around & about - Winston Churchill

“...The Belgian government is also
willing to negotiate an armistice between
Germany and Belgium, but before committing
herself to anything, she finds it
indispensable to make contact with the
King and requests therefore a safe conduct
for two members of the government”
(translation).
Also on 18 June, during the
Cabinet meeting, Pierlot (after being
informed that France was seeking an
armistice) stated (translation): “I have
considered the problem from all sides.
We will not go to England. France has
thrown in the towel. We abandon, at the
same time, the battle.” To which Spaak
added: “Our mandate is accomplished.
We have done our duty.” From the above
it appears to be quite obvious that Pierlot
and Spaak would have preferred to return
to Belgium and to install a new government
under German occupation.
LT. COL. (RET.) LOUIS VAN LEEMPUT
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN,
VETERANS KING LEOPOLD III
BUCHANAN REDUX
Professor Freeman’s review of Pat
Buchanan’s book rightly criticizes the
author for trying to demonize
Churchill, while occasionally conceding
that Hitler was a less than sterling character.
But the review leaves out
Buchanan’s legitimate, albeit by now
shopworn, contention that Versailles
and its consequences were the product
of extreme vindictiveness, rampant
nationalism, out of touch idealism
(especially on the part of President
Wilson), and irrational arrangements.
Buchanan’s main thesis therefore is actually
that, if only people were virtuous
and far-seeing, the war would indeed
have been unnecessary. This is an unexceptionable
conclusion which requires
no revisionist to argue in over 400
pages. Ever hear of Original Sin, Pat?
MANFRED WEIDHORN, FAIR LAWN, N.J.
• David Freeman replies: I appreciate
what Professor Weidhorn is saying,
but as I was reviewing the book for Finest
Hour I naturally felt that I should concentrate
on its Churchillian aspects.
Goodness knows the book has not lacked
for other reviews.
I think that both my review and
Professor Weidhorn’s remarks indicate
that Buchanan’s book is badly structured.
It almost seems that Buchanan set out to
write yet another tome blasting the folly
of Versailles, but decided it would not
sell very well so he tacked on a lengthy
chapter blaming everything on Churchill.
This enabled him to put Churchill’s
name and face on the cover, attract more
attention and sell more books. For good
measure, he then wrote one further
chapter to conclude that all he had
written explains what he sees as the misguided
policies of President Bush.
People get so caught up in looking
at the faults of the Versailles settlement
and Wilson’s commitment to self-determination
that they forget to see what was
accomplished: For the first time in
modern history millions of people in
central Europe and the Middle East
enjoyed the status of having their own
nation-states. While many of these countries
may have stumbled through the last
ninety years in an effort to establish good
government, that has not diminished
their sense of national identity. I am
quite sure that the Poles, Hungarians,
Iraqis etc. prefer having their own
country no matter how bad the leadership
than returning to Imperial servitude.
After all, none of these countries thus far
has been clamoring for a return to the
1914 status quo ante bellum.
FINEST HOUR 139
Great edition of FH. In Ray
Callahan’s article on Orde Wingate, one
of the pictures shows Wingate talking
with a Colonel Cochran, USAAC.
Cochran was a good friend of Milton
Caniff, the creator of the comic strip
“Terry and the Pirates” (and later “Steve
Canyon”). Caniff incorporated Cochran
into the wartime “Terry” strips as Terry’s
friend and protector, Flip Corkin,
replacing Pat Ryan, who performed
similar functions for Terry in the prewar
years.
COL. DAVID JABLONSKY, CARLISLE, PENNA.
FH 139 is in its tradition of the
highest standards of scholarship and presentation.
Moving the book reviews to the
front section seemingly runs counter to
standard practice but really worked very
well, particularly to emphasize two
painfully absurd revisionist histories. It
was right to mention that neither
Buchanan nor Baker is proposing a new
thesis, or indeed any new evidence. Their
arguments trace back to 1940. It seems
appropriate to quote a very apt British
FINEST HoUR 140 / 7
phrase to categorize mental laziness: “The
man’s a bloody wanker!” Readers owe a
debt to Messrs. Freeman, Roberts and
Kimball, who have certainly saved us the
price and the time it would take to read
these two insignificant publications.
ROBIN BATES, MESA, ARIZ.
I’ve always thought of F.E. Smith
as the swashbuckling older brother
Winston Churchill never had. As to his
quotation about “the best of everything,”
the following line from GBS’s “Major B”
(1905), spoken by Lady Britomart
(ouch!) in act 1, scene 1, probably preceded
F.E.’s quip: “I know your quiet,
simple, refined, poetic people like
Adolphus—quite content with the best
of everything!”
ROBERT PILPEL, WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
The second endnote to Barry
Gough’s paper about the loss of Prince of
Wales and Repulse gives the impression
that heavy naval losses connected with
the evacuation of Crete were due to
faulty command decisions. Admiral
Cunningham, per his biographer John
Winton, said: “It has always been the
duty of the Navy to take the Army overseas
to battle and, if the Army fail, to
bring them back again....If, gentlemen,
you now order the army in Crete to surrender,
the Fleet will still go there to
bring off the Marines.” Had the army
been able to hold on a few more days,
the German assault would have failed
because of the extreme difficulties they
were experiencing. If nothing else, the
defence of Crete broke the enemy’s elite
airborne forces and from then on they
were used solely as infantry.
NORMAN HUNT, COULSDON, SURREY
• David Ramsay replies: I think this
is beside the point. No Admiral, particularly
one of Cunningham’s indomitable
character, would have abandoned the
troops on Crete and he was bound to
attempt to get them off despite German
air supremacy.
Admiral “Blinker” Hall’s remarks
in the endnote (from his papers at the
Churchill Archives Centre) relate solely
to the failure of the Admiralty and
Admiral Philips to understand the vulnerability
of capital ships to attacks from
the air, and to the latter sailing without
any air cover. He was a great admirer of
Andrew Cunningham. ,