Journal of the International Churchill Society - Winston Churchill

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AFRICAN VISION
KEYNOTES AT MALTA
Churchill seemed throughout his life to turn up at critical tim
in Malta, which he anyway regarded as key to the Mediterranean.
As Secretary of State for the Colonies, he recommended both Cyp
and Malta for self-government. Africa-bound in 1909, he paid a
preoccupied visit to Malta when his wife was expecting their fi
child. In 1912, he attended a critical conference there.
That "little
masonry" proved
to be Owens Falls
Dam, which took
six years to build
and cost £22 million.
Still, the
fact that such a
dam did get built
testified to
WSC's vision five
decades before.
SHU
•
is*
Pi
in June 1912, a
conference with
Kitchener and
Haldane at Malta
produced WSC's
recommendations
for "a strong
flotilla" to
counteract any
possible combination
of opposing
naval
forces in that
theatre.
51
When the dam
opened in 1954,
The Queen wired
WSC, "Your vision
has becane
reality."
UG AN DA!
53
Churchill
proposed selfgovernment
for
Cyprus and
Malta as early
as 1906. Malta
received it in
1922.
Stamps show the
Falls and the
Dam, "before"
and "after."
ASCENDANCY
CHURCHILL'S TRAVELOGUE
LIBERAL REFORM, HOME RULE
While in Africa Churchill received an offer from Lhe Strand for
a series of articles about his travels for £ 150 each, and the
journey ultimately turned an unexpected profit when Hodder and
Stoughton paid £500 for the book rights. His only travel book,
MY AFRICAN JOURNEY had cleared 40,000 copies worldwide by 1919,
and was still in print as late as the mid-1960s.
Churchill's politics were radical for those days* he pitied
though he could not personally relate to, the jobless and the
poor. As President of the Board of Trade (1909-10) he set up
the first Labor Exchanges. As Home Secretary (1910-11) he
improved conditions in British prisons.
,52
"The remainder
of our journey
[north of
Khartoum] lay in
tourist lands,
and the comfortable
sleeping
cars of the
Desert Railway,
and the pleasant
passenger
steamers of the
Wadi Haifa and
Aswan reach
soon carried us
prosperously and
uneventfully to
Upper Egypt;
and so to Cairo,
London and the
rest."
—WSC,
MY AFRICAN
JOURNEY, 1908
54
WSC's early
mentor, whom
he worshipped,
was the great
Welsh MP,
David Lloyd-
George . During
a scandal
over L-G's
'conflict of
interest 1 as
a holder of
Marconi
stocks, WSC
defended him.
Churchill
favored Irish
Home Rule,
for which
Casement died
and Markievicz
campaigned.
Home Rule
advocate John
Redmond praised
his efforts on
behalf of
Ireland.