineteen-twenties
his attitude towards the working class was hard, narrow and uncom-
promising. His outlook was influenced by his fear and dislike of Bol-
shevism, yet his policies and actions were so short-sighted that they did more
to strengthen the British Socialist movement than any other single factor.

The truth was that Churchill was out of joint with the times. He did
not understand the changing economy, or the reasons why a changing
economy was necessary. In two successive elections he had been defeated
by the votes of working people in favour of a Labour candidate, facts
which did not tend to increase his sympathy with the common man.
Then he joined the Conservative Party, which widened the disaffection.
For the first time in twenty years he was subjected to all the pressures and
influences of die-hard Toryism and like all converts he went to extremes.

At any period Mr. Churchill would have been a doubtful choice as a
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Economic theories and industrial statistics
bored him. 'He was basically uninterested in the problems of high
finance,' writes Mr. Robert Boothby, who served as his Parliamentary
Private Secretary at the Treasury. But to have him in charge of the
Treasury at a time when his outlook towards the working class was
peculiarly rigid and defiant was a calamity both for the nation and him-
self. Unemployment and poverty, evils against which he championed so
fervently under Lloyd George's inspiration, now seemed to awake no
indignation in his heart. If he had had a burning desire to protect the
lowest wage earners from further hardships it is difficult to believe that
his brilliant brain would not have found a solution. It was the sympathy
that was missing, not the ability. A single spark of his old-time Radicalism
would have driven him to discover what powerful weapons the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer held in his hands.

Instead, when the General Strike ended and the Prime Minister calmly
left for his annual holiday at Aix-les-Bains, Churchill contented himself
merely in trying to persuade the miners to accept the owners' terms, with
some slight modifications, and go back to work. But by this time the
owners, flushed with their triumph over the T.U.C., were more adamant
than ever in resisting a compromise; the Prime Minister refused to inter-
vene; and the Cabinet was busy preparing a Trade Disputes Act designed to
curtail the powers of the Unions. Meanwhile the miners' strike continued.

Mr. Boothby, a Conservative M.P., and at that time the 'baby' of the
House, wrote Mr. Churchill a long and apprehensive letter. 'I told him

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 2yi

that the impression was growing every day that the Government had
now divested itself of all responsibility for the conduct of our national in-
dustries in the interests of the country as a whole, that it had capitulated
to the demands of one of the parties engaged in the mining industry, and
was now preparing legislative action at their behest in order to compass
the destruction of the other ... I asked how ... the Government, having
placed the weapon [of longer hours] in the hands of the owners, could
stand by and allow the miners to be bludgeoned and battered back district
by district. "Bludgeoned and battered they will be," I continued, "in
parts of Scotland at any rate. And the instruments? Longer legal hours,
cold, and starvation If this is to be followed by legislative action cal-
culated to convey the impression that the Conservative Party has utilized
the power given to it by the electorate to plunder the funds of the prin-
cipal Opposition party, and smash the trade unions, then in Scotland at
least a fearful retribution awaits it at the polls"/ 1

Winston showed this letter to the Cabinet; and invited Mr. Boothby to
become his Parliamentary Private Secretary. Apart from that, he did very
little. Although he declared privately that he thought the coal owners
were a loathsome lot he was determined that 'not a shilling' of Govern-
ment money should subsidise the miners' pay packets. He subscribed to the
orthodox Tory view that the State must not interfere with the kws of
supply and demand. As a result, the coal strike pursued its long, bitter and
useless course and ended in the complete defeat of the miners. It cost the
country 800,000,000, a sum which, as Mr. Boothby pointed out, 'could
have settled it, at any time, on fair terms. It left a legacy of bitterness which
continues to this day/

While the miners were still on strike Mr. Churchill followed the
Prime Minister's example and went abroad on holiday. He took a trip to
Egypt and Greece (where he painted the Pyramids and the Parthenon)
and on the way home stopped in Italy to study Mussolini's new society.
Before he departed he gave a statement to the Italian press which shows
how far his dislike of Bolshevism had led him. "I could not help being
charmed as so many other people have been by Signor Mussolini's
gentle and simple bearing and by his calm detached poise in spite of so
many burdens and dangers/ he began. 'If I had been an Italian I am sure
that I should have been wholeheartedly with you from start to finish in
your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of
Leninism. But in England we have not had to fight this danger in the same
1 1 Fight to Live: Robert Boothby.

272 WINSTON CHURCHILL

deadly form. We have our way of doing things. But that we shall succeed
in grappling with Communism and choking the life out of it of that I
am absolutely sure.

'I will, however, say a word on an international aspect of Fascism.
Externally, your movement has rendered a service to the whole world.
The great fear which has always beset every democratic leader or
working-class leader has been that of being undermined or overbid by
someone more extreme than he. It seems that continued progression to
the Left, a sort of inevitable landslide into the abyss, was the characteristic
of all revolutions. Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the sub-
versive forces which can rally the mass of the people, properly led, to
value and wish to defend the honour and stability of civilized society. She
has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison. Hereafter, no
great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection
against cancerous growths, and every responsible labour leader in the
country ought to feel his feet more firmly planted in resisting levelling
and reckless doctrines. . . ,' 1

At first glance this statement strikes the reader as one of the most sur-
prising deflections of Churchill's political career. Yet it is not inconsistent
with his classic interpretation of foreign policy. As far as Britain was con-
cerned he was a constitutionalist and a democrat; as far as Europe was con-
cerned he was willing to hold out a hand of friendship to any country,
regardless of its system of government, likely to align itself against
Britain's maJ9r enemy. At that time he regarded Bolshevism as the
greatest threat. Dictators who tried to export their wares were not to his
liking. Mussolini, as well as Stalin, was soon to learn the truth of this.

Winston seldom spent a week-end m away from his country house,
Chartwell. His wife was a clever, sympathetic companion who took a
keen interest in politics, as well as running the house to Winston's exact-
ing satisfaction and enjoyment.

Chartwell was dose enough to London for guests to motor down com-
fortably for lunch and dinner and almost every Saturday and Sunday there
were relays of people coining and going. Winston's favourite relaxation
was good political talk which he always got from his dose friends, Lord
Birkenhead, Lord Beaverbrook and Lloyd George. He liked to sit up late
at night, and although he woke early in the morning, often did his work
in bed, dictating to his secretary and puffing a cigar.

His bedroom was a high, oak-beamed study equipped with a huge desk

1 The Times: 21 January, 1927.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 273

which was usually covered with foolscap. On the walls were a picture of
his nurse, Mrs. Everest, a contemporary print of the Duke of Marl-
borough, and a cartoon of Lord Randolph Churchill. When Parliament
was not sitting he applied himself to the task of finishing the last two
volumes of The World Crisis. Often his morning work was interrupted
by the shouts and cries of his four children, who ranged in age from eleven
to one; and sometimes when the din was too great he put aside his work
and joined them in the garden.

They adored his company for Winston was still a good deal of a school-
boy himself. He loved doing things. He put up a tree-top house, built a
goldfish pond, and a bathing pool But best of all he showed them how to
dam the lake and make miniature waterfalls. Frequently, like the children
themselves, he got so wet he stood dripping outside the house while
maids hurried to put newspapers on the floor.

Winston never forgot how he himself longed for his father's confide

and as a result spent many hours with his own boy talking to him as a
grown-up and letting him share his interests. Once when he drove Ran-
dolph back to Eton he remarked sadly: *I have talked to you more this
holiday than my father talked to me in his whole life."

Part of Winston's love of doing things sprang from the interest he took
in applying a methodical and systematic-technique. Just as he enjoyed
writing because he liked to fit the sentences neatly to one another and to
build up paragraphs that in turn were carefully linked, so he enjoyed the
constructional side of manual labour. Probably this is what attracted him
to bricklaying. There was a cottage and a long wall to be built on the
estate, so he worked with a professional bricklayer five or six hours a day
until he could lay a brick a minute. Then in 1928 he joined the Amal-
gamated Union of Building Trade Workers, at the invitation of Mr.
Hicks, the General Secretary. He paid a fee of five shillings and was rated
as an 'adult apprentice 9 . This drew forth a furious outcry. Winston was
the bugbear of the T.U.C. and the Builders' Union immediately passed a
public resolution denouncing Ms act as c a piece of humiliating and degrad-
ing buffoonery', a 'nauseating situation', a 'good joke for Winston
Churchill but a painful insult to members of the Union'.

Nevertheless, Winston stuck to his ticket, although his five shillings
was never paid into the Union funds; and during the next twelve years
constructed with his own hands a large part of two cottages and a swim-
ming pool. Often he urged his guests to come out and talk to him while he
worked. Dressed in workman's overalls with a strange and comical hat
on his head he liked to discuss the affairs of state. In 1935 when the inter-
national situation was darkening and he was growing increasingly alarmed

274 WINSTON CHURCHILL

by Baldwin's placid indifference he muttered gloomily to William
Deakin, a young Oxford don who was helping him with his life of Marl-
borough and had been put to work on the cottage: 'I suppose these bricks
will be excavated in 500 years as a relic of Stanley Baldwin's England/

Another of Churchill's interests at Chartwell was his animals. He loved his
pet dogs, cats, goldfish, and was even sentimental about his chickens and
geese. Once a young man who had been engaged to tutor Churchill's
son was staying in the house. He remembers a Sunday lunch when a
goose was brought in and placed in front of Mr. Churchill to carve. He
plunged the knife in, then paused and said to his wife with deep emotion:
'You carve him, Clemmy. He was a friend of mine.'

The public had no opportunity to see this side of Winston. To them he
was a pugnacious and formidable figure with an almost machine-like
capacity for work, a brilliant mind, an unstable character and a driving
ambition. It is understandable that organized labour regarded him as their
arch-enemy throughout the five years of his Chancellorship, but al-
though his ideas and sentiments at last fitted the pattern of ultra-Toryism,
the Conservatives still found it difficult to accept him. He seemed far more
eager to give a dazzling performance than to get at the core of a problem.
The four budgets that followed his first were presented with a masterly
touch but amounted to little more than ingenious arithmetical exercises
designed to prevent the ^imposition of 6d. on the income tax, which he
should never have taken off. The only constructive contribution he made
was the introduction of the de-rating scheme for agriculture and industry
in 1928 with the resounding slogan 'You should not tax the plant and took
of production but only the profits arising from their use/

As the months passed Winston's following steadily decreased. This was
partly due to the fact that a large section of the Tory Party, led by Mr.
Amery, bitterly resented the way he dung to his Free Trade principles,
refusing to give Protection to British industry which, they felt, was
essential if unemployment, then at the million mark, was to be reduced.
But probably it was due even more to the fact that his aggressive, over-
powering personality and his concern with his own ideas annoyed them
just as they had annoyed his Liberal colleagues in the days before the first
World War. Lord Beaverbrook points out in his memoirs that Churchill
*up* is quite a different proposition from Churchill 'down*. 'Churchill on
top of the wave,' he comments, 'has in him the stuff of which tyrants are
made/*

1 Potitidaus and tJie War: Lord Beaverbrook.

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER 275

This explains why the press comments about him at this time are harsh
and disagreeable. 'If he changes his Party with the facility of partners at a
dance, he has always been true to the only Party he really believes in that
which is assembled under the hat of Mr. Winston Churchill,' wrote one
newspaper man. 'His life is one long speech. He does not talk. He orates.
He will address you at breakfast as though you were an audience at the
Free Trade Hall, and at dinner you find the performance still running. If
you meet him in the intervals he will give you more fragments of the dis-
course, walking up and down the room with the absorbed self-engaged
Napoleonic portentousness that makes his high seriousness tremble on the
verge of the comic. He does not want to hear your views. He does not
want to disturb the beautiful clarity of his thought by the tiresome re-
minders of the other side. What has he to do with the other side when his
side is the right side? He is not arguing with you: he is telling you.' 1

Even Baldwin found Winston a difficult colleague. He began to tire of
his overpowering energy and his dominating manner. He complained
that 'a Cabinet meeting when Winston was present did not have the
opportunity of considering its proper agenda for the reason that invariably
it had to deal with some extremely clever memorandum submitted by him
on the work of some department other than his own.' 2

Baldwin's Government went to the country in 1929. Once again
Labour emerged as the largest Party of the three and once again it assumed
power with Liberal support. Baldwin confided to a friend that if he ever
formed another Government he would not include Winston in it. His
inability to fit himself into a team was a disadvantage that outweighed the
contribution he had to offer,

Baldwin kept his word, and successive Prime Ministers followed Bald-
win's example. Winston was out of office for ten years.

1 Certain People of Importance 1926; A. G. Gardiner.

* Neville Chamberlain As He Was: Lord Camrose (Daily Telegraph, 15 Nov-
ember, 1940).

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

INDIA

THE AGE of the Common Man had very little appeal for Mr. Churchill.
He was proud of Britain's great and educated ruling class which had
governed the nation for so many centuries and brought it safely through
so many perils. This ruling class was no mean, tight, narrow-minded ring.
It was the top layer of an intricate class system that automatically em-
braced men and women with inherited wealth and aristocratic connec-
tions, but also accepted newcomers whose energy and talents had lifted
them to positions of eminence. In welcoming distinguished strangers the
ruling class constantly refurbished itself with vigorous new blood, yet its
impact was strong enough to unite its members in a common outlook
towards the traditions and splendours of the nation.

This paternal, benevolent and oligarchic Britain was the sort of Britain
Winston had been brought up to love and revere. He resented the fact
that ever since the Labour Party had become the largest Opposition in the
House of Commons a note of 'class warfare' had resounded through the
country which, he felt, was aimed at the very foundations of the British
system. It was true'that Winston himself had once attacked the privileged
classes, but that was long ago when he was very young and the privileged
class was very safe; his actions could be classified as political wild oats and
forgotten.

The class warfare of the post-war period was very different; it appeared
to be undermining the common sense of the British working man and
making him wonder whether he wished to continue being ruled by his
betters. The working man had noticed that millions of pounds had been
spent in war; why could not millions of pounds be spent in the peace to
give him a better standard of living? He wanted security, higher wages,
a better education, and a larger share in the nation's wealth. He also
appeared to want a larger influence in the nation's industrial and political
life. This last made no sense at all to Winston. Let the working map climb
the ladder first; why should he demand the prizes while he still stood at the
bottom?

Winston considered the Labour leaders wholly responsible for the
agitation that had sprung up and more than once referred to them con-
temptuously as 'not fit to govern'. He did not blame the working m^n
for being misled by false hopes and promises, nor did he blame Viir" for

276

INDIA 277

rebelling against the grave state of unemployment. For the previous four
years the unemployment figure had hovered between one and two million
men, which, counting the wives and children of the unemployed, directly
affected some five million people. Politicians of all parties were bent on
finding a cure for unemployment, some on humanitarian grounds, others
on political ones. But the truth was that very few politicians were sure of
the answer. Professor Keynes put forward a scheme of large borrowings
for public works to relieve unemployment which Winston denounced as
'camouflaged inflation'. Lloyd George supported Keynes and drew up
proposals of his own along similar lines. But neither the Labour Govern-
ment nor the Conservative Opposition were impressed by these heretical
views. They believed that the cycle of booms and slumps was inevitable,
and that the only method of dealing with it was to follow the prescription
laid down by orthodox finance: to reduce wages and prices, to balance the
budget, and to sit tight.

In March 1930, Winston wrote a series of articles for the Daily Telegraph
'On the Abuse of the Dole', in which he pointed out that many people
who were switching from one job to another were claiming the com-
pensation merely for a few weeks' unemployment. 'The minor vicissitudes
of labouring men such as an occasional month out of work between satis-
factory jobs, are borne in almost every other country in the world in
silence,' he wrote reproachfully. 'They may cause some embarrassment or
even distress to the individual but they do not emerge as a problem of the
State.'

But none of this was to Winston's liking. He found economics a boring
subject which he did not and could not understand. He had nothing new
to offer. Yet economics dominated the whole atmosphere of Parliament.
He inclined to the view of his Conservative colleagues that the only
remedy lay in drastic deflation which would be deeply resented by the
working class electorate. He complained to a friend that Parliament had
sunk into a morass of figures and statistics and that politics had never
before been so dull. There were no great personalities and no great issues
that a politician could get his teeth into. Economics cast its particular
blight on every subject that was discussed.

But if Winston had no solution to the economic problem itself at least
he had a solution for preventing economics from destroying the liveliness
of the House of Commons. In June 1930 he delivered the Romanes lecture
at Oxford University and made the surprising suggestion that economics
should be isolated from politics. 'I see no reason why the political Parlia-

278 WINSTON CHURCHILL

ment should not choose in proportion to its Party groupings a subordinate
Economic Parliament of say one-fifth of its numbers, and composed of
persons of high technical and business qualifications. This idea has received
much countenance in Germany. I see no reason why such an assembly
should not debate in the open light of day and without caring a halfpenny
who won the General Election, or who had the best slogans for curing
unemployment, all the grave economic issues by which we are now con-
fronted and afflicted. I see no reason why the Economic Parliament should
not for the time being command a greater interest than the political
Parliament; nor why the political Parliament should not assist it with its
training and experience in methods of debate and procedure. What is
required is a new personnel adapted to the task which has to be done, and
pursuing that task day after day without the distractions of other affairs
and without fear, favour or affection.'

No one took much interest in Winston's Economic Parliament, so to
relieve himself from the boredom of statistics, he took up his pen. First he
wrote My Early Life, an amusing and charming autobiography which
took him as far as the House of Commons and ended with the words:
'I married and lived happily ever afterwards.' As far as the public was con-
cerned the work was strangely out of character with the Winston they
knew. It was wise and tolerant with a gende humour which he was not
afraid of directing towards himself. It seemed much more the reflections
of a calm and elderly philosopher than of a pugnacious politician. Next,
Winston wrote the fifth volume of The World Crisis, The War on the
Eastern Front, and a series of newspaper articles and essays ranging in
subject from one on 'Moses' to 'Shall We All Commit Suicide?' These
essays were later reprinted in a book called Thoughts and Adventures.

But while he was occupied in his literary work a political issue emerged
which aroused his emotions and galvanized his fighting spirit to action.
Ever since the war India had been agitating for self-government. The urge
for independence had been stimulated by Gandhi, the great Hindu religious
leader who preached a policy of passive resistance. Millions of Indians
regarded this strange man as a saint and were now quietly following his
lead and slowly obstructing the wheeb of the British administration.

The Viceroy, Lord Halifax (then Lord twin), was in favour of granting
India the freedom she wanted; first, in drawing up a Federal Constitution;
second, in extending self-government in the direction of Dominion status.
He communicated his views to the Labour Government which received
them favourably. The Liberals backed the Labour Government and the

INDIA 279

Tories, surprisingly enough, backed them both. For once there was an
all-Party agreement on the policy Britain should follow. Undoubtedly
the reason for this accord was die fact that public opinion had been
sharply affected by the lesson of Ireland. India was merely asking for the
same Dominion status that had been granted to Canada and Australia.
There was no reason to believe that she would leave the Empire. If Eng-
land could retain her good-will by granting concessions in time there was
much to gain; if she tried to rule by repression as she had in Ireland there
was even more to lose.

Winston, however, did not see the matter in this light. He was horrified
at the idea of relaxing control of any kind over India. He was willing to
extend Indian self-government within the provinces, but not to grant a
Federal Constitution and certainly not to promise them Dominion status.
Had not Lord Randolph Churchill once described India as 'that most truly
bright and precious gem in the crown of the Queen, the possession of
which, more than that of all your Colonial dominions, has raised in power,
in resource, wealth and authority, this small island home of ours far above
the level of the majority of nations and states'?

Winston was devoid of sympathy for an act of abdication which he not
only regarded as foolish but as wholly unnecessary. All this talk of self-
government had sprung up because the statesmen in London were pusil-
lanimous and weak. He did not believe force was necessary to hold India;
merely a firm resolve and some plain speaking.

Since no one else was going to do the plain speaking Winston took it
upon himself. He described the proposed concessions as a 'hideous act of
self-mutilation astounding to every nation in the world 9 . In words similar
to those his father had used he tried to rouse public opinion against casting
away 'that most truly bright and precious jewel in the crown of the King,
which more than all our other Dominions and Dependencies constituted
the glory and strength of the British Empire. That great organism would
pass at a stroke out of life into history. From such a catastrophe there could
be no recovery/ 1

He became the leading spirit of the Indian Empire Society, a group
composed mainly of Conservatives organized to resist self-government.
For the first time he found himself working with the Die-hards of the
Tory Party, the same band which had poured contempt upon him for
many years.

Throughout his opposition Winston's main attack was against Gandhi,
and as the weeks went by his shafts were hurled with increasing violence.
On 12 December, 1930, he told a London audience: 'The truth is that

1 Indian Empire Society: 12 December, 1930.

280 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Gandhi-ism and all it stands for will, sooner or later, have to be grappled
with and finally crushed. It is no use trying to satisfy a tiger by feedisg it
on cat's meat/ Two months later, on 23 February, 1931, he told the
Council of the West Essex Conservative Association that it was 'alarming
and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer,
now posing as a falHr of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked
up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organizing and con-
ducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms
with jthe representative of the King-Emperor.' One month later, on
1 8 March, he told a huge meeting at the Albert Hall: 'I am against this
surrender to Gandhi. I am against these conversations and agreements
between Lord Irwin and Mr. Gandhi. Gandhi stands for the expulsion of
the British from India. Gandhi stands for the permanent expulsion of
British trade from India. Gandhi stands for the substitution of Brahmin
domination for British rule in India. You will never be able to come to
terms with Gandhi.'

In the course of his campaign Winston accused politicians of all parties
who supported Lord Irwin's proposals, of defeatism and a lack of patriot-
ism. This stung Sir Herbert Samuel, the Liberal, to deliver a scathing pro-
nouncement. 'If indeed the truest patriot is a man who breathes hatred,
who lays the seeds of war, and stirs up the greatest number of enemies
against his country,* he said, 'then Mr. Churchill is a great patriot.*

The Conservative Opposition was furious with Churchill. They told
Baldwin that this was the result of putting his trust in a man like Winston,
an ambitious schemer, who would never work for any team unless he
called the tune. They went on to say that his chief aim was to split the
Conservative Party and wrest the leadership from Baldwin. This was not
altogether fair for although no one doubts that he would have liked to
grasp the prize, and although he may have believed the Indian issue a
likely way to do it, his sincerity about India has long since been proved by
the consistency of his views. In January 1930 he resigned from the Tory
'Shadow Cabinet' and three months later Baldwin relieved him of his
position as Chairman of the Conservative Finance Group and appointed
Neville Chamberlain in his stead* The breach was now complete.

Although Winston's main concern was to rally Conservatives against the
official Opposition, he still had time to launch an intermittent and powerful
torpedo at the Labour Government. One of the most merciless attacks he
ever made in the House of Commons was directed at Ramsay MacDonald
in connection with the Trade Disputes Act. The Labour Party was deter-

INDIA 28l

mined to repeal the measure which had been introduced by the Tories
after the General Strike to dip the wings of the Trade Unionists. Mr. Mac-
Donald himself was believed to be only luke-warm on the subject, giving
way half-heartedly to the Left-wing pressure in his own Party. 'What is
the Prime Minister going to do about it?' Winston asked in the House of
Commons. 'I spoke the other day, after he had been defeated in an im-
portant division, about his wonderful skill in falling without hurting him-
self. He falls, but up he comes again, smiling, a little dishevelled but still
smiling. But this is a juncture, a situation which will try to the very fullest
the particular arts in which he excels.

1 remember when I was a child being taken to the celebrated Barnum's
Circus which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the
exhibit on the programme which I most desired to see was the one
described as "The Boneless Wonder". My parents judged that the spec-
tacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and
I have waked fifty years to see the Boneless Wonder sitting on the
Treasury Bench/

Then Winston proceeded to give an imaginary conversation which had
taken place between Ramsay MacDonald and Lloyd George. 'After the
usual compliments, the Prime Minister said, "We have never been col-
leagues, we have never been friends not what you would call holiday
friends, but we have both been Prime Ministers and dog don't eat dog.
Just look at the monstrous bill the Trade Unions and our wild fellows have
foisted on me. Do me a favour and I will never forget it. Take it upstairs
and cut its dirty throat/ 1

Winston's speech was greeted with howls of appreciative laughter.
Even the Labour benches could not suppress their smiles. But Ramsay
MacDonald never forgave him.

The Government of India Bill did not pass through its **! stage until
193 5. It granted India Federal Constitution and gave a solemn pledge that
she would be given Dominion status in the near future. Winston fought
the Bill to the bitter end. 1 am told that I am alone among men who have
held high office in this country in the view I take about Indian policy. . . .
If I am alone I am going to receive shortly an ally a very powerful ally
an ally whom I dread an ally with a sombre tide his tide is The March
of Time/ 2
But Winston was proved wrong. Indian independence, which finally

1 Hansard: 28 January, 1931.

* Constitutional dub: 26 March, 1931.

282 WINSTON CHURCHILL

became a reality in 1947, was not a catastrophe. It did not result in the
severing of India's ties with the Commonwealth. It did not mark the
end of the British Empire. The brightest jewel in the Imperial Crown
has become one of the strongest partners in the British family of nations.
The March of Time definitely has not turned out to be Winston's ally.

When he made his final attack in the House of Commons and took his
seat after a tremendous peroration, Leo Amery, his Harrow school-mate,
spoiled the effect by rising and saying in solemn tones: 'Here endeth the
last chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah/ The House roared with
laughter. Members had ceased to take Winston seriously on the subject of
India.

In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden deserted their Labour
colleagues and joined forces with the Conservatives in forming a National
Government in order to deal with the financial crisis produced by the
American crash. The National Government consisted of only a handful of
Socialists and Liberals. It was predominantly Conservative, and although
Ramsay MacDonald assumed the Premiership, Stanley Baldwin was the
real master. Neither man would have Winston in the Government at any
price.

PARX SIX
TIAfE FOR GREATNESS

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH

WINSTON CHURCHILL had always believed in his Destiny, He felt sure
that he had been placed on earth to carry out some extraordinary and
critical purpose. Part of this belief sprang from his awareness of the famous
blood that flowed in his veins, part from his own throbbing energy and
supreme confidence. But the belief also stemmed from pure superstition.
When, as a young soldier, he narrowly escaped death several times, he
dwelt on these experiences with fascination and awe. 'These hazards
swoop on me out of a cloudless sky,' he wrote, *and that I have hitherto
come unscathed through them, while it fills my heart with thankfulness to
God for His mercies, makes me wonder why I must be so often thrust to
the brink and then withdrawn '

Long after he had written these lines he had other dose escapes from
destruction; once in the first War when his dugout was blown up by a shell
a minute after he had left it; once when his aeroplane crashed; once when
he had a collision in a New York taxi.

The recurrent escapes confirmed his faith that his life was being guarded
for some great public role, yet in 1931 the role was hard to see. Most
politicians regarded his career as finished. His independent and reckless
nature had led him into fierce disagreement with his last remaining col-
leagues. He had quarrelled with all three parties. The Conservatives had
reluctantly forgiven him once, and now that their misgivings had been
realized they were not likely to forgive him again. The liberal Party
was dead. The Labour Party was beyond the pale. Where was his
future?

It is curious that in 1931, at the very moment when his path had appar-
ently ended in a quagmire from which there seemed to be no rescue, his
fortunes were, in fact, at last moving on the upward swing which was to
carry ki to world fame. The change was not discernible to the public for
the initial turn of events did not stem from his efforts as a statesman but
from his activities as an artist. In 193 1 he began writing the life of the first
Duke of Marlborough. It was the work, thought and inspiration which
he poured into this literary masterpiece, with its story of tyranny and salva-
tion so strangely and strikingly parallel to the unknown story that ky
ahead, that prepared him for the leadership of Britain in the second World

War.*

285

286 WINSTON CHURCHILL

* * * *

Ever since Winston was a child he had read everything he could lay his
hands on about his great ancestor, John Churchill. Here was a tale that
contained every element of drama; the story of the unknown youth who
rose from obscurity to become one of the greatest generals of all rime and
who saved his country and half Europe from the tyranny of Louis XIV;
the handsome youth who fascinated the King's mistress; the penniless
youth who became the richest man in Europe; tie sought-after youth who
loved his wife passionately for fifty years; the ambitious youth who not
only won every battle he ever fought but by his brilliant diplomacy virtu-
ally became the political master of England. There was nothing missing.
Love, danger, intrigue, war, revolution and counter-revolution all
threaded their way through his astonishing life.

It is small wonder that Winston was tempted to write the thrilling
record. There were masses of papers at Blenheim Palace filed away in
cardboard cabinets and carefully docketed, containing valuable informa-
tion that had never been published. Yet there was something that had
always stopped him from writing the story. Marlborough's name had
come down through history not only as a hero but as a villain. He had
rendered great service to England but his deeds were darkened by
accusations of corruption and unforgivable treachery.

Marlborough had risen to power through the favour of James the
Second. But when he saw that James was determined to turn England
into a Catholic country and make himself an absolute monarch, Churchill
deserted fri and was instrumental in placing William of Orange on the
throne. James fled to France. Six years later, when William organized an
attack against the French Fleet at Brest, Marlborough, it is alleged, wrote
a letter to James, known as the Caqiaret Bay Letter, in order that the
French might be informed of the impending operation. Some historians
attributed this act to Marlborough's desire to re-establish himself with the
Jacobites in case James one day was restored to the English throne. Others
claim that Marlborough's wish was to see the English commander fail so
that he himself might receive promotion. Whatever the motive an act of
this nature was vile and unforgivable. Winston refused to write John
Churchill's life.

However, one day he visited his father's old friend, Lord Rosebery,
who urged hi to take up the task, and here is the account he gives of the
conversation. * "Surely," said Rosebery, "you must write Duke John [as
he always called him] : he was a tremendous fellow." I said that I had from
my childhood read everything I came across about hiir^ but that Mac-
auky's story of the betrayal of the expedition against Brest was an obstacle

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 287

I could not face. The aged and crippled statesman arose from the luncheon
table, and, with great difficulty but sure knowledge, made his way along
the passage of the Durdans to the exact nook in his capacious working
library where Pagefs Examen reposed. "There," he said, taking down this
unknown, out-of-print masterpiece, "is the answer to Macaulay!" * l

Pagefs Examen proved conclusively that Marlborough's letter betraying
the Brest Expedition was written only after he knew that it had been
betrayed already and could do no harm. Winston's strict code of military
honour was still not appeased; nevertheless, it gave him the heart to start
the book. But as his research proceeded he discovered that the letter Marl-
borough was accused of having written did not, in fact, exist. Only an
alleged copy of the letter had been preserved. Winston was able to prove
to the satisfaction of most historians that this copy was a forgery.

Soon Winston was more engrossed in his life of Marlborough than in
anything he had ever written before. He had always had strong sentimental
attachments for Blenheim, the massive Palace that had been built for
Marlborough in recognition of his services, for not only had Winston
been born there, but he had also proposed to his wife there. Once he
remarked to a friend: 'At Blenheim I took two very important decisions:
to be born and to marry. I am happily content with the decisions I took
on both occasions/ Now he flung himself into the task of clearing his
ancestor's name with passionate concern. He singled out Lord Macaulay,
the great historian, as the villain of the piece. Macaulay was only one of
many historians who had painted John Churchill's character in black lines,
but whereas the others were no longer widely read, Macaulay's wonderful
sense of drama and lucid, flowing prose still commanded a large public.
Besides, Winston felt a sense of personal grievance against Macaulay. As a
boy he had been under the spell of the master; he had read and re-read his
History of England, his essays, and had even learned by heart a great portion
of The Lays of Ancient Rome. Macaulay had taught him more about style
and construction than anyone else and now to come to the conclusion that
the historian had deliberately sacrificed the truth, at the expense of a
Churchill, to make his talc more dramatic, roused Winston to real anger.

Throughout the first two volumes of Marlborough Winston conducts a
duel with Macaulay in the wings. He flings up the historian's remarks and
attempts to show that his interpretation was wholly false. 'Unhappily,*
Macaulay had written, 'the splendid qualities of John Churchill were
mingled with alloy of the most sordid kind. Some propensities which in
youth arc singularly ungraceful, began very early to show themselves in

1 Marlborough: Winston S. Churchill

288 WINSTON CHURCHILL

him. He was thrifty in his very vices, and levied ample contributions on
ladies enriched by the spoils of more liberal lovers. He was, during a short
time, the object of the violent but fickle fondness of the Duchess of Cleve-
land. On one occasion he was caught with her by the King, and was
forced to leap out of the window. She rewarded this hazardous feat of
gallantry with a present of 5,000. With this sum the prudent young hero
instantly bought an annuity of 500 a year, well secured on landed
property. Already his private drawers contained heaps of broad pieces
which, fifty years later, when he was a Duke, a Prince of the Empire, and
the richest subject in Europe, remained untouched/ 1

Macaulay returned to his theme again and again. "He subsisted upon the
infamous wages bestowed upon him by the Duchess of Cleveland.' 'He
was insatiable of riches.' He was 'one of the few who have in the bloom of
youth loved lucre more than wine or women, and who have, at the height
of greatness, loved lucre more than power or fame*. 'All the precious gifts
which nature had lavished upon him he valued chiefly for what they
would fetch/ 'At twenty he made money of his beauty and his vigour; at
sixty he made money of his genius and his glory/

When Winston tackled these imputations against John Churchill's
character he held a strong card in his hand. The fact that Churchill had
married a penniless girl. He was handsome and sought after. He could have
won a great heiress; indeed, his family had their eye on one and urged him
to consider improving his fortunes by doing so; instead he married the
hot-tempered, fascinating Sacah Jennings who had neither money nor
property; and their marriage became one of the great love stories of the age.

Winston did not only tilt at Macaulay; he delivered a formidable
frontal attack: 'His [Macaulay 's] literary descendant, Professor Trevelyan,
whose faithful, fair, and deeply informed writings are establishing a new
view of these times and the men who made them, has offered the best
defence in his power for the historical malversations of his great-uncle.
He says (in effect) that Macaulay, with his sense of the dramatic, vilified
Marlborough's early life in order by contrast to make the glories of his
great period stand out more vividly. He had completed the black back-
ground, but died before he could paint upon it "the scarlet coat and flashing
eye of the victor of Blenheim". We need not reject this apologia nor the
confession which it implies. But what a way tp write history! On this
showing the best that can be provided Lord Macaulay stands convicted
of deliberately falsifying facts and making the most revolting accusations
upon evidence which he knew, and in other connections even admitted,
was worthless, for the purpose of bringing more startling contrasts and

1 History of England: Lord Macauky.

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 289

colour into his imaginative picture and of making the crowds gape at it.
Macaulay's life-work lay in the region of words, and few have been finer
word spinners. Marlborough's life is only known by his deeds. The com-
parison is unequal, because words are easy and many, while gr At deeds
are difficult and rare. But there is no treachery or misconduct of which
Macaulay's malice has accused Marlborough in the field of action which is
not equalled, were it true, by his own behaviour in this domain of history
and letters over which he has sought to reign ... It is beyond our hopes to
overtake Lord Macaulay . The grandeur and sweep of his story-telling style
carries him swiftly along, and with every generation he enters new fields.
We can only hope that Truth will follow swiftly enough to fasten the
label "liar" to his genteel coat-tails/ 1

The attack on Macaulay drew a letter of protest from Professor
Trevdyan which was published in The Times Literary Supplement on
19 October, 1933. An extract reads as follows: 'I have stated elsewhere
that I think Macauky was wrong in his reading of Marlborough. Indeed,
I think it is the worst thing in his History, and I have no wonder that
Mr. Churchill's family piety has aroused him to take revenge. All the
same, he has no right to call Macauky a "liar". A "liar" is not a man who
misreads another man's character, however badly, or who sometimes
accepts inadequate evidence; if that were so, almost all historians would be
"liars". A "liar" is a man who makes a statement that he knows to be
false. Now, the facts that Macaulay states, barring the Camaret letter, are
not very different from Mr. Churchill's facts. Mr. Churchill admits that
he took for patron the man who kept his sister; that he himself took money
from his own mistress and invested it well; that he deserted James while
high in his military service; that he afterwards corresponded with the
Jacobites. I agree with Mr. Churchill that his desertion of James was in
the circumstances commendable, and die other three actions by the stan-
dards of the times not unpardonable. But there is a surface case against
Marlborough, and many people in his own day thought ill of him. An
historian who, before the days of our modern research, was deceived by
these phenomena into thfatr"g Marlborough a bad ma-n was not neces-
sarily dishonest/

Winston's attack on Macauky was only one small aspect of his biography.
It constituted the stepping stones by which he led Marlborough to the
summit from which, he believed, posterity should view him. But the
importance of the work lies not only in his central figure but in the skill
with which he brings alive all the leading characters of the time. Sarah
1 Marlborough: Winston S. Churchill.

290 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Jennings, Godolphin, Prince Eugene, Queen Anne, Bolingbroke, and
many others walk confidently through his pages and their complicated
relations with one another, developed with a true touch of genius, reveal
a century of tumultuous history which slowly unrolls before the reader's
fascinated gaze. As a history it is as dramatic as Lord Macaulay's own,
written in the same grandly flowing prose. As a literary work it is on the
same colossal scale as Tolstoy's War and Peace and handled with such tech-
nical brilliance that one can admire it as an artistic achievement even
though the characters are limited to a frame-work of fact.

Yet what makes the Life of Marlborough truly distinctive is the feeling
that no professional historian could have written it. The story of Marl-
borough is the story of a struggle for power. Sometimes the struggle was
in ruling circles in England, sometimes on the battlefields, sometimes at a
foreign court, but throughout the book it is a strong and constant clash.
This subject, the essence of history, had always interested Winston more
than any other. He had spent many months of his life studying its causes
and effects and he had witnessed it at first-hand in the years preceding the
Great War and in the war itself. Besides, his long experience in Parliament
had given him special knowledge of the rivalries and emotions, of the
jostling for position behind the scenes, and he drew upon his rich know-
ledge in interpreting the characters and the actions of a bygone day. His
chapter on the Camaret Bay Letter is a masterpiece of evidence and argu-
ment that could only have been written by a man who understood every
current of political life.

Altogether, the biography was deeply satisfying. It gave Winston the
opportunity to vindicate his ancestor and also the opportunity to study
the art of war, an art which had always thrilled and fascinated him. He
could write proudly of Marlborough that 'he never fought a battle that
he did not win, nor besieged a fortress that he did not take'. But even more
important than the battles was the glorious cause for which they were
fought: die freedom of England and the independence of Europe. Here
was a theme to which he responded with all the fire of his innermost
being. 'Europe drew swords in a quarrel which, with one uneasy inter-
lude/ he wrote, 'was to last for a quarter of a century. Since the duel
between Rome and Carthage there had been no such world war. It
involved all the civilized peoples; it extended to every part of the accessible
globe; it settled for some time or permanently the real relative wealth and
power, and the frontiers of every important European state/

He wrote these words in the preface to his first volume which was
published in 1933, the year that Hitler came to power in Germany.

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 2pl

During the early thirties Marlborough became Winston's chief preoccu-
pation. Although a National Government which was overwhelmingly
Conservative in composition had replaced the Labour Government in
193 1, he was not disappointed in being excluded from its counsels. He had
not expected office. Indeed, he had announced publicly that he would not
accept a position in a government that pursued a policy over India of
which he disapproved, when the controversy was at its height. He took a
lively interest in the parliamentary debates, but free of the responsibility
of a Ministry he spent long week-ends and most of his parliamentary
recesses at Chartwell, where he did his work.

Writing was not the painstaking labour to Winston that it is to most
people. When he was a young man of thirty he once addressed the
Authors' Club in London and told his audience that 'no one could set him-
self to the writing of a page of English composition without feeling a real
pleasure in the medium in which he worked, the flexibility and the pro-
foundness of his noble mother tongue. The man who could not say what
he had to say in good English could not have very much to say that was
worth listening to at all.' 1

Winston had the ability to marshal his thoughts rapidly and words came
easily. He liked being involved in a major work. 'Writing a long and sub-
stantial book,* he explained recently, 'is like having a friend and com-
panion at your side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and
amusement, and whose society becomes more attractive as a new and
widening field of interest is lighted in the mind.' 2

He set about the task of collecting material with characteristic precision.
He employed several scholars to comb the archives and sort through
documents at Blenheim, in London and Paris. He also engaged the services
of naval and military experts to help him reconstruct the famous cam-
paigns. In the meantime he did an enormous amount of research himself,
for he was never prepared to accept the findings of any of his assistants
without subjecting them to a searching examination which often devel-
oped into a heated, if somewhat one-sided, argument. Besides that, he
visited every battlefield on which Marlborough fought, and spent hours
studying the composition of the armies until he knew the strategy and
tactics as well as Marlborough himself.

He made one of these expeditions abroad in the summer of 1932,
accompanied by his family and Professor Lindemann. They trav-
elled slowly along the line of Marlborough's celebrated march in
1705 from the Netherlands to the Danube. They spent a day on the

1 Memories and Reflections: The Earl of Oxford and Asquith.
1 The Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill.

292 WINSTON CHURCHJLL

battlefield of Blenheim, then drove to Munich where they stayed a
week.

Winston soon discovered that the Germans were concerned with only
one topic and that was the Hitler Movement which was gaining thousands
of new recruits every day. He asked many questions about it, and was
interested when a lively, talkative young man, who spoke perfect English,
came up to him in the Regina Hotel introducing himself as Herr Hanf-
staengl, and talked enthusiastically about the Fiihrer. Winston invited him
to dine and the young man amused the company that evening by playing
the piano and urging everyone to sing the old familiar songs. Winston
learned that Hanfstaengl was on intimate terms with Hitler and often
entertained him in a similar manner. During the course of the evening
the German suggested that Winston should meet the Fiihrer who, he said,
came to the hotel every day at five. 'I had no national prejudices against
Hitler at this time,' wrote Winston. 'I knew little of his doctrine or record
and nothing of his character. I admire men who stand up for their country
in defeat, even though I am on the other side. He had a perfect right to be
a patriotic German if he chose. I had always wanted England, Germany
and France to be friends. However, in the course of conversation with
Hanfstaengl, I happened to say, "Why is your chief so violent about the
Jews? I can quite understand being angry with Jews who have done
wrong or are against the country, and I understand resisting them if they
try to monopolize power in any walk of life; but what is the sense of being
against a man simply because of his birth? How can any man help how he
is born?" He must have repeated this to Hitler, because about noon the
next day he came round with rather a serious air and said that the appoint-
ment he had made for me to meet Hider could not take place, as the
Fiihrer would not be coming to the hotel that afternoon. This was the last
I saw of "Putzi" for such was his pet name although we stayed several
more days at the hotel Thus Hider lost his only chance of meeting me.
Later on, when he was all-powerful, I was to receive several invitations
from him. But by that time a lot had happened, and I excused myself/ 1

It was at this point that die struggle for Europe in Marlborough's time
began to identify itself in Winston's mind with the new struggle diat
seemed to be emerging in his own day. He returned to Britain with deep
apprehensions. The resurgence of a martial spirit which he had witnessed
in Germany offered a sharp and disturbing contrast to die pacifist mood
that gripped England.
1 The Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 293

In 1932 Britain was still in the throes of an economic depression largely
caused by the American crash of 1929. The unemployment figures touched
the three million mark and were the worst in the nation's history. This,
people said, was the price of the war. First came the skughter and the
suffering, then came the dislocation, the strikes, the poverty and the hard-
ship. Whatever happened, there must never be another war. And since the
pacifists seemed to have the only solution for making war impossible, the
English public became overwhelmingly in favour of disarmament. This
fitted in nicely with the Government's financial predicament; the Ex-
chequer was strained to its utmost limits, and Baldwin was only too gkd
to back a policy which had almost become a necessity.

Disarmament as a deterrent to war was a sound proposition if all nations
agreed to pky the same game, but disarmament by some and rearmament
by others was bound to fail. Winston's intensive study of the struggle for
power had not convinced him that human nature had altered much. He
could understand the feeling of revulsion of the victors against war that
had caused so much dislocation to their agreeable way of life. He could
also understand the feelings of the vanquished, smarting under the humilia-
tion of defeat, and determined to redress their grievances.

Churchill believed that Germany's grievances should be removed, but
he did not think it wise to make concessions through weakness. In
Germany he had heard whispers of 'British decadence' and had not failed
to notice how much bolder the German demands were becoming as
German strength increased. Shortly after Winston returned from Munich
in the summer of 1932 she flatly demanded the right to rearm. The Times
regarded the proposition favourably and spoke of 'the timely redress of
inequality', but Winston warned members of the House of Commons not
to 'delude themselves'. 'Do not let His Majesty's Government believe,' he
continued, 'that all that Germany is asking for is equal status . . . That is
not what Germany is seeking. All these bands of sturdy Teutonic youths,
through the streets and roads of Germany, with the light of

desire in their eyes to suffer for the Fatherland, are not looking for status.
They are looking for weapons, and, when they have the weapons, believe
me they will then ask for the return of their lost territories and lost
colonies, and when the demand is made it cannot fail to shake and possibly
shatter to their foundations every one of the countries I have mentioned.
. . . The removal of the just grievances of the vanquished ought to precede
the disarmament of the victors. To bring about anything like equality of
armaments (between the vanquished and the victor nations) if it were in
our power to do so, which it happily is not, while those grievances remain
unredressed, would be almost to appoint the day for another European

294 WINSTON CHURCHILL

war to fix it as though it were a prize fight. It would be far safer to
re-open questions like those of the Danzig Corridor and Transylvania,
with all their delicacy and difficulty, in cold blood and in a calm atmo-
sphere and while the victor nations still have ample superiority, than to
wait and drift on, inch by inch and stage by stage, until once again vast
combinations, equally matched, confront each other face to face.' 1

Two months after Winston's speech, in January 1933, Hitler came to
power. But the British Government took notice neither of Churchill nor
Hider. In March 'The MacDonald Plan' was put forward urging further
disarmament upon the French. Winston attacked it with all his force.
'Thank God for the French Army,' he declared to the disgust of a large
section of the House. 'When we read about Germany, when we watch
with surprise and distress the tumultuous insurgcnce of ferocity and war
spirit, the pitiless ill-treatment of minorities, the denial of the normal pro-
tections of a civilized society to large numbers of individuals solely on the
ground of race when we see that occurring in one of the most gifted,
learned, scientific and formidable nations in the world, one cannot help
feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not
found, as yet, any other oudet but upon Germans. At a moment like this,
to ask France to halve her army while Germany doubles hers, to ask France
to halve her air force while the German air force remains whatever it is, is
a proposal likely to be considered by the French Government, at present
at any rate, as somewhat unseasonable.' 2

The French Government agreed with Winston Churchill and refused
to reduce the size of their army. Instead they offered to destroy a large part
of their heavy artillery. Hitler's answer to this concession, which he
regarded as insufficient, was not only to quit the Disarmament Conference
but to leave the League of Nations as well. This, said the pacifists, was the
logical consequence of France's refusal to co-operate. The strength of this
view was revealed a fortnight later when a by-election was fought at East
Fulham. A safe Conservative seat was lost to a pacifist by a ten thousand
majority.

Winston watched these manifestations uneasily. He had no faith in
disarmament. He believed that the only way to prevent war was through
strength. He recognized the new Germany of Hider as a potential aggres-
sor and he knew that Britain's duty must be to oppose the unlawful expan-
sion of her power. He had a firm belief in the simple, old-fashioned
formula which Britain had always followed, based on die maintenance of
the Balance of Power. In writing his life of Marlborough he had reflected

1 Hansard: 23 November, 1932.
* Hansard: ^\ March, 1933.

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 295

deeply on this principle, and reaffirmed his faith in it. In a speech to the
Conservative Members Committee on Foreign Affairs in March 1936 he
outlined his conception clearly and simply; and since this conception has
always determined his attitude, and still determines it to-day, it is perhaps
worth while to print in part what he said:

'For four hundred years the foreign policy of England has been to
oppose the strongest, most aggressive, most dominating Power on the
Continent, and particularly to prevent the Low Countries falling into the
hands of such a Power. Viewed in the light of history, these four centuries
of consistent purpose amid so many changes of names and facts, of circum-
stances and conditions, must rank as one of the most remarkable episodes
which the records of any race, nation, state, or people can show. Moreover,
on all occasions England took the more difficult course. Faced by Philip II
of Spain, against Louis XIV under William in and Marlborough, against
Napoleon, against William n of Germany, it would have been easy and
must have been very tempting to join with the stronger and share the
fruits of his conquest. However, we always took the harder course, joined
with the less strong Powers, made a combination among them, and thus
defeated and frustrated the Continental military tyrant whoever he was,
whatever nation he led. Thus we preserved the liberties of Europe, pro-
tected the growth of its vivacious and varied society, and emerged after
four terrible centuries with an ever-growing fame and widening Empire,
and with the Low Countries safely protected in their independence. Here
is the wonderful unconscious tradition of British foreign policy. All our
thoughts rest in that tradition to-day. I know of nothing which has
occurred to alter or weaken the justice, wisdom, valour, and prudence
upon which our ancestors acted/

Winston was convinced that the next war would be largely decided in the
air, and uppermost in his mind was the thought of the swiftly growing
German air force. The chief disadvantage of being out of office at this time
was the fact that he had no official information to support his contentions.
However, he was determined not to allow this difficulty to dip his wings,
and at once set about creating an intelligence service of his own. He began
to build up contacts both abroad and at home. He had dose friends at the
War Office and the Foreign Office who now became frequent visitors to
ChartwelL He renewed acquaintanceships in Ministerial circles in France,
and began to establish new lines in Berlin. He gladly received any news-
paper correspondent who he thought could tefl him anything and opened
the doors of his house to Germans who disliked the Hider regime as much

2p6 WINSTON CHURCHILL

as he did. Chartwell became a little Foreign Office of its own with its
stream of visitors supplying information, working out statistics, doing
research, and analysing events through searching arguments and careful
discussions. Refugees from Nazi Germany and, as time went on, from
Austria and Czechoslovakia made their way to Winston's home. But
probably the most important member of his 'inner cirde' was Frederick
Lindemann, the Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford, who
had accompanied him abroad on his summer trip to Munich. Lindemann
spent countless week-ends at Chartwell compiling statistics and advising
Churchill on the latest technical and scientific developments which
covered many fields, including radar and projected missiles. The two
men often sat up discussing these subjects until two or three in the
morning.

Winston's intelligence service was soon supplying him with valuable
information which made his speeches to the House of Commons im-
portant events. Although Germany had been forbidden a military air force
under the Versailles Treaty he learned that her large civil aviation force
and her national glider dubs had been organized and designed so that they
could be expanded instantaneously for war. He warned the House that
Britain was only the fifth air power in Europe while the Germans, 'those
very gifted people, with their science and with their factories, with what
they call their "Air Sport", are capable of devdoping with great rapidity
a most powerful air force for all purposes, offensive and defensive, within
a very short period of time.' 1

Eight months later Winston had precise information on which to base
his arguments. 'I assert first,' he told the House of Commons, 'that
Germany already, at this moment, has a military air fores that is to say,
military squadrons, with the necessary ground services, and the necessary
reserves of trained personnd and material which only awaits an order to
assemble in full open combination; and that this illegal air force is rapidly
approaching equality with our own. Secondly, by this time next year, if
Germany executes her existing programme without accderation, and if we
execute our existing programme on the basis which now lies before us
without slowing down, and carry out the increases announced to Parlia-
ment in July last, the German military air force will this time next year
be in fact at least as strong as our own, and it may be even stronger.
Thirdly, on the same basis that is to say, fioth sides continuing with their
existing programmes as at present arranged by the end of 1936, that is,
one year farther on, and two years from now the German military air
force will be nearly fifty per cent stronger, and in 1937 nearly double. All
1 Hansard: 8 March, 1934.

THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH 297

this is on the assumption, as I say, that there is no acceleration on the part
of Germany, and no slowing-down on our part.' 1

The House was startled by this information but Mr. Baldwin" allayed
its fears by categorically denying Winston's figures. It is not the case that
Germany is rapidly approaching equality with us Her real strength is
not fifty per cent of our strength in Europe ... As for the position this
time next year ... we estimate that we shall have a margin in Europe
alone of nearly fifty per cent/ 2

However, it soon became apparent that Mr. Churchill's private intelli-
gence was far better than the official channels on which the Government
relied. In March 1935 the German Chancellor stated openly that the
German Air Force had achieved parity with the British. And in May of
the same year Stanley Baldwin was forced to make an astonishing retrac-
tion to the House. 'Where I was wrong was in my estimate of the future.
There I was completely wrong. We were completely misled on that
subject . . .

'I will repeat here that there is no occasion, in my view, in what we are
doing, for panic. But I will say this deliberately, with all the knowledge I
have of the situation, that I would not remain for one moment in any
Government which took less determined steps than we are taking to-day.
I think it is only due to say that there has been a great deal of criticism,
both in the press and verbally, about the Air Ministry as though they were
responsible for possibly an inadequate programme, for not having gone
ahead faster, and for many other things. I only want to repeat that what-
ever responsibility there may be and we are perfectly ready to meet
criticisms that responsibility is not that of any single Minister; it is the
responsibility of the Government as a whole, and we are all responsible,
and we are all to blame.' 3

Strangely enough, *Mr. Baldwin's Confession', as Winston soon dubbed
it, did not have an adverse effect on his popularity. If anything, his popu-
larity slightly increased, for the British public was deeply impressed by his
honesty. They liked a man who could admit he was wrong. Winston had
the dazzle and the eloquence but Stanley Baldwin was the man you could
rely upon. At the General Election a few months later they showed their
confidence by returning him with a handsome majority.

1 Hansard: 28 November, 1934.

'Ibid.

9 Hansard: 22 May, 1935.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

THE BALANCE OF POWER

WINSTON WAS angry and disappointed not to be included in Stanley
Baldwin's new Government. The India issue was closed; his warnings
about Germany were being fulfilled; and the Government had received a
mandate to re-arm. It was widely forecast in the press that he would be
asked to take over the Admiralty and he confidently expected the offer to
be made. 'The growing German menace made me anxious to ky my
hands upon our military machine/ he wrote. 'I could now feel very
keenly what was coming. Distracted France and timid peace-loving
Britain would soon be confronted with the challenge of the European
Dictators. I was in sympathy with the changing temper of the Labour
Party. Here was the chance of a true National Government. It was under-
stood that the Admiralty would be vacant, and I wished very much to go
there should the Conservatives be returned to power/ 1

However, as soon as the election results were known Baldwin an-
nounced through the Conservative Central Office that Churchill would
not be asked to join the Government. Winston believes that his exclusion
was a sop to the pacifist element in the House, but remembering that
Baldwin had complained in the kte twenties that Churchill flooded the
Government with memoranda and advice and that 'a Cabinet meeting
when Winston was present did not have the opportunity of considering
its proper agenda/ it seems more likely that he was merely adhering to
his resolve never again to have him as a colleague.

However, the Prime Minister was one of the shrewdest Party managers
in the history of Conservatism and it stands to reason that he would have
put his reservations aside if Winston had commanded any following in the
country. But in 1935 Churchill had practically no support either in Parlia-
ment or among the people. It was a curious situation. The public freely
acknowledged his great gifts; they admired his courage; they read his
books; they were impressed by his superb oratory. Yet they would not
follow him. They believed kirn to be emotionally unsound. They had
watched his career and listened to his wonderful eloquence for thirty-five
years and formed the impression that his thirst for adventure always led
him in search of heroic parts. He dramatized himself and the stage on
which he performed. In his hands incidents swelled into large events.

1 lite Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill

THE BALANCE OP POWER 2p9

They remembered the young Minister who had sent field guns to Sidney
Street; the Home Secretary who had dispatched troops all over Britain
in the railway strike of 1911 without waiting for the local authorities to
ask for them; the First Lord of the Admiralty who had asked to take com-
mand of the army defending Antwerp; the Minister for "War who had
secured Allied intervention in the Russian revolution; the Minister for
Colonial Affairs who drafted the Chanak communiqu. They remem-
bered his warnings that the Labour Party would destroy the constitution
of the country, and that self-rule for India would mark the downfall of
the British Empire. He had exaggerated situations before. How could they
know he was right this time?

But personal misgiving was not the only reason for Winston's failure to
command a following. The public felt that he was offering them little
hope of a better world. They had no faith in power politics. The idea of a
Grand Alliance, based on the balance of power, had been tried often before
and had often failed. On looking back it is dear that the only hope of
arousing the people of Britain and France lay in the League of Nations.
Here was a great new concept; here was a concert of nations joined to-
gether in a common desire to establish for the first time a reign of inter-
national law; to substitute the principle of negotiation for the act of war.

The detractors of the League argued that it had been hopelessly crippled,
soon after birth, by the withdrawal of the United States. Nevertheless, the
fact remains that throughout the twenties and most of the thirties Britain
and France together, if they had had the will, could have enforced the
League's authority. But could they have commanded public support?
During the twenties the vast number of people who supported the League
regarded it merely as a 'moral force'. The Disarmament Conferences were
held under its aegis and helped to swell the impression that it was an instru-
ment of pacifism rather than an authority for the maintenance of order.

In the early thirties this conception gradually began to change. Europe
was growing increasingly frightened of Germany and by the middle of
1934 disarmament was abandoned. Many people said this spelt the death
of the League. It had failed to deal either with the Chaco clashes in 1928,
or with the Manchurian incident in 1931. Now that rearmament was
beginning again, the last vestige of its peaceful purpose seemed to have
been stripped from it. Churchill fought against this feeling of despair and
told the House as early as 1932 that he deprecated "the kind of thought
that, unless the League can force a general disarmament, unless it can com-
pel powerful nations in remote regions to comply with its decisions, it is
dead away with it/

300 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Nevertheless it is a curious fact that even Winston Churchill did not
understand the potential power of the League as a weapon for rallying
public opinion. In the summer of 1935 it became apparent that Mussolini
had designs on Abyssinia. The situation could scarcely have been more
awkward. Italy was an ally of Britain and France and the three nations
had pledged themselves to stand together against further aggression. On
the other hand Abyssinia was a member of the League of Nations. If she
was attacked what was the duty of Britain and France?

Winston's attitude on this question was understandable. Almost alone
among the leading British statesmen he realized the full gravity of the
German menace. In his desperate and lonely efforts to build up a strong
balance of power he had no wish to see Italy estranged from France and
Britain. On n July, 1935, he expressed his uneasiness to Parliament and
cautioned the Government to move slowly. * We seemed to have allowed
the impression to be created that we were ourselves coining forward as a
sort of bell-wether or fugleman to lead opinion in Europe against Italy's
Abyssinian designs. It was even suggested that we would act individually
and independently. I am glad to hear from the Foreign Secretary that there
is no foundation for that. We must do our duty, but we must do it with
other nations only in accordance with the obligations which others recog-
nize as well. We are not strong enough to be the lawgiver and the spokes-
man of the world. We will do our part, but we cannot be asked to do
more than our part in these matters

c As we stand to-day there is no doubt that a cloud has come over the old
friendship between Great Britain and Italy, a cloud which, it seems to me,
may very easily not pass away, although undoubtedly it is everyone's
desire that it should. It is an old friendship, and we must not forget, what
is a little-known fact, that at the time Italy entered into the Triple Alliance
in the last century she stipulated particularly that in no circumstances
would the obligations under the Alliance bring her into armed conflict
with Great Britain.'

A month later he was invited to the Foreign Office and asked how far
he was prepared to go against Italian aggression in Abyssinia. He replied
that he thought the Foreign Secretary was justified in going as far with the
League of Nations against Italy as he could carry France/ but that he ought
not 'to put any pressure upon France because of her military convention
with Italy and her German preoccupations/ This, of course, was tanta-
mount to doing nothing for as Churchill himself admitted: 'In the circum-
stances I did not expect France would go very far/ 1

Winston's point of view was understandable, nevertheless it was a

THE BALANCE OF POWER 301

serious mistake. Here was the man who had been asking his countrymen
to take the lead against the treaty-breaking of Germany, now advising
them to hang back over the flagrant aggression of Italy, knowing full well
that unless Britain took the lead the act would be condoned. His attitude
opened him to a charge of cynicism and expediency and revealed a com-
plete misunderstanding of the drastic change that was taking place in
British public opinion. There had been some indication of this evolution
earlier in the year when the League of Nations Union sent out a question-
naire under the heading of The Peace Ballot. The two most important
questions were these: 'Do you consider that if a nation insists on attack-
ing another, the other nations should combine to compel it to stop by:
(a) economic and non-military measures? (b) if necessary military mea-
sures?' Eleven million people answered (a) in the affirmative and nearly
eight million answered (b) in the affirmative.

Stanley Baldwin was conscious of which way the wind was blowing
and he fought the election of October 1935 on a promise to uphold the
League of Nations. This same month another significant event occurred.
The Labour Party dismissed its pacifist leader George Lansbury (mainly
due to the influence of Ernest Bevin who told a large audience that he
was 'tired of having George Lansbury' s conscience carted about from con-
ference to conference'), and put in his stead Major Clement Atdee, a
Socialist who had been an infantry officer in the late war.

The British Government went ahead and rallied the support of fifty
nations in the laying down of economic sanctions against Italy. Once the
step had been taken, once Italy had been estranged, Winston gave the
League his unqualified support. In a strong and eloquent speech in the
House he professed his hope that sanctions would prove a decisive stumb-
ling block to Mussolini's conquest, and declared with emotion that the
League of Nations had 'passed from shadow into substance, from theory
into practice, from rhetoric into reality'. He announced courageously that
if he were asked how far he would go in support of the League Covenant
he would go 'the whole way with die whole lot'. 1

But disillusion was soon to setin: for Winston Churchill, for the British
people, for the whole world. Baldwin's sanctions were only sham
sanctions. He was determined to prevent war at all costs although we
know to-day that if the Royal Navy had taken action the matter would
have been settled in a very few weeks. The Prime Minister was not pre-
pared to impose the only sanction that really mattered oil sanctions.
Furthermore, once the gesture had been made against Italy he did not
rule out the idea of a settlement. In January the British and French

1 Hansard: 24 October, 1935.

302 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Foreign Secretaries met by accident at Geneva and concocted a plan,
known as the Hoare-Laval proposals, which gave Italy a fifth of Abyssinia
in return for calling off the war.

This cynical compromise profoundly shocked the British people and
rocked the Government to its foundations. Stanley Baldwin was forced to
withdraw the proposals and apologize to the House. Sir Samuel Hoare
was forced to resign and Anthony Eden took his place. Sham sanctions
continued and Italy went ahead and completed the conquest of Abyssinia.
It was a dismal story.

Winston was in Spain and North Africa during the Hoare-Laval crisis. If
he had been in England he might have been able to exert enough pressure
to force Baldwin to take him into the Cabinet, for the latter's prestige had
sunk to its lowest level. However, he profited from the lesson. He per-
ceived that a new force had come into being in England. He understood
the deep urge of the people for a righteous stand and he saw that it was
only by championing die League of Nations that he could rally the
masses to his cause: the cause of maintaining a balance of power on the
side of Britain. Two months later, in March 1936, he told the Conserva-
tive Members Committee on Foreign Affairs: 'You must not underrate
the force which these ideals [the League of Nations] exert upon the
modern democracy. One does not know how these seeds are planted by
the winds of the centuries in the hearts of the working people. They arc
there, and just as strong as their love of liberty. We should not neglect
them, because they are the essence of the genius of this island. Therefore,
we believe that in the fostering and fortifying of the League of Nations
will be found the best means of defending our island security, as well as
maintaining grand universal causes with which we have very often found
our own interests in natural accord.* He then outlined his three, simple
contentions: 'First, that we must oppose the would-be dominator or
potential aggressor. Secondly, that Germany under its present Nazi regime
and its prodigious armaments, so swiftly developing,, fills unmistakably
that part Thirdly, that the League of Nations rallies many countries, and
unites our people here at home in the most effective way to control the
would-be aggressor/

The old cry 'Disarmament and the League* was dead and in its place
Winston tried to substitute the slogan 'Arms and the Covenant*. Through-
out 1936 he commanded a growing following. Labour and Liberal
leaders who, only a few years before, tad regarded him as an arch-enemy,
were now marching behind his banner. Sir Walter Citrine, the great

THE BALANCE OF POWER 303

Trade Union figure and one of the leaders of the General Strike, oc-
casionally sat on his platform. But although Churchill had the moral back-
ing of the Labour Party he failed to win the practical support that was so
vital to his cause. The Socialists voted repeatedly in favour of the League of
Nations but at the same time they refusecl to back any increase in arma-
ments. This fantastically muddled policy was put forward on the grounds
that Labour did not trust the Tories to use weapons in defence of the
League.

Winston was also supported by a number of Conservative M.P.S but
they were only a small splinter group, for the bulk of the Parliamentary
Conservative Party was staunchly behind their leader, Stanley Baldwin.
And Baldwin was still determined not to take any risk, no matter how
minute, which might lead to war. In March 1936 Hitler electrified Europe
by marching into the Rhineland, in direct contravention of all the treaties.
France was paralysed with fear, and refused to move unless Britain moved
with her. But Baldwin still would not commit himself and urged the
French to take the matter to the League. As we know to-day, if the
French Army had advanced they would have forced Germany to move
back with scarcely a shot fired. Hitler had occupied the Rhineland against
the advice of his military experts with only a handful of troops. It was a
gigantic bluff. He was gambling on the inertia of the democracies and if
his gamble had not succeeded it is more than likely his whole regime
would have crumbled. Thus one more chance to avert war was lost.

While France stood back trembling and undecided Winston tried to
galvanize the world through collective action. 'If the League of Nations
were able to enforce its decree upon one of the most powerful countries
in the world found to be an aggressor/ he told the House of Commons on
13 March, 'then the authority of the League would be set upon so majestic
a pedestal that it must henceforth be the accepted sovereign authority by
which all the quarrels of the people can be determined and controlled.
Thus we might upon this occasion reach by one single bound the realiza-
tion of our most cherished dreams.'

The people of Great Britain were ready to make a stand but they were
not given the chance to do so. The country's rulers were not prepared to
risk anything, no matter how large the gain. Prominent men and leading
newspapers began to play the crisis down. After all, at the same time that
Hitler had invaded the Rhineland he had offered the democracies a non-
aggression pact. The Times and the Daily Herald both expressed their faith
in his offer. Such leading statesmen as Lloyd George and'Lord Lothian
said, respectively, that they 'hoped we should keep our heads' and that
'after all, they are only going into their own backgarden.' Winston

304 WINSTON CHURCHILL

pointed out that if Germany fortified the Rhindand, which she was bound
to do, it would 'enable German troops to be economized on that line, and
will enable the main forces to swing round through Belgium and Hol-
land'. But those in responsible positions were not prepared to listen.

Winston continued to hammer home his theme throughout the years
and his following continued to grow. He castigated Baldwin for not ful-
filling his promise that British air power would not be 'inferior to any
country within striking distance of our shores', and turned the full force
of his vehement and polished rhetoric upon him. 'The Government
simply cannot make up their minds, or they cannot get the Prime
Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided
only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid
for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more
months and years precious, perhaps vital, to the greatness of Britain
for the locusts to eat/ 1

Stanley Baldwin's stock once again was declining; Winston's stock once
again rising. Once again he might have regained high office, but for the
strange intervention of fate. An event occurred which tipped the scales
heavily the other way *he Abdication Crisis.

Everyone knows the deftness and skill with which Stanley Baldwin
handled the Abdication Crisis. As Philip Guedalla put it, 'the King was
handled with a firmer touch than the King's enemies'. He gave the
Sovereign two dear choices: he could either renounce Mrs. Simpson and
keep the throne, or wed Mrs. Simpson and abdicate. There was to be no
morganatic marriage. The Prime Minister was treading on firm ground
for public opinion was strongly behind him. He knew the British people
would never accept a thrice married woman as their Queen.

It was characteristic of Winston to take the King's side and plead the
King's cause. He could not possibly have hoped to gain from it: indeed he
had everything to lose. But he had a romantic nature and a sympathy
with the monarch's wish to marry for love. More than this, he had a deep
sense of loyalty. He had known Edward VIII since his childhood, and as
Home Secretary had read out the proclamation creating hi Prince of
Wales. The King sent for him on his own initiative to ask for advice and
help. As Lord Birkenhead had once pointed out Winston 'never failed a
friend no matter how embarrassing die obligation appeared at the time'.
He felt it his duty to serve the King until the end.

He drew his sword and attacked Baldwin for trying to rush the issue,

1 Hansard: 12 November, 1936.

THE BALANCE OF POWER 305

and pleaded with the House of Commons for delay. Public sentiment was
so strong, however, that a storm of wrath broke on his head. He was
accused of lacking all principle and trying to make political capital of the
matter. He was accused of trying to form a King's party and wreck the
constitution. He was accused of his usual bad judgment. The tragedy was
that the following he had gathered, so important for the life of Europe,
began to melt away, while Stanley Baldwin, a discredited Prime Minister,
was once again installed high in public favour. 'There were several
moments when I seemed to be entirely alone against a wrathful House of
Commons. I am not, when in action, unduly affected by hostile currents of
feeling; but it was on more than one occasion almost physically impos-
sible to make myself heard. All the forces I had gathered together on
"Arms and the Covenant", of which I conceived myself to be the main-
spring, were estranged or dissolved, and I was myself so smitten in public
opinion that it was the almost universal view that my political life was at
last ended/ 1

The history of the thirties makes tragic reading. If even a small part of
Winston Churchill's advice had been heeded the second great world
catastrophe would never have taken place. He will be remembered in
history as a man of war, but no statesman has ever tried more valiantly to
save.the peace. 'My mind was obsessed by the impression of the terrific
Germany I had seen and felt in action during the years of 1914 to 1918
suddenly becoming again possessed of all her martial power/ he wrote,
'while die Allies, who had so narrowly survived, gaped idle and be-
wildered.' 2 Under Stanley Baldwin the Allies continued to gape; under
Neville Chamberlain they moved forward but on the wrong road.

The vacillation of the French and British and the blindness of the
Americans during the kte thirties almost passes comprehension. Nearly
every foreign correspondent in Europe was aware of the derision in which
the dictators held the democracies, and the determination of the dictators
to strike while the going was good. There is a mass of journalistic warn-
ings on the subject. In 1937 Winston had a long conversation with the
German Ambassador in London, Herr von Ribbentrop. The latter told
him that Germany must have a free hand in Eastern Europe, and Winston
replied that he was sure that the British Government would not agree to it.
'In that case,' said von Ribbentrop, 'war is inevitable. There is no way out.
The Fiihrer is resolved. Nothing will stop him and nothing will stop us/
This conversation was not unique. In Germany similar sentiments were
expressed freely to anyone who would listen. Indeed it would be difficult

1 The Catherine Storm: Winston S. Churchill.
Ibid.

306 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to find another period in history where the aggressive designs of a nation
were so unconcealed.

It is therefore even more remarkable that of all the statesmen in the
Western world Winston Churchill alone perceived the danger from the
start and consistently pointed out the only course to follow. He never, for
one moment, took his eyes off the balance of power, and every action he
urged was to strengthen the balance in favour of Britain and France.
During the first half of the thirties he begged the democracies to build up
their strength. 'If you wish to bring about a war, you bring about such an
equipoise that both sides think they have a chance of winning. If you
want to stop a war, you gather such an aggregation offeree on the side of
peace that die aggressor, whoever he may be, will not dare to challenge.' 1
This advice was not followed. During the second half of the thirties he
begged the democracies to combine to uphold law and order. 'Why not
make a stand while there is still a good company of united, very powerful
countries that share our dangers and our aspirations? Why should we delay
until we are confronted with a general landslide of those small countries
passing over, because they have no other choice, to the overwhelming
power of the Nazi regime?' 2

But even more remarkable than his prescience was his unflagging
courage. His boldness illuminates the darkness of the thirties and saves it
from the scathing judgment of posterity. When in 1937, despite all his
warnings and prophecies, he was shunned by his Party and ignored by
Parliament, a lesser man might have turned from the House of Commons
in despair and occupied himself with his own affairs. But Winston never
faltered. Whether die tide was with him or not he sailed on. He was
derided by his enemies, patronized by his friends, and mocked by the
press, yet he continued to work feverishly to stave off the approaching
calamity.

Although Stanley Baldwin excluded Churchill from office, he offered
him a sop. In 1935 he invited him to sit on the newly constituted Com-
mittee of Air Defence Research. A man of smaller stature might have
refused the offer, arguing that if his Party did not dwnlr highly enough of
him to employ himina Ministerial capacity they would have to do with-
out his services in minor spheres. But Winston was determined to serve,
no matter how humble the capacity. He asked that Professor Lindemann
should be placed on the Technical Sub-Committee so that they might
work together. For the next five years he mastered every aspect of
scientific air defence. He heard Professor Tizard make his report on

x Hansards 13 July, 1934.
1 Hansard: 14 March, 1938.

THE BALANCE OF POWER 307

radio-location, which resulted in the setting up of an experimental
organization. In 1939 when the Air Committee held its final meeting
twenty radar stations were in operation between Portsmouth and Scapa
Flow and it was possible to detect aircraft from fifty to one hundred and
twenty miles away flying above ten thousand feet. Winston was also given
free access to the Admiralty and made it his business to acquaint himself
with every detail of the new building programme, and the latest develop-
ments in guns, armour and explosives. Thus when he became Prime
Minister he had more knowledge of the technicalities of sea and air
defence than any other statesman called to lead a nation in war.

Winston's persistent and lonely efforts to save his country from war for
nearly ten years, unsupported by any single political party in the House of
Commons, are without parallel in English history. Many politicians have
opposed the Government but they have usually had the backing of a
Party. Winston stood alone. In 1920 an anonymous writer in the Daily
News had written prophetically: 'Politics for Mr. Churchill, if they are to
fulfil his promise, must be a religion. They must have nothing to do with
Mr. Churchill. They must have everything to do with the salvation of
mankind.' Winston had found his cause; and no one would argue to-day
that it was not concerned with the salvation of mankind.

The year 1937 was one of the most painful of Churchill's life. His influence
had fallen to zero, partly because of his attitude over the Abdication Crisis,
partly because Hitler and Mussolini remained quiet and people began to
feel that perhaps there would not be a war after all. Churchill's stock
remained at low ebb throughout the early months of 1938, and it was at
this period that I first met him. His son, Randolph, took me to Chartwell
one day for lunch. Mr. Churchill was down by the pond, in a torn coat
and a battered hat, prodding the water with a stick, looking for his pet
goldfish which seemed to have disappeared. He was in an expansive mood
and at lunch the conversation centred, as it usually did, on politics. He
expressed his fear that England would refuse to show her hand until it
was not only too late to avoid war, but too late to win a war.

As he talked one could not help being struck by the resdess energy and
frustration of the man. In spite of his writing, his weekly contributions to
the press, his long and masterly speeches in the Commons, one was aware
that only a quarter of his resources were being used, and you felt that
he was like a mighty torrent trying to burst its dams.

The sense of frustration was not difficult to understand. Shortly after this
luncheon, I heard him speak in the House of Commons, The date was

308 WINSTON CHURCHILL

24 March, 1938, two weeks after the German invasion of Austria. As I
looked down from the gallery on the sea of black coats and white faces,
he seemed only one man of many; but when he spoke his words rang
through the House with terrible finality. He stood addressing the Speaker,
his shoulders hunched, his head thrust forward, his hands in his waistcoat
pockets. 'For five years I have talked to this House on these matters not
with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending
incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a
fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends. A
little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these
break beneath your feet. Look back over the last five years. It is true that
great mistakes were made in the years immediately after the war. But at
Locarno we laid the foundations from which a great forward movement
could have been made. Look back upon the last five years since, that is
to say, Germany began to rearm in earnest and openly to seek revenge.
If we study the history of Rome and Carthage we can understand what
happened and why. It is not difficult to form an intelligent view about the
three Punic Wars; but if mortal catastrophe should overtake the British
Nation and the British Empire, historians a thousand years hence will still
be baffled by the mystery of our affairs. They will never understand how it
was that a victorious nation, with everything in hand, suffered themselves
to be brought low, and to cast away all that they had gained by measure-
less sacrifice and absolute victory gone with the wind!

'Now the victors are vanquished, and those who threw down their
arms in the field and sued for an armistice are striding on to world
mastery. That is the position that is the terrible transformation that has
taken place bit by bit. I rejoice to hear from the Prime Minister that a
further supreme effort is to be made to place us in a position of security.
Now is the time at last to rouse the nation. Perhaps it is the last time it can
be roused with a chance of preventing war, or with a chance of coming
through to victory should our efforts to prevent war fail. We should lay
aside every hindrance and endeavour by uniting the whole force and spirit
of our people to raise again a great British nation standing up before all
the world; for such a nation, rising in its ancient vigour, can even at this
hour save civilization/

When Mr. Churchill sat down there was a deep silence for a moment:
then the show was over. The House broke into a hubbub of noise; Mem-
bers rattled their papers and shuffled their way to the lobby. A prominent
Conservative came up to the gallery to take me to tea. I was talking to a
friend, and when we asked him what he thought of the speech he replied
lighdy: 'Oh, the usual Churchillian filibuster; he likes to rattle the sabre

THE BALANCE OF POWER 309

and he does it jolly well, but you always have to take it with a grain of
salt/ This was the general attitude of the House of Commons in those
days. Many years later Churchill wrote: 'I had to be very careful not to
lose my poise in the great discussions and debates which crowded upon
us. ... I had to control my feelings and appear serene, indifferent, de-
tached.* 1 In view of the circumstances, this was no small feat in itself.

Unlike Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain had a positive policy.
This policy was completely contrary to Winston's belief in the balance of
power, and to the age-old formula which Britain had always followed in
refusing to allow any single Power to dominate the Continent of Europe.
Chamberlain believed that Britain and Germany could come to a peaceful
understanding about spheres of interest Let Germany extend her influence
on the Continent, let Britain look to her Navy and her Empire.

Chamberlain had not been in office long before he set about putting
these ill-fated theories into practice. He forgave the Nazi invasion of
Austria and journeyed to Italy to try and establish friendly relations with
Mussolini. This brought about the resignation of Anthony Eden, whose
heart was in the right place, but who had never had the moral strength to
dissociate himself from Baldwin's vacillating policies.

Then came Munich. Chamberlain flew to Germany three times, and
returned home with the famous agreement which gave Czechoslovakia's
Sudetenland to the Germans. Winston cried out, 'One pound was
demanded at the pistol point. When it was given, two pounds were
demanded at the pistol point. Finally the Dictator consented to take
ji 175. 6d. and the rest in promise of goodwill for the future/ 2 But
Chamberlain enunciated his belief that it was 'peace with honour' and
what is more 'peace in our time' and the whole world acclaimed him as a
saviour. Never had he been so popular. But this dream was not to last for
long. Only six months after Munich, after a solemn declaration from
Hitler that he had no 'evil intentions towards Czechoslovakia*, the German
army moved into Prague. At last the scales fell from the blind eyes of
the British leader; at last he saw that Germany meant business. From that
moment the policy of appeasement was over, and England and France
slapped a guarantee on Poland. But the Germans had every form of
military superiority. The British could never catch up.

At this point Winston Churchill regarded war as inevitable. There was
only one faint hope left, and that was an alliance with Russia. Although

1 The Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill.
1 Hansard: 5 October, 1938.

3IO WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston had been the Soviet Union's most hostile critic during the
twenties, he welcomed Russia's entry into the League of Nations in 1934,
for he saw it as an added reinforcement to the balance of power. A few
months before the Munich Agreement he spoke out plainly, describing
her as 'a country whose form of government I detest . . . but how impro-
vidently foolish we should be when dangers are so great, to put needless
barriers in the way of the general associations of the great Russian mass
with resistance to an act of Nazi aggression.' 1 After Munich he spoke
again, begging Chamberlain to accept the Soviet offer of a Triple
Alliance which would bind Great Britain, France and Russia in a guaran-
tee for the safety of the states in Central and Eastern Europe. But Poland
feared Russia as much as Germany; Mr. Chamberlain hesitated: the
alliance was never established. Instead, in the summer of 1939 Stalin did
a deal with Hitler which burst upon the world as the Soviet-German
Pact. Germany's hands were now free for other business. In September the
second World War began.

1 Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 9 May, 1939.

CHAPTER TWENTY

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR

WHEN THE Admiralty Board learned that Mr. Chamberlain had asked
Churchill to take over the Navy, they signalled to the Fleet: 'Winston is
back. 9 It was a dramatic return. Just twenty-five years previously Churchill
had guided the Royal Navy through the opening months of the first World
War. Then, as now, he was the most dominating figure in the Govern-
ment; then, as now, he was spoken of as a probable war Prime Minister.
But then he had stumbled; this time his step was firm and sure.

From the first day he was the true leader of Britain. When Chamberlain
broadcast to the nation on the morning of 3 September, 1939, he spoke as
a broken-hearted man. 'Everything that I have worked for, everything
that I have hoped for, everything that I have believed in during my public
life has crashed into ruins! 9 This was true enough, but it was scarcely the
way to rouse the nation. Chamberlain could not rid himself of the past,
and as a result he was unable to regard the war as anything but a calamity.
Winston on the other hand accepted it as a challenge, and not only dis-
missed the past but buried all recrimination with it.

I saw an amusing example of this for myself, for a few months after war
began a member of the Churchill family invited me to lunch at Admiralty
House. Conversation in the Churchill household was always political, and
previously one could have been certain of a number of witty sallies at
Mr. Chamberlain's expense. On this occasion, however, one of Mr.
Churchill's children attempted a mild joke and I was astonished to see a
scowl appear on the father's face. With enormous solemnity he said: 'If
you are going to make offensive remarks about my chief you will have to
leave the table. We are united in a great and common cause and I am not
prepared to tolerate such language about the Prime Minister.' I honoured
Mr. Churchill's sentiments, but having heard the same joke from his own
lips a few months before, I found it difficult to suppress a smile.

The first seven months of the war provided a strange hiatus. It was the
long uneasy lull before the curtain lifted on the grand climax. The British
people had been warned of the strength and ferocity of the German Air
Force and had braced themselves for a rain of bombs on their towns and
cities. Instead there was silence in the West while Hitler concentrated his

311

312 WINSTON CHURCHILL

attack on Poland and divided the spoils with Stalin according to a pre-
arranged plan. Next, Stalin devoured the Baltic States, and invaded Fin-
land; after an inauspicious start the Russian Bear finally smashed the small
Finnish army and in March 1940 an armistice was signed.

All this time Britain and France looked on helplessly. To-day the world
knows how badly prepared they were for the conflict. The German Air
Force was twice die strength of Britain's and the German Army was soon
to demonstrate its might against the soldiers of France. The two demo-
cracies were eager to help Finland, and the British hurriedly began to train
divisions for an ice-bound war. The troops were not ready in time; but
even if they had been, there was not an earthly chance of persuading
Norway and Sweden, who were desperately clinging to their neutrality,
to allow a passage through to Finland.

As a result British soldiers began to sing about 'hanging out the washing
on the Siegfried line* and Americans began to refer to 'the phoney war'.
This last jibe was a miscalculation of the determination of England; never-
theless it touched a chord that was real. In the early days of the war both
Britain and France were wholly concentrated on defensive warfare.
France had poured out her strength and money on the Maginot Line, and
Britain had concentrated on fast fighters. When you asked military people
how the war would be won they answered confidently that Germany
would smash herself against the French fortifications and dissipate her air
force against the English defences.

The democracies had no plan for assuming the offensive; besides this
there were strong subversive elements in the population, particularly in
France. The extreme Left had taken its signal from Moscow and de-
nounced the war as a capitalist-imperialist project. The extreme Right, on
the other hand, still hankered for an understanding with Germany. Poland
was gone. How could Britain and France revive her, they argued? Wasn't
it better to have a strong Germany in Central Europe as a bulwark against
Bolshevism than to smash the only barrier and open the way for the
barbaric Slavs? Even in England one could hear this argument. In the
winter of 1939 I remember talking to an Englishman who later became
one of Churchill's most energetic and loyal colleagues. 'I would give
everything I possess/ he said, 'if I could put an end to this senseless war.
I would sign a peace with Germany now and stop the conflict before the
whole of Europe is brought to ruin.'

These were some of the sentiments of the phoney war. They were not
widespread, but they existed. Winston lost no time in combating them
no matter from what quarter they came. He referred to the 'thoughtless
dilettanti or purblind worldlings who sometimes ask us: "What is it that

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR $13

Britain and France are fighting for?" To this I answer: "If we left off
fighting you would soon find out." J1 He referred to Hitler as 'a haunted,
morbid being, who, to their eternal shame, the German people in their
bewilderment have worshipped as a god/ And he referred to the fright-
ened neutral countries who were sitting on the fence, warning them that
their plight was lamentable, 'and it will become worse. They bow humbly
and in fear to German threats of violence, comforting themselves mean-
while with the thought that the Allies will win. . . . Each one of them
hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him
last ' 2

At the same time that Winston was attacking the enemy, combating
me defeatist elements on his own side, and trying to galvanize the neutrals
intoaction, he was giving the people of Britain the firm clear lead they
wantecCrlow we have begun; now we are going on; now with the help
of God, and with the conviction that we are the defenders of Civilization
and Freedom, we are going on, and we are going on to the end,'

Hitler at once recognized his true enemy, and lost no time in singling
out Winston as the villain of the piece. Early in October the German
leader broadcast to the world employing the tactics that up until now had
been so successful. There was no need, he said, for a war with the West.
Poland was dead, it would never rise again. Why fight about it? 1 make
this declaration only because I very naturally desire to spare my people
suffering. But should the views of Churchill and his following prevail,
then this declaration will be my last. We should then fight . . . Let those
repulse my hand who regard war as the better solution! 9

Winston gave him a plain answer in a broadcast on 12 November, 1939.
'You may take it absolutely for certain that either all that Britain and
France stand for in the modern world will go down, or that Hitler, the
Nazi regime, and the recurring German and Prussian menace to Europe
will be broken and destroyed. This is the way the matter lies, and every-
body had better make up their minds to that solid, sombre fact.'

Meanwhile Winston was not idle as First Lord of the Admiralty. The
Royal Navy was the only strong force the British possessed and from the
first day of the war the senior service was on the offensive. Winston
worked an cighteen-hour day. Plans were drawn up for a blockade of
Germany; convoy arrangements were made; mine-sweeping was organ-
ized; ships were requisitioned; new building began; and, above all, enemy

1 Broadcast, 30 March, 1940.
1 Broadcast, 20 January, 1940.

314 WINSTON CHURCHILL

raiders and submarines were hunted down. By the end of 1939 Winston
announced that the British had sunk half Germany's submarines. But he
was wise enough to know that many great battles were coming. Ger-
many's production in all fields was enormous; the war was only in its
infancy.

Chamberlain on the other hand did not appear to grasp the situation.
On 5 April, 1940, he made an astonishing statement to the Conservative
and Unionist Associations: 'After seven months of war I fed ten times as
confident of victory as I did at the beginning. ... I fed that during the
seven months our relative position towards the enemy has become a great
deal stronger than it was/ He went on to elaborate the theme that the
breathing space Hitler had afforded the Allies had made the whole differ-
ence to the war; he could not seem to understand that during this period
Germany, too, had been building up. * Whatever may be the reason,' he
said, 'whether it was that Hider thought he might get away with what he
had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that all the preparations
were not sufficiently complete however, one thing is certain; he missed
the bus.' Three days later Hider invaded Norway and Denmark

The story of the Quisling 'Fifth Column* inside Norway, die landing of
the British troops and their dismal wididrawal ending in a complete
German victory is well known. The House of Commons was angered by
the defeat and met on 7 and 8 May to debate the events. Admiral of the
Fleet Sir Roger Keyes declared that if his countrymen had been bold
enough to seize Trondheim, die key to central Norway, the German
invasion could have been frustrated. He charged that die Navy had been
let down by Whitehall

It is ironic diat this accusation played a large part in the fall of the
Government, as for once Chamberlain was not to blame. Churchill him-
self, die First Lord of the Admiralty, had not welcomed the idea of a
frontal attack on Trondheim. The assault was to have been a combined
naval, military and air operation, and Winston fdt diat the risks which
die Home Fleet would have run were far too great But when the plan
was pressed forward strongly by all the Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary
of State for War, he acquiesced. Arrangements went ahead but at the last
moment the Chiefe of Staff devdoped cold feet and said diat on recon-
sidering die situation they bdicved that the frontal attack was too perilous.
Instead, they recommended a pincer movement on Trondheim from
North and Soudi. Although Winston had never been enthusiastic about die
first operation and people even whispered that 'the iron of the Dardanelles

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 315

had entered his soul' and he had no longer the courage to strike boldly, he
was indignant at such a late change of plan. Nevertheless, he again
acquiesced. Chamberlain was also disappointed but in face of the oppo-
sition of both the Chiefs of Staff and the Vice-Chiefs of Staff he felt he
could not interfere.

These were the facts and yet the blame for not attacking Trondheim
settled on Chamberlain. So Hitler had missed the bus? Speaker after
speaker flung the Prime Minister's unhappy remark in his face. 1 Winston
tried to defend him, as he was bound to do, but told the House of Com*
mons plainly that the defeat was not merely due to mistaken strategy, but
to the failure of the Government to maintain air parity with the Germans.

The House, however, was not in a mood for excuses. Although Mem-
bers of Parliament had no one to blame but themselves for the state of
British arms and equipment, they insisted on action and successful action
at that. It may strike die onlooker as unreasonable, but democracies func-
tion that way. All their wrath turned on Chamberlain for his bad advice
and guidance. Mr. Leo Amcry, a staunch Conservative, attacked the
Prime Minister and his colleagues in an impassioned speech ending with
Oliver Cromwell's stinging words to the Rump of the Long Parliament:
*You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart,
I say, and let us have done with you! In the name of God, GO 1 /

A vote of censure was put down against the Government and when
Winston defended Chamberlain Lloyd George rose and advised him not
to allow himself to be converted into an air raid shelter to keep the
splinters from hitting his colleagues. Mr. Chamberlain called on his friends
to save Mm from defeat and Lloyd George pointed out with deadly effect
that it was not a question of who were the Prime Minister's friends. 'It is
a far bigger issue. The Prime Minister must remember that he has met
this formidable foe of ours in peace and war. He has always been worsted.
He is not in a position to put it on the ground of friendship. He has
appealed for sacrifice. The nation is prepared for every sacrifice so long as
it has leadership. I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an
example of sacrifice, because there is nothing which can contribute more
to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office.'

The Members went through the lobby and although there was norm-
ally a Conservative majority of nearly two hundred and fifty, Chamber-
lain won by only eighty-one votes. He realized that his Government no

1 When Winston first heard the news of the German invasion of Norway he,
too, made a statement just as wide of the mark as Chamberlain's, He spoke
joyously of 'the strategic blunder into which our mortal enemy has been pro-
voked/ Fortunately this observation was overlooked.

316 WINSTON CHURCHILL

longer commanded the confidence of the House, and when he put out
feelers to the Liberal and Labour followers for a coalition he was told that
neither party would serve under him. He then offered the King his
resignation.

10 May was a momentous day. In the morning news came that the
attack on the West had begun and that German troops were streaming
across Holland; that night tie King sent for Winston Churchill and asked
him to form a Government. 'As I went to bed at about 3 a.m./ he has
recorded, 'I was conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the
authority to give directions over the whole scene/ 1 Even though the
situation was grave Winston Churchill's spirits were far from low.

Many books have been written about the second World War, chief of
which are the six detailed volumes that Mr. Churchill himself has con-
tributed. The story of the British war effort falls into two distinct parts:
first, the struggle to survive, and second, the alliance with Russia and the
United States in securing the victory and designing the peace.

The struggle to survive covers the twelve months that Britain fought
alone, from the fall of France in June 1940 to the German attack on Russia
in June i94i.lThe high-lights of this grim year are still fresh in the minds
of most people;] the partition of France; the formation of the Vichy
Government; the air attack on Britain; the blitz on London; the Desert
War; the defeat of Greece; the Commando raids along the Norwegian
and French coasts.

During this desperate period Winston Churchill became the most
inspiring figure in the Western world. He symbolized the fierce spirit of
liberty, and clothed Britain's determination to fight in words that no
other Englishman could have summoned. In his account of the war he
declares modestly that he was merely interpreting the strong mood that
gripped the country. He cites as an example the fact that when Hitler
made his final peace offer in the summer of 1940 the British Cabinet
regarded it as so supremely foolish that not a single member even raised
it for discussion. Nevertheless Winston's knowledge of military matters
and his dose concern with all operational undertakings animated the
British effort with a vigour and a boldness it had been lacking until then.
And his interpretation of the Mother Country's cause not only thrilled
millions of people all over the globe but raised British prestige to the
highest level in history.

The truth was that Winston had at last found his destiny. The world

1 The Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 3*7

looked to hir for a lead and all the pent-up energy of the immense
machine that throbbed in his heart and mind was brought into play. He
no longer knew the frustration of ideas that could not be brought alive,
vitality that could not be spent, ingenuity that could not be tested. The
tremendous task that had fallen upon him equalled his stature as a man,
and he grasped the supreme power of the State with eager hands.

The whole of 10 Downing Street throbbed with an energy it had not
seen since the days of Lloyd George, and perhaps hoped not to see again.
The routine of Government was turned topsy-turvy. Churchill stayed in
bed half the morning dictating and stayed up half the night talking. Every
afternoon, after lunch, he had a nap. Chiefs of Staff, Ministers, civil
servants, had to adapt themselves to this routine as best they could. Most
of them had to be at work at nine or ten in the morning; even so, woe
betide them if they were not men enough to come when he sent for them
after dinner to stay up until the early hours of the morning.

I do not mean to suggest that Churchill's leadership was not of the most
precise, orderly kind. On the contrary, he was a master organizer and at
once set about shaping a small, efficient machine that could take decisions
swiftly and work with the maximum effect. First he organized a War
Cabinet comprised of only four members besides himself: two were
Labour leaders, Clement Atdee and Arthur Greenwood, and two were
Conservatives, Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Halifax. 1 This War Cabinet
met almost daily and took all the supreme decisions of the war. Besides
this tiny, all-powerful, directing force there were sixty or seventy other
Ministers of all Parties who formed the membership of the Coalition
Government, but the latter were responsible only for their own depart-
ments; as Winston pointed out it was only the members of the War
Cabinet 'who had the right to have their heads cut off on Tower Hill if
we did not win.'

Needless to say Churchill was the over-riding figure in the War
Cabinet. Never before in history has a Prime Minister exerted such wide
powers; never before has a Prime Minister exercised so much control
over the operational side of a conflict. He was not only the King's First
Minister but Leader of the House of Commons and, even more im-
portant, Minister of Defence as well. In this last capacity he initiated a new
system which centred authority in his own hands. The Chiefs of Staff
instead of reporting to their own Ministers, the men in charge of the War,
Air and Admiralty departments, reported directly to him. He then asked
the War Cabinet for permission to have the Joint Planning Committee, a
body of professional staff officers of all three services, work under him as

1 Membership of the War Cabinet grew to seven later in the war.

318 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Minister of Defence ratter than under the Chiefs of Staff. Thus, by per-
mission of the War Cabinet, he became virtually a dictator.

He revelled in both the immense power and responsibility of his task,
and arranged his day with careful thought. He woke up at eight, sum-
moned his secretaries, read all the telegrams and reports that had come
through the night, then from his bed dictated a flow of minutes and
memoranda, a large part of which was taken to the Chiefs of Staff at their
morning meeting. Every afternoon he went to bed for an hour or longer,
like a child, and slept soundly. This gave him the extra strength to remain
at work until the early hours of the morning.

The two links between himself and the military machine, and himself
and the political authority, were General Ismay and Sir Edward Bridges.
These men interpreted his wishes, carried out his orders, and smoothed his
path in. every direction. The huge mass of instructions from the Prime
Minister which flowed through their hands were always in writing for
Churchill was a firm believer in the written word. He had had enough
experience of Government to know how often verbal orders led to mis-
understandings; besides, he had no wish to have his name used loosely.
Soon after he became Prime Minister he issued the following directive to
Ismay and Bridges: 'Let it be very clearly understood that all directives
emanating from me are made in writing, . . . and that I do not accept
any responsibility for matters relating to national defence on which I am
alleged to have given decisions unless they are recorded in writing/ 1
Altogether, Churchill's directives, memoranda, telegrams and minutes
amounted throughout the war to nearly 1,000,000 words, enough to fill
half a dozen good sized volumes, even though most of them were models
of brevity and precision. A one-line minute which he penned to a high
civil servant read as follows: 'Pray remember that the British people is no
longer able to tolerate such lush disorganization/

No one can study Churchill's part in the war without being staggered by
the scope of his interests and his colossal output.His contribution falls into
distinct parts: first, his directives on military operations and second, his
public leadership. In the first capacity one has only to study the minutes
that are reproduced in his history to gather an idea of the enormous range
he covered, and the powerful influence he had upon the course of the war.
When Britain was alone, waiting for the full fury of the German attack to
descend upon her, Churchill insisted that the nation should not merely sit
back with brave endurance but should immediately take the initiative.
1 Tfcff Ftmst Hoar: Winston S. Churchill.

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 319

"The passive resistance war,' he wrote in a directive to General Ismay, 'in
which we have acquitted ourselves so well, must come to an end. I look
to the Joint Chiefs of the Staff to propose me measures for a vigorous,
enterprising and ceaseless offensive against the whole German-occupied
coastline. Tanks and A.F. V.s [Armoured Fighting Vehicles] must be made
in flat-bottomed boats, out of which they can crawl ashore, do a deep raid
inland, cutting a vital communication, and then back, leaving a trail of
German corpses behind them.' 1

Amphibious warfare had always fascinated Churchill, no doubt as a
result of the ill-starred Dardanelles venture which had been his particular
brain child, and which, if it had been truly amphibious, probably would
have resulted in the defeat of Germany in 1915. In July 1940 he set up
Combined Operations under Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, which initiated
the daring commando raids that put Britain on the offensive. Time and
again one finds him urging amphibious tactics. He repeatedly urged the
commanders of the desert war to mount a surprise landing from the sea
but this advice was never heeded. And later on, when the attack on Italy
was in preparation one finds him anxious to employ the sea-borne land-
ings boldly. 'Why crawl up the leg like a harvest bug from the ankle
upwards? Let us rather strike at the knee!'

Churchill's flat-bottomed boats were invented and not only played a
major part in the commando raids, but became absolutely essential equip-
ment for the final cross-Channel invasion of France. But undoubtedly his
most important contribution was the idea of the great artificial harbours
around which the D-day operation was built He had conceived this idea
as far back as 1917 when he prepared a scheme for the capture of the two
Frisian islands, Borkum and Sylt, which he submitted to Lloyd George.
In this paper he suggested making an artificial island in the shallow waters
of Horn RcefL 'A number of flat-bottomed barges or caissons, made not of steel,
but of concrete, should be prepared. . . . These structures would be adapted
to the depths in which they were to be sunk, according to a general plan.
They would float when empty of water, and thus could be towed across to
the site of the artificial island. On arrival at the buoys marking the island
sea-cocks would be opened, and they would settle down on the bottom.
They could subsequently be gradually filled with sand, as opportunity
served, by suction dredgers. By this means a torpedo- and weather-proof
harbotir, like an atoll, would be created in the open sea, with regular pens for the
destroyers and submarines, and alighting-platforms for aeroplanes'*

Churchill fortunately did not publish this document when he came to

1 Their Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill
'Ibid.

320 WINSTON CHURCHILL

write The World Crisis and now he began toying with this particular brain
child again. Frances Perkins quotes President Roosevelt as saying: 'You
know, that was Churchill's idea. Just one of those brilliant ideas that he
has. He has a hundred a day and about four of them are good.* But Roose-
velt apparently was unaware that Winston had been mulling over the pro-
ject for many years, for he continued: 'When he was up visiting me in
Hyde Park he saw all those boats from the last war tied up in the Hudson
River and in one of his bursts of imagination he said, "By George, we
could take those ships and others like them that are good for nothing and
sink them offshore to protect the landings." I thought well of it myself
and we talked about it all afternoon. The military and naval authorities
were startled out of a year's growth. But Winnie is right. Great fellow,
that Churchill, if you can keep up with him/ 1

XxJut it was not only in the field of amphibious war that Churchill made
Ms contribution. He gave advice over the entire operational field. Scarcely
an undertaking was formed that he did not submit to the Chiefs of Staff
detailed and technical papers advising on how the plan should be executed.
This was almost without parallel; no British political leader, with the
possible exception of Pitt the Elder, had ever exerted such a powerful
influence on strategy and tactics; not even Roosevelt, who by rights was
Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, attempted to assume any
like responsibility. 'During the war/ testified General Eisenhower,
'Churchill maintained such dose contact with all operations as to make
him a virtual member of the British Chiefs of Staff; I cannot remember
any major discussion with them in which he did not participate/ 2

Even Lloyd George's ascendancy in the first World War never reached
the same scale. Lloyd George had been the inventor of the small, all-
powerful War Cabinet which Winston copied. This Cabinet, like Chur-
chill's, had supreme control as long as it had the support of Parliament. It
had the authority to dictate strategy and insist that generals carried out its
policies. But in the first War this right was never exercised, for public
opinion was strongly averse to political interference in military matters,
lie professional soldier was king. The design of a batde was regardcd.as a
matter for generals, and generals alone.

This had disastrous results. To-day very few experts would care to
defend the strategy of tie first War, with its terrible and unnecessary
slaughter. Lloyd George tells how strongly he opposed the futile holo-
caust of Passchendade. He protested repeatedly bolt orally and in writing,
but he was not strong enough to carry the Cabinet in reversing the com-

1 The Roosevelt I Knew: Frances Perkins.
* Crusade in Europe: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR ' 321

manders on the spot. In his memoirs he gives a vivid discourse on this
subject. He denounces the generals who sent their armies rime and again
to needless doom in scathing tones: 'Such highly gifted men as the British
Army possessed were consigned to the mud by orders of men superior in
rank but inferior in capacity, who themselves kept at a safe distance from
the slime which they had chosen as the terrain where their plans were to
operate/ Lloyd George makes the final summary: 'Looking back on this
devastating war and surveying the part played in it by statesmen and
soldiers respectively in its direction, I have .come definitely to the con-
clusion that the former showed too much caution in exerting their auth-
ority over the military leaders. They might have done so either by a direct
and imperative order from the Government or by making representations
followed, if those were not effective in answering that purpose, by a
change in the military leadership.' 1

Churchill took these lessons to heart. He was determined to dominate
the military machine from the start. As with Lloyd George, his power was
dependent on the War Cabinet, and the War Cabinet on the House of
Commons. But in 1940 he was the leader of a completely united nation.
The War Cabinet were inspired by him, and were content to tak the
burden of home affairs off his shoulders and let him direct the military
effort. But it must be remembered that his authority depended on this
body. If, for example, the Chiefs of Staff had resented his advice or inter-
ference, and had secured the backing of the War Cabinet, he would have
been forced to give way. But the issue never arose. The War Cabinet gave
him firm support throughout the struggle, and the only man who sat in
it continuously from beginning to end, Clement Atdee, the leader of the
Labour Party, never faltered in his loyalty. During the difficulties of
January 1942 Churchill records that Atdee 'sustained the Government case
with vigour and even fierceness.' 2 It is also worth emphasizing that no
crisis ever took pkce between Churchill and his Chiefs of Staff; not one of
them ever threatened to resign during the whole six years of conflict.
This is some proof that the Prime Minister with his wide knowledge of
military history, and his detailed study of tactics, was enough of a pro-
fessional soldier to give advice that was useful and often brilliant. 'Dis-
cussion with him,* writes Eisenhower, 'even on purely professional
grounds, was never profitless.'

Winston's suggestions for the conduct of the war covered a vast sphere.
Sometimes he advised on the movement of ships; on coastal fortifications;
on the strength and position of Air Force squadrons; the deployment of

1 War Memoirs of David Lloyd George.
* The Hinge of Fate: Winston S. Churchill

322 WINSTON CHURCHILL

troops; equipment of all kinds; the relative merit of different weapons;
new inventions; scientific experiments; and hundreds of other subjects.
On several occasions he pressed the Chiefs of Staff to over-rule com-
manders on the spot who did not agree with directives sent them from
London. Churchill directly influenced the decision not to evacuate Calais,
and refused to accept General WavelTs advice to make terms with the
Iraq Government over the Habbania incident. General Eisenhower was
fascinated at the control he exerted. When he spent a week-end at Ditch-
ley he saw for himself the extent of Churchill's influence. 'Operational
messages arrived every few hours from London headquarters/ he wrote,
'and Mr. Churchill always participated with the British Chiefs in the
formation and despatch of instructions, even those that were strictly
military, sometimes only tactical, in character.* 1

Churchill's authority was very remarkable since, as he himself pointed
out to Roosevelt and Stalin, he was the only one of the three who could
be dismissed instantly at any time. Stalin was not an elected representative;
and Roosevelt was secure for his four-year term. Harry Hopkins delivered
a speech at Teheran in which he said that he had made 'a very long and
thorough study of the British Constitution which is unwritten, and of the
War Cabinet, whose authority and composition are not specifically
defined.' As a result, he said: 'I have learned that the provisions of the
British Constitution and the powers of the War Cabinet are just whatever
Winston Churchill wants them to be.* 2 This was a tribute to Churchill's
persuasiveness for the hard truth was that, imliln* the other two leaders,
Winston exercised his authority only by permission of the War Cabinet;
and the War Cabinet was willing and able to grant this authority only so
long as he commanded the confidence of Parliament.

Once or twice this confidence was in doubt. In the early months of 1942
Churchill's position was seriously undermined. The previous six months
had been grim and anxious. Greece and Crete had been over-run; Yugo-
slavia was invaded; the British Army had suffered set-backs in North
Africa; the British Navy had lost two battleships the Prince of Wales and
the Repulse which were sunk by the Japanese at Singapore. The press was
openly hostile and for the first time since he had taken office the Prime
Minister was under fire. In some quarters there was even talk of his
resignation, and the extreme Left exerted pressure to put Stafford Cripps
in his place. Winston faced the storm and on 29 January, 1942, demanded
a Vote of Confidence from the Commons. The result was surprising.
Only the Independent Labour Party, numbering three members, refused

1 Crusade in Europe: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

* The WUteHouse Papers of 'Harry L. Hopkins: Robert E. Sherwood.

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 323

to support him, and since two were tellers, only one vote was recorded
against him. Less than six months later his leadership was again challenged.
This time criticism was precipitated by the fall of Tobruk. A Conservative
put down a Motion of Censure against him, but once more he had a
sweeping victory. The vote was 475 to 25. Despite Hopkins* compliment,
Churchill was always acutely conscious of the fact that his leadership was
dependent on Parliament.

However, it is not impossible to draw a parallel between Winston's
leadership and that of his ancestor the soldier Duke of Marlborough.
Professor Trevelyan writes that Marlborough 'acted as head of the State
in war-time for all military and diplomatic affairs, but he left to his col-
leagues the management of Parliament.' Winston left to his colleagues the
management of home affairs. They both concentrated on war, diplomacy
and foreign relations. Marlborough was a commander who assumed the
role of statesman, while Churchill was a statesman who assumed the role
of commander.

All this was behind the scenes. The public saw tie Prime Minister as a
fighting man who expressed in stirring language the emotions they felt
but could not put into words. He lifted millions of men and women out
of their humdrum lives and inspired them with a sense of mission; he
emblazoned the British cause across the world as the defence of freedom
and justice. He represented in his own person the spirit of indomitable
England. When he accepted office in 1940 he told the House of Commons,
'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.' Whereupon, in a
characteristic manner, the nation drew a deep breath of relief and took
new heart.

His fierce and moving speeches, sometimes filled with passion, some-
times with humanity, made him the spokesman of all the democratic
world. No one who was in the House of Commons on 4 June, 1940, when
France was being over-run, will forget the thrill of emotion that went
through the assembly when he said in his strange rough voice: * We shall
go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and
the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing; strength
in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall
fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the Unjmg grounds, we shall fight
in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the Mis; we shall never sur-
render, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a
large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the
seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle

324 WINSTON CHURCHILL

until, in God's good time, the new worlS, with all its power and might,
steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.'

No single man had worked harder to prevent the second World War than
Winston, yet once the conflict had begun no leader enjoyed the excite-
ment of the clash more tfon he. From youth his imagination had been
stirred by the great battles that had decided the history of Europe, by the
relentless struggle for power between men of different nations and differ-
ent creeds. Churchill was a fighter and the stakes were high: for the first
time in his life he had the opportunity of employing all his genius and
energy in a cause in which he passionately believed. 'In my long political
experience I had held most of the great offices of State/ he wrote, 'but I
readily admit that the post which had now fallen to me [the Premiership]
was the one I liked best. Power, for the sake of lording it over fellow-
creatures or adding to personal pomp, is rightly judged base. But power
in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be
given, is a blessing.' 1

He had always been a fearless man and derived excitement from
physical danger. During the London blitz it was with the greatest diffi-
culty that he was persuaded not to sleep at 10 Downing Street, which was
a natural target for German bombers, but to move to the shelter in a
Government building by Storey's Gate, which came to be known as the
'Annexe'. Often when there was the drone of enemy planes overhead,
when the guns were thundering and flashing and there was the steady
crash of bombs exploding, he insisted on going up on the roof to see the
sights. On one of these occasions an air raid warden approached him
timidly and said: If if you'll kindly excuse me, sir, would you mind
moving?' 'Why?' growled Winston. 'Well, sir, you are sitting on the
smoke vent, sir, and the building's full of smoke.'

Throughout his life it had always been Winston's nature to dramatize
whatever part he was called upon to pky and the war gave him a natural
and an extensive scope. From childhood he believed he had been put on
earth to perform a special service, and when the Premiership was offered
to him at the very moment that German troops were streaming across
France he was certain his mission was being realized. 'I felt as if I were
walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation
for this hour and for this trial* 2

Conscious of his great position, Churchill was every inch a Prime

1 Their Finest Hour: Winston S. ChurdbilL
1 The Gathering Storm: Winston S. Churchill.

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 3^5

Minister. Occasionally I had the honour of being invited to 10 Downing
Street for lunch. A low-ceilinged room below the ground floor which,
I believe, was once the servants' hall, had been turned into a dining-room,
and there were seldom more than seven or eight guests. Winston usually
came into the room in a blue siren suit looking remarkably like a teddy
bear with an air as autocratic as a monarch. I used to watch the guests
struggling between surprise at his comic appearance and awe at his dignity.
The success of the lunch depended entirely on what sort of mood he was
in; sometimes he ate in such sullen silence your heart sank as you imag-
ined that the war had taken some grave turn for the worse; at other rimes
he was buoyantly talkative and held the table with a brilliant monologue.
But whatever the atmosphere, Mr. Churchill was always unquestionably
the master. No one dared pursue a topic of conversation that did not meet
with his approval; no one dared to ask any questions or take any liberties.
Many guests would have found royalty easier to deal with.

Winston was aware of the fact that he was making history and as a
result he wrote his minutes and directives with care so that they would
bear the scrutiny of posterity. He saw the great batde Britain was fighting
in its true historical perspective and it is not at all surprising that on more
than one occasion he compared his position with that of Marlborough.
For example, in Their Finest Hour he comments on the dose relationship
he maintained with the King and Queen. C I valued as a signal honour the
gracious intimacy with which I, as First Minister, was treated, for which I
suppose there has been no precedent since the days of Queen Anne and
Marlborough during his years of power/

But the feet that Winston executed his task with pride, and even relish,
does not mean that he had a cold heart On the contrary he was always
deeply moved by suffering he saw with his own eyes. During the London
blitz he often toured the Metropolis to inspect the damage, and on more
than one occasion people saw him in tears. When he saw a small shop in
ruins he was so upset, imagining the owner's distress at losing not only a
home but a livelihood, and perhaps his savings as well, that he resolved
then and there that compensation for all damaged property must be paid
by the State. Thus the policy of war damage came into being.

On another occasion General Eisenhower witnessed an example of
Winston's emotionalism. *One day a British major-general happened to
refer to soldiers, in the technical language of the British staff officer, as
"bodies"/ writes the General. "The Prime Minister interrupted with an
impassioned speech of condemnation he said it was inhuman to talk of
soldiers in such cold-blooded fashion, and that it sounded as if they were
merely freight or, worse, corpses! I must confess I always felt the same

326 WINSTON CHURCHILL

way about the expression, but on that occasion my sympathies were with
the staff officer who, to his own obvious embarrassment, had innocently
drawn on himself the displeasure of the Prime Minister/ 1

Although Churchill carried the great burden of the war with zest,
anyone who imagines that he never suffered from its weight is mistaken.
More than once it seemed almost crushing. In his war memoirs he tells
how in June 1941 he went to his home at Chartwell, alone, to await the
news of General WavelTs final attempt to destroy Rommel's army; and
how when he learned that the attack had failed he wandered about the
valley disconsolately for some hours. On one or two occasions I also saw
him deeply depressed. In the autumn of 1940 1 motored to Chequers for
lunch. Mrs. Churchill was away and only his daughter Mary and daughter-
in-law Pamela were there. Just before lunch was announced one of
Churchill's private secretaries came into the room and handed Mm a
message from the Foreign Office. He read it standing before the mantel-
piece in the drawing-room. Then, unexpectedly, he handed it to me. The
message was a report picked up from the Berlin wireless stating that Petain
had agreed to turn over to the Germans all aerodromes and ports in un-
occupied France.

Churchill was plunged into a state of gloom. He came into the dining-
room but ate very little and sat halfway through the meal with his elbows
on the table holding his head in his hands. The secretary who had brought
the news reminded him that it was only a report from Berlin and likely
to be untrue, but the Prime Minister would not be consoled. 'If it is true,
it is a bitter blow,' he said.

At last lunch mercifully ended and Churchill went out for a walk. I left
about four o'clock and before I went he came back into the drawing-room
as vigorous and as lion-hearted as ever. He had received a message that the
report was false.

A few months later I went again to Chequers, this time to be the god-
mother of Randolph Churchill's son, Winston junior. The christening
took place in a small chapel about a mile from the house. Due to a break-
down in my car I did not arrive until the ceremony had begun, and found
a place reserved for me between Mr. Churchill and his son. I had always
heard that the Prime Minister's emotions were easily stirred and at times
he could be as sentimental as a woman, and on this occasion I had proof of
it, for he sat throughout the ceremony with tears streaming down his
cheeks. 'Poor infant,' he murmured, 'to be born into such a world as this.'

After the christening we returned to Chequers for lunch. Only the
family, Lord Rothermere, and the three godfathers, Lord Beaverbrook,

1 CrusaJe in Europe: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

PRIME MINISTER IN WAR 327

Lord Brownlow and Brendan Bracken, were present Bcaverbrook rose
and proposed a toast to the baby, then turned to Churchill whose birthday
it had been the day before, and proposed a toast to him. Beaverbrook was
eloquent and reminded us that we had the honour to be in the presence of
a man who would be remembered as long as the civilized world existed.
Once again I looked up to see Churchill weeping. When he was called
upon to reply he rose, and in a voice unsteady with emotion, said: 'In these
days I often think of Our Lord.' Then he sat down. I have never forgotten
those simple words and if he enjoyed waging the war let it be remem-
bered that he understood the anguish of it as well.

But Churchill was enormously resilient. He never remained downcast for
long. Indeed his moods could change so rapidly that frequently those who
worked with him were uncertain how to handle hiim He often punctured
his own indignation by a flashing witticism that completely altered the
whole atmosphere. Once when he was fuming about his difficulties with
General de Gaulle he said suddenly: 'Of all the crosses I have to bear, the
cross of Lorraine is the heaviest/ On another occasion his cousin Clare
Sheridan tells how she was working on a sculpture of him. She had been
given permission to sit in his bedroom in the morning, and while he sat
up in bed reading his reports and telegrams, to get on as best she could*
She had finished the high forehead and determined mouth, and was
moulding the jutting chin. Churchill who had been concentrating fiercely
on his papers suddenly jumped out. of bed to take a look at what she had
done. His forbidding expression melted into a warm smile. 'Forget
Mussolini/ he said, 'and remember that I am the servant of the House of
Commons.*

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE BIG THREE

WHEN THE war ended the Russian Bear glowered over half of Europe.
Stalin had emerged with all the spoils. He had enlarged the Soviet boun-
daries by hundreds of miles; he had substituted Communism for political
freedom in seven sovereign European states; he had extended his influence
throughout the Far East It was not surprising that William Bullitt, a
former American Ambassador to Moscow, wrote an article entitled: How
We Won the War and Lost the Peace, for no one could pretend that the
post-war world was what the democratic leaders had envisaged.

When Churchill and Roosevelt met at Newfoundland in 1941, four
months before the Japanese attack drew the United States into the con-
flict, they had drawn up a remarkable document, the Atlantic Charter,
setting forth the peace aims on which they both agreed. They wished to
see the independence of small nations firmly established; the rights of man
upheld; the free and democratic system of government spread as far and
wide as possible. What happened to the vision? Did the democratic
leaders blunder? What responsibility does Churchill bear?

It was a peculiar twist of fate that ordained Churchill to be the first, and
so far the only, British Prime Minister to visit Joseph Stalin. No English-
man had fought against Bolshevism with greater passion. In 1919 he was
largely responsible for the Allied military intervention against the Red
Army; in the nineteen-twenties he preached the evils and dangers of the
Marxist creed on a hundred platforms'; in 1937 he declared: 1 will not
pretend that, if I had to choose between Communism and Nazism, I
would choose Communism/ The dictatorship of the proletariat with its
repressive and terrible regimentation, its slaughter of the bourgeoisie, its
atheism, its elimination of all the refinements of life, outraged and repelled
Churchill's sensibilities. Yet when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet
Union he did not hesitate to hold out his hand.

On the evening of 21 June, 1941, he was walking on the croquet lawn
at Chequers with his secretary Mr. Colville. He knew from intelligence
reports that a German attack on Russia was only a matter of hours. He
told Colville that if ffider believed he would rally the Right-wing forces
in Britain he was mistaken, for England would fight on the side of the

328

THE BIG THREE 32p

Soviet Union. Colville asked Churchill whether, in view of his position
as an arch anti-Communist, this was not bowing down in the House of
Rimmon. 'Not at all,' replied Winston. 1 have only one purpose, the
destruction of Hitler, and my life is much simplified thereby. If Hitler
invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in
the House of Commons/ 1

The next morning the news broke that Germany had opened her attack
on Russia and that same evening Winston publicly cast his lot with the
Soviets. 'No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism
than I have been for the last twenty-five years/ he told the British people
in a broadcast 1 will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all
this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding. The past
with its crimes, its follies, and its tragedies, flashes away. I see die Russian
soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields
which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial. . . . Can you doubt
what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one single irrevocable
purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi
regime. From this nothing will turn us nothing. We will never parley,
we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him
by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with
God's help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its peoples
from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will lave

our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe That

is our policy and that is our declaration. It follows therefore that we shall
give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people/

This statement raised the curtain on the uneasy and temperamental
partnership with the Soviet Union that dissolved so swiftly after the dose
of the war. Churchill wrote Stalin a letter and the Dictator replied thank-
ing the Prime Minister for his support. The relationship between the two
men was bound to be dramatic, for each had long recognized the other as
a formidable and implacable opponent. For years they had studied each
other's moves with careful attention; they despised and feared each other's
system of government; they upheld philosophies diametrically opposed.
They could clasp hands on only one issue: survival against Germany. Yet
their personalities were not altogether unlike. Both were dominating, blunt
and practical, and neither left the other in any doubt as to his views. They
enjoyed good food, good drink, and they both liked to sit up late talking.
From the point of view of conviviality they had something in common.
Churchill's first meeting with Stalin took place in Moscow in August
1942, just fourteen months after the Soviet Union had been drawn into
1 The Grand Alliance: Winston S. Churchill

330 WINSTON CHURCHILL

the war. Winston was received with appropriate ceremony, and driven to
a luxurious country house on the outskirts of the city, which was known
as State ViUa No. 7. In one of his first interviews with Stalin an amusing
exchange took place which perhaps illustrates the difference of approach
between the Eastern and Western mind. Winston was charmed to find,
in the groupds of State Villa No. 7, a fountain and a tank full of goldfish.
He assumed that Stalin had heard that goldfish were one of his hobbies and
had ordered the tank to be especially installed. At one of his first interviews
with the Russian dictator he told him how delighted he was with the fish,
and thanked him for being so thoughtful Stalin looked slightly taken
aback, for he probably did not even know the tank existed. But he in-
structed the interpreter to tell the Prime Minister that he was gratified he
liked the fish and would he care to take them back to London with him?
This time it was Churchill's turn to be taken aback for he had no desire to
carry a bowl of ordinary goldfish to England. He thanked the dictator
but said he would have to refuse his offer as the fish would not travel well
in a bomber. Stalin nodded and spoke to the interpreter who said: 'Since
the Prime Minister is unable to take the fish with hi, would he care to
have them for breakfast?'

Churchill's dealings with Stalin were always difficult, and often un-
pleasant. From the moment the German attack began, the British arranged
to send the Russians millions of pounds' worth of supplies, induing
rubber, oil, aluminium, doth, tanks, guns and planes. Some of the
materials came from British factories, others from American firms ear-
marked for England under Lend-Lease. Shipping these supplies to Russia
entailed a great sacrifice for Churchill, as they were desperately needed by
the British themselves to equip their armies in the Middle East and build
up air supremacy over the Germans. Besides this, Britain had the difficult
task of delivering the goods. The Royal Navy had to organize and operate
convoys to Murmansk and Archangel through the dangerous Arctic
passage, a performance which continued throughout the war. Yet Britain
received very litde thanks for her effort, for the Russian dictator wanted
only one thing: a second front.

Stalin's demand for a second front came die month after the Germans
launched their attack on him. It was not only an impossible request but,
considering the circumstances, one of the most brazen ever made. After
all, it was Stalin, by his pact of friendship with the Nazis in 1939, who had
given Hitler the signal to begin the war. He had hdped the Germans to
tear Poland to pieces, invaded Finland and occupied the Baltic States. Then

THE BIG THREE 331

he had sent Germany a flow of materials in order to expedite the attack on
France. When the air assault on England began, Molotov had even gone
so far as to meet von Ribbentrop in Berlin to discuss 'dividing up* the
British Empire. Now, in 1941, having been caught unawares by his
treacherous ally, Stalin imperiously and unashamedly demanded that the
British should re-open the second front which he himself had helped to
destroy only twelve months previously.

Churchill explained to the Russian dictator that his demand was out of
the question. An amphibious operation against strongly fortified positions
demanded hundreds of landing craft and thousands of pounds of equip-
ment which would take many months to accumulate. Nevertheless Stalin
kept hammering this theme, and continued to hammer it, until the "in-
vasion plans were completed two years later. At times the relations
between Britain and Russia seemed near a breaking-point, for Stalin
refused to see the operational difficulties involved. In September 1941 Mr.
Maisky, the Soviet Ambassador, called on Churchill emphasizing the
extreme gravity of the situation, and when Winston explained as he had
done so often before the impossibility of a second front at that time, he
began to threaten Viirn. *When I sensed an underlying air of menace in his
appeal,' writes Churchill, 1 was angered. I said to the Ambassador, whom
I kid known for many years, "Remember that only four months ago we
in this island did not know whether you were not coming in against us on
the German side. Indeed, we thought it quite likely that you would. Even
then we felt sure we should win in the end. We never thought our sur-
vival was dependent on your action either way. Whatever happens, and
whatever you do, you of all people have no right to make reproaches to
us." As I warmed to the topic the Ambassador exclaimed, "More calm,
please, my dear Mr. Churchill," but thereafter his tone perceptibly
changed/*

Stalin's demands were not only confined to military matters. From the
very beginning he kept his political objectives well in view. Seven months
after his country was invaded he formally asked Britain and the United
States to recognize Russia's 1940 frontiers; these, of course, included the
great territorial gains he had seized, as Germany's ally, in Poland, Finland
and the Baltic States. It was remarkable that he could remain calculating
enough to make these requests at a time when his armies were being
hurled back, and the very existence of his country was at stake. His timing
was shrewd for it must not be forgotten that for two years the Allies
laboured under the spasmodic fear that Russia might sign a separate peace.

Churchill at first reacted strongly against Stalin's demand then, two

1 The Grand Alliance: Winston S. Churchill

332 WINSTON CHURCHILL

months later, surprisingly enough, he acceded to it and tried to persuade
Roosevelt to accept it. His argument was that the Russians had already
liquidated so many people in the Baltic States that there was very little
left to protect. The President, however, was adamant, insisting that the
demands- were not in keeping with the Atlantic Charter. The reason
Churchill gives in The Hinge of Fate for his sudden deviation is lame and
unconvincing. He says he did not feel 'the moral position could be
physically maintained' and that 'in a deadly struggle it is not right to
assume more burdens than those who are fighting a great cause can main-
tain/ This attitude is not at all in keeping with Winston's character and
one can only regard his explanation as a poor excuse for one of the very
few kpses of this type in his career. However, before the war was over it
was Roosevelt, and not Churchill, who was paving the way for the fulfil-
ment of Russia's political aims.

The attitude of the Soviet Union in its dealings with Britain was
haughty and often insulting. Churchill writes that they 'had the impres-
sion that they were conferring a great favour on us by fighting in their
own country for their own lives. The more they fought the heavier our
debt became.' 1 British personnel stationed in Russia were invariably
treated with cold hostility. Permits were withheld and information denied
them, as though they were enemy aliens. Even the British sailors who ran
the convoys to Murmansk and Archangel were so badly used that
Churchill was forced to issue a series of vehement protests.

Stalin sometimes ignored Winston's telegrams altogether, at other times
delayed his replies for weeks at a time. Occasionally the tone of his mes-
sage was friendly but more often it was laden with reproaches. Churchill
declares that he bore them with a patient shrug for 'sufferance is the badge
of all who have to deal with the Kremlin/

However, when the two leaders met face to face they did not get on
badly. Although they disagreed on the issues involved they were fas-
cinated by each other's reactions. At their first meeting Stalin teased
Churchill for having taken a leading part in the Allied military interven-
tion in Russia at the end of the first war. He declared that when Lady
Astor visited the Soviet Union she had told him that Churchill had misled
Lloyd George and was therefore entirely to blame. Then she went on to
assure Hm that Churchill was finished. 'I am not so sure,' Stalin had
replied. 'If a great crisis comes the English people might turn to the old
war-horse.' Winston laughed at this recital. 'Have you forgiven me?' he

1 The Grand Affiance: Winston S. Churchill

THE BIG THREE 333

asked. Stalin replied with a smile: 'All that is in the past and the past
belongs to God/ 1

The next night Churchill got a little of his own back on Stalin. The
dictator invited him to dinner at his flat in the Kremlin. Only Molotov
and an interpreter were present. Stalin's daughter waited on the table but
she did not sit down. The Marshal uncorked rows of bottles and the three
men sat talking from 8.30 until 2.30 in the morning. They carried on a
light-hearted conversation but every now and then the vein became more
serious. This time it was Churchill's turn to probe into the past, and he
gives a fascinating account of it in his Second World War. * "Tell me," I
asked, "have the stresses of this war been as bad to you personally as
carrying through the policy of the Collective Farms?" . . . "Oh no," said
Stalin, "the Collective Farm policy was a terrible struggle." "I thought
you would have found it bad," said I, "because you were not dealing with
a few score thousands of aristocrats or big landowners, but with millions
of small men." "Ten millions," he said, holding up his hands. "It was
fearful. Four years it lasted. It was absolutely necessary for Russia, if we
were to avoid periodic famines, to plough the land with tractors. We must
mechanize our agriculture. When we gave tractors to the peasants they
were all spoiled in a few months. Only Collective Farms with workshops
could handle tractors. We took the greatest trouble to explain it to the
peasants. It was no use arguing with them. After you have said all you can
to a peasant he says he must go home and consult his wife, and he must
consult his herder. . . , After he has talked it over with them he always
answers that he does not want the Collective Farm and he would rather
do without the tractors." "These were what you call Kulaks?" I asked*
"Yes," said Stalin. . . . "It was all very bad and difficult but necessary." *
This appears to have been the most intimate conversation Churchill ever
had with Stalin.

Although the two men got on well personally, Churchill could never
rid his mind of the terror that ky behind Stalin's rule. When he discussed
the Collective Farm policy he could not escape the vision of the three
million Kulaks who had been cruelly exterminated in the enforcement of
the system. He found it difficult to put out of his mind the killing and the
suffering, the concentration camps and the slave labour on which Stalin's
absolute power rested.

These feelings were sharpened in the spring of 1943 when the Polish

1 The Hinge of Fate: Winston S. Churchill.
Mbid.

334 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Government accused the Russians of the massacre of fourteen thousand
officers who had been taken prisoner by the Soviets when the latter in-
vaded Poland. Sikorski claimed that he had proof that their bodies lay in
mass graves in the Katyn Woods. The Soviets did not deny that they were
dead but claimed that the slaughter was done by the Germans when they
overran the region. Churchill was sickened by the crime and after prob-
ing the evidence found it difficult to believe that the deed had been per-
petrated by anyone but the Russians. When the war ended this evidence
was strengthened still further by the fact that although many German war
criminals were tried at Nuremberg, the Soviet Government did not
attempt to dear its own name by proving them guilty of the atrocity.
Instead, they avoided all mention of the Katyn murders.

Churchill's abhorrence of the totalitarian disregard for human life
evinced itself in a personal incident at Teheran. Stalin gave a dinner for
Churchill^ Roosevelt and four or five of their closest advisers. In the course
of the evening the dictator declared that when the war was over the
German General Staff must be liquidated. The whole force of Hitler's
armies, he claimed, depended on fifty thousand officers and technicians,
and all these must be rounded up and Shot. Churchill was repelled by the
idea of such coldblooded murder and said: 'The British Parliament- and
public will never tolerate mass executions. Even if in war passion they
allowed them to begin, they would turn violently against those responsible
after the first butchery had taken place. The Soviets must be under no
delusion on this point.' 1

Stalin insisted on pursuing the subject, and repeated that fifty thousand
must be shot. Churchill reddened with anger and declared that he would
'rather be taken out in the garden here and now and be shot myself than
sully my own and my country's honour by such infamy'. 2 The other
members at the table were obviously embarrassed at the turn the conver-
sation had taken and signalled to Winston that it was all a joke. Where-
upon Elliot*- Roosevelt, the President's son, who had joined the party
uninvited, rose from the end of the table and made a speech saying how
whole-heartedly he agreed with Stalin, and how sure he was that the
United States Army would support it. , This impertinent and fatuous
intervention was more than Churchill could bear. He left the table and
walked off into the other room. A few minutes later Stalin himself, grin-
ning broadly, dapped a hand on his back and explained it was all in fun.
Churchill was not convinced then, nor is he now, that the Marshal was
joking. The incident is important, for Winston's refusal to lend himself
1 Closing the Rmg: Winston S. Churchill

THE BIG THREE 335

even to a jest involving moral principles is some indication of how wide
was the chasm between him and the Russian master.

Churchill was always conscious of this division. He knew that when the
war ended Russia would be the dominant power on the Continent. Why
did he think that the Soviet Union with its system of absolute rule, the
complete antithesis of political freedom, would be willing to sit back and
watch Roosevelt and himself furthering the spread of Western democracy
under the terms of the Atlantic Charter?

The answer is that Churchill did not believe that Stalin would watch
the process with favour, but he hoped that if the British and American
partnership was dose and strong enough, he would be forced to acquiesce
to it This was the whole basis of his post-war conception. In a letter to
Held Marshal Smuts on 5 September, 1943, he said: 'I think it inevitable
that Russia will be the greatest land Power in the world after this war,
which will have rid her of the two military Powers, Japan and Germany,
who in our lifetime have inflicted upon her such heavy defeats. I hope
however that the "fraternal association" of the British Commonwealth
and the United States, together with sea and air power, may put us on
good terms and in a friendly balance with Russia at least for the period of
rebuilding. Further than that I cannot see with mortal eye, and I am not as
yet fully informed about the celestial telescopes/ 1

Since Churchill's plans for the post-war world were based on the key-
stone of a strong Anglo-American alliance, it is not surprising that he
should have bent all his energies towards establishing a firm and intimate
relationship with President Roosevelt. But it would be wrong to give
the impression that Winston was motivated chiefly by self-interest.
Logically the partnership seemed right; before the war Winston had
developed this same theme in his History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
But leaving logic aside, he had a profound, almost romantic, admiration
for the United States which he liked to refer to as 'the great Republic*.
Emotionally he was deeply stirred by the vision of Britain, with her age
and wisdom, and America, with her youth and power, endowing the
world with safety and peace.

Churchill never failed to dramatize hiirigglf and since he was half-
English and half-American by birth he felt he had been appointed by
Destiny to bring the partnership about. He was especially conscious of
this when he made his historic address to the Congress of the United
States in December 1941. "the occasion was important,' he writes, 'for

1 Closing the Ring: Winston S. Churchill

336 WINSTON CHURCHILL

what I was sure was the all-conquering alliance of the English-speaking
peoples. I had never addressed a foreign Parliament before. Yet to me,
who could trace unbroken male descent on my mother's side through five
generations from a lieutenant who served in George Washington's army,
it was possible to feel a blood-right to speak to the representatives of the
great Republic in our common cause. It certainly was odd that it should
all work out this way; and once again I had the feeling, for mentioning
which I may be pardoned, of being used, however unworthy, in some
appointed plan/ 1

Churchill's friendship and affection for Roosevelt were certainly not
manufactured. He had a deep, even fierce, loyalty to the President which
sprang from Roosevelt's courageous help to Britain in her most desperate
hour. Churchill never forgot how in January 1941 Harry Hopkins had
appeared in London with a message from his chief. 'The President is deter-
mined that we shall win the war together. Make no mistake about it. He
has sent me here to tell you that at all costs and by all means he will carry
you through, no matter what happens to him there is nothing that he
will not do so far as he has human power/ 2

This won Churchill's everlasting gratitude; even now when he relates
the incident his eyes fill with tears. 'He is the greatest friend Britain has
ever had/ he declared with emotion. And from then on, he allowed no
Englishman to forget it. No one, not even a member of Winston's most
intimate circle, has ever been permitted to make a disparaging remark
about the President; and this rule still holds good to-day.

But apart from Winston's indebtedness, he was charmed by Roosevelt's
easy, friendly manner; he was also impressed by his ingenuity in moulding
public opinion and his adroitness at winning elections talents which had
never come easily to Churchill. Both men enjoyed the rough excitement
of political life and both were always considerate of the domestic problems
the other had to take into account. Their friendship began in 1939 when
Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty and Roosevelt wrote hi a
sympathetic letter. This started a long and intimate correspondence, un-
precedented between the heads of two great Powers, which continued
until Roosevelt's death. Since both men were capable of making up their
minds and taking decisions on the spot they soon fell into the habit of
by-passing their ambassadors and communicating directly on almost all
important matters. Sometimes when affairs were pressing they rang each
other up on the telephone.

They met on ten separate occasions during the war. These discussions

1 The Grand ASitmce: Winston S. Churchill

THE BIG THREE 337

took place on an average at six-monthly intervals. The first meeting was in
Newfoundland in 1941. After that Churchill made four trips to Washing-
ton; two to Quebec; one to Casablanca, one to Cairo and Teheran, and
one, finally, to Yalta.

But it was in Washington that the Churchill-Roosevelt friendship
flowered best. The President welcomed Churchill at the White House as a
member of the family. He was given a room across from Harry Hopkins'
and the three invaded each other's bedrooms as unselfconsciously as
schoolmates. Roosevelt liked to go to bed early but when Churchill was
there he was so fascinated by the conversation that he stayed up far later
than usual. Even so, Hopkins and Winston usually out-sat him and carried
their talk into the early hours of the morning. The three men always
lunched together, and although dinner was usually a more social affair,
including members of the family, or of the President's inner circle, it still
remained a small friendly group. Roosevelt liked to mix the cocktails
and when he left the drawing-room Churchill always insisted on wheeling
him to the lift.

Some idea of the informality of the White House is revealed in Harry
Hopkins' favourite story. He claims that one morning when the President
was wheeled into Churchill's bedroom, the Prime Minister emerged from
the bath stark naked. The President apologized and turned to go but
Churchill bade him remain. 'The Prime Minister of Great Britain,' he
said, 'has nothing to hide from the President of the United States.'
Robert Sherwood asked Winston if this story was true and says the latter
replied that it was nonsense, 'that he never received the President without
at least a bath towel wrapped around him. And he said, "I could not
possibly have made such a statement as that. The President himself would
have been aware that it was not strictly true"/ 1

As far as Churchill was concerned, no trace of jealousy ever marred his
relationship with the President. It is one of Winston's characteristics that
once he has formed a deep personal friendship he is completely faithful,
never allowing selfish motives to influence him. He was loyal to Lloyd
George when both were spoken of as potential Prime Ministers; now he
was loyal to Roosevelt when both were world leaders. An interesting
feature of his relationship with the President ky in the fact that whereas
Winston was the head of a Government Roosevelt was the head of a
State. Churchill never lost sight of this fact, and instead of resenting it, took
great pleasure in showing Roosevelt a marked deference; this undoubtedly
did much to keep relations between the two men running smoothly.
Up until the end of 1943 Churchill was certainly the dominant figure
1 The White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins: Robert E. Sherwood.

333 WINSTON CHURCHILL

in the partnership. He not only had a far greater knowledge of military
matters than Roosevelt, but until 1944 the British had more divisions in
contact with the enemy in both the European and Japanese theatres of
war than the Americans. The only areas where the Americans could
speak with a commanding voice were in the Pacific and Australasia. In
these circumstances Churchill had the right to speak in a commanding
voice, which he did not hesitate to do.

But all the time that the two men were concentrated on the military
side of the war, Churchill never lost sight of his main objective: the bring-
ing of Great Britain and the United States together in what he had termed
to General Smuts, was 'a fraternal association'. His ideas on this subject
were far from orthodox, and when he visited Washington in 1943 he
explained them to Roosevelt and Vice-President Wallace. He told the
latter that he would like the citizens of Great Britain and the United
States, without losing their present nationality, 'to be able to come and
settle and trade with freedom and equal rights in the territories of the
other. There might be a common passport, or a special form of passport
or visa. There might even be some common form of citizenship, under
which the citizens of the United States and of the British Commonwealth
might enjoy voting privileges after residential qualification and be eligible
for public office in die territories of the other, subject of course to the
kws and institutions there prevailing.' 1

Winston developed this same theme in a speech to Harvard University
on 6 September, when he said: 'This gift of a common tongue is a price-
less inheritance, and it may well some day become the foundation of a
common citizenship. I like to think of British and Americans moving
freely over each other's wide estates with hardly a sense of being foreigners
to one another/

President Roosevelt, however, did not share Churchill's conviction that
the hope of the world lay in a .fraternal association between the English-
speaking peoples. He respected British institutions, but like many other
Americans he was suspicious of British Imperialism. These suspicions
grew deeper as the war developed until they became almost an obsession
with him. He saw the challenge to the Atlantic Charter coming not from
totalitarian Russia but from the colonial possessions of his Allies. 'The
colonial system means war,' he told his son, Elliott 'Exploit the resources
of an India, a Burma, a Java; take all the wealth out of those countries,
but never put anything back into them, things like education, decent stan-
1 Closing the Ring: Winston S. ChurchilL

THE BIG THREE 339

dards of living, minimum health requirements all you're doing is stor-
ing up the kind of trouble that leads to war.' 1

This observation was not only a ridiculous travesty of the British
colonial system, but even its conclusions were false. The two world wars
of this century and the present threat to peace have not sprung from dis-
contented colonies but from the armed might of dictators anxious to
spread their totalitarian rule. It seems astonishing that Roosevelt could be
more concerned with British colonial rule than the extension of Soviet
authority which carried with it, as a matter of course, severe and brutal
'liquidations'. Yet apparently this was the case, for at every major dis-
cussion with Churchill it was not the problem of Russia but of Britain's
overseas possessions that came up for discussion. More than once he urged
England to give up Hong Kong as a gesture, and in the spring of 1942 he
pressed Churchill to grant India her independence at once, suggesting in a
paper which must rank as one of the most naive documents ever drafted
by a head of state, that she model her provisional government along the
lines of America's original thirteen states.

Churchill stood his ground firmly. Glory in the British Empire was as
much a part of him as his life's blood. Far from excusing England's over-
lordship, he saw her rule as a great benefaction; was she not spreading the
English tongue and with it all her light and learning and civilized institu-
tions to the farthest corners of the earth? Besides, he argued with Roose-
velt, if Britain withdrew she would leave a gap which undoubtedly would
tempt some less civilized Power to assume her place.

Churchill could not convince Roosevelt, and both men stubbornly
held their ground. What Winston failed to grasp until the Teheran Con-
ference, however, was the feet that ingrained American anti-colonialism
was having a marked effect on Roosevelt's attitude towards Russia. 'Of
one thing I am certain, Stalin is not an Imperialist,' the President remarked
to the Polish leader, Mikolajczyk. This belief, based on instinct rather than
logic, drew him away from Britain and towards the Russian camp. He
apparently viewed Stalin in almost exactly the same light that Chamber-
lain had viewed Hider ; if he could implant a feeling of trust in the dictator
everything would turn out all right. 'I have a hunch,' he told William
Bullitt, who had been the American Ambassador in Moscow, 'that Stalin
doesn't want anything but security for his country, and I think that if I
give hi everything I possibly can and ask nothing in return, ncblesse
oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work for a world of
democracy and peace.' 2

*As He Saw It: Elliott Roosevelt.

*How We Wonthe War and Lost the Pe<w?: WiDiam C. Bullitt.

340 WINSTON CHURCHILL

One can only comment that a hunch was a strange basis for a nation's
foreign policy. Although it can be argued that up until 1939 Russia had
shown no imperialistic tendencies as far as her armies were concerned, her
rule was being spread by Communist Parties all over the world which
were often financed and controlled from Moscow. Far from being a static
faith, Communism was a militant crusade, openly in conflict with the
institutions of Western democracy.

Roosevelt, however, was not the only American who had trust in
Russia. Many leading officials, including Harry Hopkins and General
Eisenhower, shared his beliefs. Eisenhower wrote that judging from the
past relations of America and Russia there was no cause to regard the
future with pessimism'; and Harry Hopkins, six months after the Yalta
Conference, wrote glowingly: 'We know or believe that Russia's
interests, so far as we can anticipate them, do not afford an opportunity
for a major difference with us in foreign affairs. We believe we are
mutually dependent upon each other for economic reasons. We find the
Russians as individuals easy to deal with. The Russians undoubtedly like
the American people. They like the United States. They trust the United
States more than they trust any other power in the world . . . above all,
they want to maintain friendly relations with us. ... They are a tenacious,
determined people who tfonlr and act just like we do.' 1

The American attitude towards Russia can only be described as appal-
lingly ingenuous. The tragedy ky in the fact that although Churchill and
Roosevelt were in accord about a world of free, independent nations, the
President's failure to understand the nature of Soviet totalitarianism
allowed Stalin to drive a wedge between the two democracies and walk
off with the spoils.

The turning point in the relations between Roosevelt and Churchill
took place at Cairo and Teheran in December 1943.

The Teheran Conference was the first meeting of 'The Big Three', and
it was almost exclusively a military conference. The leaders decided on
the programme which was to prove the grand climax of the war. Britain
and America would launch a cross-Channel invasion in May; about the
same time they would use the Allied force in Italy to strike at Southern
France; and Russia would co-ordinate a large-scale offensive on the
Eastern front.

The Big Three were in full accord on this strategy. Much nonsense
has been written about Churchill's reluctance to strike across the Channel

1 The White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins: Robert E. Sherwood.

THE BIG THREE 341

He believed that an invasion of France was right and inevitable, but his
experience of the huge and useless blood-letting on the Western front in
the first War cautioned him not to undertake it until the enemy had
been sufficiently weakened by attacks in other theatres to ensure its
success. At Teheran, however, Churchill was in agreement with Roose-
velt and Stalin that the rime to invade was in the spring. He also was in
favour of the joint operation in Southern France, although as an alterna-
tive he would have preferred President Roosevelt's proposal that the
Allied Army in Italy advance through the Ljubljana Gap to Vienna. How-
ever, he had no fixed thoughts on this subject and when Stalin raised objec-
tions and plumped in favour of Marseilles Churchill backed the project.

There was only one point on which he did not see eye to eye with his
two colleagues. Churchill believed that one-tenth of the Allied strength
should be used in a third operation in the Eastern Mediterranean. He
argued that there was an air force massed for the defence of Egypt standing
idle; also that there were two or three divisions in the Middle East which
-could not be used elsewhere because there was no available shipping to
move them to the main theatre. Why not employ them? If, by a small
effort, Rhodes could be captured, the whole Aegean would be dominated
by the Allied Air Force and direct sea contact established with Turkey.
This might bring Turkey into the war, which would open up the Black
Sea, and with it, unlimited possibilities. Surely, he argued, such a huge
prize was worth a minor effort which would not detract in any way from
the other major undertakings.

Roosevelt, however, was not only uninterested in the project but the
fact that Winston pressed it so hard aroused his suspicions. Was Churchill
seeking some selfish gain for Britain in the Balkans? At the end of the first
day in Teheran he remarked to his son, Elliott, 1 see no reason for putting
the lives of American soldiers in jeopardy in order to protect real or
fancied British interests on the European continent. We are at war and
our job is to win as far as possible, and without adventures.' 1

Other American leaders shared Roosevelt's suspicions. Even General
Eisenhower believed Winston had hidden motives for after the war he
wrote: 1 could not escape a feeling that Mr. Churchill's views were un-
consciously coloured by two considerations that lay outside the scope of
the immediate military problem. . . . The first of them was his concern as

a political leader for the future of the Balkans The other was an inner

compulsion to vindicate his strategical concepts of World War I, in which
he had been the principal exponent of the Gallipoli campaign.' 2

1 As He Saw It: Elliott Roosevelt.

1 Crusade in Europe: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

342 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill has never been a devious, or for that matter, even a subtle
man. He rarely leaves anyone in doubt as to what he thinks or what he
wants. Yet the inclination to attribute concealed motives to his arguments
on military strategy has become so widespread that many writers to-day
state them as facts. For example, Chester Wilmot in his brilliant and
authoritative book The Struggle for Europe asserts, 'During 1943 . . .
Churchill became increasingly concerned about the necessity of restraining
Stalin's ambitions. . . . The Prime Minister sought to devise a plan of
campaign which would not only be a military success, but would ensure
that victory did not leave the democratic cause politically weaker in any
sphere/

There was no foundation for this statement. The truth is that it was not
until 1944, when the great invasion was only a matter of a few months,
that Churchill seriously concerned himself with the design of the post-war
world. Up until Teheran he had given surprisingly little thought to the
blue-print. He had decided in his own mind that the only hope for a
secure world lay in an Anglo-American alliance, far closer than anything
that had evolved so far; and that this combination would deal with the
problem of Russia when the time came. He had then turned all his
thoughts and energies on securing the victory.

Churchill himself makes it plain, in his fifth volume of memoirs, that at
Teheran he was thinking in terms of military strategy only when he
advanced his arguments about Turkey. He emphasizes that he was in
complete agreement with the CToss-Channel invasion and the attack on the
South of France; and that he merely wanted a third, and a very minor,
operation in the Eastern Mediterranean at the same time in order to
employ all available forces. 'This was the triple theme which I pressed
upon the President and Stalin on every occasion,' he writes, 'not hesitating
to repeat the arguments remorselessly. I could have gained Stalin, but
the President was oppressed by the prejudices of his military advisers, and
drifted to and fro in the argument, with the result that the whole of these
subsidiary but gleaming opportunities were cast away. Our American
friends were comforted in their obstinacy by the reflection that 'at any
rate we have stopped Churchill entangling us in the Balkans'. No such
idea had crossed my mind. I regard the failure to use otherwise unem-
polyable forces to bring Turkey into the war and dominate the Aegean
as an error of war direction which cannot be excused by the fact that in
spite of it victory was won.' 1

1 Closing th "Ring: Winston S. Churchill.

THE BIG THREE 343

However, it was not the military aspects of the Teheran Conference
that upset Churchill. It was Roosevelt's aloof, almost hostile attitude. At
Cairo, before the two leaders proceeded to Teheran, Roosevelt lectured
Winston sharply about his outlook towards colonialism. The Prime
Minister remarked that he thought Chiang Kai-Shek had designs on
Indo-China. * Winston . . . you have four hundred years of acquisitive
instinct in your blood and you just don't understand how a country might
not want to acquire land somewhere if they can get it. A new period has
opened in the world and you will have to adjust yourself to it.' 1

Churchill arrived in Cairo hoping to hold preliminary and private talks
with Roosevelt about the forthcoming invasion. But the President in-
sisted on Chiang Kai-Shek being present, and he also invited Russian
observers (who declined the invitation) despite Winston's protests. This
gesture was undoubtedly made to show Churchill that Britain had no
right to regard her relationship with the United States as either favoured
or exclusive.

At Teheran the President continued the same tactics. He refused blundy
to meet Churchill alone on the grounds that 'the Russians wouldn't like
it'. Yet at the same time he had several meetings with Stalin from which
Winston was excluded. The latter was astonished and hurt by this
behaviour which was contrary to his own code of friendship and loyalty.
But Roosevelt went even further. When, after three days at Teheran, he
felt he had not made as much progress with Stalin as he would have liked,
he tried to ingratiate himself with the Russian dictator by making fun of
Churchill. *I began almost as soon as we got into the conference room,' he
told Frances Perkins. 1 said, lifting my hand to cover a whisper (which
of course had to be interpreted), "Winston is cranky this morning, he got
up on the wrong side of die bed". A vague smile passed over Stalin's eyes,
and I decided I was on the right track ... I began to tease Churchill about
his Britishness, about John Bull, about his cigars, about his habits. It
began to register with Stalin. Winston got red and scowled, and the more
he did so, the more Stalin smiled. Finally Stalin broke out in a deep, hearty
guffaw, and for the first time in three days I saw light. I kept it up until
Stalin was laughing with me, and it was then that I called him "Uncle
Joe". He would have thought me fresh the day before, but that day he
laughed and came over and shook my hand.' 2 John Gunther, the American
journalist, asked someone wlio was there if lie incident had really taken
place. 'Yes,' replied the official, 'and it wasn't fenny either.' It was cer-
tainly not Churchill's idea of humour, nor, for that matter, of statesman-

1 Roosevelt and the Russians: Edward Stettinius. .
1 The Roosevelt I Knew: Frances Petkms.

344 WINSTON CHURCHILL

ship. It turned The Big Three into The Eternal Triangle, with Roosevelt
the female, almost feline, character, and Stalin and Churchill, both
aggressively male, the respective villain and hero of the piece.

Churchill pondered the lessons of Teheran deeply. Roosevelt's actions
made it plain that he was not only unwilling to regard Britain as a
favoured partner, but that he was prepared to put as much trust and faith,
and perhaps even more, in totalitarian Russia than in democratic Britain.
This came as a profound shock to Winston. His whole foreign policy was
based on the concept of an English-speaking authority. If the foundations
were faulty there was only one alternative: to act on his own and try to
safeguard Britain against the consequences of a Soviet domination of
Europe.

Five months later, in the spring of 1944, these new and pressing worries
began to manifest themselves. On 4 May, he sent a minute to the Foreign
Office: *A paper should be drafted for the Cabinet, and possibly for the
Imperial Conference, setting forth shortly ... the brute issues which are
developing in Italy, in Roumania, in Bulgaria, in Yugoslavia, and above

all in Greece Broadly speaking, the issue is, Are we going to acquiesce

in the Communization of die Balkans and perhaps of Italy. . . . ? I am of
the opinion on the whole that we ought to come to a definite conclusion
about it, and that if our conclusion is that we resist the Communist in-
fusion and invasion, we should put it to them pretty plainly at the best
moment that military events permit. We should of course have to consult
the United States first/ 1

A month later, in June, I was invited to 10 Downing Street for lunch.
It was the day after the great invasion had begun and the papers were filled
with little else. Mr. Churchill appeared in a blue siren suit and he seemed
worried and preoccupied. He scarcely referred to the invasion, but in the
middle of lunch launched forth into an angry discourse on foreign affairs.
'When this war is over,' he growled, 'England will need every ally she
can get to protect herself against Russia. I'm sick of these parlour pinks,
always critidaing the internal regimes of countries. I don't care a whit
what people do inside their own countries so long as they don't try to
export their ideas, and as long as their relations with Britain are friendly.
Spain is ready to make her peace with Britain and I am ready to accept it;
the Italian Monarchy is friendly to Britain and I would like to see it pre-
served. The idea of running foreign affairs on personal prqudices is
criminal folly.'

* * * *

1 Closing the Ring: Winston S. Churchill.

THE BIG THREE 345

The Red Army had not, at this date, made any serious inroads into the
Balkans, but Churchill knew that time was short. If any part of Eastern
Europe was to be saved from domination, someone must act and act
quickly. Without consulting Roosevelt he wrote Stalin suggesting that
Russia grant Britain a free hand in Greece and Yugoslavia in return for
the controlling interest in Bulgaria and Roumania. When the American
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, learned of this proposal he angrily de-
nounced it as an attempt to 'carve up the Balkans'. Churchill, however,
was undeterred and during his visit to Moscow in October 1944 worked
out in actual percentages both nations' respective spheres of interest. The
State Department branded the agreement as 'Churdbiavellian' but
Winston insisted that it was his only hope of preventing Stalin from gain-
ing control of the whole area.

Meanwhile Churchill had not been idle nearer home. For the first time
he began to think of military strategy in terms of political aims. It was
apparent in July, a month after cross-Channel invasion had begun, that the
Southern France operation was no longer strictly necessary. Originally the
Allies had considered the port of Marseilles vitally important to handle the
flood of troops and supplies scheduled for the main assault. But now the
invaders possessed ports in Brittany which, Winston argued, would do
just as well. If instead of sending the Anglo-American Army from Italy to
Marseilles he could persuade the Americans to advance towards Vienna,
much of Central Europe might be saved from the Soviet influence. Since
Eisenhower wielded supreme authority it was on him that Churchill
turned all his persuasive powers, resulting in what the General has
described as 'the longest-sustained argument I had with Prime Minister
Churchill during the war*. But Eisenhower was still suspicious. 'I felt that
the Prime Minister's real concern,' he wrote, 'was possibly of a political
rather than a military nature. He may have thought that a post-war situa-
tion which would see the Western Allies posted in great strength in the
Balkans would be more effective in producing a stable post-hostilities
world than if the Russian armies should be the ones to occupy that
region. I told him that if this were his reason for advocating the campaign
into the Balkans he should go instantly to the President and lay the facts
on the table. . . . But I did insist that as long as he argued the matter
on military grounds alone I could not concede validity to his argu-
ments.' 1

This time Eisenhower's surmise was right, but his advice to Winston
to approach the President was gratuitous. Winston had already argued out
the matter with Roosevelt but the latter had insisted that in view of the

1 Crusade in Europe: Dwight D. Eisenhower.

34<5 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Teheran agreement he could not 'agree without Stalin's approval to any
use offeree or equipment elsewhere/

This setback did not diminish Winston's resolve. He was more deter-
mined than ever to play every card in his hand to protect British interests
regardless of American opinion; and he did not have long to wait. Before
the end of the year grave situations arose in Italy and Greece. Both these
countries were battlefields; both had an Allied army which was pre-
dominantly British; and both recognized the necessity of preserving law
and order. The Italian crisis was provoked by the resignation of the
Bonomi Coalition Government. Carlo Sforza, an anti-Fascist who had
lived many years in the United States, flew to Rome and tried to establish
himself as the leading Republican spokesman. He was violently opposed
to the monarchy and it became apparent to Churchill that if post-war
politics were allowed to flare up while the country was in a state of up-
heaval the large Communist Party already in existence might manage to
install itself. Winston did not like or trust Sforza; he felt he was being
foisted on Italy by an unthinking American public opinion, and he was
determined not to allow the country to slip into extremism by mis-
management. He therefore made it clear that Britain would not look with
any favour upon an Italian Government which included Sforza as Prime
Minister or Foreign Secretary. This caused a storm of protest in the
United States. In a public statement on 5 December Stettinius, the
American Secretary of State, rapped Churchill over the knuckles for his
suspected interference in Italian affairs. Churchill sent a furious cable to
Roosevelt and in the House of Commons on 8 December, 1944, said
bitterly: 'Poor old England! (Perhaps I ought to say, "Poor old Britain!")
We have to assume the burden of die most thankless tasks, and in under-
taking them to be scoffed at, criticized and opposed from every quarter;
but at least we know where we are making for, know the end of the road,

know what is our objective We have not attempted to put our veto

on the appointment of Count Sforza. If to-morrow the Italians were to
make him Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary, we have no power to Stop
it, except with the agreement of the Allies. All that we should have to say
about it is that we do not trust the man, we do not thinlr he is a true and
trustworthy man, nor do we put the slightest confidence in any Govern-
ment of which he is a dominating member. I thmlr we should have to put
a great deal of responsibility for what might happen on those who called
him to power/

Churchill won the battle, for Sforza failed to establish himself as a
leader, but the relations between London and Washington were dis-
tinctly cool. Then came the Greek trouble. For some time three elements

THE BIG THREE 347

in Greece had been struggling for power; the royalist faction which
centred around George II; the anti-Communist faction, centred around
Colonel Zirvas; and the Communist-led resistance force known as
E.L.A.S. and E.A.M. This last group had been active in the fight against
Germany, but now they were busy trying to grasp the power of Govern-
ment by terrorist methods. British troops were called in to maintain order
and blood was shed. The American public did not know much about the
partisans except that they were violently anti-Nazi, and once again
opinion flared up against the British. It rose so high that Admiral King,
the United States Naval Chief of Staff, ordered Admiral Hewitt, the
American Commander in the Mediterranean, not to allow any American
L.S.T.S to carry supplies into Greece. Hopkins intervened and the order
was countermanded, but not before Churchill had sent angry protests.
The Prime Minister then took unexpected action by flying to Athens on
Christmas Day. He succeeded in bringing hostilities to an end by estab-
lishing a temporary regency under Archbishop Damaskinos and obtaining
from King George of Greece the assurance that he would not attempt to
return to Greece 'unless summoned by a free and fair expression of the
national will/ Temporarily, at least, the crisis subsided; nevertheless the
atmosphere of the Yalta Conference, which was held a few weeks later
and which proved to be the last meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill
and Stalin, was not as happy as it might have been.

Most of the troubles of the post-war world have been bkmed on
Yalta. But the truth is that this conference took very few new decisions, for
the pattern of Europe had been moulded over the previous two years.
Only one Yalta decision can be severely criticized and that is the large
concession which Roosevelt made to Stalin throughout the Far East in
return for the dictator's promise to enter the war against Japan. This con-
cession made Stalin the virtual master of Manchuria and, in effect, the
master of North China. Many members of the British delegation were
strongly opposed to the plan, and Eden begged Churchill not to put his
signature to it. The Prime Minister replied 'that the whole position of the
British Empire in the Far East was at stake* and if he refused to sign he
might find himself excluded from any further say in these affairs.

As far as Europe was concerned, however, the Russians made no new
gains on paper. The frontiers of Poland were thrashed out; German
reparations were discussed; the design of the United Nations was sketched;
the three-power occupation of Germany, which had been agreed upon in
principle by the Foreign Ministers in October 1943, was extended to

348 WINSTON CHURCHILL

include France. The most important and hopeful event in the eyes of
Britain and America was the fact that the Soviet Union reiterated its
promise to uphold the Atlantic Charter which was firmly pledged to the
freedom and independence of the small states of Europe. If Russia meant
what she said, peace was assured.

Should the democratic leaders have placed an implicit faith in Russia,
or should they have attempted to safeguard their interests wherever they
had a right to do so? Roosevelt believed the first and Churchill the second,
which led to severe altercations between the two Governments in the
months to follow.

Since the Russians had promised to allow free elections in Central and
Eastern Europe, Roosevelt was confident that democracy would establish
itself as soon as the Nazi grip was broken. But he felt strongly that the
only way to keep Russia to her bargain was to accept her word as her
bond. Any outward suspicion or ill-will on the part of the democracies,
he believed, would bring down the structure in ruins. Consequently
American policy recognized only one objective: to destroy the German
Army. Once that was accomplished it was believed that Europe would
right itself of its own accord.

Churchill was highly sceptical of this thinking. Although he agreed with
the President that post-war policy must be based on the assumption that
Russia would honour her pledges, he saw no reason why, at the same time,
the Allies should not grasp the initiative when they could, and guard their
interests against any possible contingency. After all, Stalin was still insist-
ing that the Lublin Committee, which was a Moscow-controlled body,
should become the rulers of Poland. And only a few weeks after Yalta he
had summoned the King of Roumania and ordered him to install a
Communist Prime Minister. Was this the furtherance of democracy?
What did the Russians mean by the word anyway?

Churchill felt strongly that the Allies should fashion their military
strategy in accordance with certain obvious political aims. The Western
Powers should liberate key cities and territories whenever the oppor-
tunity presented itself. This was important not only from the point of
view of psychology and prestige but for hard-headed, practical reasons as
well. Their advance would not be in contravention of any agreements
they had made with the Russians; yet it would place them in a position
to see that the pledges Stalin had given on free elections were really
upheld.

Czechoslovakia became one of the major points of issue. In April, as the
Allied Army moved towards its frontiers, the British Chiefs of Staff made
it dear that they felt great advantage would be derived from liberating

THE BIG THREE 349

Prague. General Marshall passed this information on to Eisenhower with
the comment: 'Personally, and aside from all logistic, tactical, or strategic
implications, I would be loath to hazard American lives for purely
political purposes/ 1

Eisenhower agreed with Marshall; and since he did not feel that an ad-
vance into Czechoslovakia would have any bearing on his sole aim, the
destruction of the enemy's armed forces, he halted his troops on the
frontier. Although he received frantic appeals for help from Prague which
was being subjected to a severe German attack he remained stationary;
and when, on 4 May, the Russians asked him formally not to move for-
ward any further, he agreed. Three days later he received a wire from
Churchill begging him to proceed to Prague, but, instead, he instructed
the Czechs to refer their requests for aid to Moscow. The following week
Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Russians.

Berlin raised an even more heated issue. General Montgomery became
convinced in September 1944 that if the Allies made a 'powerful and full-
blooded thrust' into Germany, they could capture the Ruhr and liberate
the German capital. But although Berlin had been listed by SHAEF in a
pre-D-Day plan as the Allies' ultimate goal, in the months that followed
Eisenhower had come to regard it as increasingly unimportant. From a
military point of view he decided it was better to move forward more
slowly on a broad front rather than concentrate his forces in a single thrust.

Churchill felt passionately on the subject of the German capital. Berlin
was not only a great prize but he believed it would give the Allies an
invaluable bargaining point. Although they would be obliged to move
back into the zones of occupation that had been agreed upon by the
Russians, it would provide them with an opportunity, and their only
opportunity, to see that Stalin carried out his treaties as well. On 3 April,
five weeks before the war ended, he took up the matter with Roosevelt:
'If they [the Russians] also take Berlin will not their impression that they
have been the overwhelming contributor to the common victory be un-
duly printed in their minds, and may this not lead them into a mood
which will raise grave and formidable difficulties in the future'? But
Roosevelt's reply was curt. He said that he 'regretted at the moment of a
great victory we should become involved in such unfortunate reactions/ 2
A few days later, on 7 April, Eisenhower informed the Combined Chiefs
of Staff: 'I regard it as militarily unsound at this stage of the proceedings

1 Why Eisenhower's Forces Stopped at the Elbe: Forrest Pogue. This article was
printed in World Politics, April 1952, published by the Princeton University Press.
The extract is from an official paper, ^.-74256 28 April, 1945, Shaef Cable Log.

'Ibid.

350 WINSTON CHURCHILL

to make Berlin a major objective, particularly in view of the fact that it
is only thirty-five miles from the Russian lines.' 1

Churchill continued to urge his point of view with desperate insistence.
When Truman succeeded Roosevelt a week later, he turned his fire on
him. But the new President merely replied that 'the tactical deployment of
American troops is a military one.' And the American Army was adamant.
General Omar Bradley sums up the situation in his book A Soldier 9 s Story.
'I could see no advantage accruing from the capture of Berlin that would
offset the need for quick destruction of the German army on our front.
As soldiers we looked naively on this British inclination [the desire to go
to Berlin] to complicate the war with political foresight and non-military
objectives/ Consequently, Churchill lost his battle, and the Russians
liberated Berlin as well as Prague.

To-day the results are apparent for all to see. Within three years
Czechoslovakia was a Communist country; the Russian sector of Ger-
many was decapitated from the rest, despite Soviet assurances at Potsdam
that trade would flow freely between the Eastern and Western zones; and
the whole of Eastern and Central Europe was paralysed into subservience
to Moscow. In many cases the Russians not only broke their treaties but
they did not even try to honour them.

What differences would it have made if Churchill had gained his way
and Eisenhower had secured control of Germany? Remembering the rise
of Left-wing opinion all over the world at the end of the war, could the
Allies have dealt with Russia with a firm hand or would public pressure
have been too strong against them? No one can answer these questions,
and it may be argued that it was necessary for the democracies to learn
by bitter experience; otherwise the dose entente which exists between the
English-speaking world might not have come into being.

But whatever conclusions one draws it is difficult to see how the costly
innocence of the American leaders, with their failure to understand that
all wars have political objectives and carry with them political responsi-
bilities, can escape severe condemnation. When all is said and done,
Communism and not Democracy has been the victor over a large part
of the world.

PART SEVEN
THE WORLD OF TO-DAY

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

MR. CHURCHILL'S overwhelming defeat at the General Election of
1945, held only a few weeks after the surrender of Germany, was regarded
as astonishing news, even by his own countrymen. For Winston it was a
stunning and ironic reverse, first because he was at the very summit of his
power and fame, and second, because no statesman emphasized the
superior qualities of the British people more forcibly than he. During the
war, when someone congratulated him on a broadcast, saying: 'You are
giving the people the courage they need,' he replied quickly: 'You are
mistaken. They already have the courage. I only focus it/ To have been
rejected by a people towards whom he felt such pride and possessiveness
was a bitter blow.

During the first years of his Premiership Churchill had declared privately
that he would not commit the same mistake Lloyd George had made in
seeking to retain power once hostilities had ended. He remembered how,
in the difficult months that followed the war, L.G.'s prestige had gradually
dwindled until in 1922 he was dismissed from office never to return again.
However, when Churchill took over the leadership of the Conservative
Party in 1940 many people were sceptical about his sticking to his resolve.
His action was criticized at the time by those who considered that as head
of a great coalition government he should remain above Party politics;
and even his friends warned him that it might be a mistake to commit
himself so far in advance.

But it was not Winston's nature to play the role of a detached Elder
Statesman; and it would have taken a man of far less sanguine disposition
to refuse to offer himself to the electorate when all the world was acclaim-
ing him. Leading Conservatives were aware that a new wind of social
consciousness was blowing through England, but they believed that
Churchill's fame could keep them in power; and Churchill believed this
too. Although from time to time he had been pressed to make some
positive statement on peace-time domestic policy, he was so absorbed by
the problems of the war that except for one or two occasions he refused to
put his mind on internal affairs. Besides, he was confident that when the
time came the British people, who had followed him so loyally through-
out the conflict, would heed what he had to say about the days to come.

This was a severe miscalculation for the British people has never pledged

354 WINSTON CHURCHILL

itself to a single m*m except in times of extreme emergency. Nowhere in
the world is the Party system so highly developed as in England. The
electorate was not looking for a personality, but for a programme; and the
only programme that was forthcoming was that put forward by the
Labour Party with its emphasis on social reform and a long over-due
redistribution of the national income. The working classes remembered
the hard times they had had between the wars; first the soaring prices and
the bad housing, then the long years of unemployment. And they also
remembered that except for two short spells the Conservative Party had
dominated the parliamentary scene for most of the twenty-one years.
Besides, had not Mr. Churchill fought the Tories throughout the thirties
and accused them of allowing the country to drift into war? Why had he
attached himself to them anyway?

Churchill himself did not add to his own chances. If the public needed a
reminder that he had always been rejected as a peace-time leader on the
grounds of bad judgment and instability, they had it, to use a figure of
speech, straight from the horse's mouth. Overnight the statesman vanished
and in his place appeared an irresponsible politician hurling invective at his
opponents and offering few proposals of his own. He sounded the first gun
in a radio broadcast telling the country that Socialism would result in
'a Gestapo*. It was a childish blunder to attack Labour leaders like Attlee,
Morrison, Bevin and Cripps, who had won the respect and admiration of
the public for their loyal service in Winston's Coalition Government. I
heard die broadcast at Lord Rothermerc's house and I remember the
silence when he had finished. 'If he continues like that,' said our host, 'the
election is as good as lost.'

But Winston did not change his tactics. Next, he turned his fire on the
Chairman of the Labour Party Executive, Professor Laski, insisting that
the latter would be the 'boss* of any Labour Government that got into
power. Since the Party Chairman is only an annual appointment this was
patently nonsense. The Times tried to play down Winston's attacks but
Churchill, buoyantly confident, and with an old-fashioned tendency to
regard an election as something of a lark, insisted on reviving his charges
at every opportunity.

There is no doubt that the electorate was greatly shaken by his cam-
paign. People were in a serious mood and wanted facts, not political stunts.
Although the Conservatives put forward a Rve Year Plan under the
guidance of Lord Woolton, it contained few constructive ideas. The result
was that the Conservatives fought the battle equipped with litde more

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 355

than Churchill's photograph while the Socialists went into action with a
carefully planned programme. This seemed to confirm the suspicions of
the working class that the Prime Minister took little interest in domestic
matters. In one speech Winston referred to milk for babies, and the com-
ments of the people in the village where I was staying were: 'What's 'e
know or care about babies' milk? Guns is 'is speciality and any rime there's
a war we're glad to let 'im run it but when 'e talks about babies' milk we
know someone's put 'im up to it and it's not 'im speaking at all/

Although it was obvious that opinion was hardening against him even
the pessimists believed he would win, a majority of thirty seats. The result
of the Gallup Poll published in the News-Chronicle showed a landslide
which proved to be accurate within one per cent, but Britain was not
'poll-conscious' and few people paid any attention to the figures. Two
days before polling day I heard Churchill address an enormous gathering
at Walthamstow Stadium on the outskirts of London and was amazed at
the amount of opposition and heckling he received. He was interrupted so
often he could scarcely get through his speech. When he had finished, his
daughter Sarah invited me to a private room to have beer and sandwiches
with them before he went on to his next engagement. As a war corre-
spondent for the previous eight years I had seen a number of countries
invaded and overrun by the enemy and when Churchill saw me he ex-
claimed: ' What a bad omen ! For the first time I have my doubt about this
election. You only appear when the established regime is crashing to the
ground!'

Neither he nor I had any idea how prophetic his words were to prove.
Up until the last he was confident of victory. He even arranged a small
dinner party in advance to celebrate the results. One of the guests told me
afterwards that she had never sat through a more depressing meal.
Churchill's daughters were in tears and the old man himself sat immobile
as though too stunned to speak.

Defeat burned deep into Churchill's soul. He felt he had been badly
treated by an ungrateful population, and when he wrote his first volume
on the second World War he allowed himself the bitter comment: 'Thus,
then, on the night of the tenth of May, at the outset of this mighty battle,
I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in
ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at
the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered uncondition-
ally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British
electorate from all further conduct of their affairs/

356 WINSTON CHURCHILL

This resentment was unlike Winston, for throughout his long political
life no man had taken greater care to hide his disappointments from public
view. He had always made a point of treating an election as a good healthy
English game with winners and losers shaking hands amiably in the tradi-
tional sporting fashion. But in this case the shock and humiliation were too
great and it took him many months to overcome a feeling of deep
resentment.

However, as far as Parliament was concerned his manners were dis-
tinguished. He refused to allow vindictiveness to creep into his speeches
and faced the House with a courage and aplomb which aroused general
admiration. His peculiarly disarming quality of forgive and forget was
expressed when he had bronze plaques made, adorned with the oak and
the acorn, which he sent to all those who had served in his war-time
Government. Socialists whom he had branded as future Gestapo leaders
were surprised to receive these souvenirs with their names inscribed bear-
ing the words: 'Salute the Great Coalition, 1940-1945*.

Churchill also managed to retain his sense of humour. When an
acquaintance suggested that he should tour England so that the thousands
of his own countrymen who had never seen him could have a chance to
honour him he growled: C I refuse to be exhibited like a prize bull whose
chief attraction is its past prowess/

Many of Churchill's friends urged Mm to leave Parliament and devote
himself to writing a history of the war. The Labour Government had a
huge majority and was bound to run its full course; and it was always
possible that it would be re-elected for another five years after that. Con-
sidering the heavy responsibility that Churchill had carried, and in view
of his unique position as the greatest living statesman in the world, they
felt it was undignified for him to occupy himself in day to day altercations
in the House; he should reserve himself for the big occasions 'the Test
Matches*, as one of them put it, *not village cricket*. But Winston insisted
that he 'liked* village cricket, and as for leaving Parliament, that was un-
thinkable. 1 am a child of the House of Commons,' he announced
solemnly. His friends then argued that even if he remained in Parliament
he at least should give up the Leadership of the Opposition. It was an
exacting job, and undignified for one who could command world atten-
tion whenever he chose.

But Winston had no intention of retiring from this position cither. He
knew that the leadership of the Conservative Party was the only course
that might take him bade to No. 10 Downing Street again, and die truth
was that a few months after his defeat he resolved to become Prime
Minister again. He had had enough experience of the back benches to

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 357

know that real political power only lies in high office. Although he realized
that another election probably would not come before he^vas seventy-five
he still felt full of vigour; more important still, the conviction that he
could manage things much better than anyone else, which he had carried
with him all his life, still burned strongly within him, 'It would be easy for
me to retire gracefully in an odour of civic freedoms,' he told a Con-
servative Party Conference on 5 October, 1945, 'and the plan crossed my
mind frequently some months ago. I feel now, however, that the situation
is so serious and what may have to come so grave, that I am resolved to go
forward carrying the flag so long as I have the necessary strength and
energy and so long as I have your confidence/

So to those friends who urged his resignation from the Party leadership
he replied firmly: 'My horse may not be a very good one, but at least it's
better than being in the infantry/

As Leader of the Opposition it was Mr. Churchill's duty to oppose, and
he plunged into the attack against the Labour Government with obvious
relish. On 28 November, 1945, he told a large Conservative Party audi-
ence that the verdict of the country at the polls was 'a hideous kpse and
error in domestic affairs'. 'I hope you will believe/ he said, 'that it is with
no personal bias, soreness or conceit that I declare that the vote of the
nation at the General Election was one of the greatest disasters that has
smitten us in our long and chequered history/ These were strong words,
and annoying words too, for the electorate does not like being told it is a
fool. However, Winston went on to develop the two main themes which
were to be his battle-cries for the next five years; first, that the Labour
Government by its misguided and spiteful economic policies would lead
the country to industrial ruin, and second, because of their doctrinaire and
unpatriotic theories they would carry the country towards totalitarianism.
Neither of these prophecies was fulfilled; in fact, the direct opposite
proved true. Although die Labour Government took over a nation which
had exhausted her wealth and resources in a gigantic war effort and was
literally facing bankruptcy, five years later, almost to the month, it was in
a position to announce that Britain was the first country in Europe able
to stand on her own feet and pay her own way. And fax from flirting with
totalitarianism, under the leadership of Ernest Bcvin the Labour Govern-
ment not only established itself as a formidable foe of Communism but
was playing a leading role in spreading the democratic faith throughout
the world. 'Ours is a philosophy ia its own right,' explained Prime
Minister Atdee in a broadcast in January 1948. 'Our task is to work out a

358 WINSTON CHURCHILL

system of a new and challenging kind which combines individual freedom
with a planned economy; democracy with social justice. The task which
faces not only ourselves but all the Western democracies required a
Government inspired by a new conception of society with a dynamic
policy in accord with the needs of a new situation. It could not be accom-
plished by any of the old Parries, nor by a totalitarian Party, whether
Fascist or Communist.'

The Labour majority of 1945 undoubtedly will take its place alongside
the Liberal sweep of 1906 as one of the great reforming Parliaments of
British history. But the programme that it carried through, like that of its
forerunner, has been so largely accepted by the country as a whole that
even from the short perspective of to-day it is difficult to see what all the
fiiss was about. A large amount of social legislation was passed which now
has the support of most Conservatives; a number of basic industries were
nationalized, almost all of which were in need of vast sums of capital
equipment, and which to-day only a few of the most rabid Tories would
like to see back in private hands.

Why, then, the reader may ask, was Churchill's opposition so violent?
Did he really believe in the disaster he predicted, or was it merely part of
his fight to regain power? There is litde doubt that in the first years of the
Parliament Winston viewed the future with dire apprehension. But it
should not be forgotten that home affairs opened up a field of thought for
him which had been closed for nearly a generation. During the ten years
before the war he had been wholly absorbed by foreign relations; and
during the five years of his Premiership he had been so occupied with
military matters that he had delegated the country's domestic problems to
his Labour colleagues. Aside from this, his long political life had not been
distinguished for his judgment or understanding of internal issues. Prob-
ably die least satisfactory period of his career was the five years between
1924 and 1929 in which he had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The cold science of economics had never held the slightest attraction for
him. He had a few simple, fundamental views on finance which had been
instilled in him as a youth and from which he had never deviated. 1 was
brought up to believe that taxation was a bad thing, 9 he told the House of
Commons on 27 October, 1949, 'but the consuming power of the people

was a good thing I was brought up to believe that trade should be

regulated mainly by the kws of supply and demand and that, apart from
basic necessaries in great emergencies, the price mechanism should adjust
and correct undue spending at home, as it does, apart from gifts and sub-
sidies, control spending abroad ... I still hold to these general principles.'

What Winston failed to understand in those grim days after tie war was

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 359

that Britain was actually facing starvation. It would have been impossible
for any Government, whether Conservative or Socialist, to let the laws of
supply and demand work freely. The country was desperately in need of
cars, textiles, china, kitchen utensils, in fact everything one could mention;
yet unless Britain starved her home markets she could not export enough
goods to feed herself, for she had to buy the raw materials with which to
manufacture, and many of these raw materials were in short supply. This
meant that the strictest control on industry was absolutely necessary in
order to ensure that the key industries received necessary materials.

Winston did not understand these theories. They were contrary to all
he had been taught, and he refused to open his eyes to the fact that the
situation itself was quite unlike any other that the country had faced.
'Whoever thought of starving the home trade as a peacetime measure of
stimulating exports?' he told a Conservative Party meeting in November
1945. 'Sir Stafford Cripps is under the profound delusion that he can build
up an immense, profitable export trade while keeping everything at the
minimum here at home. Look what he is doing to die motor car industry.
... He is a great advocate of "Strength through Misery"/

Winston decided that all the controls and restrictions imposed by the
Socialists were merely part of a spiteful ideology. The Government's
decision to continue high taxation on the largest incomes, in order to be
able to ask the wage earners not to press for larger wages, was construed
by him as pure malice; and the principle of maintaining a rationing system
while goods were in short supply was interpreted as bureaucracy gone
mad. 'The Socialist belief,' he told a Conservative Rally at Blenheim
Palace on 4 August, 1947, 'is that nothing matters so long as miseries are
equally shared and certainly they have acted in accordance with their
faith.' In October of the same year he told the House of Commons: 'The
reason why we are not able to earn our living and make our way in the
world as a vast, complex, civilized country is because we are not allowed
to do so. The whole enterprise, initiative, contrivance, and genius, of the
British nation is being increasingly paralysed by the restrictions which are
imposed upon it in the name of a mistaken political philosophy and a
largely obsolete mode of thought 1 am sure that this policy of equaliz-
ing misery and organizing scarcity, instead of allowing diligence, self-
interest and ingenuity, to produce abundance, has only to be prolonged to
kill this British Island stone dead.'

During the next five years Churchill painted a horrific picture of what
was happening in Britain. He claimed that the Labour Government was a
disaster almost as great as the second World War; he declared that the
country was 'hag-ridden by Socialist doctrines', that it was 'torn by feud

360 WINSTON CHURCHILL

and faction, and strangled by incompetence and folly'. He accused the
Labour leaders of 'squalid Party motives', of 'cheap and bitter abuse', of
'crazy theories and personal incompetence', and of a 'dismal and evil reign'.

These polemics were characteristic of Churchill when he was fighting a
battle. He always saw an issue as a stirring and vital challenge. Fierce
partisanship was the very essence of his nature, and this time, with a glitter-
ing prize awaiting the victor, he threw himself into the fray with increased
ardour. A large section of Conservative support, however, was embar-
rassed by his invective, and felt that perhaps he was conjuring up a savage
dragon in order to continue in the role of Britain's saviour. Even in the
Conservative Parliamentary Party there began to be discontent. Winston
was so unpredictable, they complained. He only made sporadic appear-
ances in the House, and instead of trying to organize the Opposition as a
team, he often made speeches without even consulting his shadow Cabinet.
The Conservatives had not won a single by-election; it was obvious, said
their back-benchers, that they must produce a policy, yet Winston refused
stubbornly to commit himself to any programme. It was rumoured that
he had never even bothered to read die Tory Industrial Charter which
R. A. Butler had produced so painstakingly. Perhaps things would be
better, they whispered, if Winston resigned and Eden took his place. At
this point, in 1949, Picture Post ran an article entitled: 'Is Churchill a
Liability to the Tories?' and Lord Beaverbrook's Sunday Express stoutly
replied: 'When Mr. Churchill is in his scat, the Opposition breathes fire.
When he is not, the Tory front bench has the venom of a bunch of
daffodils.'

Although the discontent of the Tory back bench continued, the
Members found that it was not easy to remove a leader, and far less easy
to remove a leader of Churchill's determination. Although the latter was
well aware of tie agitation in favour of Eden he clung firmly to his saddle
and remained unperturbed. 'When I want to tease Anthony,' he remarked
slyly to a friend, 'I remind him that Gladstone formed his last administra-
tion at the age of eighty-four.'

Winston was right to remain unruffled for when the results of the 1950
General Election were known Conservative criticism abruptly ceased. The
Tories had cut down Labour's majority to only six; this made another
election in the very near future inevitable, and if the swing continued
against the Government, which it was likely to do as long as Britain was
undergoing hardships, Churchill was certain to become Prime Minister
again.

He now began to change his tactics. It was wise to do so for in June 1950,
five months after the election had taken place, his prophecies of industrial

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 361

disaster had been proved completely false; Britain was able to forgo
Marshall Aid, two years earlier than even the Americans had expected,
and to pay her own way. However, a month later the war in Korea broke
out and before the year was over Attlee had pledged the country to a
large defence programme. Rearmament and stockpiling began to send up
prices of raw materials all over the world, and England, which had hoped
for easier days, found herself confronted with new economic worries. The
cost of living was rising and the terms of trade were moving against her;
these were the issues on which Churchill concentrated.

When one looks through the press cuttings between the years 1945-51
one is staggered that even a man of Churchill's capacity could have poured
out such an avalanche of passion, energy, and work. He wrote five
volumes of the history of the second World War; he exhibited new
paintings at the Royal Academy; he made important speeches in America
and half the capitals of Europe; he was the most celebrated figure at all the
great functions of the day; he received honorary degrees from the Univer-
sities and civic freedoms from countless cities; he awarded medals, signed
souvenirs, addressed rallies and was accorded tumultuous ovations when-
ever he went abroad.

At home, he acquired five hundred acres of land near Chartwell and
plunged into farming; he loved animals, and was as pleased as a child with
the marmalade kitten his wife gave him and the French poodle sent to
him by a friend; he delighted in his goldfish, hung a drawing of his pet cat
in an honoured position and watched after his beautiful black Australian
swans with tender solicitude. When a fox killed the mother swan leaving
behind an enraged father and six three-week-old cygnets he telephoned
the superintendent of the Zoo for advice, and a man was sent out to
remove the young ones to safety. But Winston's interest in animals did
not stop here. In 1949 he took out the chocolate and pink racing colours
that both his father and grandfather had used, and bought a colt which
soon became famous on the turf as Colonist II. In 1950 he entered this
horse in the Winston Churchill Stakes at Hurst Park in the hope of break-
ing the run of successes of French owners, who had triumphed every year
since the race started in 1946. As a tribute to Churchill the clerk of the
course printed on the programme the memorable words starting with,

'Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties * Colonist n did not

win, but he came in second.

Churchill's work on his history of the second World War was a major
operation. But he still held to his theory that it was foolish to indulge in

362 WINSTON CHURCHILL

detailed work that others could do for him. His first step, therefore, was
to assemble a large and competent staff to check facts, sort material, pro-
duce memoranda, collect information, and give advice. He gathered
around him naval, military and air experts, scientists, historians and
classical scholars, not to mention a competent team of secretaries who
worked day and night on eight hbur shifts. Winston did all his writing
by dictation, sometimes turning out eight or nine thousand words a day.
As the work progressed he began to receive offers for the serial rights from
editors all over the world. Tm not writing a book,' Winston commented
to a friend, Tm developing a property.' Life magazine bought the serial
rights for a sum that was said to be near two million dollars.

Five volumes of the book have now been published and literary critics,
soldiers and historians have hailed it as one of the classics of all time. It
stands in a category of its own, for no other great statesman has ever had
the ability to write as a great historian; and no great historian has ever been
provided with more dramatic material. 'When before, through all the
centuries of this island's history, has such a theme matched such a pen?'
commented the Spectator.

For recreation, while he was writing his book, Churchill turned back to
his old love, painting. During the war he had been forced to abandon this
pastime, but now he re-embraced it with enthusiasm, and according to
the art critics, painted better pictures than he had ever done before. In
1947, for the first time, he exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy; and
when, a few years later, he was asked to contribute a painting to a society
of amateur artists he announced that he was 'a professional'.

An amusing account of Winston, as an artist, was given by Sir John
Rothenstein, an eminent critic and Director of the Tate Gallery. In Feb-
ruary 1949 Churchill invited Rothenstein to lunch at Chartwell and told
him that he would be grateful for any criticisms of his paintings he would
care to make. 'Speak, I pray, with absolute frankness,' he said, as he led his
guest into lunch. 'As soon as we sat down,' wrote Rothenstein, 'he began
to talk about Sickert. "He came to stay here," said Mr. Churchill, "and in
a fortnight he imparted to me all his considered wisdom about painting.
He had a room specially darkened to work in, but I wasn't an apt pupil,
for I rejoice in the highest lights and the brightest colours." ' Mr. Churchill
spoke with appreciation of Sickert's knowledge of music-halls, and he
sang a nineteenth-century ballad Sickert had taught him not just a line
or two but to the end.

' "I think," he went on, "the person who taught me most about paint-

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 363

ing was William Nicholson. I noticed you looking, I thought with
admiration, at those drawings he made of my beloved cat"

'Back in the studio,' continued Rothenstein, 'fortified by a bottle of
champagne, I found his invitation to give my opinion of his work without
reserve much less alarming. Mr. Churchill was so exhilarating and so
genial a companion that, before I had been with him a few hours, the
notion of speaking with absolute frankness seemed as natural as it had
earlier seemed temerarious.

'My first detailed criticism of one of his paintings had an unexpected,
indeed a startling, result. I offered the opinion, with regard to a landscape
a wood on the margin of a lake that the shore was too shallow, too
lightly modelled and too pale in tone to support the weight of the heavy
trees with their dense, dark foliage, so that, instead of growing up out of
the earth, they weighted it down. "Oh," Mr. Churchill said, "but I can
put that right at once; it would take less than a quarter of an hour," and
he began to look out the brushes and colours. "But surely this painting,"
I said, "must be among your earliest." "I did it about twenty years ago."
"Well then," I objected, "surely it is impossible for you to recapture the
mood in which you painted it or indeed your whole outlook of those
days." "You are really persuaded of that?" he grumbled, abandoning with
evident reluctance the notion of repainting.' 1

Sir John Rothenstein's verdict on Mr. Churchill's work was that 'he is
able to paint pictures of real merit which bear a direct and intimate rela-
tion to his outlook on life. In these pictures there comes bubbling irre-
pressibly up his sheer enjoyment of the simple beauties of nature. . . .'
The highest peaks of his achievement, in Rothenstein's opinion, are 'The
Goldfish Pool at ChartweU' (1948), 'The Loup River, Alpes Maritimes'
(1947), 'Chartwell under Snow' (1947), and 'Cannes Harbour, Evening'
(1923). These and twenty other paintings have been exhibited at the
Royal Academy.

Although Mr. Churchill's work as a Party leader paved the way for his
return to No. 10 Downing Street, it was the least important and least dis-
tinguished of his activities during his six years in opposition. From a
political point of view, his most valuable contribution came in the old,
familiar fidd of foreign affairs. On home subjects he was the party
politician, but on world problems he never failed to fulfil his part as the
great world statesman.

As far as foreign policy was concerned there was no break or defection
in the course Churchill had pursued for the last forty years. He still believed

1 Mr. Churchill: The Artist: Sir John Rothenstein (Sunday Times, 7january, 1951)-

364 WINSTON CHURCHILL

it vitally necessary to build up a strong balance of power against any
nation which threatened to dominate the European continent; but now
no balance could be decisive without commitments from the United
States. Winston's foreign policy was dear-cut and simple; first, the
fraternal association with America which he had preached to Roosevelt
without success; and second, a Western Europe united against aggression
to which America and Britain would pledge their mutual aid. This was
exactly the same policy that Churchill had advocated against the German
threat in the thirties, but in those days most of the countries of Europe
preferred to act independently, and the United States insisted on remain-
ing aloof.

In view of the consistency of Churchill's thought, it seems surprising
that his speech, delivered in Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March, 1946, should
have caused such a sensation. But the war had ended only eight months
previously and many Americans still clung to Roosevelt's belief that there
was a special affinity between the Russian and American people; and that
good will and co-operation were bound to blossom with mutual trust.
Churchill made it dear to his audience that he considered this a senti-
mental daydream and pointed harshly to the facts. 'From Stettin in the
Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the
Continent Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of

Central and Eastern Europe The Communist Parties, which were very

small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-
eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking every-
where to obtain totalitarian control Police government is prevailing in
nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true
democracy.*

This speech was of historic importance. It marked die end of Roose-
velt's policy of blind trust towards the Soviet Union, and marked the
beginning of Churchill's policy of peace through strength, based on the
'fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples'. 1 will venture to be
precise,* he told his listeners. 'Fraternal association requires not only the
growing friendship and mutual understanding between our two vast but
kindred systems of society, but the continuance of the intimate relation-
ship between our military advisers, leading to common study of potential
dangers, the similarity of weapons and manuals of instruction, and to the
interchange of officers and cadets at technical colleges.' To-day, this dose
association is no longer a dream but the chief factor in maintaining the
peace in Europe.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 365

Churchill's second goal, a united Europe, was far less clearly defined in
his mind than his relationship with America. What part was Britain to
play? Was she to encourage continental Europe to form a federal bloc, but
to stand aloof herself retaining a position as the third point of the triangle
between United Europe and the United States? Or was she to consider
herself not only part of Europe, but the leader and organizer of Europe,
and, as such, to head a powerful union which could talk to the United
States on equal terms with equal power behind it?

At first it is clear that Winston favoured this second course. The vision
of Europe as a single entity had been the dream of conquerors for cen-
turies past; now with a leader of Winston's stature its realization seemed
to move into the realms of possibility by good will and mutual desire
alone. There was such an upsurge of feeling for the idea that Churchill
had no difficulty in forming an all-party European Movement to promote
the aim of ultimate unification. In a speech at the Albert Hall in London on
14 May, 1947, he started the ball rolling but he was careful not to commit
himself to any definite action. It is not for us at this stage to attempt to
define or prescribe the structure of constitutions. We ourselves are con-
tent, in the first instance, to present the idea of United Europe, in which
our country will play a decisive part, as a moral, cultural and spiritual
conception to which we can all rally without being disturbed by diverg-
ences about structure. It is for the responsible statesmen, who have the
conduct of affairs in their hands and the power of executive action, to
shape and fashion the structure. It is for us to ky the foundation, to create
the atmosphere and give the driving impulsion.'

The European Movement began to gather followers all over the Con-
tinent and almost exactly a year later, in May 1948, a momentous 'Con-
gress of Europe* representing a dozen nations assembled at The Hague.
Churchill made a stirring speech calling on the Governments of Western
Europe to authorize a European Assembly which would enable its voice
'to make itself continuously heard and we' trust with every growing
acceptance through all the free countries of the Continent*. And this time
he went further toward the federal idea. 'The Movement for European
Unity must be a positive force, deriving its strength from our sense of
common spiritual values. ... It is impossible to separate economics and
defence from the general political structure. Mutual aid in the economic
field and joint military defence must inevitably be accompanied step by
step with a parallel policy of closer politicaLunity. It is said with truth that
this involves some sacrifice or merger of national sovereignty/

As a result of the Hague Conference twelve Governments including the
Labour Government of Britain authorized the setting up of a Council of

366 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Europe. The first meeting of the historic assembly took place in Stras-
bourg in the summer of 1949. 1 attended this meeting and arrived to find
the whole city in an atmosphere of celebration. The green and white flags
of United Europe fluttered from all the buildings, the restaurants were
garlanded and festooned, and cameramen and reporters from all over the
world arrived to record the proceedings. Winston Churchill was given a
luxurious villa and provided with one of the best cooks in France. United
Europe would be born with all the refinements that civilization could
offer.

But Churchill's speech, which was regarded as the highlight of the
conference, came as a startling douche of cold water. Once so warm and
enthusiastic about United Europe, he shocked and chilled the assembly by
his sudden indifference. He made it clear that he was not in favour of an
overall authority and talked in terms that were so vague as to be almost
meaningless. *I am not myself committed to a federal or any other par-
ticular solution at this stage. We must thoroughly explore all the various
possibilities, and a committee, working coolly and without haste, should,
in a few months, be able to show the practical steps which would be most
helpful to us. ... To take a homely and familiar test, we may just as well
see what the girl looks like before we marry her.'

What happened to Churchill in the twelve months since the Hague
Conference? Why had he changed his mind about the part Britain should
play? The most obvious answer was the fact that in Britain itself there was
practically no support for the federal idea. Although Winston had col-
lected a handful of English intellectuals and politicians, most of the
enthusiasm for United Europe came from the Continent and not from
England. Both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party were dead
against any commitment which might impair British sovereignty. And
since politics is the art of what is possible and a General Election was only
a few months off, it is dear that Winston felt impelled to heed public
opinion.

Apart from this, however, Churchill himself was cooling off on the idea
of a supreme political authority. The more he studied the implications of a
United Europe with Britain as a member state the less he liked it. After
all, Britain was the most heavily developed industrial power in Europe
with a standard of living far Hghcr than her neighbours. Federation
eventually must mean a common currency and a common finanrial
budget. Foreigners did not pay their taxes, and some of their civil services
were notoriously corrupt. Did this mean the British public would find
itself financing its neighbours? And because of the lower standard of living
on the Continent would foreign goods swamp the British markets and

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION 367

cause unemployment? And would it be wise to allow foreign legislatures,
some of them riddled with Communism, to control British coal and steel
on which the very survival of the nation depended?

The more Churchill examined the economic consequences of Union the
less he liked it; and the more he studied British reactions the less he was
convinced that his proud and insular countrymen would ever give their
sanction to such a course. One neecfs only to recall the national reaction in
1940, when the Continent was overrun and England stood alone, to
realize how difficult such a step would have been. In those days English
people received the news of the fall of France and the return of the British
Army with open relief. 'Now we're together again,' they sighed. 'Now
everything will be all right.'

The Federalists on the Continent were bitterly disappointed by Chur-
chill's change of heart During the war he had offered France common
citizenship, and had talked the same language to the United States. A great
vision glowed in his mind which still burned brightly in the first years of
the post-war era. He talked of a "transformation of the Western world' and
referred to a 'Federal Constitution for Europe', saying, 'I hope this maybe
eventually achieved.' 1

Now he had come round to the view of Mr. Ernest Bevin, the Foreign
Secretary, that the only possibility as far as Great Britain was concerned
was 'inter-governmental' co-operation. This was a crushing blow to the
Continental Unionists, for it meant the end of any hope of a Parliament of
all Europe. As M. Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, announced in
November 1949, 'Without Britain there can be no Europe.' He might
also have added, 'Without Churchill there can be no complete European
Union,' for it is dear that no other man save Winston could have aroused
the enthusiasm or commanded the world-wide following that would have
made the transformation possible.

Without Churchill's support the grand design of United Europe
perished; but in its stead have come the beginnings of a smaller federation
between six of the Continental countries and a closer understanding be-
tween all nations of the West, economically, militarily and spiritually, than
ever before. Another age may see the whole dream fulfilled.

1 Albert Hall, London, 14 May, 1947.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER

CHURCHILL COMPLAINED that the 1950 General Election was
'positively demure/ He had no such criticism of the contest that
followed twenty-one months later. The General Election of October
1951 was fought by the Conservatives on the high cost of living at
home, and the deterioration of British prestige abroad. The Persians
had announced their intention of nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian
Oil Company, and trouble was brewing in Egypt. This, said the
Tories, was the fault of weakness and indecision on the part of the
Socialists. The Labour Party retaliated by reminding the public of
Mr. Churchill's impulsiveness, and warning voters that precipitous
acts were capable of landing Britain in another war. Churchill angrily
denounced these attacks and on the day of the poll itself issued a writ
against the Daily Mirror which printed a front-page picture of a
revolver with the headline: 'Whose Finger on the Trigger?' and ran
a story that Winston intended to deliver an ultimatum to the Russians
if he were returned to power. 1 Nevertheless, his resentment subsided
that night when the final results were nearly complete and he learned
that once again he was Prime Minister, this time by a small majority
of twenty-two.

A month later he attended the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guild-
hall and told his audience: 'Though I have very often in the last forty
years or so been present at your famous Guildhall banquets to salute
the new Lord Mayor, this is the first occasion when I have addressed
this assembly here as a Prime Minister. The explanation is con-
vincing/ He smiled. 'When I should have come as Prime Minister
Guildhall was blown up, and before it was repaired I was blown out. I
thought at the time they were both disasters/ 2

At last the 'affront,' as he termed it, that he had received from the
British people in 1945 had lost its sting. At last he was Prime

1 Mr. Churchill's action against the Daily Mirror was settled out of court.
He accepted a profuse apology from the Daily Mirror which was published
in all newspapers on May 24, 1952. The Daily Mirror agreed to pay Mr.
Churchill's costs and to make a contribution to a charity named by him.

2 The Times: November 10, 1951.

368

PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER 369

Minister not through extraordinary circumstances but by an elected
majority in the House of Commons. And this represented the final
ambition of fifty-two years of political life.

At seventy-seven he seemed strong and vigorous, still towering over
his parliamentary colleagues like a Colossus. The country held its
breath waiting to see how and where the master of the sensational
and unexpected would direct the Ship of State. But once again
Churchill surprised his audience. There was to be nothing dramatic
in his approach to the serious problems facing the British economy,
or for that matter in his handling of world affairs. His policy was one
of amelioration. Ruffled tempers were to be smoothed down, angry
hands joined in friendship.

However, this was unexpected enough coming as it did from the
most pugnacious statesman the century had produced. At home he was
determined to put an end to the class war which had been mounting
during the Socialists' tenure of office, and to lower the tension be-
tween the two parties which he believed had become unnecessarily
bitter. 'We are met together here/ he told Parliament in his first
speech as Prime Minister, 'with an apparent gulf between us as great
as any I have known in fifty years of House of Commons life. What
the nation needs is a period of tolerant and constructive debating on
the merits of the questions before us, without every speech on either
side being distorted by the passions of one election or the preparations
for another/ l

Churchill appointed Mr. R. A. Butler, one of his 'left-wing' con-
servatives to take over the chancellorship of the Treasury, and the
British economy moved forward with surprisingly few changes. For
example, surtax, which many business men claimed was destroying
incentive, remained as high as ever.

Nevertheless the emphasis was different; Winston had wanted to
'set the people free' and although his officials convinced him this was
impossible on the grandiose scale he had envisaged, many restrictions
and regulations gradually were loosened. The Conservative Govern-
ment de-nationalized steel, and separated road haulage from the con-
trol of the nationalized railways. The terms of trade with the outside
world improved, industry was given tax relief for capitalization, the
stock market soared, and businesses all over the country expanded in
a new burst of confidence. The prosperity of the country could be
gauged by the increase in owners of television sets alone; in 1951,
1 Hansard: Novemer 7, 1951.

370 WINSTON CHURCHILL

1,181,126 licenses were issued by the Post Office; in 1955, owners*
numbered 5,400,083.

Churchill's real interest, however, lay in affairs abroad. Here his
mood was also one of conciliation. Friendship with America, of course,
was the cornerstone of his policy. He also believed that Germany
must be allowed to re-enter the European family on equal terms. But
most important, and most startling, was his belief in the possibility of
harmonious co-existence with Soviet Russia. 'I am an optimist/ he
said. f lt does not seem to be of much use being anything else. . . ,'
He felt that if the great powers would consent to talk with the Rus-
sians informally, they might gradually work out a harmonious modus
vivendi which would lay true foundations of peace.

The idea of these informal talks, with no fixed agenda, took root in
his mind shortly after Stalin's death. As rumors spread of a Russian
'new look' (as Churchill put it), he became increasingly convinced
that the talks should not be delayed. The United States, however, was
heavily embroiled in the Korean war; feeling against Russia ran high;
and the American government flatly rejected the idea of a friendly,
tripartite meeting. Churchill refused to take 'no' for an answer, and
in the spring of 1953 he arranged a trip to Washington to try and
persuade the newly elected President, Mr. Eisenhower, of the urgency
and importance of his proposal. However, a few weeks before the
journey was to take place, the Prime Minister was taken seriously ill
and the project abandoned.

Nevertheless, Churchill continued to hammer his theme. In 1954
he made an important speech at the Guildhall in which he said, 'I am
one of those who believe that West and East ought to try and live in a
peaceful and friendly way with each other. It certainly would not be
to anyone's disadvantage if they tried/ 1 By the end of the year he
had decided that, if the United States would not play, at least Britain
should meet the Russian leaders. There were indications that Malen-
kov was more liberal than his predecessor, Joseph Stalin; that all sorts
of profound changes were taking place within the Soviet Union; and
that if the Western powers did not move they might lose a heaven-
sent opportunity to influence the Russian leaders and create a new
atmosphere between East and West. But Churchill was doomed to dis-
appointment. Just as it looked possible to arrange a meeting, the
1 The Times: November 10, 1954.

PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER 37!

Soviet Government began to make difficulties about the European
Defense Community, and Churchill was forced to admit that the time
was not propitious. In March 1955 he told the House of Commons,
It is quite true that I would have liked to have seen a top-level con-
ference of the three Powers. I would have liked to have seen it shortly
after Mr. Malenkov took power, to see, as I said: "Is there a new
look?" I wanted to do that and my colleagues agreed. . . . I prepared
to go over to see the President and hoped to arrange with him to in-
vite a three-Power conference. However, I was struck down by a very
sudden illness which paralysed me completely physically. I had to put
it all off, and it was not found possible to persuade President Eisen-
hower to join in that process.

'I have also considered the possibility of a dual meeting at some
neutral place like Stockholm. ... I had hoped that after my last
visit to America something like a dual meeting might take place at
Stockholm, or somewhere, and that it might be a sort of go-between
prelude to a meeting of the three, because we cannot settle anything
alone that would be decisive. But then the Soviet Government began
a very elaborate process of trying to stop the ratification of E.D.C.,
which I thought had been more or less accepted. . . . Therefore, all
this other matter has come up and stood in the way of further
talks. . . .

Churchill's colleagues were beginning to grow uneasy. The Prime
Minister was now in his eighty-first year. There was talk in the House
of Commons that he was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate
his mind on the day-by-day business of government, and that im-
portant decisions frequently were being delayed. In April 1955 sev-
eral members of his Cabinet, led by Mr. Anthony Eden and including
Mr. R. A. Butler, Mr. Harold Macmillan, and Lord Salisbury, called
upon the Prime Minister and begged him, for the good of the country,
to offer his resignation. Churchill replied that his heart was set on
talks with the Russians; if he could work out a peaceful pattern for
Europe he would feel his life's work was done, and would willingly
lay down his mantle. However, his ministers told him bluntly that
they did not feel he was able to lead them through another General
Election, and that it might be advantageous to the Conservative Party
to appeal to the electorate before the summer. So in the end Churchill

1 Hansard: March 2, 1955.

372 WINSTON CHURCHILL

agreed to go. There were no national newspapers due to a widespread
strike, and his resignation was reported to the country by the British
Broadcasting Corporation.

Churchill left Britain prosperous and happy. Never in the history
of the nation had the people enjoyed so many of the luxuries of life.
During the past five years London had thrown off much of its drab-
ness; houses were newly painted, shop windows sparkled; even the
Brigade of Guards was back in its prewar finery. As new life and
spirit flowed into the country, Churchill had been the object of many
stirring occasions. In 1953 the new Queen, Elizabeth II, had bestowed
the Garter upon her First Minister and he became known to the world
as Sir Winston. Later, that same year the Royal Swedish Academy an-
nounced that the British Premier had been awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature. In a speech of acceptance Sir Winston said, 'I am very
proud indeed to receive an honor which is international. I have re-
ceived several which are national, but this is the first that is interna-
tional in its character. I notice that the first Englishman to receive the
Nobel Prize was Rudyard Kipling, and that another equally rewarded
was Bernard Shaw. I cannot attempt to compete with either of them.
But I knew them both quite well, and my thought was much more in
accord with Mr. Kipling than with Mr. Shaw. On the other hand
Rudyard Kipling never thought much of me, whereas Bernard Shaw
often expressed himself in most flattering terms. I should like the
opportunity of expressing my thanks to the Academy in person, and
also the warmth of my sympathy and feeling for Sweden, for her
wonderful record and famous warriors, and my regard for her King
and people.' 1

But perhaps the most stirring scene took place when the Houses of
Parliament paid their tributes to the Prime Minister in 1954, on the
occasion of his eightieth birthday. Churchill described it as the great-
est honor that had ever been accorded him. The members of both
Houses, and all parties, gathered in Westminster Hall on the morn-
ing of November 30 to do him homage. He was presented with a
Birthday Book in green leather, inlaid with a pattern of his racing
colors, chocolate and pink. Inside were almost all the signatures of the
members of Parliament, with a dedication which said, 'We, the
elected Members of the House of Commons, representing all political
parties and all the people within Her Gracious Majesty's realm of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, do hereby

1 The Times: October 16, 1953.

PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER 373

join in one accord to show our deep affection to your person and our
abiding gratitude for your incomparable service to the Parliament and
the peoples of this realm, and to the causes of justice, freedom and
peace during more than fifty years/

There were over two thousand people present at the ceremony,
and as Churchill entered the Hall the famous wartime V sign was
beaten in Morse on a drum. He took his seat amid a tremendous burst
of applause, while the band played Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance.
Churchill did not try to hide his emotions. Tears came to his eyes
when Mr. Attlee, the Leader of the Opposition, praised his greatness
in a deeply moving speech.

There was only one cloud which threatened to darken the sky of
this memorable day. The Houses of Parliament had commissioned
Graham Sutherland to paint a portrait of Sir Winston in oils, which
they presented to him during the ceremony. He was shown a pho-
tograph of the painting a short while before the Birday- gathering
took place, and he was so horrified and indignant that he told Lady
Churchill impulsively that he would refuse to attend. The picture
showed him as an old man, straining forward as though he were
anxiously and perplexedly trying to see his way ahead. Sir Winston
felt it was a deliberate insult, almost a jeer at hi years and perhaps
at his failing perceptibilities. He was assured that the artist had not
intended it so; nevertheless, his anger rankled.

Word of Churchill's reaction began to get around, and people
waited nervously for the presentation to take place. By this time, how-
ever, the Prime Minister had mastered his feelings. He thanked
Parliament for its gift and remarked with a twinkle in his eye, 'The
painting is a remarkable example of modern art.' There was a burst
of relieved laughter and the ceremony proceeded with harmony un-
disturbed. That afternoon the painting was sent to Churchill's house
in Kensington, where he personally saw to it that it was placed in a
cupboard, and locked up. There it remains to this day.

When he rose to reply, Sir Winston's voice shook. This is to me
the most memorable public occasion of my life. No one has ever
received a similar mark of honor before. There has not been anything
like it in British history, and indeed, I doubt whether any of the
modern democracies abroad have shown such a degree of kindness
and generosity to a party politician who has not yet retired and may at
any time be involved in controversy. It is, indeed, the most striking
example I have known of that characteristic British parliamentary

374 WINSTON CHURCHILL

principle cherished in both Lords and Commons "Don't bring
politics into private life." It is certainly a mark of the underlying
unity of our national life which survives and even grows in spite of
vehement party warfare and many grave differences of conviction and
sentiment. This unity is, I believe, the child of freedom and fair play,
fostered in the cradle of our ancient island institutions and nursed by
tradition and custom.' l

Then he referred to the generous words of the Leader of the Op-
position. 'I am most grateful to Mr. Attlee for the agreeable words
he has used about me, and the magnanimous appraisal he has given
my variegated career. I must confess, however, that this ceremony
with all its charm and splendor, may well be found to have seriously
affected my controversial value as a party politician. However, perhaps
with suitable assistance I shall get over this reaction and come round a
bit/ 2

There were people who said that Sir Winston Churchill would not
survive separated from the power and the stream of political events
which for so long had dominated his life and thought. However, once
again, Churchill surprised them. After a few restless weeks he set to
work to revise the manuscript of The History of the English-Speaking
Peoples, which had lain on his desk for sixteen years. He went to the
South of France and lived for some months in Lord Beaverbrook's
spacious villa. He was accompanied by a devoted entourage, almost
royal in the profuseness of its numbers. Nearly a dozen secretaries,
research workers and servants travelled ahead of him to look after his
interests. He worked methodically every morning; he painted; he
enjoyed good food; and for the first time in his life he discovered
music. He became particularly fond of Tchaikovsky, and night after
night sat listening to the dramatic, majestic sounds from the phono-
graph. 'If I had another life to live,' he remarked to a friend, 'I
would like to conduct a great orchestra; 1 and here he gave an im-
pressive demonstration.

Today, as Churchill nears the end of his journey, his life is peace-
ful and his days crowded. He loves his farm, his fish, his dogs, his
horses, his painting and writing. And he still follows the trend of
foreign affairs. In April 1956, when Bulganin and Khrushchev visited
Britain to take part in the informal talks, for which he had strived so
long, he made the following statement: 'They have a right to be

1 The Times: December 1, 1954.
"Ibid.

PRIME MINISTER AGAIN AND AFTER 375

treated with courtesy and goodwill. ... I hope they will enjoy their
time in this country, and that easier and more fruitful relations will
emerge as a result of their visit. Peaceful co-existence is, after all,
the first thing we are seeking, and to this easier personal relations
between their national leaders and ours, and a dearer comprehension
of the way we live, can make a valuable contribution/ l

And, a few weeks later, on May 10, when he went to Germany to
receive the Charlemagne Prize, he sowed an idea which inspired
world-wide headlines; if the Russian 'new look* was real, he said, the
Western Powers ought to consider the possibility, in the not far
future, of urging her to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Five years ago, on December 20, 1951, a London Sunday news-
paper, the Observer, printed a profile of the Prime Minister which
said: 'Any consideration of Churchill's career as a whole brings one
up against the extraordinary fact that, for all its majestic scope, it
remains to this day tragically unfulfilled and fragmentary. His politi-
cal role certainly has not been meteoric and disastrous, like Napoleon's
or Hitler's. But neither has it been linked to a definite achievement,
like Richelieu's or Chatham's, Washington's or Lincoln's, Bismarck's
or Lenin's. So far, he leaves no completed work, for even the war he
won has not been ended. He leaves glory, tragedy and unfinished
business.'

This is a superficial and unjust judgment. Leaving aside the fact
that the writer has compared Churchill to statesmen who, with the
exception of Chatham, created unity out of civil war and disorder
within their own countries, the suggestion that Churchill's life
presents no theme or no definite achievement is absurd. Now that his
political work is nearly ended, the pattern stands out boldly: a fierce
belief that the freedom of man, and of Christendom itself, must be
guarded, and can only be preserved, by the combined efforts of the
English-speaking people.

It was the vision of this alliance that prompted Mr. Churchill in
the early thirties to begin writing an Anglo-American history; it was
faith in this alliance that gave him heart for his prodigious task in
1940. Throughout the war he hammered his conviction to Roosevelt,
and although the American leaders were not ready to accept his
premises in 1944, the events of the last eight years have drawn the
two countries together in an association which almost marks the

1 The Times: April 14, 1956.

376 WINSTON CHURCHILL

fulfillment of Mr. Churchill's heart's desire. Never before in peace-
time have the affairs of two free nations been so tightly interwoven.

Although some people regret the fact that he has not used his
influence to draw the countries of Europe close to the British orbit so
that the Anglo-American partnership could develop on terms of equal
power, it was Churchill's inspiration that gave birth to the Council
of Europe, and the Council may yet illuminate the minds of the
statesmen who follow him. But if the English-speaking alliance con-
tinues to be a foundation stone for the United Nations, and the
United Nations continue to stand up against aggression and to insist
upon negotiations as the only civilized method of settling difficulties
between nations, Mr. Churchill's immortality is assured. He led the
free world in its darkest hour, and when the battle was won he used
his counsel and influence to bring millions of people together on a
path of common endeavor.

Yet it is not only as a statesman that he must be judged. No one can
meet this extraordinary man without a feeling of awe. He not only
stands head and shoulders above a century of powerful statesmen,
but his vitality, his mastery of the English language, his contribution
to literature, his scientific inventiveness, his painting, his far-flung
interests from housebuilding to race horses, and even his astonishing
constitution, place him in a category far removed from mere mortals.
The range of his talents forces one to compare him with Leonardo da
Vinci, and no doubt the world will have to wait as long again to see
his like reborn.

Yet although his accomplishments place him apart as a giant, stu-
dents of the future may find his character the most unusual subject of
all. For over fifty years Churchill has attracted world-wide interest. At
various times he has provoked his countrymen to anger, admiration,
indignation, laughter, gratitude, fury and veneration. But whatever
the feeling, he has never failed to fascinate, for the swift, changing
facets of his personality and leadership. With Churchill it is possible
to see selfishness flash into generosity; mischievousness retreat before
a stria code of Victorian morality; impulsiveness melt into wisdom;
dejection surge into wit; flouts and jeers dissolve into a warm and
loyal friendship. And shining through all the contradictions of his
mercurial temperament is a burning courage, and a deep faith in the
power for good within the human race. He will be remembered as a
statesman, but he will be cherished as a man.

INDEX

ABDULLA EL HUSSEIN, 235

Abyssinia, 300-302

Aftermath, The, 239

Agadir, 151-153

Amery, Leopold S., 34-35, 60, 240, 255,

274,282,315
Anatolia, 238
Ankara, 238

Antwerp, 178-182, 216, 232, 251, 299
Archangel, 330, 332
Asquith, Herbert .see Oxford and As-

quith, Earl of
Asquith, Margot, 103
Astor, Lady, 332
Athens, 347
Atkins, J.B., 58-60, 87
Atdee, Clement R., 8. 301, 317, 321,

354, 357-358, 361

BAGEHOT, WALTER, 71-72

Baldwin, Stanley, Earl Baldwin of
Bewdley: Becomes Premier, 250-
251; appoints C to Exchequer, 256,
257; his astuteness, 257; and General
Strike, 264-267; finds C. a difficult
colleague, 275, 298; real master of
National Government, 282; backs
disarmament, 293; confession about
German air power, 297, 304; excludes
C. from office, 298, 306; will not risk
sanctions, 301-302; and occupation of
Rhineland, 303-304; and Abdication,
304-305; mentioned, 240, 255, 258,
280

Balfour, Arthur James, ist Earl: Com-
ments on C., 5, 56, 102, 105, 147,
246; supposed plan to rid of leader-
ship, 90-91; and Free Trade, 95-96,
98; excludes C. from office, 96, 103,

133, 253; C/s attacks on, 98, 100,
104-105, 126, 131; and plan for Boer
Republics, in, 113; succeeds C. at
Admiralty, 213 ; supports C. at West-
minster by-election, 252, 255; men-

tioned, 38, 68, 77, 89, 114, 127? 135,
137,187,203,238

Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 77

Balfour, Gerald, 77

Balkans, the, 187-201, 341-342, 344-

345

Baltic States, 312, 331, 332
Bangalore, 45-4?
Barnes, Reginald, 43-45
Bardett, Ashmead, 206
Baruch, Bernard, 224
Battenberg, Prince Louis of, 182-183
Beaconsfield, Lord see Disraeli
Beatty, David, ist Earl, 52, 162-163
Beaverbrook, Lord, 172, 176, 177, 183,

201, 202, 204, 206, 210, 212, 214,

217-219, 240, 272, 274, 32<$-327
Beckett, Ernest, 90
Beerbohm, Sir Max, 121
Belfast, 168

Beresford, Lord Charles, 158, 220
Berlin, 349-350

Berwick, James Fitzjames, Duke of, 17
Berwick and Alba, Duke of, ijn.
Bevan, Aneurin, 8
Bevin, Ernest, 8, 259, 265-266, 268,

301, 354, 357, 3*7

Birdwood, Field-Marshal Sir William,
191-192

Birkenhead, ist Earl of, 10, 96, 108,
135-136, 169, 171, 172, 202, 212, 215,
218, 219, 236, 237, 238, 240, 247,
252-253, 257, 264, 272, 304

Birrell, Augustine, 114, 125

378

Black Sea,' 34i

Blandford, Lord (later 8th Duke of

Marlborough), 20, 22, 31
Blenheim, 292
Blenheim Palace, 4, 15-16, 18-19, 20,

31,138,286,287,291,359
Blood, General Sir Bindon, 47, 48
Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen, 97, 124, 127,

137

Boer War, 57-67, 78-81, 99, in, 237
Booth, Charles, 73, 122
Boothby, Robert, 139, 270-271
Bosnia, 152
Botha, Louis, 112
Bournemouth, 31, 37
Bowles, Gibson, 85, 94
Bracken, Viscount, 10, 327
Bradford, 90, 169
Bradley, General Omar, 350
Brentford, Viscount (William Joynson-

Hicks), 116-117
Bridges, Sir Edward, 318
Brighton, 30, 32
Brockie, Sergeant, 62-63, 65-66
Brockway, Fenner, 25511.
Brodrick, William St. John, ist Earl of

Middleton, 84, <K>, 92
Brownlow, Lord, 327
Buller, General Sir Redvers, 57, 66
Bullitt, William .C, 328, 339
Burns, John, 114
Buxton, Charles R., 248
Byng, General Sir Julian, 222

INDEX

CAIRO, 235, 337, 343

CampbeU-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 91,
95, in, 114, 115, 220

Cannes, 244

Garden, Admiral Sir Sackville Hamil-
ton, 188-189, 190, 192

Carson, Edward, Lord, 38, 168-169,

213

Casablanca, 337
Cassel, Sir Ernest, 141
Cecil, Evelyn, 133, 209, 220

Cecil, Lord Hugh (ktcr Baron Quicks-
wood), 77, 90, 93, 94, 137

Cecil, Lord Robert (later Viscount
Cecil of Chelwood), 77

Chamberlain, Sir Austen, 100, 133, 137,
204, 236, 238, 240, 252

Chamberlain, Joseph, 25, 38, 57, 67, 68,
77. 80, 90, 94-97. 98-99, 103, 137,
220

Chamberlain, Neville, 6, 9, 305, 309,
310, 3", 3H-3I6, 317, 339

Chanak, 238, 239, 240, 299

Chant, Mrs. Ormiston, 39

Chartwell, 9-10, 41, 246, 272-274, 291,
295-296, 307, 326, 361, 362-363

Chequers, 11, 326-327, 328

Cherwell, Lord see Lindemann, Pro-
fessor

Chiang Kai-Shek, 343

Churchill, Arabella, 17

Churchill, Diana, 216

Churchill, Admiral George, 17

Churchill, John, 29, 31, 32, 37, 66, 91

Churchill, Mary, 326, 355

Churchill, Lord Randolph: Early life,
20-21; courtship and marriage, 21-
22; elected for Woodstock, 21-22,
25 ; displeases Prince of Wales, 22-23 ;
in Ireland, 23, 28; in Tory opposition,
23-26, 167; his Fourth Party, 23, 94;
and Tory Democracy', 24-25, 93;
popularity of, 25-26, 32; in office, 26,
257; sensational resignation, 26-27,
84, 86-87, 88; illness and death, 27,
38, 40, 102; reserve towards son, 33,
38-39, 40-41; disappointed in him,
33> 36-37; C. fascinated by his career,
50, 58, 59> 75^76, 88, 89; C.'s life of,
89, 109-111; C. compared with, 97,
99, 104; C. regards him as saviour of
Tories, 109-110, 121; on Irish Home
Rule, 167-168, 237; on India, 279;
mentioned, 4, 15, 16, 18-19, 43, 77,
81, 83, 91, 94, 96, 273

Churchill, Lady Randolph, 15-16, 18-

19, 20-22, 23, 25, 28-29, 3<>, 31. 37.
41, 42, 43, 45, 48, 51, <5<5, 112, 206,

257
Churchill, Randolph, 9, 216, 273, 307,

326

Churchill, Sarah, 216, 355
Churchill, Mrs. Winston S., 3, 10, 136-

138, 168, 206, 216, 226, 244, 272,

274

Churchill, Sir Winston, 16-17
Citrine, Sir Walter, 302
Clemenceau, Georges, 225-226
Closing the Ring, 334, 335, 338, 342, 344
Clynes, J. R., 252
Collins, Michael, 237
Colville, John, 328-329
Constantinople, 188, 189, 190, 193, 194,

195

Cranbornc, Lord (later 4th Marquess of
Salisbury), 77

Crewe, Marquis of, 187

Cripps, Sir Stafford, 322, 354, 359

Cuba, 43-45, 58

Curzon of Kcdlcston, George, Mar-
quess, 212, 238, 240

Czechoslovakia, 309, 348-349

D'ABERNON, VISCOUNT, 29

Dalton, Hugh, 260

Damascus, 235

Damaskinos, Archbishop, 347

Dardanelles, 184, 186-201, 216, 219,

220, 232, 238, 245, 251, 314, 319
Davis, Richard Harding, 40
De Valera, Eamonn, 237
Dcakin, Colonel F. W., 274
Denikin, General, 230
Denmark, 314
Dewsnap, Mr., 65, 67
Dilke, Sir Charles, 122
Disraeli, Benjamin, 21, 22, 23, 72
Ditchley, 322

Drummond-Wolff, Sir Henry, 43
Dublin, 28-29
Duckcrs, Scott, 2550.

INDEX 379

Dundee: 1908 by-election at, 117-119,
136; 1922 election at, 240, 242-243,

255

Dunkirk, 175, 176-177, 178, 182
Durban, 59, 66

EAST AFRICA, 115
East Fulham: 1933 by-election at, 294
Eden, Anthony, 309, 347, 3o
Edinburgh, 130

Edward VII, 22-23, 49, 7 1 , 74, 78, 134
Edward VIII, 304-305
Egyp^ 50-54, 56, 58, 235, 271
Eisenhower, General Dwight D., 320,
321, 322, 325, 340, 341, 345, 349-350
Elgin, pth Earl of, in
Elliott, Maxine, 10
Epping, 256
Estcourt, 59-60
Everest, Mrs., 28, 29, 32, 3<*> 4i, 273

FEISAL, KING OF IRAQ, 235

Fergusson, Sir James, 94

Finland, 312, 331

Fisher, John, ist Baron, 158-159, 162-
164, 171, 183-185, 187, 188-191, 192,
194, 196-201, 204-205,' 213

Foch, Marshal, 226

French, Sir John, 174, 178, 207, 209-210

Frewen, Mrs., 31

Frewen, Clare see Sheridan, Clare

Frewen, Hugh, 31

Frewen, Oswald, 31

Fulton, 364

GALLIPOLI, 186, 189, 191-196, 200,

341

Gandhi, Mahatma, 278, 279-280
Gardiner, A. G., 119-120, 147
Gathering Storm, The, 291, 292, 298,

300, 305, 309, 3i6, 324
Gaulle, General de, 327
General Elections: (1873) 21; (1885)

72; (1886) 26, 72; (1900 'khaki')

67-68, 96; (1906) 105, 358; (1910)

380 INDEX

168; (1918 'coupon') 229-230, 236;

(1920) 240-243; (1922) 246, 251;

(1923) 251; (1924 'Red Letter')

256; (1929) 275; (1935) 297, 30i;

(i945) 7, 353, 358; (1950) 141, 3<5o;

(1951) 368

General Strike, 258, 263-270, 281, 303
George V, 134, 135, 170, 218, 236
George VI, 316,325
George II of Greece, 347
Gibb, Captain, 211-212
Gibbon, Edward, 41, 46, 59
Gilliland, Corporal Walter, 212
Gkdstone, W. E., 20, 22, 23, 25-26, 38,

72, 167, 237, 247, 300
Glasgow, 113, 160-161
Golvin, Colonel, 234
Gough, Sir Hubert de la Poer, 169, 170
Grand Alliance, The, 329, 331, 332, 336
Granville, 2nd Earl, 24
Great Contemporaries, 135, 156, 231, 235
Greece, 238-239, 271, 346-347
Greenwood, Arthur, 317
Greenwood, Sir Hamar, 236
Grey of Fallodon, Viscount, 77, 103,

in, 125, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 160,

171, 178, 187
Griffith, Arthur, 237
Guedalla, Philip, 304
Guest, Frederick, 94
Guest, Ivor, 94
Gunther, John, 343 .

HAGGARD, SIR H. RIDER, 31

Hague, The, 365

Haig, Douglas, ist Earl, 210, 214, 215,

220, 222, 224, 226
Haldane, Viscount, 77, 142, 155-157,

160, 161, 162, 169
Haldane, General Sir Aylmer, 48-49,

60-64,65-66

Halcvy, Elie, 73, 107, 145, 169
Hali&x,98

Halifax, Lord, 278, 317
Hallaway, Sergeant-Major, 55

Hamilton, Lord George, 90, 259
Hamilton, General Sir Ian, 48, 59, 108,

191, 192, 251

Harcourt, Sir William, 38
Hardie, Keir, 73, 133, I42n., 143-144,

248, 262

Harington, Sir Charles, 239
Harrow, 33-37, 119
Harrington, Lord, 254n.
Henderson, Arthur, 252, 254
Hess, Rudolf, n
Hinge of Fate, The, 321, 332, 333
Hider, 290, 292, 294, 297, 303, 307,

309-310, 311, 313, 3H, 3i6, 330
Hoare, Sir Samuel (later Viscount

Templcwood), 302
Hong Kong, 339
Hopkins, Harry L., 322, 336, 337, 340,

347

Howard, Mr. John, 65
Howell, (Manchester councillor),

132
Hozier, Clementine see Churchill,

Mrs. "Winston S.
Hull, Cordell, 345
Hunter, Sir C., 209

INDIA, 45-49, 56, 278-280, 281-282,

299, 339

Iraq, 235, 243, 322
Ireland, 23, 26, 28-29, 167-170, 236-

238, 243
Ismay, General, 318

JACKSON, ADMIRAL SIR HENRY, 190,

195

James n, 286, 288, 289
JelHcoe, ist Earl, 162
Jerome, Jeanette-r see Churchill, Lady

Randolph
Jof&e, Marshal, 176
Johannesburg, 67
John, Augustus, 244
Joynson-Hicks, William (later Viscount

Brentford), 116-117

KATYN, 334

Kemal, Mustapha, 238-239

Keyes, Sir Roger, 314, 319

Keynes, J. M. (later Baron), 259-263,
277

Kitchener, Lord, 50-52, 56, 90, 163 ,'
172, 174, 176, 178, 180-181, 184,
187-188, 191, 192, 195, 196, 197, 219

Kolchak, Admiral, 230, 231

Korda, Sir Alexander, n

Kruger, Paul, 57

LADYSMITH, 59, 67

Lansbury, George, 301

Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of, ill, 126,
127

Laski, Harold J., 354

Laval, Pierre, 302

Lavery, Lady, 217

Law, Bonar, 168, 172, 201, 202-204,
210, 217, 218-219, 239, 240, 242, 250,
251

Lawrence, T. E., 235

Lee of Fareham, Lord, 88

Leicester, 131; election at, 251, 255

Leslie, Lady, I5n., 31

Leslie, Norman, 31

Leslie, Sir Shane, I5n., 21, 22, 31, 32

Liberalism and the Social Problem, 114,
118

Lindemann, Professor (later Lord Cher-
well), 10, 291, 296, 306

Liverpool, 145

Uoyd George, David (kter Earl Lloyd
George of Dwyfor): opposes Boer
War, 79, 80; introduced to C, 82;
leads Radical group, 103, 106-108;
becomes Chancellor of Exchequer,
115, 125; relations with C., 121, 122,
138-141, 164-167, 204, 210, 229;
reforming measures, 122; his 1909
Budget, 126-129, 134; opposes in-
crease in Navy, 126, 152, 166; hatred
of landowners, 128-129, 132, 165;
ends railway strike, 145; and Agadir

INDEX 381

incident, 153, 164; and efforts to
placate Germany, 160; his National
Health Insurance Act, 165; deadlock
with C. over Naval Estimates, 166-
167; opposes Dardanelles scheme,
189; becomes Prime Minister, 217-
219; on C.'s opponents, 220-221;
orders tanks, 222, 223; holds
'Coupon* Election, 229-230; toler-
ance of Russia, 232; responsible for
Turkish discord, 238-239; forced to
resign, 240, 353; and General Strike,
269; urges Chamberlain to resign,
315; and first World War Cabinet,
320-321; mentioned, 10, 78, 100, 124,
156, 169, 173, 186*, 187, 199, 201, 224,
225, 234, 236, 237, 247-248, 251, 257,
272,277,281,303,319,332

Lloyd George, Megan, 10

Lockhart, Sir William, 48, 58, 60

Lord Randolph Churchill, 21, 22, 24, 25,
38, 39, no

Lothian, Lord, 303

Ludendorff, General, 225

Ludlow by-election, 98

Lyttelton, Hon. Alfred, 133

MACAULAY, LORD, 17, 34, 46, 287-
289

MacDonald, D. J., 243

MacDonald, Ramsay, 145, 167, 252,
254, 256, 267, 280-281, 282

McKenna, Reginald, 126, 155, 158,
199

Macready, General Sir Nevil, 142-144

Maisky, Ivan, 331

Malakand Held Force, 47-49, 58

Manchester, Northeast: 1904 by-elec-
tion, 102

Manchester, Northwest: 1908 by-elec-
tion, 115-117

Markham, Sir Arthur, 133, 213

Marlborough, John Churchill, istDuke
of, 15, 16, 17-18, 31, 43, 273, 285-
291, 295, 323, 325

382 INDEX

Marlborough, Sarah Jennings, Duchess

of, 18, 288
Marlborough, 7th Duke of, 20, 21, 22,

23,28
Marlborough, 8th Duke of, 31. See also

Blandford, Lord
Marlborough, loth Duke of, 15, 16,

138, 141
Marlborough: His Life and Times, 17,

285-291, 294
Marmora, Sea of, 188, 190, 192-194,

196

Marseilles, 341, 345
Marsh, Sir Edward, 206
Marshall, General George C, 349
Martin, Hugh, 146
Massingham, H. W., 88, 115-116
Masterman, Charles, 121-122, 125,

140-141
Masterman, Mrs. Lucy, 121, 125, 139-

141, 165

Milbanke,Jack, 36

Milncr, Alfred, Viscount, 81, in, 230
Molotov, V. M., 331, 333
Montgomery, Reid-Marshal Viscount,

349

Moore, Miss Vera, 30
Morlcy, John, Viscount, 38, 77, 78, 103,

117, 229

Morocco, 152-153
Moscow, 329-333, 345
Mowatt, Sir Francis, 76, 84, 92, 95
Munich, 292, 296, 309
Murmansk, 330, 332
Mussolini, 271, 272, 300, 301, 307, 309
My Early Life, 30, 34, 41, 42, 46, 52,

53, 63, 68, 75, 84, 112, 124, 278

NAPLES, 163

New York, 68, 137, 285

Newfoundland, 328, 337

Nicholas, Grand Duke, 184, 1 8 8, 190

Nicholson, Captain Otho, 253, 255

Nicholson, Sir William, 363

Nicolson, Harold, 239

Norris, Private, 54
Northcliffe, Lord, 217
Northcote, Sir Stafford, 24, 104
Norway, 312, 3H
Norwich, 130

OLDHAM, 65; 1899 by-election at, 56;
1900 election at, 67-68

Oliver, Vic, II

Omdurman, 51, 52, 53, 58, 163

Orpen, Sir William, 244

Oxford and Asquith, Earl of: Becomes
Prime Minister, 115; and reform of
Upper House, 135; offers C. the
Admiralty, 155-157; and Irish Home
Rule, 169, 170; his doubts of C., 176,
181; and Antwerp failure, 177-179,
180-182; share of blame for Dar-
danelles, 195, 219; Fisher's letter to,
197-198; and Coalition, 201; C.'s
verdict on, 204; C.'s grievance
against, 210; and premature use of
tanks, 215; fall of, 217-218; men-
tioned, 38, 77, 103, in, 123, 125,
138, 163, 166, 167, 173, 185, 187,
191, 209, 216, 251

PALESTINE, 235, 243
Pankhurst, Christabel, 116
Passchendaele, 222, 320
Pefkins, Frances, 320, 343
'Peter the Painter', 146
Pethick-Lawrence, F. W. (later Baron),

251

Ploegstreet Village, 210-212
Plumer, Viscount, 229
Poland, 233-234, 243, 331, 348
Pollard, Professor A. F., 246
Pontypridd, 142
Potsdam, 350
Prague, 349
Pretoria, 61-64, 65, 67
Pugh, Sir Arthur, 265, 266, 267

QUEBEC, 337

INDEX

383

Quickswood, Baron see Cecil, Lord
Hugh

RALPH, JULIAN, 67
Rhineland, 303304
Rhodes, Cecil, 89, 90
Ribbentrop, Joachim von, 365, 331
Richards, Brinsley, 20
Riddell, Lord, 166, 204, 214, 216, 217
River War, Tfie, 56, 57, 68, 83
Robcck, Admiral de, 192
Robertson, Sir C. Scott, 209
Robertson, General Sir William R.,

220

Roosevelt, Elliott, 334, 338, 341
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 320, 322, 328,

332, 334-350, 3<54, 369
Rosebery, 5th Earl of, 38, 89, 103, 286
Rothenstein, Sir John, 10, 362-363
Rothermere, Lord, 255, 326, 354
Rothschild, ist Baron, 41, 128-129

ST. JAMES'S SCHOOL, ASCOT, 29-30
St. Omer, 207
St, Oswald, 2nd Baron, 133
Salisbury, 3rd Marquess of, 26-27, A 2 *

49, 5L 68, 72, 77, 83, 86, 96, 98, ill
Samuel, Herbert, Viscount, 262, 280
Sanders, General Liman von, 194
Sandhurst, 37, 39-40
Sandhurst, Lord, 46
Savrola, 50, 55
Schuman, M., 367
Scott, C. P., 213
Scott, MacCallum, 99
Scely, Major-General J. E. B. (later

Baron Mottistone), 36, 94, 100, 101,

169, 170, 179, 212

Selborne, 2nd Earl of, Viscount Wol-

mer,77

Sforza, Count, 346
Shaw, G. B., 73
Sheffield, 98
Sheridan, Clare, 21, 31, 32, 327

Sherwood, Robert E., 337

Sickert, Walter, 362

Sidney Street 'siege', 146, 299

Sikorski, General, 334

Singapore, 322

Smalley, George, 64, 91. 132-133, 137

Smith, F. E.see Birkenhead, Lord

Smuts, Reid-Marshal J. C., 112, 335,

338

Smyrna, 238
Snowden, Philip (later Viscount), 252,

254, 258-259, 260, 282
Somme, Battle of, 214-215, 222
South Africa, 57-67, 78-81, 99, 100,

111-113

South Wales, 141-145
Spion Kop, 66
Stalin, 272, 310, 312, 322, 328-335, 339,

340-344, 345, 347-349
Steevens, G. W., 55, 85
Stettinius, Edward, 346
Stoker, Bram, 33
Strasbourg, 366
Sunderland, 233
Sylt, island of, 174, 319
Syria, 235

TANGIER, 152

Teheran, 334, 337. 339, 34O-344

Templewood, Lord (Sir Samuel Hoare),

302

Their Finest Hour, 318, 319, 324, 325
Thomas, J. H., 254, 264-265, 267
Thoughts and Adventures, 75, 76, 84, 116,

208, 217, 225, 236, 237, 243, 244, 278
Tirah, 48, 58
Tizard, Sir Henry, 306
Tobruk, 323
Tonypandy, 141-145
Transjordan, 235
Trcvdyan, Sir Charles P., 248
Trevelyan, G. M., 288-289, 323
Trondheim, 314
Troup, Sir E., 125
Truman, Harry S., 350

3^4 INDEX

Turkey, 186, 187, 188-205, 238-239
Twain, Mark, 68
Tweedmouth, 2nd Baron, 38

VALDEZ, GENERAL, 44
Venizelos, M., 238
Verochocq, 224

WALLACE, HENRY A., 338

Wallas, Graham, 73

Walthamstow, 251, 355

Wanklyn, J. L., 90-91

Warwick, Frances, Countess of, 89-90

Washington, 337* 338

Wavell, field-Marshal Viscount, 322,

326

Webb, Beatrice, 73, 97, 123-124, 137
Webb, Sidney, 73, 123, 232, 246
Welldon, Bishop, 33, 34, 35
Wells, H. G., 7, 73, 250
West Derbyshire: 1944 by-election,

Westminster: 1924 by-election, 252-

255

Wilhelm n, 74, 152, 160, 161, 178, 230
William of Orange, 286
Wilmot, Chester, 342
Wilson, Sir Arthur, 189, 201, 205
Wilson, Sir Henry, 154, 230
Wilson, Woodrow, 231, 232
Wimborne, Lady, 31, 37
Wood, Sir Evelyn, 51
Woodbridge, Mr. Harry, 36
Woodstock, 18-19, 20, 21-22, 25
World Crisis, The, 153, 157, 159, 169,

i?o I75-I7<5> 178, 193, 194, 198, 215,

219, 220, 222, 223, 234, 245-246, 251,

273, 278, 320
Worthington-Evans, Sir Laming, 236,

238

YALTA, 337, 340, 347-350
ZINOVIEFF, Georgy, 256

VIRGINIA COWLES

earned CL reputation during World War II as
a. first-class journalist. Her astute observations
of the English scene were brought to the pub-
lic in 194-9 in a book called No CAUSE FOR
AX-ARM. Since then* Aiiss Cowles has devoted
her major efforts to the writing of biogra-
phies, ffer most recent works include a biog-
raphy of Edward VII^ published in 1956 un-
der the title GAY TV!ONARC:H, and PHANTOM
IV!AJOR: The Story of David Stirling* pub-
lished in 1953. Her biography of Winston
Churchill has been acclaimed as being among
the best that have appeared on the subject.

The UNIVERSAL Library

THE DANCE OF LIFE Havelock Ellis . . 2
THE GOOD SOCIETY Walter Lippmann . 3
THE LATE GEORGE APLEY Marquand . 4
MAN AND His GODS Homer Smith ... 5
THE MEASURE OF MAN /. W. Krutch . 6

MELBOURNE Lord David Cecil 7

OSCAR WILDE Hesketh Pearson 8

THE PURITAN OLIGARCHY

Thomas Wertenbaker 9

QUACKERY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Albert Lynd 10

REVEILLE IN WASHINGTON Leech ... 11
THE WEB AND THE ROCK Thomas Wolfe 12
THE IDES OF MARCH Thornton Wilder 13
NOBLE ESSENCES .Sir Osbert Sitwell . . 14
WHY WAS LINCOLN MURDERED?

Otto Eisenschiml 15

You CAN'T Go HOME AGAIN Wolfe . . 16
THE SHOCK OF RECOGNITION

edited by Edmund Wilson

(Vol. I -The 19th Century) 17

(Vol. II -The 20th Century) .... 18
HERCULES, MY SHIPMATE Robert Graves 1 9
THE SELECTED LETTERS OF LORD BYRON

edited by Jacques Barzun 20

IRISH FOLK STORIES AND FAIRY TALES

William Butler Yeats 21

SOUTH WIND Norman Douglas 22

THE UPROOTED Oscar Handlin 23

JOHN ADAMS AND THE AMERICAN REVO-
LUTION Catherine Drinker Bow en ... 24
THE LONGHORNS /. Frank Dobie .... 25
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LUCREZIA BORGIA

Maria Bellonci 26

THE STORY OF MY LIFE

Clarence Darrow 27

THE WORLD OF ALDOUS HUXLEY

edited by Charles J. Rolo 28

THE GREAT PLAINS Walter Prescott Webb 29
AN AMERICAN DOCTOR'S ODYSSEY

Victor Reiser 30

FOUR PLAYS BY IBSEN 31

SHORTER NOVELS OF HERMAN MELVILLE 32
THE STAR-GAZER Zsolt de Harsanyi . . 33
FREUD AND His TIME Frits Wittels ... 34
PRIMITIVE RELIGION Robert H. Lowie . 35
MAUPASSANT: A LION IN THE PATH

Francis Steegmuller 36

THE GREEN CROW Sean O'Casey ... 37
1 1 PLAYS OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS -

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and

Aristophanes 38

4 SELECTED NOVELS OF HENRY JAMES . 39

UL

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY Laski ... 40

STALIN Leon Trotsky 41

U.S. GRANT AND THE AMERICAN

MILITARY TRADITION Bruce Cation . 42
THE VANISHING HERO Sean O'Faolain . 43
KARL MARX: THE RED PRUSSIAN

Leopold Schwarzschild 44

DECLINE AND FALL Evelyn Waugh ... 45
MODERN WOMAN : THE LOST SEX

Lundberg and Farnham 46

ANDREW JACKSON: BORDER CAPTAIN

Marquis James 47

THE HORSE'S MOUTH Joyce Gary ... 48
GREEN MANSIONS W. H. Hudson ... 49
MYTHS OF THE WORLD Padraic Colum 50
THE OWL IN THE ATTIC Thurber ... 51

MRS. EDDY Edwin F. Dakin 52

OCCUPATION: WRITER Robert Graves . 53
THE TASTEMAKERS Russell Lynes ... 54
WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA

Armand de Caulaincourt 55

COMEDIES OF OSCAR WILDE 56

MADAME BOVARY Gustave Flaubert ... 57
PRIDE AND PRE j UDICE Jane Austen ... 58

NINE PLAYS OF CHEKOV 59

MCSORLEY'S WONDERFUL SALOON

Joseph Mitchell 60

THE ART OF LOVE Ovid 61

NIJINSKY Romola Nijinsky 62

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Dostoevsky . . 63
MISTER JELLY ROLL Alan Lomax ... 64
THE TOWN AND THE CITY Jack Kerouac 65

50 POEMS e. e, cummings 66

HERSELF SURPRISED Joyce Gary .... 67
JANE AUSTEN Elizabeth Jenkins .... 68
MIDDLE-AGED MAN ON THE FLYING

TRAPEZE James Thurber 69

SELECTED WRITINGS OF FRANK LLOYD

WRIGHT edited by F. Gutheim .... 70
EYEWITNESS Ewnw himl & Newman . . 71

MY LIFE Leon Trotsky 72

A POCKETFUL OF WRY McGinley .... 73
MARCH OF THE IRON MEN Burlingame . 74
EDITOR TO AUTHOR Perkins Wheelock 75
SPEAK, MEMORY Vladimir Nabokov . . 76
LET YOUR MIND ALONE Thurber ... 77

DISRAELI Hesketh Pearson 78

ROOSEVELT & HOPKINS Sherwood ... 79

To BE A PILGRIM Joyce Gary 80

CHURCHILL: THE ERA AND THE MAN

Virginia Cowles 81

D. H. LAWRENCE: A BASIC STUDY OF

His IDEAS Mary Freeman 82

09599