journal of the churchill center and societies - Winston Churchill

JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL CENTER AND SOCIETIES 

AUTUMN.^000 • NUMBER 108 

WWW.WINSTONCHURCHILL.ORG

"UsT 

THE 

CHURCHILL CENTER A 

III THE INTER! 

NATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETIES " ^ & 

* R UNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • CANADA • AUSTRALIA • WWW.WINSTONCHURCHILL.ORG f®~^~ 

PATRON: THE LADY SOAMES, D.B.E. 

The Churchill Center is a non-profit organization which encourages study of the life and thought of Winston Spencer Churchill; fosters 

research about his speeches, writings and d zeds; advances knowledge of his example as a statesman; and, by programmes of teaching 

and publishing, imparts that learning to men, women and young people around the world. The Center also sponsors Finest Hour, 

special publications, symposia, seminars, conferences and tours. The Churchill Center was organized in 1QQS by the International 

Churchill Societies, founded in 1Q08 to inspire and educate future generations through the works and example of Winston Churchill. 

JOINT HONORARY MEMBERS 

Conrad M. Black OC PC • Winston S. Churchill 

Sir Martin Gilbert CBE • Grace Hamblin OBE 

Robert Hardy CBE • Yousuf Karsh CC 

William Manchester • The Duke of Marlborough JP DL 

Sir Anthony Montague Browne KCMG CBE DFC 

Colin L. Powell KCB • Wendy Russell Reves 

Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr. 

The Lady Thatcher LG OM PC FRS 

The Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE 

THE CHURCHILL CENTER 

BOARD OF GOVERNORS 

David Boler • D. Craig Horn • William C. Ives 

Richard M. Langworth " Dr. John H. Mather 

Charles D. Platt • John G. Plumpton • Douglas S. Russell 

Ex-officio: Randy Barber, Nigel Knocker, James W. Muller 

OFFICERS 

John G. Plumpton, President 

130 Collingsbrook Blvd., Toronto, Ont. M1W 1M7 

Fax. (416) 502-3847 

Email: savrola@winstonchurchill.org 

William C. Ives, Vice President 

77 W. Wacker Dr., 43rd dr., Chicago IL 60601 

Tel. (312) 845-5798 • Fax. (312) 845-5828 

Email: mcrivas@mbf-law.com 

Dr. John H. Mather, Secretary 

12144 Long Ridge Lane, Bowie MD 20715 

Tel. 301-262-0430 • Fax. 301-352-0472 

Email: johnmather@aol.com 

D. Craig Horn, Treasurer 

8016 McKenstry Drive, Laurel MD 20723 

Tel. (888) WSC-1877 • Fax. (301) 483-6902 

Email: dcraighorn@email.msn.com 

Charles D. Platt, Endowment Director 

14 Blue Heron Drive West, Greenwood Village CO 80121 

Tel. (303) 721-8550 • Fax. (303) 290-0097 

Email: cdp31@email.msn.com 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

Winston S. Churchill • George A. Lewis 

Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr. • The Hon. Ceiia Sandys 

The Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger GBE 

Nigel Knocker OBE • Garnet R. Barber 

Richard M. Langworth CBE, Chairman 

181 Burrage Road, Hopkinton NH 03229 

Tel. (603) 746-4433, Fax. (603) 746-4260 

Email: malakand@conknet.com 

BUSINESS OFFICES 

Lorraine C. Horn, Administrator 

Deborah Young, Membership Secretary 

8016 McKenstry Drive, Laurel MD 20723 

Tel. (888) WSC-1874 • Fax. (301) 483-6902 

Email: wsc_l 874@msn.com 

CHURCHILL STORES (Back Issues & Sales Dept.) 

Gail Greenly, PO Box 96, Contoocook NH 03229 

Tel. (603) 746-3452 • Fax (603) 746-6963 

Email: greengail@aol.com 

WWWWINSTONCHURCHILL ORG 

John Plumpton, Webmaster, savrola@winstonchurchill.org 

Listserv: winston@vm.marist.edu 

Listserv manager: Jonah Triebwasser, jonaht@juno.com 

CHURCHILL CENTER ASSOCIATES 

Winston Churchill Associates: 

ICS United States, Mr. 8c Mrs. Matthew B. Wills, 

The Churchill Center, Mr. & Mrs. Parker H. Lee III, 

Alex M. Worth Jr., Fred Farrow, Colin D. Clark, 

Michael 8c Carol McMenamin, David 8c Diane Boler, 

Ray L. ^c Patricia M. Orban, The Annenberg Foundation, 

David 8c Carole Noss, Mr. 8c Mrs. Anthony E. Gilles, 

Elizabeth Churchill Snell, Wendy Russell Reves 

Clementine Churchill Associates: 

Barbara & Richard Langworth, James E Lane, 

Drs. John H. 8c Susan H. Mather, 

D. Craig & Lorraine Horn, Linda & Charles Platt, 

Ambassador &c Mrs. Paul H. Robinson Jr., 

Ronald D. Abramson, Jeanette Sc Angelo Gabriel, 

James R. 8c Lucille I. Thomas, Winston S. Churchill 

Mary Soames Associates: 

Mr. & Mrs. William C. Ives, Jacqueline 8c Malcolm Witter, 

Mr. &c Mrs. John G. Plumpton, Gary J. Bonine, 

Mr. 8c Mrs. James W. Muller, Douglas S. Russell, 

Frederick C. 8c Martha S. Hardman, 

Mr. 8c Mrs. Richard A. Leahy, Richard & Jenny Streiff, 

Mr. SC Mrs. Gerald Drake Kambestad, 

Daniel He Susan Borinsky, Robert M. Stephenson, 

Michael W. Michelson, Dona 8c Bob Dales, 

Jeffrey Sc Karen De Haan, Cyril Sc Harriet Mazansky, 

Damon Wells Jr., Nancy H. Canary, Elaine Kendall, 

Lois Brown, Nancy Bowers, Ruth 8c Laurence Geller 

BOARD OF ACADEMIC ADVISERS 

Prof. Paul Addison, University of Edinburgh 

Prof. Paul K. Alkon, University of Southern California 

Dr. Larry P. Arnn, President, Hillsdale College 

Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, D. Litt., Merton College, Oxford 

Prof. Barry M. Gough, Wilfrid Laurier University 

Prof. Christopher C. Harmon, Marine Corps University 

Prof. Warren F. Kimball, Rutgers University 

Prof. Paul A. Rahe, University ofTulsa 

Prof. John A. Ramsden, 

Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London 

Dr. Jeffrey Wallin, President, The American Academy 

Prof. Manfred Weidhorn, Yeshiva University 

Prof. James W. Muller, Chairman, 

University of Alaska Anchorage 

1518 Airport Hts. Dr., Anchorage AK 99508 

Tel. (907) 786-4740 • Fax. (907) 786-4647 

Email: af]wm@uaa,alaska.edu 

AFFILIATE 

Washington Society for Churchill 

Caroline Hartzler, President 

PO Box 2456, Merrifield VA 22116 

Tel. (703) 503-9226 

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL 

OF CHURCHILL ORGANIZATIONS 

Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr., Chairman 

208 S. LaSalle St., Chicago IL 60604 USA 

Tel. (800) 621-1917 

Email: phr661944@aol.com 

REPRESENTATIVES 

Nigel Knocker, David Boler, United Kingdom 

Garnet R. Barber, John G. Plumpton, Canada 

Richard M. Langworth, Dr. John H. Mather, United States 

ICSAUSTRALIA 

Robin Linke, 181 Jersey Street, Wembley WA 6014 

ICS CANADA 

Ambassador Kenneth W. Taylor, Hon. Chairman 

Garnet R. Barber, President 

4 Snowshoe Cres., Thornhill, Ontario L3T 4M6 

Tel. (905) 881-8550 

Email: rbarber@city.markham.on.ca 

Jeanette Webber, Membership Secretary 

3256 Rymal Road, Mississauga, Ontario L4Y 3C1 

Tel. (905)279-5169 

Charles Anderson, Treasurer 

489 Stanfield Drive, Oakville, Ontario L6L 3R2 

The Other Club of Ontario 

Norman MacLeod, President 

16 Glenlaura Court, Ashburn, Ontario LOB 1A0 

Tel. (905) 655-4051 

Winston S. Churchill Society of Vancouver (Affiliated) 

Robert W. Gourlay QC, President 

300 - 744 W. Hastings Street 

Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1A5 

ICS UNITED KINGDOM 

Chairman: 

Nigel Knocker OBE 

PO Box 1257, Melksham, Wilts. SN12 6GQ 

Tel. 8c Fax. (01380)828609 

Email: nigel@icsuksaf.demon.co.uk 

TRUSTEES 

The Hon. Celia Sandys, Chairman; 

The Duke of Marlborough JP DL 

The Rt. Hon. Earl Jellicoe KBE DSO MC FRS 

David Boler • David Porter • Geoffrey Wheeler 

COMMITTEE 

Nigel Knocker OBE, Chairman 

Wylma Wayne, Vice Chairman 

Paul H. Courtenay, Hon. Secretary 

Anthony Woodhead CBE FCA, Hon. Treasurer 

John Glanvill Smith, Editor ICS UK Newsletter 

Eric Bingham • Geoffrey Fletcher • Derek Greenwell 

Michael Kelion • Fred Lockwood CBE • Ernie Money CBE 

Elisabeth Sandys • Dominic Walters 

NORTHERN CHAPTER 

Derek Greenwell, "Woodstock" 

6 Wilstrop Farm Road, York. YO2 3RY Tel. (01904) 702844 

Eric Bingham, Car Lane, Hambleton, 

Blackpool, Lanes. FY6 9BBTel. (01253) 701275 

ICS UNITED STATES 

Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr. 

Chairman of the Board of Trustees 

208 South LaSalle Street, Chicago IL 60604 

TRUSTEES 

The Lady Soames DBE; Hon. Celia Sandys; 

Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger; 

George A. Lewis; Wendy Russell Reves 

The staff of Finest Hour, published by The Churchill Center 

and International Churchill Societies, appears on page 4.

AUTUMN 2000 

JOURNAL OF THE CHURCHILL CENTER AND SOCIETIES 

12 Churchill's Greatness (3): The Gandhi Factor 

We should praise Gandhi because he did not wish the 

death or suffering of anyone. But... 

Larry Arnn 

13 Churchill's Greatness (4): An Indian's Perspective 

The Irrepressible Jollyman who Exploded Freedom 

Inder Dan Ratnu 

16 English-Speaking Peoples: The Leadership Gap 

Where are Today's Winston Churchills 

Christopher Matthews 

20 Hotel La Mamounia, Marrakech, Morocco 

"This is a wonderful place, and the hotel one of 

the best I have ever used." 

Photographs by David Druckman and La Mamounia 

26 2000 Heritage Fund Appeal 

A Special Request and a Thank-you to USA Supporters 

29 Glimpses: Late Encounters with Christina 

Maurice Baird-Smith DFC 'John Crookshank 

30 From British Cassandra to American Hero 

The Churchill Legend in the WW2 American Media 

Jonathan Sikorsky 

36 Cabinet War Rooms Move to Expand 

Phil Reed 

BOOKS, ARTS & CURIOSITIES: 

38 Malcolm Hill's Churchill: His Radical Decade is welcomed 

by the editor...Phillip Guedallas Mr. Churchill, 

says Charles W. Snyder, is "a Flavo(u)rful Light 

Souffle"'...Jack LeVien's video, "Sir Winston's Other 

World" is light, but no souffle...Four new bibliographic 

works are published...Barbara Langworth cooks vegetables 

with Mrs. Landemare....Curt Zoller serves up more 

Churchilltrivia...Dave Marcus produces another cover. 

43 The Second World War 

Part I: Connoisseur's Guide to the Book of the Century 

Richard M. Langworth 

46 "In What Shape They Choose": Wartime Pottery 

Douglas J Hall 

4 Despatch Box 

5 Datelines 

6 Churchill Calendar 

18 Action This Day 

28 Wit & Wisdom 

41 Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas 

43 Woods Corner 

48 Inside the Journals 

49 Arts: Recipes From No. 10 

50 Churchill trivia 

51 Ampersand 

52 Immortal Words 

PS This issue contains 60,171 words. 

Cover: "Winston Churchill," oil on canvas, 

14 xl2", by Theodore Charles Basil Hitchcock, 

R.O.I. Born in 1892, Hitchcock was principally a 

landscape painter in oil. He studied at Hornsey 

School of Art under J. C. Moody and Adrian Hill. 

Through Hill's tutelage Hitchcock developed his 

interest in portraiture. The artist exhibited at the 

Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, 

New English Art Club and Royal Institute of Oil 

Painters. Reproduced by kind courtesy of 

Ackermann & Johnson Ltd., from their 2000 

Churchill Catalogue, 27 Lowndes Street, London 

SW1X9HY, tel. (0207) 235-6464. 

FINEST HOUR IOS / 3

DESPATCH BOX 

Number 108 • Autumn 2000 

ISSN 0882-3715 

www.winstonchurchill.org 

Barbara F. Langworth, Publisher 

Email: b_langworth@conknet.com 

Richard M. Langworth, Editor 

Email: malakand@conknet.com 

PO Box 385, Hopkinton, 

NH 03229 USA 

Tel. (603) 746-4433 

Fax. (603) 746-4260 

• USA address changes: send to 

Barbara Langworth (above); 

UK, Canada & Australia to their 

business offices (shown on page 2) 

Senior Editor: John G. Plumpton 

130CollingsbrookBlvd 

Toronto, Ontario 

M1W 1M7 Canada 

Fax. (416) 502-3847 

Email: savrola@winstonchurchill.org 

Senior Editor: Ron Cynewulf Robbins 

408-540 Dallas Road, Victoria 

British Columbia V8S 3M7 Canada 

Features Editor: Douglas J. Hall 

News Editor: John Frost 

Contributors 

Paul Addison, David Boler, 

Winston S. Churchill, 

Paul H. Courtenay, Sir Martin Gilbert, 

Allen Packwood, Phil Reed, UK; 

Chris Bell, Canada; 

George Richard, Australia; 

Chris Hanger, Chris Harmon, 

Warren F. Kimball, Cyril Mazansky, 

Michael McMenamin, 

James W. Muller, Manfred Weidhorn, 

Curt Zoller, USA 

Finest Hour is made possible in part through 

the generous support of members of The 

Churchill Center and Societies, and with the 

assistance of an endowment created by The 

Churchill Center Associates (listed on page 2). 

Finest Hour is published quarterly by The 

Churchill Center and International Churchill 

Societies, which offer various levels of support 

in their respective currencies. Membership 

applications should be sent to the appropriate 

offices on page 2. Permission to mail at nonprofit 

rates in USA granted by the United 

States Postal Service, Concord, NH, permit 

no. 1524. Copyright 2000. All rights reserved. 

Designed and edited by Dragonwyck 

Publishing Inc. Production by New England 

Foil Stamping Inc. Printed by Reprographics 

THANK- YOU, JACK 

Rita and I are extremely proud to have received 

the Blenheim Award, one of our nicest 

surprises in a long time. The beautiful personalised 

plaque is appropriately included in the 

"Blenheim" display case in our No. 1 room in 

the mansion and has drawn the attention of 

many recent visitors. We now have an average 

1000+ visitors each open weekend, occasionally 

as many as 2500. Thank you so much. 

JACK DARRAH, LUTON, BEDS. 

SOFT UNDERBELLIES 

In Churchill Online, FH 106, you quite 

correctly quote what I wrote in Forged in War regarding 

the the "soft underbelly" campaign in 

Italy. I do, in fact, believe it was a second front 

of far larger significance for the Soviet Union 

than was North Africa (which was crucial for 

protecting Suez, oil, and Britain's position in the 

Middle East), even if it was not the massive Second 

Front that Molotov and Stalin described in 

1942 and demanded thereafter—playing on Allied 

guilt if the Chuev interviews with Molotov 

are to be believed. However, I used, or perhaps 

misused, the phrase "soft underbelly" to include 

Churchill's proposal for a thrust through the 

Ljubljana Gap. That was the strategic goal of the 

strategy, at least according to Churchill's later 

description of the concept, although not what 

he described initially to Stalin. In any event, I 

would argue that I was not as inconsistent as the 

email might seem when compared to my book. I 

remain, "more measured" but still... 

PROF. WARREN F. KIMBALL, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, NJ 

ALASKA CONFERENCE 

Your Churchill Conference in Alaska is inspired. 

I know this because I myself made plans 

to go to Alaska in August which of course means 

that having just gotten back, I could not join 

you a few weeks later. And then you've invited 

Sir Martin Gilbert. As luck would have it, Sir 

Martin received an honorary doctorate from 

The George Washington University in May [see 

FH 107, pp. 6-7 -ed.]. Sorry I'm not going to be 

seeing you imminently but it's wonderful to read 

your materials and know that you are cooking 

with gas, as always. 

STEPHEN JOEL TRACHTENBERG, PRESIDENT 

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, WASHINGTON 

WEBSITE PRAISE 

We get lots of correspondence on our website, 

pro and con. One man asked who put me in charge 

of the website. Another attacked me for the typos 

and told me that it was a disgrace to the memory of 

Churchill and his mastery of the English language. 

Please forgive me for sharing this one with you. It 

makes up for the zingers. 

-John Plumpton, Webmaster >» 

Your website is superb. It would have been 

so easy to have assembled something that fell 

short of the mark, but you have produced a brilliant 

archive of Churchill's life and legacy. 

STUART GOODACRE, VTA INTERNET 

WHAT PRICE CHURCHILL 

I really enjoyed your Woods Corner article 

in FH 107. I definitely fit into the category of 

trying to find Churchill at cheaper prices. The 

article also reinforced what I had thought about 

my collection which is that I have done very well 

in what I have found. For example, the article 

mentions the English WW2 series at $325. I 

was able to find a vg/nf set in similar jackets for 

$65 + $37 shipping from the UK. I think the 

key is being patient, waiting for a good deal to 

come along and also recognizing a good buy and 

jumping on it. It is amazing what you can find if 

you know what to look for. BILL CRAWFORD 

QUOTES GALORE ON USS WSC 

Thank you for your generous gift of 

Czarnomski's Wisdom of Winston Churchill, such 

a comprehensive compendium of our namesake's 

wisdom—the Plan of the Day will never be the 

same again! It was a great pleasure to meet you 

on our Alpha Transit [see "Datelines" -Ed.] and I 

am pleased you enjoyed your tour. 

LT. ANGUS ESSENHIGH, RN NAVIGATOR, 

USS WINSTONS. CHURCHILL, BATH, MAINE 

U.S. Defense Secretary Cohen provided for a 

Royal Navy officer on the crew of USS Winston S. 

Churchill, and Lt. Essenhigh is the present incumbent. 

The Plan of the Day, a daily bulletin for the 

crew, includes a Churchill quote, and Czarnomski 

is the best quote book yet published. 

AMERICAN WINSTON 

I enjoyed the article on the "other" Winston 

Churchill {FH 106). We all know about 

him, of course, but your commentary put everything 

in perspective. I once found one of his 

books and bought it on a fluke, not intending to 

read it. Your article caused me to check it, and I 

was pleased to discover that I have apparently a 

first edition of The Crisis. I think I paid all of 

$10 for it [too much! -ed.], which is certainly a 

lot less, as you documented in FH 107, for a 

first edition of "our" Winston's books! 

RONALD J. BROIDA, DARIEN, ILL., USA 

HALLMARK CARDS WANTED 

• WANTED FOR PURCHASE: Hallmark 

Christmas cards, circa 1950, illustrated by 

Churchill paintings. Please contact with details 

and price: M. S. Hofschneider, 1A Lancaster 

Road, Colonia NJ 07067 USA. 

Reader reminder: classified adverts are free to 

members. Send yours to the editor. M> 

FINEST HOUR IOS / 4

DATELINES 

QUOTE OF THE SEASON 

"...I adhere to tne school or those who believe tnat governments cannot make nations ricn; 

tnat wealth is gathered only Ly individual exertion and enterprise; tnat State expenditure is 

almost always prorligate and wasterul. Tne more rreedom enjoyed by tne citizen and tne less 

tne interference or tne State, tne higher will be tne standard or public well being." 

—WSC, IF I LIVED MY LIFE AGAIN, EDITED BY JACK FISHMAN (LONDON: ALLEN 1974) 

Randolph Observed > 

I took the photo at right of Randolph 

Churchill at our aviation section during 

the Korean War about two weeks before 

he was wounded and had to be evacuated. 

I was a mechanic with the I-Corps 

aviation section, and flew both as an 

observer and a technician. Most of our 

observation flights were behind the 

lines to report on troop and equipment 

movements and to call in air and artillery 

strikes. I was a Staff Sergeant, 

and was awarded the Air Medal and 

four oak leaf clusters for my actions as 

an observer. 

Randolph, who was quite a talker 

and enjoyable to have along, would 

come by once or so every week to hitch 

a ride over the front, behind enemy 

lines. He would always bring along a 

bottle, scotch usually, to help pave the 

way for a ride. When I was preparing to 

shoot this photo he had a fifth in his 

hand. "Wait," he said, and held it behind 

him. Although I read that he accounted 

for a lot of alcohol, I never saw 

him drunk. I was flying and did not see 

him being evacuated, but I was told he 

was wounded in the shin bone by a bullet 

or missile. -Don Black, Lakeland, FL 

Reluctant Dragon 

LONDON, JUNE 13TH— The Daily Telegraph 

reported that Noel Coward and officials 

from the Ministry of Information went 

to America in 1940 secretly to urge 

Walt Disney to incorporate an anti- 

Nazi cartoon based on the legend of St. 

George and the Dragon in a film he was 

making entitled "The Reluctant 

Dragon." (The St. George legend was a 

favorite of Churchill's, who incorporated 

it into his 1928 "Disarmament 

Fable"; see FH 104, page 28.) According 

to previously unpublished documents 

in the Public Record Office, 

Walt Disney steadfastly refused because, 

said the Telegraph, he was determined to 

keep the U.S. out of the war. (Thanks 

for this news item to Terry McGarry.) 

France Joins the Chorus 

PARIS, JUNE— Churchill was on the cover 

of the French magazine Historia, named 

in this special issue as Homme d'Etat 

du Siecle (Statesman of the Century). 

The piece inside, 30 pages long, begins: 

"Comme officier, journaliste, Premier 

ministre, depute ou historien, ce fabuleux 

homme orchestre a occupe pendant 

soixante-dix ans l'avant-scene de 

l'Histoire. En 1950, TIME magazine 

l'avait baptise: "L'homme du demisiecle." 

Cinquante ans plus tard, le 

"demi" nous parait superflu..." [50 

years later, the 'half in Man of the 

Half-Century seems to us superfluous.] 

There is quite a bit of detailed and 

broad information in here; it seems like 

quite a balanced presentation (mais 

mon francais n'est pas parfait!). Save 

Finest Hour, it is the most on WSC that 

I've seen in any publication. 

-Mike Campbell, Halifax, Nova Scotia 

Churchill Papers Open to 

Worldwide Study 

LONDON, AUGUST 29TH— The Sir Winston 

Churchill Archive Trust, the University 

of Southampton, and leading information 

publishers the Gale Group announced 

today that the complete papers 

of Sir Winston Churchill are to be 

microfilmed and published over the 

next four years. A full on-line edition 

will follow at a later date. 

The Churchill Papers comprise an 

estimated one million individual documents 

stored in approximately 2500 

boxes. They consist of original documents 

composed, sent or received by 

Winston Churchill during the course of 

his ninety years: a historically unique 

record of the amazing career of a soldier, 

journalist, biographer, historian, 

continued overleaf 

FINEST HOUR IOS / 5

DATELINES 

Churchill Papers... 

orator, statesman and prime minister. 

They also shed light on the most important 

national and international 

events and personalities of the first half 

of the 20th century. Virtually everything 

has been preserved, from his 

childhood letters to drafts of his books, 

original notes for his famous speeches, 

annotations to Cabinet papers and departmental 

notes, incoming correspondence 

and copies of all outgoing memoranda, 

letters and telegrams, right down 

to receipts for brandy, cigars, Turkish 

baths, even the labels off game birds 

sent to him from Balmoral. In this way 

the Churchill Papers were created to become 

one of the most important 

sources available for the study of modern 

British and world history. Historians 

estimate that only about ten percent 

of the million documents in the 

Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill 

College, Cambridge, have been published 

in any form until now. 

The Churchill Papers fall into two 

categories: the Chartwell Papers, covering 

the period up to 28 July 1945; and 

papers relating to the period after that. 

The Chartwell Papers were purchased \ 

in the first round of grants made by the 

Heritage Lottery Fund in April 1995. 

The post-1945 Churchill Papers, origi- ' 

nally bequeathed to Churchill College 

by Baroness Clementine Spencer- 

Churchill, were donated by the Master 

and Fellows of the College. The owner- ' 

ship of both sets of papers is now consolidated 

in the Sir Winston Churchill 

Archive Trust, a charitable body established 

to safeguard the Churchill Papers 

in perpetuity, with the objectives of preserving 

them and making them available 

and widely accessible. 

Since the completion of the final 

biographic volume of the Official Biography 

in 1988, the Churchill family 

have been looking to find a way of both 

preserving and making the documents 

available more widely without a charge 

on the taxpayer. This initiative is owed 

THE CHURCHILL CALENDAR 

All postings welcome; owing to our quarterly schedule, we need copy at least three months in advance. 

2000 

30 October (start): Churchill Visit Commemoration, Copenhagen • contact: ICS UK (page 2) 

10 November: World War II Veterans Committee Conference, Washington, DC 

11 November: World War II Memorial Groundbreaking (tentative), Washington, DC 

30 November: 126th Birthday Dinner, Anchorage, AK • contact: James Muller (page 2) 

30 November: 126th Birthday Dinner, Boston, MA 

contact: Suzanne Signtan, tel. (617) 6961833, emailssigman@mediaone.net 

2001 

14 February: Centenary of Churchill's Entry into Parliament 

10 March (tentative): Commissioning of USS Winston S. Churchill, Norfolk, Va. 

4-8 November: 18th International Churchill Conference, San Diego, Calif. 

contact: Curt Zoller, tel. (714) 581-6534, emailzcurt@earthlink.net 

2002 

August: 10th International Churchill Tour, England and Scodand 

August (tentative): UK visit of USS Winston S. Churchill 

19th International Churchill Conference, England 

2003 

20th Churchill Conference, 50th Anniversary Bermuda Conference, Hamilton, Bermuda 

jointly to the family and Southampton 

University, who decided to bring in a 

commercial publisher, enabling self-financing 

preservation and dissemination. 

This project is undertaken with the 

cooperation of Her Majesty's Stationery 

Office (HMSO) who own the copyright 

in a great many of the public documents 

in the Archives. HMSO have 

authorised the Sir Winston Churchill 

Archive Trustees, the publishers Gale, 

and Southampton University, to incorporate 

their material in the microfilm 

or electronic publications. One of the 

main early activities of the publisher is 

to make sure that all "third party" (i.e. 

non-HMSO and non-Churchill) copyrights 

are likewise cleared for use. 

The Gale Group (a member of the 

Thomson Corporation), the Sir Winston 

Churchill Archive Trust (owners of 

the Churchill Papers), and the University 

of Southampton (licensee of the 

copyrights owned by members of the 

Churchill family) say that publication 

of Churchill's Papers is scheduled to 

start early in 2001. The first files to be 

made available will reveal the background 

documents and drafts, plus his 

own speaking notes, of almost 1,300 

speeches crafted by Churchill over the 

period 1897 to 1965. HMSO have 

given permission for Crown copyright 

material to be included. Later releases 

will include documents revealing all aspects 

of Churchill's long and varied 

ministerial career. His political papers, 

principally his correspondence with virtually 

all the leading political figures of 

the day and his personal and literary 

files, will also be included. 

Mark Holland, vice-president of 

Gale Group and UK Publisher, said: 

"The papers of Sir Winston Churchill 

are an exceptionally rich source for historians 

studying British and world affairs 

in the 20th century. We are delighted 

to be leading this magnificent 

project, and very proud to be adding 

the papers of Sir Winston to the portfolio 

of primary source historical documents 

available from Gale Group." 

Noting the continuing public fascination 

with Churchill as war leader and 

towering personality, he added: "Scholars 

worldwide will be able to study the 

full range of Churchill's contribution to 

world affairs and the way in which his 

extraordinary talents made an impact 

on so many of the major events of the 

20th century." 

The Sir Winston Churchill Archive 

FINEST HOUR IOS/6

DATELINES 

Trust has a dual responsibility for the 

Churchill Papers, said its chairman, Andreas 

Whittam Smith: "To make them 

as widely available as possible and to 

preserve them for posterity. This project 

will achieve both goals. First, readers all 

over the world will be afforded instantaneous 

and unparalleled access to the Papers, 

made easier by the brilliant computerised 

catalogue which has been 

compiled at the Churchill Archives 

Centre over the past five years and 

which will in due course be put on the 

Internet. Secondly, the Trust will obtain 

a preservation microfilm, a full facsimile 

record of the Churchill Papers, 

which will ensure that the originals are 

kept in pristine condition as a priceless 

part of our national heritage. Finally, 

the Trust also looks forward to playing 

an active role in the project to ensure 

that publications based on the 

Churchill Papers reach the highest possible 

academic standards." 

The University of Southampton 

has for many years been a leader in the 

digitisation and automated analysis of 

large document collections, such as the 

Wellington and Mountbatten archives, 

added Sir Howard Newby, the University's 

vice-chancellor. "This expertise attracted 

the Churchill family and the 

Gale Group to work with us in evaluating 

ways of preserving and publishing 

the Churchill Papers. We are delighted 

that this has now been achieved 

through an important tripartite agreement 

with the Sir Winston Churchill 

Archive Trust. We look forward to playing 

our part in delivering an exciting 

and imaginative programme." 

The Gale Group, which has entered 

into the agreement with the Sir 

Winston Churchill Archive Trust and 

Southampton University, is a long-established 

world leader in reference and 

research publishing, meeting the needs 

of libraries by delivering intelligently 

organized and accurate information in 

online, print, and microfilm formats to 

researchers, students and the general 

public in more than 100 countries. 

PRIMROSE 

CHAFFINCH 

Bletchley First Day Cover 

BLETCHLEY PARK, BUCKS., JUNE 6TH— Bletchley 

Park Post Office today issued a limited 

edition (300) cover containing a set 

of Britain's new "People and Places" 

stamps cancelled at Bletchley on their 

first day of issue. The cover design is 

based on links between Churchill and 

the secret wartime code breaking activities 

of Bletchley Park, his "Geese that 

laid the golden eggs but never cackled." 

Bletchley Park Post Office presented 

a specially framed and mounted 

cover to Jack Darrah, curator of the 

Churchill Rooms at Bletchley Park and 

latest recipient, with his wife Rita, of 

the Churchill Center Blenheim Award. 

The little Bletchley Park Post Office 

was established in 1947 to serve 

Bletchley's new role as a training centre; 

during the war years it was just a post 

room. In 1994 it started to produce its 

own first day covers to coincide with 

the opening of the Park to visitors. It is 

now one of the UK's leading cover producers 

and its limited editions grace 

many collections. The income contributes 

to the continued development 

of Bletchley Park as a heritage site. 

To order: send £10.95 (sterling 

cheque or International Money Order) 

to Bletchley Park Post Office, Wilton 

Avenue, Milton Keynes MK3 6EF, 

England. 

ICS (UK) and The Churchill Center 

are working with Bletchley Park Post 

Office on future cover projects that will 

help support Jack Darrah's efforts. 

"THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN 

EGG, BUT NEVER CACKLED" 

Bietchtey Park Post OHKB, Bletchley, MK3 61 

Bletchley Bequests 

Since Jack Darrah opened his exhibition 

of Churchill memorabilia at 

Bletchley Park in 1994, many visitors 

have presented items to enhance the 

collection. One such, rare in Britain, is 

a white glazed one pint tankard with a 

reproduction of the front page of the 

Rand Daily Mail announcing 

Churchill's death in 1965 (above, centre). 

Other bequests pictured are a 

wartime Tallent table lighter, sadly sans 

cigar and striker (front left), two "Our 

Skipper" photographs (the larger a Tory 

Party poster, 1950; the smaller a postcard 

as issued by Photochrom and Putnam's, 

1942); and the "Our Skipper" 

photograph very nicely transformed 

into a plaster bas relief sculpture in a 

mahogany frame. -DJH 


FINEST HOUR IOS /1

DATELINES 

Left: view from the bridge as USS Winston S. 

Churchillputs to sea out of Portland Harbor, 

July 21st. Below left: Barbara Langworth at 

the helm of the Churchill; teensy wheel is all 

that's needed. Below right: Barbara at the 

helm of the yawl Grania, same month, where 

she snagged her quota (1) of lobster buoys. 

Copenhagen +50 

COPENHAGEN, OCTOBER 30TH— To mark 

the fiftieth anniversary of Churchill's 

visit to Copenhagen, ICS member 

Niels Bjerre has put together an imaginative 

exhibition, opening today in 

Denmark's capital. Mr. Bjerre convinced 

Denmark's largest newspaper to 

donate office facilities in the center of 

the city. Meanwhile, member Rene Hojris 

has managed to get Scandinavian 

Airlines System to cover the travel and 

expenses of guest of honor Lady 

Soames, and to sponsor the cost of 

printing photostats and programmes 

for the exhibit. Rene will loan some of 

his valuable Churchill books and memorabilia. 

The exhibition will run until 

mid-November. Our congratulations to 

Messrs. Bjerre and Hojris for this important 

achievement. 

Oil & Gas Catalyst 

Churchill appeared on the cover of Oil 

& Gas Investor's special issue on the 

" 100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum 

Century," along with the likes 

of Ibn Saud, Henry Ford and John D. 

Rockefeller. The list wasn't ranked, but 

divided into groups. Churchill fell 

under "Catalysts." His accomplishments 

are nicely summed up in the 

concluding paragraph: "By the summer 

of 1914, the British Navy was fully 

committed to oil, and the government 

had assumed the role of Anglo-Persian's 

majority stockholder. For the first time, 

oil had become an instrument of national 

policy and a strategic commodity. 

It has remained so ever since." 

Anglo-Persian Oil Company was set up 

with Churchill's assistance to provide a 

reliable stream of crude oil to Britain 

for the Navy. -Jason Wise 

Local & National 

"Somewhere in the Atlantic" 

PORTLAND, MAINE, JULY 2isT— The editor, 

publisher and computer consultant of 

Finest Hour were guests of the USS 

Winston S. Churchill, DDG 81, on her 

Alpha Trials in the Gulf of Maine, leaving 

Portland in the morning mist and 

docking in Bath at 1730 after tests of 

various systems, including helicopter 

maneuvers. Commanding Officer Mike 

Franken was the genial host to several 

hundred friends and family of DDG 

81, to whose library we presented a 

copy of the latest Churchill-Navy book, 

Fisher, Churchill and the Dardanelles. 

We told the crew the book isn't exactly 

pro-Churchill, but might interest them 

as an example of what happens when 

politicians start messing with the Navy. 

Naval personnel formed a skeleton 

crew, as the ship is still in the hands of its 

builders, Bath Iron 

Works. So it was 

BIW personnel 

who slipped us out 

of Portland Harbor 

into a brilliant Atlantic 

in perfect 

weather and flat 

seas. Rounding Popham 

Beach into the 

Kennebec River en 

route to Bath, we 

were struck by the 

incongruity of this fast, powerful 500- 

foot destroyer cruising up the placid 

river, surrounded by green hills, pleasure 

craft and lobster boats. Speaking of 

which, Barbara Langworth had her turn 

at the helm, skillfully avoiding all the 

lobster traps, a hazard she has not always 

avoided in Penobscot Bay. Now that 

we've sailed on his vessel we've invited 

Cdr. Franken for a ride on ours which, 

though somewhat smaller, draws less and 

moors closer in. 

USS Winston S. Churchill, brand 

new and sparkling, achieved spurts of 

30 knots, an experience new to windborne 

sailors. This is not nearly her 

maximum, but the builders were babying 

the new machinery. With due attention 

to secure areas, we had the run of 

the ship, and met Lt. Angus Essenhigh, 

ship's navigator (the first officer assigned 

to the Royal Navy's standing billet 

on board). We expressed satisfaction 

that the R.N. had sent someone over to 

FINEST HOUR 108/8

Local and National... 

keep the Yanks off the rocks. We are not 

sure how much we should say about it, 

but the radar is phenomenal, and the 

big deck gun would have amused 

Churchill, who could have popped 

away at Huns as far off as Ostende if 

he'd had one mounted at Dover. 

Lt. Essenhigh, who, we learned 

later, comes from a distinguished 

British naval family, gave us a comprehensive 

tour of the ship while apologizing 

for his lack of familiarity with five 

percent of the things we encountered, 

and amusing us with his language problems 

(in English-English, "buoys" are 

pronounced "boys"). Interestingly, one 

of the main navigational concerns is not 

rocks but whales, which are such a 

worry to Today's Navy that they limit 

the speed of ships at night, lest a basking 

whale be demolished by the screws 

and a thousand environmental impact 

forms be required. (We assume this little 

rule is deep-sixed in an emergency.) 

Later we sent Angus a copy of the best 

quote book currently available, 

Czarnomski's Wisdom of Winston 

Churchill, for use in writing the ship's 

plan of the day, which always includes a 

Churchill quote. 

The Churchill Center also provided 

photos of WSC for both the officers' 

and chiefs' wardrooms, at least one 

of which, rumor has it, will be fitted 

out as an English pub. These are among 

the few areas on a navy ship where the 

crew is allowed to do their own decorating. 

Near the wardroom, Ian Langworth 

caught forty winks in the Captain's 

Cabin, a misdemeanor of epic 

proportions under ordinary circumstances, 

but they let him go this time. 

DDG 81 will be commissioned in 

Norfolk, Virginia on 10 March and 

members of The Churchill Center and 

Societies are invited as part of the 

"Churchill Team." Later there may be a 

good will visit to Britain. Watch Finest 

Hour or your local mail for details. See 

our website for a link to USS Winston 

S. Churchill's home page. -RML 

DATELINES 

California 

BEVERLY HILLS, JUNE 17TH— Three dozen 

California Churchillians attended a tea 

and garden party at the home of Len 

and Cathy Unger. They were welcomed 

by Curt Zoller, while Jerry Kambestad 

gave the toasts to Sir Winston and to 

Absent Friends. Zoller then described 

the 2001 Churchill Center conference 

now set for November 4th through 8th 

at the Hotel del Coronado. The themes 

of the event will involve Churchill and 

leadership and his experiences with the 

Navy. Terry McGarry discussed an appeal 

for major contributions to help 

support the conference. 

Highlight of the afternoon was a 

talk by Churchill bibliophile Mark 

Weber, whose slide show, "Searching for 

Churchill," was accompanied by humorous 

comments on the various 

methods he has used in searching for 

Churchill material around the world. 

Messrs. Weber and Zoller brought some 

items from their impressive collections, 

which attendees were able to examine 

in detail. In appreciation for opening 

their house to the gathering, our hosts 

were presented with a Churchill Center 

membership, while the speaker received 

a unique edition of Sir Winston's The 

Dawn of Liberation in Czech for his 

outstanding presentation. -CZ 

British Columbia 

VICTORIA, MAY loTH— Finest Hour senior 

editor Ron Cynewulf Robbins, who 

spent a distinguished career as a parliamentary 

journalist, was interviewed on 

the 60th anniversary of Churchill's first 

premiership on CBC Radio's international 

broadcast. Ron had been at sea in 

naval service on this date six decades 

ago. When the news came that 

Churchill had taken over, he said, "we 

knew that no matter what lay ahead, 

Hitler would be defeated. To us all, 

Churchill personified freedom. No one 

held the flag higher or flew it more defiantly... 

the feeling among us in the 

Navy, and among the public generally, 

was that it was Britain's greatest time of 

peril. Perhaps the British people could 

not have survived without the deep 

sense that their glorious past would 

strengthen them to fight through to 

victory." 


REMEMBER WINSTON CHURCHILL 

Will future generations remember 

Will the ideas you cherish now be sustained then 

Will someone articulate your principles 

Who will guide your grandchildren, your faith and your country 

There is an answer. 

The Churchill Center Associates (listed on page 2) are people who have committed 

a minimum of $10,000 over four years, and other bequests or gifts, 

all tax-deductible, to The Churchill Center Endowment Fund. 

With their help—and yours— 

The Churchill Center will endure as a powerful voice, 

sustaining those beliefs Sir Winston and we hold dear. 

Now. And for future generations. 

If you would like to consider becoming a Churchill Center Associate 

please contact 

Richard M. Langworth 

Chairman, Board of Trustees 

(888) 454-2275 • Email malakand@conknet.com 

FINEST HOUR 108/9

DATELINES 

DO VOU E\/E( LOOK AT 

AMP WoMPEP 

59 LIKE WHEN THEV 

©ROW UP 

CHU(CH'LL ; HAPPO 

Contrary to his repeated claim, all babies do not look like Winston Churchill! Chance Browne's 

"Hi & Lois," 7 June 1995- Reprinted by permission of King Features Syndicate, Inc. © 1995. 

British Columbia... 

Ron also outlined the work of The 

Churchill Center and Societies, and 

spoke about the enthusiasm for its work 

by the Churchill family. He closed by 

remarking, "We can say of Churchill 

what has been said of Shakespeare: 'He 

was not of an Age, but for all Time.'" 

Virginia 

ALEXANDRIA, JULY i6TH— Forty members of 

the Washington Society for Churchill 

gathered at the home of Susan and Dan 

Borinsky for their annual summer picnic 

and book seminar. Our topic was 

Lord Moran's Churchill: The Struggle for 

Survival 1940-1965, and our discussion 

was led by Dr. John Mather, who reviewed 

Moran's book from his own recent 

researches into Winston 

Churchill's medical history. The W.S.C. 

meets regularly. To assist or to learn 

about the next events, contact Caroline 

Hartzler (see page 2). 

Pennsylvania 

PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 29TH— Finest Hour 

editor Richard Langworth was the guest 

speaker at a joint event of Philadelphiaarea 

Churchill Center members and the 

local branch of the English-Speaking 

Union tonight. His subject was 

"Churchill and the Art of the Statesman-Writer"—but 

a different take on 

his set speech, covering different books 

from the Boston Athenaeum last year 

(FH 102). The venue was the Franklin 

Inn, a literary club for readers, writers 

and raconteurs, now approaching its 

hundredth anniversary. After a round of 

libations the speaker delivered his talk 

accompanied by slides, and exchanged 

lively comments in a question and answer 

session. The talk was followed by a 

supper buffet. Thanks to Edwin Probert 

of the ESU, and Phyllis Ruoff and 

Richard Raffauf for the arrangements. 

For more Philadelphia-area doings, 

contact Richard Raffauf, 116 Hampshire 

Road, Reading PA 19608, tel. (610) 

777-1654, iconsort@ptd.net. 

Errata 

FH 104, page 8: Henry Crooks 

writes: "For the record, re Gerald 

McCue's account of the Cockcroft- 

Walton 'atom-splitting,' the result of 

this work was given by Ernest Rutherford 

at the Royal Society on 20 April 

1932—not 1933." 

Our Alaska Conference Schedule 

posted separately to members declared 

that Japan had attacked Dutch Harbor, 

Alaska, on 3 June 1941, sparking 

Dr. Brooks Hoffman of Stamford, 

Connecticut to remind us that the attack 

was in 1942, not 1941. We got 

this from Anchorage Museum of History 

and Art, which listed 1941 as the 

date in a description of a film on the 

subject. We both stand corrected. 

-JWM 

South Africa 

FRERE, KWAZULU-NATAL, NOVEMBER 15TH, 

1999— Alexander Perkins, 13, son of 

Celia Sandys and Maj. Gen. Ken 

Perkins, played his great grandfather in 

a reenactment of the armoured train attack 

here 100 years ago. After surrendering 

to an Afrikaner on horseback, 

Alexander said: "It was very exciting. I 

was proud to act my great-grandfather's 

part." (The original Churchill was 

marched to a Boer prison camp in Pretoria, 

from which he quickly escaped, 

touching off worldwide headlines, and 

the rest, as they say, is history.) Celia 

and son were joined by descendants of 

Boer commander Louis Botha and Lt. 

Sarel Oosthuizen, who captured WSC. 

Celia Perkins was slightly injured 

earlier when she fired a cannon to start 

a 15-mile road race called the Churchill 

Run in nearby Estcourt. As she lit the 

miniature field piece it backfired, blasting 

small fragments of hot gunpowder 

into her face. "All my grandfather got 

in South Africa was a flesh wound," she 

remarked. "I got my face blown up." 

Later, Celia and son watched HRH 

Prince Philip lay wreaths at the hilltop 

battlefield of Spion Kop. Sir Winston 

had also been involved there, twice 

climbing the slopes on the day when 

more than 600 British soldiers lost their 

lives in a famous military blunder. 

Celia still seeks information for her 

new book about her grandfather's travels 

abroad: fax to (+44) (1672) 871066 

or write the editor. Letters will be forwarded. 

FINEST HOUR 108/10

DATELINES 

Franta Belsky 1921-2000 

Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, the 

son of eminent economist Joseph Belsky, 

Franta fled with his family to England 

after the German invasion of 

Czechoslovakia. He volunteered for the 

Czech exile army and, as a teenager in 

1940, met Churchill when the Prime 

Minister inspected the Czech brigade. 

Fighting in France as a gunner, Belsky 

was twice mentioned in despatches, 

once for continuing to repair a telephone 

line while under heavy fire. He 

received a number of Czech decorations 

for bravery. Later he was very reticent 

about his wartime exploits. 

After the war Belsky returned to 

Prague, where he found that twentytwo 

of his relations had perished in the 

Holocaust. He created the Paratroop 

Memorial in Prague and designed a 

medal in honour of the Czech Olympic 

athlete Emil Zatopek before having to 

flee Czechoslovakia again following the 

Communist takeover in 1948. As well 

as statues and busts, Belsky was responsible 

for many abstract designs on a 

heroic scale and developed novel techniques. 

His 1958 "Triga" at Caltex 

House, Knightsbridge—a 30-foot-high 

group of three rearing horses—is in reinforced 

concrete with a metal coating. 

In 1969 

Westminster 

College in 

Fulton, Missouri 

commissioned 

Belsky to create 

an eightfoot 

bronze 

of Churchill 

to mark the 

twenty-fifth 

Belsky with his Churchill statue. anniversary of 

the "Iron Curtain" 

speech. Among Churchill sculptors 

only Oscar Nemon escaped criticism, 

either from the subject or his family 

or friends. Belsky was no exception, 

although its reception was not so bad as 

that which had been given to Jacob Epstein's 

1946 bust, David McFall's 1959 

statue in Woodford, or that which 

would be given to Ivor Roberts-Jones' 

1976 "deformed giant" in Parliament 

AROUND & ABOUT 

CC/ICS honorary member Robert Hardy is 

cross—nay furious—with The Daily Telegraph. 

The newspaper's recent series on learning a foreign 

language included an article about British actors who 

speak fluent French, yet it didn't even mention him. 

And Mr. Hardy has only just finished an eight-month 

stint—yes, eight months —playing Churchill on 

stage in Paris in a play about Charles de Gaulle.... 

Florence King, the right-wing misanthrope, invoked 

John Duke of Marlborough in a scoff at a U.S. Vice Presidential candidate. "If 

either of the Liebermans says 'Only in America one more time...England had a 

Jewish prime minister 132 years ago [and] England's first Jewish knighthood 

was bestowed on Sir Solomon Medina by William III in 1699, in gratitude for 

his financing of the wars won by the Duke of Marlborough. So far as is known, 

neither Sir Solomon, nor, later on, Baron Nathan Rothschild, screamed 'Oh, my 

God! I don't believe it!' like a Lotto winner"...Beltway boffin David Gergen, who 

worked for both Nixon and Clinton, anticipates in his latest book the upcoming 

Clinton Memoirs. The President, writes Gergen, "is capable of writing memoirs 

that could rival Churchill's in insight; he is that talented." We report, you decide....Churchill 

came within seconds of being shot in the back by Mrs. 

Churchill, a former Royal Air Force pilot says. The incident happened when 

WSC and Clementine were inspecting a squadron of fighter aircraft in 1939, according 

to Wing Commander James Sanders. As the future prime minister stood 

in front of Cdr. Sanders's fully armed Gladiator fighter plane, his wife was sitting 

in the cockpit being shown the controls. She was about to put her hand on the 

firing button when Cdr. Sanders knocked her hand away just in time, he said at a 

reunion at London's Imperial War Museum. "It seems unbelievable that Clementine 

would have been allowed so close to the firing button of a fully armed aircraft," 

writes Terry Reardon, who sent us this datum, "but it is an interesting edition 

to the unending Churchill chronicles." M> 

Square. However, it must have pleased 

somebody because when Belsky was 

able to return to Prague again in 1989, 

he was asked to produce a statue of 

Churchill for the British Embassy. In 

the meantime he had sculpted the portrait 

bust in the Archives Centre at 

Churchill College, Cambridge; another 

which is in the Churchill Hotel, Portman 

Square, London; and the large, 

and unusual, bas-relief bronze plaque 

on the landing of the Conservative 

Club in Hoddesdon. 

Belsky was renowned for taking extreme 

pains over his sculptures. Most 

sculptors will make a number of working 

models on the way to developing 

their finished work. Belsky produced 

no fewer than nine half-scale models 

before completing the Fulton statue. It 

was his habit to seal inside each of his 

castings a Guinness bottle, a copy of 

that day's newspaper, a six-penny coin, 

and a note declaring that Franta Belsky 

was the artist responsible! Belsky married 

Margaret Owen, a fellow student at 

the Royal College of Art, in 1944. She 

became the well-known and successful 

cartoonist "Belsky." Margaret died in 

1989 and Franta married the sculptor 

Irena Sedlecka in 1996. 

The story goes that shortly before 

he died in 1972 it was suggested to the 

famously unreticent former U.S. President 

Harry S. Truman that an American 

sculptor should sculpt his bust. 

"Hell, no," Truman is said to have 

replied: "If I ever pose for anybody it 

will be the guy who did Winston in 

Fulton." Franta Belsky obliged—twice. 

His busts of Truman are in the Presidential 

Library, Independence, Missouri 

and at the Truman Dam on the Osage 

River. -DJH M> 

FINEST HOUR io8 /11

Churchill's Greatness (3) 

THE GANDHI 

FACTOR 

LARRY ARNN 

As the end of the millennium and century 

were celebrated last December, Time selected 

Albert Einstein as its Person of the Century, with 

honorable mention to Roosevelt and Gandhi. Churchill 

was excluded from the first or second ranks, largely 

because of his opinions about Home Rule for India. 

First among the three criteria by which Time made 

its selections was "the grand struggle between totalitarianism 

and democracy." Pertinent to this criterion is the 

following quotation: "I do not consider Hitler to be as 

bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is 

amazing and seems to be gaining his victories without 

much bloodshed." This was written by Mohandas 

Gandhi in May 1940, the same month in which 

Winston Churchill became prime minister of Great 

Britain. Within a month of Gandhi's statement, Hitler 

would be in control of most of Western Europe. And of 

course, the murders of civilians, the destruction of millions 

because of their race or their political views or their 

nationality, would begin in France as they had begun 

already in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, and wherever the 

writ of the Fiihrer ran. May 1940 is certainly a late date 

for a respected world leader to be writing such a thing. 

That brings us back to Churchill, who had a confrontation 

of sorts with Gandhi. Churchill was an opponent 

of Home Rule for India, and Gandhi was the leader 

of the movement that won Home Rule. Churchill's 

views on this matter are not today well-known. His 

opinion was that the people of India were entitled to 

self-government. He had said years earlier, in a speech in 

honor of the Fourth of July, that the British Empire 

must stand for the principles of the Declaration of 

Independence. Equally, he believed that the people of 

India were incapable of self-government at the time. 

"Person of the Century" having been decisively decided in Churchill's 

favor by the world press, our articles on this theme are entitled 

"Churchill's Greatness" for the remainder of the 20th century. The 

first two in the series appeared last issue. Dr. Arnn is President of 

Hillsdale College and a member of the CC academic advisory board. 

SAMUEL 

NISENSON 

India was not so much a country, as he put it, as a 

"geographic expression." It was divided among peoples 

of different tribes, languages, and religions, 

some of whom meant violence upon others. He 

predicted that Home Rule or independence 

would mean a civil war and massive casualties. 

Moreover, Churchill's views continued, Britain 

carried a responsibility in India. Partly by accident, 

partly by policy, it had come to exercise sovereignty 

there, and because of its actions over many decades the 

population of India had greatly increased. Those people 

alive because of British rule could rightly blame Britain if 

they were subjected to violence or oppression. 

In the event, there was a civil war, and India and 

Pakistan, enemies and nuclear powers today, separated. 

At least several hundred thousand, and perhaps several 

millions, were killed in the strife that accompanied their 

division into separate countries. Gandhi was deeply disappointed 

by these events. He said to a journalist in 

1947: "Madame, you may write in your paper that India 

has never followed my way." Gandhi was finally murdered 

by people who did not like his policy of fair-dealing 

with Pakistan, and with Muslims generally. 

Today India is a great nation, operating democratically, 

with fair if also incomplete protections for civil 

rights. Long a friend of the Soviet Union, which was no 

good thing to be, it has more recently made overtures of 

friendship to the West. Of course the West should consider 

these, and should wish India and every nation well. 

This is especially warranted toward nations that seek to 

be responsive to the will of their citizens. 

As for Gandhi, we should praise him because he 

did not wish the death or suffering of anyone, Muslim 

or Jew, Hindu or Christian. That is greatly to his credit. 

Churchill was a different sort of man with different 

principles. He, like Gandhi, wished the good of the people 

of India and of every nation and every faith. But he 

was prepared to raise an army in defense of right and 

justice. He was prepared to fight for freedom and to give 

his life in that cause if necessary. And he possessed that 

prudence which could see into the future and predict 

destruction before it came. 

And so if we are picking a man who in this century 

has played the central part in the defense of liberty 

against totalitarian force, there is a man to choose. He is 

not Mohandas Gandhi. In the next century, as in all that 

have come before, we will need such men as Winston 

Churchill. Let us hope we deserve them, and that they 

come when they are needed. $ 

FINEST HOUR IOS/ 12

Churchill's Greatness (4) 

EXPLODING FREEDOM: 

AN INDIAN'S PERSPECTIVE 

A Smile for Democracy 

f • 

-•v 

.1 

Sun YYit-srn 

INDER DAN RATNU 

Before we settle the question of who is "Person of 

the Century," we ought to decide what made the 

20th century extraordinary. I believe the significance 

of these hundred years resides in three "explosions" 

(and one near-fourth). The three are the explosions of 

population, of knowledge and of freedom. Together these 

events transformed the world from a backward, illiterate, 

uneducated, disease-ridden, colonized globe to a forward-looking, 

free, literate, democratic, educated, scientifically 

advanced and awakened community. 

All three "explosions" compounded and were complementary 

to each other. All three accelerated during the 

latter half of the century because of a decisive upheaval in 

the middle of it, namely World War II, which led to the 

triumph of liberty. Winston Churchill virtually set off 

the "explosion of freedom" during the Second World 

War; its tsunami waves eventually reached out worldwide, 

either in the form of national liberation or national 

awakening. This triggered off the other two "explosions," 

of science and population. The near-fourth explosion, a 

nuclear holocaust, was avoided, preserving or enabling 

the other three. 

Churchill's role in the century now closing was 

therefore pivotal. In the first half of the century, the expansion 

of population and progress toward knowledge 

and freedom were incremental; what happened during 

the latter half was phenomenal. Churchill's preserved 

freedom, enabling it to spread to nations who had made 

it prisoner—and many other nations—falsifying the cynical 

belief that might makes right. Churchill in his relentless 

war of words during the Second World War served to 

awaken the conscience both of the oppressors and the 

oppressed. He freed people who fell victim to Nazi vio- 

Mr. Ratnu (id@datainfosys.net) is an Indian author writing about 

Churchill. His books, Layman's Questions about Churchilland Alternative 

to Churchill: The Eternal Bondage, were reviewed in FH106 and 

are available from the Churchill Center New Book Service. 

The Republic of 

China celebrated 

the election of 

President Chen 

Shui-bian in May. 

The choice of heroes 

for the backdrop of 

this ad confirms 

what Mr. Ratnu 

calls an "explosion 

of freedom " in the 

20th century. 

4- 

•^^•il— 

•HI ' 

v 

• 4HHJ 

Taiwan's mature electoral system demonstrates 

the true spirit and practice of democracy 

maicly chownancB prenclcni. The May 20 inauguration of Mr. Chen Shui-bian. ihc tenth-wnn Prtintcni 

of ihc Republic of ChiTia. represenis u remarkably peaceful transition to mature oVmocracv 

Over 82 percent of the ch^ihle voier% e\erciwd Iheirri^ht u» choose the head i>f Ihe sljtc un Kk'ction Dav. 

We are confident (hat thi:* uould make history's gnrai democratic thinLer^ and defenders smile. As Taiu^n 

i 

lence, but far beyond that he freed freedom itself. After 

Churchill, freedom was not restricted to the handful of 

nations that had hitherto enjoyed it. He raised the consciousness 

of the rest of the world to how vital freedom 

was, showing how an island people were ready to defend 

it against a mighty continental conqueror, or die in the 

attempt. 

Knowledgeable sources have offered us long lists of 

candidates for "Person of the Century." Some have even 

named Hitler, Stalin, Lenin or Mao who, through their 

philosophy (in fact, force of arms) led great masses, 

mostly to their doom or to slavery. In my opinion there 

are only three finalists for the title: Einstein, Gandhi and 

Churchill. Serious thought ousts the first two, leaving 

only the last, the irrepressible jollyman, the master communicator, 

the supreme advocate of liberty. 

Those who offer the name of Franklin Roosevelt, 

including the incumbent President of the United States, 

do so I think out of partisan considerations or patriotic 

impulse. Churchill is too heavy a personality compared 

to Roosevelt. One fact is enough to rule out FDR—that 

he squarely confronted the destroyers of freedom only 

after Pearl Harbor, two years and two months after 

Britain had taken up arms. (Truman's Secretary of State, 

James Byrnes, noted in his memoirs that American support 

for aiding Britain actually exceeded Roosevelt's in 

early 1941.) Churchill, by contrast, had argued for resisting 

tyranny long before Britain was even threatened. 

p r 

f 

TAIWAN 

REPUBLIC 

OF CHINA 

FINEST HOUR IOS /13

Britain was reluctant, and Churchill paid a political cost. 

But Hitler proved Churchill right. The result of their 

conflict transformed the world. 

The contributions of Gandhi and Einstein, crucially 

important as they were, were not indispensable. 

Mahatma Gandhi's contribution to the 

independence of India is very significant to India, less so 

to the world. The Mahatma showed us a superfine way 

to break our shackles through non-violent protest. But 

his ideal was not adopted by most other oppressed peoples. 

A thing worth doing, it was rarely done. It worked 

in India, and perhaps South Africa, though there too, 

many would argue that outside influences—trade sanctions, 

internal liberation movements and a minority President 

bent on reconciliation—had more to do with the 

outcome. 

Einstein's contribution in developing the human 

understanding of time, space and the cosmos is unparalleled. 

He cannot however be credited with a transformation 

comparable to the three "explosions," although his 

contribution to the potential fourth was significant. 

The contribution of Great Britain to the development 

of the world is broadly acknowledged. Yet Britain 

without three persons—Newton, Shakespeare and 

Churchill—would rank much lower. Absent those three, 

Britain's renown would rest largely with its gradual development 

of democracy and its more rapid development of 

imperialism rather than science, literature and liberty. 

Newton, Shakespeare and Churchill symbolize those 

three fields perfectly. Churchill added something to the 

field of literature: Newton and Shakespeare contributed 

rather less to the advancement of liberty. In this sense 

also, Churchill stands unparalleled. 

The thinkers and writers who did consider 

Churchill "Person of the Century" based their argument 

on his war leadership, his oratory and writings, his determination, 

his genius in many arts including painting, his 

championing of scientific ideas, and the length of his political 

career. These do not constitute his true distinction. 

Unbiased searchers might find his equal in these fields or 

qualities. What Churchill uniquely accomplished was the 

welding together of all those characteristics. 

For example, many writers in various languages 

might equal or surpass Churchill's literary achievement— 

but none of them were war leaders of Churchill's stature. 

And, while there may be equally great war leaders, none 

matched Churchill's length of service or depth of writing. 

Uniquely, Churchill merged all the great qualities and 

achievements for which individuals are celebrated. He did 

not surpass Gandhi in lighting the path of truth and nonviolence, 

but Gandhi's contribution is qualitatively so different, 

so high an aspect of life, that it is not strictly comparable. 

It was perhaps Gandhi's qualitative superiority 

that drew on his death Churchill's remark that "he was 

too good to live in this world," or Einstein's, that "a thousand 

years hence people will not believe that such a man 

in flesh and bone had walked the earth." 

Churchill is surpassed by Einstein in scientific 

achievement, but Churchill's contributions to freedom 

and democracy transcend his position, leaving him ahead 

of his rivals. Einstein contributed to the explosion of 

knowledge, Gandhi to the explosion of freedom; 

Churchill by contrast was indispensable to the explosion 

of freedom. 

Nor does Churchill deserve the century's plaudits 

because of his many awards and honours, nor because he 

admired and sustained the British Empire, was twice 

Prime Minister, or belonged to an aristocratic family. He 

is paramount because he defended at the most critical 

time in the century a cause vital for the progress of the 

peoples, which would in time lift them all, or nearly all, 

from slavery to self-energized independence. By preserving 

freedom at that key time, Churchill made a material difference 

to the life of the common man for centuries to come. 

The italics above are mine, because I don't think 

the universality of Churchill's impact is fully understood. 

His defence of freedom had a compounding 

effect that even he could not have predicted— 

or may not have wanted to predict. It shook the foundations 

of ^//oppressors including, ironically, British imperialists, 

paving the way for their acceptance of ^//peoples' 

right to self-government. It raised the morale of the subjugated, 

demonstrating the idea of freedom as not only 

worthwhile but actually within reach. 

His actual war leadership, noble as it was, comprises 

poorer ground for distinction. War creates an evil 

stink, even among righteous warriors. Perhaps this was 

why a British gentleman, taken to a Hare Rama Hara 

Krishna Indian religious cult years back, called Churchill 

"as good a demon as Hitler." As different as they were, irrespective 

of the causes they championed, both led their 

nations to violence and death. Churchill's exemplary dimension 

lay not in fighting the war but fighting for the 

cause. Cite Churchill merely for fighting a war, and you 

have equally to cite Hitler—or Stalin, Mao, or Hirohito. 

FINEST HOUR IOS/ 14

'Serious thought ousts Einstein and Gandhi, leaving 

only the last, the irrepressible jolly man, the master 

communicator, the supreme advocate of liberty..." 

It was mentioned in Finest Hour's discussions of the 

"Personality of the Century" that Mahatma Gandhi 

advised non-violent resistance to Hitler, which illustrates 

Mahatmas limitations from the perspective of history. 

For the Jews of Europe, what his advice amounted 

to was, "die peacefully." Well suited as it was to India's 

situation, it promised only ruin if employed against 

Hitler. (Nor indeed would it have worked in a Hitlerized 

India. Recent research by a Russian professor into Nazi 

archives revealed that Hitler planned to replace the 

British Raj with something far worse after his successful 

invasion of the subcontinent.) 

So Churchill's greatness lies in his linkage to the 

cause of liberty, Gandhi's to truth and non-violence, Einstein's 

to science. We must only decide which of these 

causes was the greatest: how different the world would be 

in the absence of any one of them. 

A factor to remember is that, while Mahatma 

fought for freedom from the English yoke, that did not 

necessarily lead to freedom of the individual citizen, 

whereas Churchill's effort inexorably led to the latter. 

True, Gandhi envisioned some measure of freedom for 

individuals; but his main plank was non-violence. We 

might say that Mahatma emphasized the means more 

than the goal, Churchill the goal more than the means, 

and for Churchill, the means included violence. Those 

who are not yet free today may at least glimpse a beacon 

burning atop a distant mountain. Had Churchill had not 

fought for the goal of liberty, they would see nothing. 

Much has been made of Churchill's oratory, but if 

that is the sole measure of greatness we must equally 

name Hitler, whose speeches were at least as electrifying 

as Churchill's, despite the latter's marked literary superiority. 

Yet oratory can only be a supporting factor in selecting 

the century's greatest figure. True, the effect of 

Hitler's speeches upon the German people, at least in the 

beginning, was greater than Churchill's upon the British 

people. In their response to Hitler the German people 

touched an element of madness not found in Churchill 

or his countrymen. 

On the contrary, the cunning British public 

demonstrated that it had a mind of its own, when, as 

soon as the danger was past, the very people who proclaimed 

him saviour turned Churchill out of office. Their 

praise had proven to be a deception, a camouflage. Had 

Hitler won the war, a similar fate for him at the hands of 

the German people was unthinkable. They would have 

borne his burden for life. Perhaps the difference between 

the two great enemies lay not in the relative maturity of 

Churchill's speeches, but in the relative maturity of his 

countrymen. 

Even Churchill's famous refusal to contemplate 

truce, parlay or surrender has parallels. In fact, the 20th 

century is replete with similar examples. Hitler himself 

chose suicide to surrender. Ho Chi Minh refused to surrender, 

and one by one over two decades dealt his enemies 

humiliating defeats. Stalin never surrendered, nor 

did Stalin's and Hitler's recent disciples, Saddam and 

Castro, both arrayed against mighty antagonists. An irrepressible 

spirit is not in itself a century-dominating quality. 

A decisive victory such as Churchill or Ho achieved 

alone qualifies them only as great leaders of tiny nations. 

Like Gandhi and Einstein, Churchill was a man for 

mankind. His concern for mankind found its place in 

many war speeches, but perhaps nowhere as well as his first 

speech as Prime Minister on 13 May 1940, which set the 

aim of his struggle and prefigured the only logical climax: 

'Without victory there is no 

survival...no survival 

for the urge and 

impulse of the ages, 

that mankind will move 

forward towards its goal.." 

Again, the italics are mine. Here in these few words 

we find precisely represented the scale of Churchill's 

greatness: setting mankind to move forward towards its 

goal. And nobody else did that. M> 

FINEST HOUR 108/15

English-Speaking Peoples 

THE LEADERSHIP GAP : 

WHERE ARE TODAY'S 

WINSTON CHURCHILLS 

CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS 

The first time I met Ronald Reagan was in Tip 

O'Neill's office. "Mr. President, this is the room 

where we plot against you," I offered, perhaps too 

gamely. "Not after six," retorted this debonair fellow 

about to give a State of the Union address to the United 

States Congress, plus a hundred million or so Americans. 

"The Speaker says that here in Washington, we're all 

friends after six o'clock." 

What a country. Here I was, aide to the liberal Democrat 

O'Neill, towel-snapping with the conservative Republican 

president who'd spent his inaugural year pounding 

the Democrats into submission. 

Or so it seemed that January in 1982. By November, 

the nation's political pendulum would swing the other 

way. The economy bottomed during the worst recession 

in a half century. Reagan would pay the price of trying to 

reform Social Security. Tip O'Neill's Democrats would 

gather back twenty-six seats, and the power to co-govern 

for the next six years. 

During all those years, I learned something about 

leadership from both these men. Unlike so many of his 

predecessors, Ronald Reagan did not want to be president. 

He wanted to do things: defeat the Soviets by outrunning 

them in strategic weapons; stimulate the economy and 

shrink the federal bureaucracy by cutting taxes. The key 

fact of this "great communicator" was that every cab driver 

knew what he knew: why he, Ronald Reagan, was there. 

Mr. Matthews is the host of CNBC's "Hardball," Washington bureau 

chief of the San Francisco Examiner, and the author of two bestsellers, 

Hardball and Kennedy and Nixon. This article is reprinted by 

kind permission of the author and Cigar Aficionado, the cigar connoisseur's 

magazine. To subscribe telephone (800) 992-2442. 

"English-Speaking Peoples" is a periodic opinion series on matters 

of moment among the English-speaking democracies Churchill 

loved. Comment and counter-opinion are always welcome. 

His 

rival, Tip 

O'Neill, 

had the 

s a m e 

sense of 

purpose. He had entered politics in the 1930s as a meat-andpotatoes 

Democrat. In those years of the Great Depression, 

when "Irish Need Not Apply" was still an underlying attitude 

in some circles, his greatest joy was knocking down a door for 

a guy who needed a job, a sick person who needed a hospital 

bed. 

He never changed. Once I drafted an attack on the 

spiking federal deficit, blaming Reagan for the red ink. 

O'Neill refused to use it. "That's not me," he said. He 

cared about the poor kid who wanted to go to college, the 

woman facing breast cancer. Fiscal responsibility! Balanced 

budgets! That was the other side's cause. 

What the Irish fight card of Reagan vs. O'Neill 

shared was that rare, elusive brand of politics. Each man 

was, in his own way, a leader. One spent years in the political 

wilderness derided as a "failed B-movie actor," a Goldwaterite 

without a chance of national election; the other 

was derided as an anachronism: a big-government liberal 

in a time of rising conservatism. It was my break of a lifetime 

to catch this fight from ringside. 

Each morning the great Tip O'Neill would arrive in 

his Capitol hideaway, his Churchill cigar lit, ready 

for the day's work, eager for scuttlebutt. "What do 

you hear" he would ask. "Anything I ought to know 

Anything special out there" He wanted to know everything: 

what the President was up to, what the reporters 

were writing and saying, what Republicans had up their 

FINEST HOUR 108/16

100-75-50-25 YEARS AGO 

One hundred years ago: 

Autumn 1900 • Age 26 

"...you must remember how 

much money means to me..." 

Michael McMenamin 

Money, or his lack of it, was very 

much on Churchill's mind after 

his election to Parliament for Oldham 

on 2 October. Thereafter, he toured the 

country during the remainder of the 

three-week polling period speaking on 

behalf of many Conservative candidates, 

including Balfour and Chamberlain. 

Of a proposed lecture tour in England 

after the election concluded, he 

wrote to his mother, "But you must remember 

how much money means to 

me and how much I need it for political 

expense and other purposes, and if I can 

make £3000 by giving a score of lectures 

in the big towns throughout England 

on the purely military aspect of the 

[Boer] war, it is very hard for me to 

refuse...." Churchill didn't refuse and 

ended up with over £3700 for twentynine 

speeches during a thirty-day period 

in November. In one speech, he 

defended British tactics in South Africa 

against accusations that they constituted 

"atrocious barbarities...[in] violation 

of all the practices of civilised warfare," 

stating that "the justification of 

the measures resorted to in order to put 

an end to guerrilla warfare is that no 

methods, however stringent, or painful, 

or severe, can possibly cost so much 

misery as the continuance of the anarchy 

and disorder now prevailing." 

Churchill had even higher hopes 

for a lucrative pay day from a North 

America tour. As he wrote his mother: 

"I will not go to the United States unless 

guaranteed at least £1000 a month 

for three months and I should expect a 

great deal more. Five thousand pounds 

is not too much for making oneself so 

cheap." It was not to be. In the event, 

he was to clear only £1600 in a tour 

which started on 8 December and continued 

through 2 February 1901. 

Seventy-five years ago: 

Autumn 1925 -Age 51 

"The Twelve Apostles 

of Reassurance" 

Churchill spent October 1925 delivering 

almost a daily series of 

speeches defending his economic policy 

and his first Budget against criticism 

from friend and foe alike. In a speech at 

Colchester, Churchill mocked those 

who had attacked his income tax cuts: 

"In that Budget I committed some serious 

crimes. I reduced the income-tax, 

and I differentiated the income-tax in 

favour of the smaller income-tax 

payer....I have been scolded for these | 

evil deeds [but] if the Economy Committee 

over which the Prime Minister is 

presiding almost every day has not 

reaped the harvest of economy which it 

hopes to achieve, it is quite possible that 

it may be my duty to make amends in 

practical form for the past, and to restore 

to the taxpayer some portion at 

least of the burdens of which I so 

wrongfully robbed him." 

At the Engineers' Club Annual 

Dinner at the Savoy on October 23rd, 

he surveyed in his optimistic fashion 

the economic picture: "I have been accused 

of not taking a sufficiently 

gloomy view of affairs. All I said was 

that things are not getting worse and 

that there is even a probability that they 

may get better. I can give twelve principal 

reasons which justify that conclusion. 

I call them the 'Twelve Apostles of 

Reassurance'....Our share in the oversea 

trade of the world has not diminished 

since the war. It is true that there is a reduced 

amount of world oversea trade, 

but of that reduced trade we possess, in 

fact, slightly a larger proportion than 

before the war....There has been, if not 

a great, yet an appreciable diminution 

in the cost of living during the 

year....The consuming power of the 

people has not diminished, but has 

been maintained, and in many important 

commodities it has increased....The 

number of people who reached the employable 

age last year was 100,000. Still, 

there are 250,000 more people at work 

today in Great Britain than a year 

ago....What is the moral conclusion to 

draw from this recital It is to 'leave off 

barracking the Government, leave off 

trying to rattle the new party, leave off 

crying down the national credit, leave 

off spreading tales of despondency and 

alarm, and fear throughout the British 

Empire and the world. Show some 

measure of gratitude and fair play to the 

men who are called upon to bear the responsibilities 

of the day.'" 

Nevertheless, the spectre of a national 

strike in the coming spring was 

never far from Churchill's thoughts. He 

rarely passed up an opportunity to criticize 

Arthur Cook, leader of the Mine 

Workers Union. In his speech at the 

Engineer's Club, he concluded his rosy 

FINEST HOUR IOS /18

appraisal of the economy with a warning 

accusing Cook and the miners of 

being influenced by the Communists: 

"All the brighter prospects will be shattered 

and overclouded if next spring we 

are exposed to a serious industrial convulsion 

in the coalfield or on the railways, 

but we are still hopeful that we 

will be able to carry our tray of crockery 

until we have safely placed it on the national 

table." 

Churchill's anti-labor reputation 

stems, quite unfairly, from this period 

where the unions were seeking to use 

the strike weapon not to secure higher 

wages or better working conditions but 

rather to force a general election and a 

hoped-for Socialist victory and the nationalization 

of coal mines. Churchill 

saw Socialism as a threat to prosperity 

and its cousin, Communism, as a threat 

to liberty. As he said in a speech at the 

Opera House in Tunbridge Wells near 

his home in Chartwell on 28 November, 

"The Socialist in his folly, and the 

Communist in his malice, would undermine 

and fatally wreck the pillars of 

our national prosperity.... the Communist 

thinks he can smash his way 

through by violence, and the Socialist 

believes he can do it by humbug....The 

British Socialists are well known to be 

the dullest in the world. They have 

never contributed anything even to the 

building up of the Socialist philosophy. 

They have merely gulped down what 

Karl Marx and Lenin have handed over 

to them." 

Fifty years ago: 

Autumn 1950 • Age 76 

"My dearest Pamela...I cherish 

yr signal across the years..." 

In October Churchill celebrated the 

fiftieth anniversary of his election to 

the House of Commons. That same 

month, in a felicitous coincidence, the 

House of Commons returned to its prewar 

Chamber in Westminster, which 

had been destroyed ten years earlier by 

Nazi bombs and was now rebuilt, at 

Churchill's direction, to its identical, albeit 

cramped, configuration. Churchill 

remarked: "I am a child of the House of 

Commons and have been here, I believe, 

longer than anyone. I was much 

upset when I was violently thrown out 

of my collective cradle. I certainly 

wanted to get back to it as soon as possible....It 

excites world wonder in the 

parliamentary countries that we should 

build a Chamber, starting afresh, which 

can only seat two-thirds of its Members. 

It is difficult to explain this to 

those who do not know our ways. They 

cannot easily be made to understand 

why we consider that the intensity, passion, 

intimacy, informality and spontaneity 

of our Debates constitute the 

personality of the House of Commons 

and endow it at once with its focus and 

its strength." 

In October Pamela Plowden, his 

first love, now Lady Lytton, wrote to 

him reminding him that fifty years earlier 

he had, unsuccessfully, proposed 

marriage. His gracious reply is still affecting 

today: "My dearest Pamela...it is 

not till now that I can tell you how 

much I cherish yr signal across the 

years, from the days when I was [not 

only] a freak—always that—but much 

hated & ruled out, but there was one 

who saw some qualities, & it is to you 

that I am most deeply grateful. Do let 

us meet again soon. The Parl. will be 

sitting in November & perhaps you wd 

come & Lunch one day. Clemmie will 

telephone a plan. Fifty years!—how 

stunning! but after all it is better than a 

hundred. Then there wd not be memory. 

With my deepest thoughts & love. 

From Winston." 

For his birthday on 30 November, 

Churchill addressed the House of Commons 

on the differences between the aftermaths 

of the two world wars: "After 

the First War, when the victors had disarmed 

the Germans and their allies, no 

powerful organised army remained 

upon the scene except the French Army. 

After this war, the armed might of Russia 

emerged steadily year by year, almost 

month by month, as a rock shows more 

and more above an ebbing tide. The 

second difference, which arose out of 

the realization of the first, was that the 

United States, instead of retiring into 

isolation, instead of demanding full and 

prompt repayment of debts and disinteresting 

herself in Europe...has come 

forward step by step as die knowledge 

of the situation has dawned upon her 

and has made the great counterpoise 

upon which the freedom and the future 

of our civilization depends." 

Twenty-five years ago: 

Autumn 1975 

"Everybody is in the front line" 

In November, Winston Churchill, 

MP for Stretford, Lines., appealed for 

a £100,000 reward for information 

leading to conviction of IRA terrorists 

who had killed a Stretford soldier, one 

of three, in South Armagh. Asked 

whether his suggestion made him an 

IRA target, Winston Churchill replied, 

"Everyone is in the front line. Who 

knows where the IRA will strike as we 

go about our daily business" 

Myth-shattering was in vogue as J. 

H. McCarthy, senior lecturer in History 

at the University of South Wales, suggested 

that Churchill worried during 

the war that Australian PM Menzies 

was after his job—a view reflected 

much later in a book by another Australian 

critic, David Day. Meanwhile 

John Bartlett, headmaster of one of 

Churchill's old schools, proclaimed that 

WSC was not the dunce he had proclaimed 

himself: "In his last year he was 

top of the class in every subject except 

geography." Churchill's famous failure 

in his Latin exam at Harrow, Bartlett 

said, was owed simply to "a very bad attack 

of exam nerves. It's common...has 

nothing to do with merit." $ 

FINEST HOUR 108 /19

Churchill s World 

HOTEL LA MAMOUNIA, 

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO 

" This is a wonderful place, and the 

hotel one of the best I have ever used." 

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LA MAMOUNIA & DAVID DRUCKMAN 

Mr. Druckman of Arizona, who travels widely, wrote about his visit to South Africa in 

FH47 and to Gallipoli in FH9Q. This year he and we persuaded "La Mamounia" to 

allow him to visit the Churchill Suite. Written material courtesy Hotel La Mamounia. 

i 

II 

si iiI 

I 1 

i 

1ii 

I i 

t is the most lovely spot in the 

whole world." So said Winston S. 

, Churchill to Franklin D. Roosevelt 

about Marrakech in 1943. The Prime Minister, 

who had persuaded the President to visit 

his favorite haunt after the Casablanca Conference, 

made this remark while they gazed at 

one of the beautiful sunsets for which the 

city is famous, the setting sun tinting the distant, 

snow-capped peaks of the Atlas Mountains 

velvet red. Such scenes often inspired 

Churchill to take up his paintbrush in Marrakech, 

though during World War II he 

found time to paint only one picture: it was 

done on this occasion. Invariably on his visits, 

Churchill chose to stay at the luxurious 

Hotel La Mamounia not least because the 

views from the roof were incomparably 

"paintaceous." 

FINEST HOUR IOS/20

ft ft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

1 

i 

1 Ift 

i. 

Sir Winston was not only one of La Mamounia's famous guests, but one of its most faidiful. The hotel named one 

of the most charming suites in his honour, which David and Lynn Druckman were permitted to visit on behalf of 

Finest Hour. (See also page 25.) Everything in it is English: Chesterfield furniture, a regency desk, English wood 

paneling. It is a small museum to the great man, with original documents and photographs, a copy of one of his 

hats and umbrella. A reminder of why Churchill loved to come to Marrakech is his easel, which stands in a corner 

with an unfinished painting of the Mamounia gardens that he so loved to portray. But of all the "paintaceous" 

views in Marrakech, Churchill most loved die distant prospect of the snow-capped Adas Mountains (below). 

i iIMiaIMft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

ft 

FINEST HOUR 108/21

i 

IIaa 

I aa^a a 

Designed in 1922 by architects Frost and Marchisio, 

La Mamounia managed to combine the Moroccan 

architectural tradition with the very latest in Art Deco design. 

La Mamounia takes its name from the surrounding 

gardens, which were once called the "Arset El 

Mamoun." Two centuries old, these gardens, usually 

referred to as a park, have a history of their own. The 

Park once belonged to the Prince Moulay Mamoun, the 

fourth son of Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, who 

reigned in the 18th century. It was customary for the Sultan 

to offer his sons, as a wedding gift, a house and garden 

located outside the Kasbah. For his marriage present, 

Moulay Mamoun received the park, which has since always 

carried his name. It is said that the prince used to 

hold extraordinary garden parties here. The magnificent 

garden remaining from such royal revelry adds to the pleasure 

of present-day guests, as much by its size (nearly 20 

acres) as by its unusual flora. 

Designed in 1922 by architects Prost and 

Marchisio, La Mamounia managed to combine the Moroccan 

architectural tradition with the very latest in Art 

Deco design and decoration. The hotel originally had 100 

rooms, but was expanded in 1946, 1950 and 1953, and 

now includes nearly 200 rooms. 

In 1986, a vast renovation programme took 

place to create the look of today's La Mamounia. A larger 

and wider main entrance was constructed, incorporating 

the traditional elements of Moroccan architecture: 

columns, arches and painted wooden doors. The porch, 

dating from the 1920s, has remained intact and opens 

into the 1920s style "Salon of Honor." The salon has also 

remained the same with the exception of a large chimney, 

added during renovation, which accentuates the room's 

ceremonial character. Today this entrance is used when 

welcoming guests of honour. 

Throughout the year, from the four corners of 

the globe, visitors come and go at hotel La Mamounia. 

Before the Second World War, guests from Europe and 

America even brought their own furniture, so that they 

could enjoy the exotic surroundings while still feeling "at 

home" in their rooms. Longtime employees at the hotel 

still tell stories about the stately dinners for which the 

men dressed in top hats and tails and the women, bedecked 

with exquisite jewels, wore long evening gowns. 

Of the many famous people who have visited 

La Mamounia, Churchill is the most renowned. He 

would wander from balcony to balcony, following the sun 

on its daily route in order to render the colour of his 

painting as real as possible. Several of his paintings of La 

Mamounia's gardens hang in England. General Charles de 

Gaulle also stayed in the hotel after the Casablanca Conference. 

The director of the hotel was obliged to have a 

special bed made to accommodate the General's considerable 

height. 

Over the years the reputation of Marrakech 

and La Mamounia have attracted the attention of both 

French and American film makers. Eric Von Stroheim 

filmed "Alerte au Sud" in 1953. "Morocco" with Marlene 

Dietrich was filmed there, as was Hitchcock's "The Man 

Who Knew Too Much." In 1955 Charlie Chaplin was 

warmly welcomed to the hotel. Those who followed from 

the film world include Omar Sharif, Charles Aznavour, 

Joan Collins, Elliot Gould, Ted Danson, Whoopi Goldberg, 

Tony Curtis, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, 

Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston and Sylvester Stallone. 

With the film stars came the fashion world, 

some designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Balmain, 

buying homes in Marrakech. In 1968, with the explosion 

of rock groups, Marrakech welcomed the Rolling 

Stones, while the group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 

wrote the hit song "Marrakesh Express." Other stars from 

the world of music have included Johnny Halliday, Elton 

John, Vanessa Paradis and Sacha Distel. Royals and Statesmen 

who have discovered the hotel, some to return on a 

regular basis, include Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald and 

Nancy Reagan, Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy, 

Princess Caroline of Monaco, Prince Naruhito of Japan, 

Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. 

Todays guests are welcome to leaf through the 

Livre d'Or (visitor's book), kept in the General Manager's 

office. It contains comments from many of the hotel's celebrated 

guests. A love of La Mamounia and Marrakech 

seems to unite them all. 

FINEST HOUR 107 / 22

IWULAIKIA i-t i.,\ vir A 

FINEST HOUR 108/23

Winston S. Churchill to Clementine Churchill 

(Spencer-Churchill Papers; reprinted by kind permission) 

30 December 1935 Hotel Mamounia 

My darling Clemmie, 

At last the sun! I thought we should never overtake 

it. I think we travelled from England with a blizzard. You 

saw what happened when we landed at Majorca. It was just 

the same at Tangier, so we came on here. And no sooner 

had I opened my tin boxes than a perfect deluge—the first 

for three months— descended around the hotel. However it 

was only a shower and we have had two perfect days. All say 

that the prospects are bright. 

This is a wonderful place, and the hotel one of the 

best I have ever used. I have an excellent bedroom and bathroom, 

with a large balcony twelve feet deep, looking out on 

a truly remarkable panorama over the tops of orange trees 

and olives, and the houses and ramparts of the native Marrakech, 

and like a great wall to the westward the snowclad 

range of the Atlas mountains—some of them are nearly 

fourteen thousand feet high. The light at dawn and sunset 

upon the snows, even at sixty miles distance, is as good as 

any snowscape I have ever seen. It is five hours to the ridge 

of the Atlas and they say you then look down over an immense 

area, first a great tropical valley, then another range 

of mountains, and beyond all the Sahara desert. 

Rothermere came on here with his party and we 

were warmly welcomed by L-G, who has been here for three 

weeks in perfect weather, and proposes to stay till February. 

Mrs L-G and Megan arrive on the 8th. He is busy writing 

his book and is very splendid and patriarchical. What a fool 

Baldwin is, with his terrible situation on his hands, not to 

gather his resources & experience to the public service. 

I am painting from the balcony, because although 

the native city is full of attractive spots, the crowds, the smells 

and the general discomfort for painting have repelled me. 

You would be staggered by what the French have 

done out here...it is very pleasant to see what a vigorous 

civilised race can do in creating order and progress in these 

ancient deserts. 

How I wish you were here. The air is cool and 

fresh for we are 1500 feet high, yet the sun is warm and the 

light brilliant. It is much the best place I have struck so far. 

But the whole country is full of interest. The soil is black or 

red and of great fertility, plenty of water, fine harbours, 

everywhere excellent hotels. We must see how things go on, 

how far you are amused with your winter sports; how the 

political situation in England leaves me. But do not altogether 

exclude the idea of taking the boat at Marseilles. 

There are ten thousand ton steamers every week which in 

forty hours will take you to Casablanca, from which three 

and a half hours in a motor car brings you here. A etudier! 

We get excellent French newspapers and so are able 

to follow the French side of the political drama. There is no 

doubt we are in it up to our necks. Owing to this vigorous 

manifestation from the depths of British public opinion, the 

French have come a long way with us against Mussolini and 

they will expect a similar service when the far greater peril 

of Hitler becomes active. We are getting into the most terrible 

position involved definitely by honour & by contract in 

almost any quarrel that can break out in Europe, our defences 

neglected, our Government less capable a machine 

for conducting affairs than I have ever seen. The Baldwin- 

MacDonald regime has hit this country very hard indeed, 

and may well be the end of its glories. 

Now the one thing that matters seems to be to try 

and find seats for those two ragamuffin MacDonalds! 

Luckily I have plenty of things to do to keep me from 

chewing the cud too much. 

New Year's Eve. My beloved I have just heard yr 

voice on the long distance. It was a vy Miaou cat & I cd not 

hear much, but it was sweet to get in touch across all those 

distances. All my wishes for yr happiness in the coming 

year. Rothermere offered me 2 bets. First £2,000 if I went 

teetotal in 1936.1 refused as I think life wd not be worth 

living, but 2,000 free of tax is nearly 3,500 & then the saving 

of liquor 500 = 4,000. It was a fine offer. I have however 

accepted his second bet of £600 not to drink any brandy or 

undiluted spirits 1936. So tonight is my last sip of brandy. 

It was kind of the old boy to take so much interest in Randolph's 

health & my own. I think you will be pleased. 

My beloved pussy cat, I will write you again vy 

soon. I have been idle today. No Marl, only a little daub & 

a little bezique. Randolph is of course wanting to fight Malcolm 

M. but I hope he won't be able to—because it would 

put a spoke in my wheel & do nothing good for him. I do 

not think he would really when it came to the point. 

Tender love my darling one 

From your ever loving husband 

W 

Footnotes by Sir Martin Gilbert 

Winston S. Churchill, Companion Volume V, Part 2 

Megan Lloyd George, 1902-66. Younger daughter of David Lloyd 

George. Liberal MP, Anglesey, 1929-43 and 1945-51. Pres., Women's 

Liberal Federation, 1936 and 1945. Companion of Honour, 1966. 

In the 1935 election Malcolm MacDonald, the sitting National 

Labour MP, had been defeated by F. J. Bellenger, the Labour candidate. 

Ramsay MacDonald was also defeated by a Labour candidate, 

Emmanuel Shinwell. Ramsay MacDonald eventually found a safe seat 

at the Combined Scottish Universities, to which he was elected on 31 

January 1936. Malcolm MacDonald was elected for Ross and Cromarty 

on 10 February 1936. 

^ Malcolm John MacDonald, b. 1901. Son of Ramsay MacDonald. 

Educated at Bedales and Queen's College, Oxford. Labour MP 

for Bassetlaw 1929-31 (National Labour 1931-35); for Ross and Cromarty, 

1936-45. Parliamentary Undersecretary, Dominions Office, 

1931-35. Privy Councilor, 1935. Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 

1935-38 and 1938-39; Colonial Secretary, 1935 and 1939-40. 

Minister of Health, 1940-41. High Commissioner, Canada, 1941-46. 

Governor-General of Malaya, Singapore and British Borneo,1948. 

Commissioner General for South-East Asia, 1948-55. High Commissioner, 

India, 1955-60. Governor-General of Kenya, 1963-64; High 

Commissioner, 1964-65. British Special Representative in East and 

Central Africa, 1965; Africa, 1966-69. 

& 

FINEST HOUR IOS / 24

[5] 

M Ii§iIiii 

1711 

1 

i 

I 

i 

1 

Ifill 

1 

s 

The Churchill Suite 

Clockwise from upper 

left: Ms. Fetwa of the 

hotel staff in the 

lounge; a painting of 

WSC; his umbrella 

and hat; an unfinished 

landscape; a 

model of the Roberts- 

Jones Parliament 

Square statue; the inevitable 

bulldog; the 

balcony and its view; 

the bath; a collection 

of photos portraying 

Churchill's career; 

Lynn Druckman in 

La Mamounia's drive. 

0 

ft 

i 

i 

m 

i 

I 

a 

i 

i 

iiiIii 

i 

[5] 

FINEST HOUR 108/25

2000 Heritage Fund Appeal: 

A Special Request to Members in the USA: 

As always, your annual donation to our 

working funds is responsible for a major share 

of all the things we do—especially with young 

people. We cannot do it without you! 

Please use the envelope attached. 

Remember, donations are fully tax deductible. 

Members of The Churchill 

Center in the United 

States will soon receive our 

annual Heritage Fund mailer to aid 

our many educational and historical 

activities. Please take time out to beat 

the mailer by using the attached envelope 

now! 

As you know, our annual subscription 

(including the one-third of 

our members who renew at higher 

than basic levels) covers only about 

one-fourth of our expenses. We are as 

active as we are only through the generous 

and repeated support of our 

members. Donations to the Heritage 

Fund are 100% tax-deductible. 

Last year, we enjoyed a very successful 

Heritage Fund Appeal: 184 

donors, total receipts $25,205, average 

per donor $137. In launching our ! 

2000 appeal, we wish to express gratitude 

to those who helped us so much j 

last year. Their names are at right. j 

As you plan your end-of-year 

charitable donations, we hope you 

will again consider The Churchill 

Center. A dollar, or ten, or one hundred, 

or one thousand, goes so much 

further with us than the big charities, | 

because we have only one simple goal: 

impressing the life and work of Sir 

Winston Churchill firmly on the new 

century. Please help! And thanks. 

SINCERE THANKS TO ALL WHO 

SUPPORTED US LAST YEAR: 

Number Ten Club ($1000) 

JACK MOSELEY 

DR. MALCOLM I. PAGE 

CHARLES D. PLATT 

DR. PETER T. SUZUKI 

Friends of Dalton Newfield ($500) 

GARYJ. BONINE 

TOMMY BROOKS 

DR. STEVEN D. GOLDFIEN 

ROBERT L. HALFYARD 

WILLIAM R. HARRIS 

ROBERT HART 

CRAIG & LORRAINE HORN 

RICHARD A. LEAHY 

JOHN V. McFADDEN 

TERRANCE W. McGARRY 

FREDRICK J. SHEEHAN, JR. 

MICHAEL L. YOUNGMAN 

Chartwell Associates ($200-499) 

ANONYMOUS 

DANFORTH BEAL 

H. J. BEETLE 

DR. MICHAEL A. BERK 

JOHN S. BUNTON 

JOSEPH B. CANNON 

WILLIAM R. DALES 

LAURENCE GELLER 

DAVID A. JODICE 

DAVID M. KIRR 

BARBARA F. & 

RICHARD M. LANGWORTH 

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CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS 

CHARLES G. MONTGOMERY 

MR. & MRS. SHERWOOD 

H. SMITH, JR. 

JAMES R. THOMAS 

L. PETER VAN DE GOHM 

HON. CASPAR W. WEINBERGER 

RICHARD ZIMBERT 

Heritage Fund Sponsors ($100-199) 

RONALD B. ALEXANDER 

COL. RICHARD W. BERGSON 

CHARLES K. BOBRINSKOY 

DANIEL H. BORINSKY 

CHARLES R. BRANTLEY 

HERMAN L. BREITKOPF 

THOMAS E. BRINKMAN, JR. 

ROBERT & BONNIE CASTREY 

HARRY H. CHAPMAN, JR. 

MARY C. CHARLESWORTH 

GEORGE E. CHRISTIAN, JR. 

ADELAIDE COMEGYS 

JOHN D. CONNOLLY 

W. H. "SKIP" COX II 

LINDA WOODBURY DEAL 

THOMAS C. DEAS, JR. 

COL. (RET) WAYNE C. EDWARDS 

DR. T. EDWIN EVANS 

EDWARD W. FITZGERALD 

DAVID A. HANDLEY 

STEPHANIE C. HART 

JOHN C. HASSETT 

DR. ROBERT G. HAUSER 

JOHN T. HAY 

C. PAUL HILLIARD 

MR. & MRS. STEPHEN HOLSTAD 

DR. JOHN S. JOSEY 

JERRY M.KENNY 

RICHARD ALAN LANHAM 

PHILIP PARKER LARSON 

LAURENCE B. LEVINE 

CRAIG LEWIS 

DOUGLAS L. LOOS 

J. WILLIAM LOVELACE 

GERARD P. LYNCH 

PHILIP J.LYONS 

FRANK C. MARSHALL 

JOHN DAVID MARSHALL 

ROBERT L. MAXWELL 

FINEST HOUR 108/26

JAMES McGEDDES 

W STUART McKEE 

DR. FORREST C. MISCHLER 

DANIEL N. MYERS 

ROBERT P. ODELL, JR. 

DR. JACK D. PROCTOR 

AUSTIN D. RINNE 

DR. DAVID R. SALTER 

LT. COL. HILLEL SAMISCH 

WILLIAM D. SCHAUB 

ROBERT C. SCHULER 

DR. JOHN L. SCHULTZ 

ROBERT J.SCOTT, JR. 

ALAN SHAW 

L. NEAL SMITH, JR. 

MR. & MRS. 

DONALD L. STEPHENS, JR. 

REESE TAYLOR 

ROBERT I. TOLL 

BRONSON TWEEDY 

RICHARD G. URSCHEL 

KATHLEEN A. UTZ 

DR. DAVID H. WATSON 

DR. ALLEN P. WEBB 

NORMAN E. WEST 

DR. GERALD L. ZEITLIN 

ROBERT R. ZIEMER 

Heritage Fund Donors to $100 

THOMAS D. ABERT 

DONALD W. ABRAMS 

STEPHEN H. ALTENDERFER 

DR. C. V. ANDERSON 

ROBERT E. BAGGOTT 

PROF. DONALD G. BAKER 

SCOTT A. BALTHASER 

RICHARD D. BATCHELDER, JR. 

PHILLIP A. BATTAGLIA 

DOUGLAS P. BEALL 

ROBERT W. BECKMAN 

DAVID R. BILLINGSLEY 

DAVID A. BOYDEN 

R. G. CHAMBERLAIN, JR. 

CHESTER L. COOPER 

GEORGE COWBURN 

CHRISTINE D. CURRIER 

D. GEORGE DAVIS 

EDWARD DEC 

ROBERT H.DUNN 

DAVID C. ELKS 

JUDGE WILLIAM E. EUBANK 

EDWARD R. FLENZ 

DR. TYLER FRIZZELL 

GEORGE A. GERBER 

JOHN L. GIBSON 

GAIL R. GREENLY 

ANDREW J. GUILFORD 

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OSCAR B. HOFSTETTER, JR. 

DR. LEE S. HORNSTEIN 

PETER E.HOSEY 

DR. SELMA & NATHAN HUGHES 

ROBERT R. HUNT 

CLARENCE M. HUNT, JR. 

W. QUINN KELLY 

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MAX L. KLEINMAN 

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EVERETT W LADD, JR. 

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JORDAN MERSKY 

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COLEMAN W. MORTON 

MR. & MRS. MORRIS A. NUNES 

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DR. JEFFREY WALLIN 

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CURTJ. ZOLLER 

Churchill Center Associates 

Winston Churchill Associates 

CHURCHILL CENTER & ICS USA 

MR. & MRS. MATTHEW B. WILLS 

MR. & MRS. PARKER H. LEE, III 

ALEX M. WORTH, JR. 

FRED FARROW 

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DAVID & DIANE BOLER 

RAY L. & PATRICIA M. ORBAN 

ANNENBERG FOUNDATION 

DAVID & CAROLE NOSS 

MR. & MRS. ANTHONY E. GILLES 

ELIZABETH CHURCHILL SNELL 

WENDY RUSSELL REVES 

Clementine Churchill Associates 

BARBARA F. & 


JAMESELANE 

DRS. JOHN & SUSAN MATHER 

D. CRAIG & LORRAINE HORN 

LJNDA & CHARLES PLATT 

j AMB.& MRS. PAUL H. ROBINSON, JR 

! RONALD D.ABRAMSON 

JEANETTE & ANGELO GABRIEL 

JAMES R & LUCILLE I. THOMAS 

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL 

Mary Soames Associates 

MR. & MRS. WILLIAM C. IVES 

JACQUELINE & MALCOLM WITTER 

MR. & MRS. JOHN G. PLUMPTON 

GARYJ. BONINE 

MR. & MRS. JAMES W. MULLER 

HON. DOUGLAS S. RUSSELL 

FRED & MARTHA HARDMAN 

MR. & MRS. RICHARD A. LEAHY 

RICHARD & JENNY STREIFF 

MR. & MRS. GERALD 

DRAKE KAMBESTAD 

DANIEL & SUSAN BORINSKY 

ROBERT M. STEPHENSON 

MICHAEL W MICHELSON 

DONA & BOB DALES 

JEFFREY & KAREN DE HAAN 

CYRIL & HARRIET MAZANSKY 

DAMON WELLS, JR. 

NANCY H. CANARY 

ELAINE KENDALL 

LOIS BROWN 

NANCY BOWERS 

RUTH & LAURENCE GELLER » 

FINEST HOUR 108/27

Wit& 

Wisdom / 

LUCE LUCID ON LEONARD 

In an article entitled "10 

Friends," Forbes FYI (supplement to 

the regular Forbes magazine), Autumn 

2000, William E Buckley, Jr. profiles 

Clare Boothe Luce, relating a story that 

Mrs. Luce apparently told him. 

-Scott Mantsch 

"She interwove, with her 

instructions on how to paint, recollections 

of her experience with canvas 

and oils. Just after the war she went 

with her husband to England and 

spent the weekend with Winston 

Leonard Spencer Churchill at 

Chartwell. 'I tried to be especially 

ingratiating because Harry [Luce] 

wanted U.S. rights for Life magazine 

of Churchill's war memoirs. So passing 

through one gallery I said, "These 

are wonderful paintings." He said, 

"I'm glad you like them, but only one 

of them is painted by me."' 

"She flashed her sly, infectious 

smile, and then a little snort of laughter. 

'I thought, Oh dear, that makes 

me sound very sycophantic. I asked 

which one was his, and he pointed to 

a pastoral scene, a field of some sort. 

I thought I'd better do something to 

establish my critical independence. I 

said I liked it but I thought it was 

too—placid, lacking in movement. 

Three weeks later in New York the 

same painting arrived, but on it were 

three sheep bouncing about. His note 

read, 'Is that any better' Harry told 

me later that my effrontery probably 

ended up costing Time Inc. $ 1 million 

more than they'd have had to 

pay for his memoirs." 

THE SHORT-SNORTERS 

Mark Weber, Tucson, Arizona, 

advises that Churchill was a Short- 

Snorter according to Michael Daunt 

OBE, a test pilot for the early 

Gloucester jet aircraft in 1942-43. 

On 19 April 1943 a demo of the 

plane was laid on for Churchill. 

Daunt states: "Not very many 

pilots had then flown the Atlantic or 

Pacific Oceans; those that had started 

up the Short-Snorter Club. Each 

member carried a dollar bill on 

which was written his name and the 

fact that he was a Short-Snorter. If it 

so happened that one or two members 

were gathered together and one 

failed to produce his bill, he then 

had to buy drinks for all present. 

Short-Snorters meeting for the first 

time would not only challenge, but 

also sign each others' dollar bill." On 

this flight, Daunt taxied back to 

where Churchill was standing and 

was introduced to him. Having 

heard that WSC was an Honorary 

Member of the Short-Snorters Club, 

he asked if the PM had his dollar 

bill, and would he honour him with 

a signature Churchill produced his 

bill and they exchanged signatures. 

Mark has found Daunt's $ 1 

Canadian bill with Daunt's name and 

"Short Snorter April 14. 1943." There 

are at least nineteen signatures on the 

bill, including "W S Churchill." 

Mark reminds us of a similar 

honor, the Loyal Order of the 

Winkle, of which Churchill was also 

a member, having received his winkle 

in Hastings, a scene pictured in 

Finest Hour awhile back (perhaps 

someone will remind us where). 

Churchill was obliged always to carry 

his winkle. If another member was to 

command, "Winkle Up," any member 

unable to produce his winkle had 

to buy drinks for the assembly. The 

Duke of Edinburgh was among the 

club's distinguished members. It is 

not on record that Churchill was 

ever called upon to "Winkle Up," 

but if he were he would surely fail, 

since he rarely bothered to carry 

change in his pocket.... 

Which suggests as ephemeral 

the lovely story about Lloyd George 

outside the Chamber of the House 

of Commons, accosting the passing 

Churchill at one of the newly 

installed pay-telephones: "Winston, 

can you loan me sixpence so I can 

ring a friend" Churchill (after a 

lengthy display of fishing in his 

pockets): "Here, David, is a shilling 

—now you can ring all your friends." 

DEFINITELY AW OUR MAN 

At a shop 

in Woodstock, 

Oxford, 

Churchill 

Center 

treasurer 

Craig 

Horn had 

the good 

taste to 

pass up 

this postcard, 

c.l 914 and captioned "Young 

Winston. Our First Lord." The editor, 

clearly with no taste or propriety 

at all, paid £5 for it, sent a copy to 

Lady Soames, and stood back. Her 

reply: "I am sorry you wasted £5 on 

that totally un-lookalike picture supposedly 

of my father in infancy— 

revolting little child not remotely 

alike, and dressed all wrong for the 

period! I am ashamed of you!" The 

editor protested that he bought the 

card as a public service to remove it 

from the market. Lady Soames was 

not impressed. Barnum was right: 

there's a sucker born every minute. Mi 

FINEST HOUR 108/28

Gli impses: 

LATE ENCOUNTERS 

WITH CHRISTINA 

(1) Cuban Connections 

Maurice Baird-Smith DFC 

Iwas the last President of The Royal Dutch Shell Group in 

Cuba, leaving when the company was nationalized by Fidel 

Castro. It so happened that at around this time, Sir Winston 

Churchill was cruising the Caribbean aboard Aristotle Onassis's 

yacht Christina with Onassis and Anthony and Nonie (his first 

wife) Montague Browne. 

Over sixty years before, Churchill had gone to Cuba as 

an observer and reporter covering the Cuban revolt against 

Spain. He naturally expressed an interest in Castro's revolution, 

and Onassis agreed to divert Christina to Havana so that 

Churchill could talk to "El Jefe." Unfortunately, the British Foreign 

Office persuaded Sir Winston not to go to Cuba—in my 

opinion, a silly mistake. He might have had some positive influence. 

Who knows 

One day a very agitated Cuban—I've forgotten his 

name—came to see me in the Shell Office. He had never met 

Churchill but was a great admirer, to the point that he kept him 

supplied with the finest Cuban cigars, along with gift bottles of 

the very best Cognac. Churchill had sent him some of his paintings, 

which the Cuban treasured greatly. 

The Cuban was frightened that his property might be 

confiscated in Castro's rapid communization process and that 

he might lose his paintings in the process. Could I help him I 

was convinced that Shell itself was going to be confiscated, but 

felt I might not be the best person to do what he asked— 

namely to ship the paintings out of Cuba to a safe haven. I told 

him I would speak to the Dutch or British Ambassador. I can't 

remember which agreed to help, but in any case, all went well. I 

have often wondered where those paintings are today. 

A related story told to me by Sir Winston's son-in-law, 

Christopher Soames (later Lord Soames) was that, though Sir 

Winston was a connoisseur of cigars, he wasn't so of Cognac. 

So, Christopher used to decant the Cuban's good Cognac and 

replace it with a run-of-the-mill product! This may well be an 

apocryphal story but is worth recording as Christopher and 

Winston Churchill enjoyed a very warm and close relationship. 

Mr. Baird-Smith (mbairdsmit@aol.com) is retired from the Shell 

International Oil Company, and divides his time between Ft. Lauderdale, 

Florida and the south of France. He first related these experiences 

to Charles Plan of the CC Board of Governors. 

Mr. Crookshank, a member of ICS UK,was aide-de-camp to the 

Governor of Gibraltar. His story was brought to our attention by Paul 

Courtenay, Hon. Secretary of ICS UK. 

(2) Reminiscences from the Rock 

John Crookshank 

Having been lucky enough to see and hear Winston 

Churchill in the House of Commons during his last 

period in power after the 1951 Conservative victory, I 

was even luckier to meet him, albeit in a menial capacity, when 

he visited Gibraltar in the late 1950s, aboard Aristotle Onassis's 

sleek, converted Canadian corvette Christina. I was ADC to the 

Governor. 

By 1958, when the graceful, all-white Christina first 

called at Gibraltar with her somewhat special passenger, he was 

elderly and infirm. Nevertheless, these visits to the Rock were 

memorable for Gibraltar. For Churchill, they probably comprised 

the last direct impressions he ever received of the Empire 

which had meant so much to him, and for which he had striven 

for so long and so hard. 

Christina would pick up a mooring in the naval base 

near what is now the entrance to Queensway Marina. On one 

such visit in September 1958, when the Governor was returning 

to Gibraltar from a day at sea in the new fleet carrier HMS 

Eagle, we passed quite close to the stern of Christina. The crew, 

their faces aglow with excitement, manned every vantage point 

to look down at the diminutive figure on the yacht's quarterdeck. 

Sir Winston looked up with obvious pride as the long 

grey wall of the carrier slid past. 

Once when we collected Sir Winston from Christina 

for a drive to the airport, Gibraltarians thronged the narrow 

streets to catch a glimpse of him. Another time, when he dined 

at "The Convent" (the Governor's residence), huge crowds 

packed Convent Square. At dinner he waxed eloquent about 

Eden and Suez with the Governor, Sir Charles Keightley, who 

had commanded the aborted British military operation there. 

That same year Lady Churchill passed through Gibraltar 

on her way to stay at Tangier with the British Consul General, 

Bryce Nairn, and his wife, Margaret—old friends from 

1944 in Marrakech where Bryce Nairn had been British Consul. 

During the stopover at Gibraltar, Lady Churchill had coffee 

with John Revell, the RAF Group Captain commanding the 

station, who asked rather earnestly: "May we be permitted to 

ask how Sir Winston is" Lady Churchill responded quick as a 

flash: "I think he must be very well because I read in my Daily 

Mail this morning that he was having lunch two days ago with 

Miss Greta Garbo and wearing a new white alpaca suit—when 

he left London he did not have a new white alpaca suit!" $! 

FINEST HOUR 108/29

FROM BRITISH CASSANDRA 

TO AMERICAN HERO 

The Churchill Legend in the World War II American Medi la 

JONATHAN SIKORSKY 

Amessenger of disaster and misfortune in Greek 

mythology was Cassandra, lovely maiden daughter 

of King Priam of Troy. The god Apollo offered 

Cassandra the gift of prophecy in exchange for favors 

commonly asked of beautiful young women. She gladly 

accepted Apollo's gift, but slyly reneged on her part of the 

bargain. Frustrated and angry, Apollo sought revenge by 

ensuring that none followed her prophetic advice. Cassandra 

predicted the disastrous Trojan War, but her desperate 

attempts to warn her father proved futile. After the fall of 

Troy, the mythical Cassandra was captured and carried to 

Greece, where she faded into obscurity... until she was 

reincarnated in the 1930s as Winston Churchill. 

Churchill was seen as a modern Cassandra who 

foretold a disastrous war started by Adolf Hitler. The outbreak 

of war in 1939 seemed to vindicate Churchill. Likewise 

vindicated were his suspicions of the Soviet Union, in 

light of the Stalin-Hitler non-aggression pact, his assessments 

of Nazi intentions and renewed German militarism, 

his criticisms of Neville Chamberlain's Munich 

agreement, and his vision of Britain as a global force for 

democracy and human progress. 1 The day Churchill became 

Prime Minister in 1940, a U.S. radio reporter in 

London commented that he had voiced "unheeded warnings" 

and that "he enters office with the tremendous advantage 

of being the man who was right." 2 

The U.S. media delighted in telling stories of 

Churchill's predictive powers and embellished his prophecies. 

In March 1941, The New York Times Magazine ran 

"An Amazing Prophecy by Winston Churchill," excerpts 

from speeches that Churchill had made in 1936, as Germany 

remilitarized the Rhineland. Churchill was portrayed 

as the one voice that had foretold events. As with 

Cassandra, Churchill's prophecy was ignored. 3 But one 

important difference between Cassandra and Churchill 

Mr. Sikorsky (ajsbns@aol.com) is a doctoral student in Chandler, Arizona. 

This article is abridged from the first chapter of his dissertation. 

was noted by the 

media. Unlike the 

old Greek myth, 

Churchill's advice was finally 

accepted, averting the fall of Britain and 

the collapse of European democracy. Then, in the 

global war which developed, Churchill was transformed 

into an international hero. 

Part of Churchill's prophetic image in the United 

States was founded upon his numerous articles for Collier's 

in the 1930s. Since the start of the Spanish Civil War in 

1936, Churchill had argued that Nazis and Communists 

were bent on dividing the world between them. In articles 

designed to arouse public concern with world events, 

Churchill stressed Anglo-American ties and insisted that 

free nations could not survive in a world dominated by 

dictators. Three months before World War II he made a 

hopeful, if not desperate, plea in predicting that the 

American people would be so repulsed by Nazi aggression 

that the "New World would come storming to the rescue 

of the Old." In the autumn of 1940, what seemed most 

prophetic to the editors of Collier's were Churchill's articles 

that challenged the ability of air power to terrorize 

civilians and subjugate nations. Collier's reminded its readers 

that, only months before the Blitz, Churchill had proclaimed 

that air assaults on civilian populations were 

criminal acts that would lead the perpetrators to their own 

demise. 4 As the British people rallied round Churchill's 

defiance of Nazi air attacks, Collier's admired how the 

Royal Air Force had proved Churchill correct. 

When war abruptly halted Churchill's writing, 

the radio became the primary medium by which he communicated 

with the public. Beginning with the Battle of 

Britain, the BBC beamed Churchill's messages directly to 

the United States. The text of each broadcast was typically 

reprinted in major U.S. newspapers and magazines, which 

allowed commentators to put his words in context for 

American audiences. Churchill's speeches were considered 

FINEST HOUR IOS/30

Left: Henry Luce's pro-British Time for 4 September 1939, quoting Churchill: 

"The blow has been struck." Inside were lurid stories of war preparations, Time 

anticipating "100,000 air-bombing casualties a month" in London, a somewhat 

exaggerated figure, as the jolly PM would later note. Churchill appeared seven 

times (six by himself) on Time covers from 1923 to 1951; four appearances came 

in World War II, including one group illustration with Roosevelt and Stalin. 

highly entertaining and served as valuable propaganda. 

Edward R. Murrow, the leading U.S. radio reporter in 

wartime London, said that Churchill had the advantage of 

being the best broadcaster in Britain. 5 Murrow later 

summed up the feeling of most in the news media when 

he ascended Churchillian heights himself in proclaiming 

that Churchill had "mobilized the English language and 

sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen and 

hearten the Europeans upon whom the long dark night of 

tyranny had descended." 6 

A collection of Churchill's public pronouncements 

between May 1938 and February 1941 {Into Battle 

in the British edition) were published in the U.S.A. under 

the title, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, The book became a national 

best seller and its title a Churchillian hallmark. Reviews 

hailed it as a portrait of the greatest statesman of the 

modern era. The Saturday Review of Literature suggested 

that "If British democracy wins the war, Winston 

Churchill will rank with Abraham Lincoln in the annals 

of freedom." 7 Americans generally agreed that Churchill 

passed the true test of democratic leadership by reaching 

the masses without resorting to demagoguery or compromising 

his principles. 

Effective as Churchill was as a writer and speaker, 

he required the assistance of the many foreign correspondents 

who covered the Blitz. The most important U.S. 

journalist in London was the aforementioned Ed Murrow, 

head of CBS's European bureau, who broadcast war news 

on a nightly 15-minute program. Beginning each program 

with his famous call words, "This is London," Murrow 

allowed Americans to experience vicariously what it 

was like to live in London during the war. Once live 

broadcasts during air raids became part of Murrow's routine, 

Americans could hear sirens wailing, bombs exploding, 

and anti-aircraft guns firing into the night sky. From 

London rooftops, streets, and shelters, Murrow and his 

colleagues brought the war to American living rooms and 

communicated war sounds more powerfully than print. 

Murrow later recalled that his impressions of prewar 

England, like those of many Americans, were mostly 

negative. Before 1939, he thought the English offensively 

class conscious, indifferent and complacent: "I admired 

your history, doubted your future, and suspected that the 

historians had merely agreed upon a myth." 8 

With the onset of war, Murrow perceived a 

change. He noted that repeated visits to public air raid 

shelters promoted class interaction. 9 When bombs fell on 

Buckingham Palace, he discussed how the war had symbolized 

the demise of old values and traditional bases of 

power and prestige. 10 He later declared that Britain, then 

undergoing "a revolution of consent," had signaled the 

end of the age of aristocracy. 11 Having been won over by 

the people of London, Murrow gave his listeners a new 

image of Great Britain: its society had become less rigid, 

more democratic. According to Murrow, Britain had become 

more like the United States. 

To Murrow, Churchill's Premiership was the most 

important event of 1940. 12 He acknowledged that "so 

long as Winston Churchill is Prime Minister, the House 

of Commons will be given an opportunity to defend its 

traditions and to determine the character of government 

that is to rule this country." 13 The House of Commons 

was a democratic body, the traditions he spoke of were 

those of representative government. For the American 

people, Murrow showed how the war had transformed 

Britain into a bastion of democracy, thanks in no small 

part to Winston Churchill. 

The image of Churchill—courageously standing 

alone against Hitler and Nazi Germany—proved irresistible, 

as increasingly the U.S. media served as a vehicle 

for British wartime propaganda. In articles that appeared 

in Time, Life, the Saturday Evening Post, Readers' Digest, 

The New York Times Magazine, and even The New Republic, 

Churchill was used to symbolize values that British officials 

knew were extolled in the United States: courage 

and perseverance, individual initiative, self-reliance, hard 

work, generosity, and love of freedom and independence. 

Called a progressive Tory, a self-made aristocrat, and "the 

Rough Rider of Downing Street," Churchill was depicted 

as standing for tolerance, equality, and social justice, 

things he had not always been feted for by his political opponents 

back home. 1 ^ Such wartime characterizations 

prompted sympathy for the underdog and encouraged 

Americans to see admirable qualities in both the British 

nation and its leader. When compared to Hitler, Churchill 

symbolized all that was good in the Western World. 

The superlatives used to describe Churchill became 

cliches as neutrality waned in the United States and 

Churchill's popularity rose. Several weeks before President 

Roosevelt publicly announced his Lend-Lease plan in January 

1941, Murrow implied that the United States was 

obligated to aid Britain and that assistance as a non- » 

FINEST HOUR 108/31

• / • • ' ! • " ' • • . 

CASSANDRA TO HERO... 

belligerent was not enough. 15 At the end of 1940, 

Churchill was named "Man of the Year" by Time. 16 By 

1941, articles portrayed him as the personification of all 

that was good: "there are no neutral hearts, Winston 

Churchill, except those that have stopped beating." 17 

One of the most a strident critics of American 

isolationism was Henry Luce, chairman of the board and 

editor-in-chief of Time Inc. Disturbed by what he believed 

was widespread indifference to the war, Luce used 

his magazines to bring it to the forefront of public debate. 

Time was 

among the 

first to label 

the conflict 

"World War 

II," in part to 

heighten 

public concern. 

18 In 

July 1940, 

Luce sent a 

confidential 

memo to his 

senior executives 

that 

stated the 

company's 

position on 

WINSTON 

cni Rcnn i ' 

\\\R SP1 KIHS 

the world crisis. This memo reads like a mission statement: 

1) continue to sound the danger signal; 2) cultivate 

martial spirit; 3) demonstrate that America is worth fighting 

for; 4) criticize delays and mishandlings of preparedness; 

5) develop a sense of foreign policy among as many 

readers as possible. 19 After traveling to Europe following 

France's fall in 1940, Luce called for increased aid to 

Britain. He so admired Churchill that the wartime Prime 

Minister became a favorite of both Time and Life, two of 

the most powerful publications in the United States. 

In June 1941, Churchill received an Honorary Doctorate 

of Laws from the University of Rochester. This 

was the first such honor awarded to him by a university 

in the United States. Churchill could not accept the 

degree in person, but the ceremonial message and his 

reply were broadcast on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Churchill was honored for "his distinction as a historian, 

his position as the elected leader of a great and friendly 

democracy, [and] the courage, candor, and effectiveness 

with which he is leading his nation." The presentation was 

made by the university's president, Alan Valentine, a 

Quaker and close friend of arch-isolationist Charles Lindbergh, 

who in 1939 and 1940 had campaigned to prevent 

the United States from joining Britain in war. 20 

Media coverage of the Atlantic Conference in August 

1941 confirmed Anglo-American cooperation, as newsreels 

and magazines carried images that symbolized agreement 

between Churchill and President Roosevelt. The most 

potent images were of the Anglo-American church service 

on the quarterdeck of HMS Prince of Wales. The Sunday 

meeting affirmed 

Christian 

unity, with 


BLOOD 

SWEAT 

and 

TEARS 

and Roosevelt 

sitting 

together, 

singing the 

same hymns 

and praying 

together, 

while war 

planes circled 

the sky 

above, 

armed boats 

patrolled the 

surrounding waters, and the batdeship's massive guns stood 

ready. The service, conveying not only unity of purpose but 

unity of strength, gave the impression that the two nations 

were already bound together for a mighty undertaking. 21 

Immediately following Japan's attack on Pearl 

Harbor and Germany's declaration of war on the United 

States, Churchill resolved to meet Roosevelt again in order 

to coordinate strategy. With war enthusiasm rampant in 

Washington, the media had a field day with Churchill's 

visit. It was the first by a British premier during wartime, 

the second time that a British prime minister had addressed 

Congress, and the first British mission at the 

White House since the one that arrived for an entirely different 

purpose in 1814. 22 Churchill's primary aim was to 

convince the United States that the Atlantic and Europe 

were the most vital theaters of war. He so successfully 

achieved his goal that there was an impression that he 

could have had whatever he wanted at the end of 1941. 

On the afternoon of December 23rd, Churchill 

and Roosevelt conducted a joint press conference for 

Churchill's first volume of war speeches, edited by his son Randolph, was published in America as 

Blood, Sweat, and Tears (right). Sales overwhelmed those of the English edition (lefi). The most 

successful title until his war memoirs, it paid off all his bills, and most of Randolph's as well. 

FINEST HOUR 108/32

about 200 journalists and broadcasters in the Presidents 

executive office. Churchill, seated in the back of the room, 

could not be seen very well by the crowd of reporters. 

When the President introduced him, he suggested that 

the Prime Minister stand to give his audience a better 

view. After Churchill climbed on his chair to be seen better, 

"loud and spontaneous cheers and applause rang 

through the room." Although Churchill had some difficulty 

hearing, his wit charmed everyone. He quipped, "If 

we manage [the war] well, it will only take half as long [to 

win] as if we manage it badly." Later he was asked if he 

considered the U.S. entry into the war as one of its "great 

climacterics." Churchill smiled and answered in his best 

Texan drawl, "I sho' do." 23 Newsweek reported that the 

spontaneous and "lusty cheers" were the first in the annals 

of presidential press conferences. 24 

The most dramatic event of Churchill's three-week 

visit was his appearance before a joint session of 

Congress in the Senate chamber on December 

26th. The contents of the speech were less revealing than 

the media's coverage of the address and its enthusiastic reception. 

Newsweek reported that the chamber was packed 

with senators, representatives, Supreme Court justices, 

cabinet members, diplomats, reporters, congressional secretaries 

and citizens. When Churchill entered the room, 

he received a standing ovation. Amid the cheers, he slowly 

walked onto the rostrum, situated his shell-rimmed 

glasses, adjusted his notes, and began to speak. 

He "made eyes glisten with his tender reference to 

his American mother." He made his audience laugh when 

he joked that if his father, instead of his mother, had been 

an American, it might not had taken him so long to address 

Congress. "He entwined himself still further in the 

American tradition by offering allegiance to the Gettysburg 

idea of government of the people, by the people, for 

the people." 25 Life commented how Churchill had triumphantly 

"uncovered some of the most telling oratory 

that ever echoed within the Senate walls," as "he held erstwhile 

isolationists spellbound with the power of his 

prose." 26 Time, wondering whether the gallery had ever 

before heard "such a moving and eloquent speech," believed 

"it was not so much the speech as the personality 

that put it over." 27 When Churchill ended, he signaled 

"V" for Victory. As cameras flashed, Chief Justice Harlan 

E Stone replied with his own "V." Newsweek concluded 

that Churchill had received "the greatest ovation which 

has been accorded to any person in that chamber in living 

,,90 

memory... z ° 

Right: Time's second Churchill 

cover of the war, 30 Septembt > 

1940, as Luce's magazine reported 

Britain's successful resistance 

to the London Blitz. 

"In Parliament, "Time reported, 

"his position was 

stronger than ever." He 

was "a noble man. " 

The next 

morning, the 

front page of The 

New York Times 

featured Mr. 

Churchill in various poses during 

his address with the headline: "British 

Prime Minister Speaks and Members of Congress and Cabinet 

Listen." 29 Time, the following week, beneath the photo 

of "Churchill Before Congress," had a caption that simply 

stated, "This was a man Americans liked." The accompanying 

article maintained that Churchill's arrival had been like 

"a breath of fresh air, giving Washington new vigor, for he 

came as a new hero." 30 Life summed it up by concluding: 

"... Churchill sold Washington on die war and on Britain. 

And he sold America on himself." 31 

The first wartime visit contributed much to the 

Churchillian folklore that has been preserved over the 

decades. One of the best and most often told stories is 

how Churchill appeared "stark naked and gleaming pink" 

before the president. 32 Walter Thompson, Churchill's personal 

bodyguard, recalled that shortly after Churchill arrived 

at the White House, he went upstairs to his suite to 

unpack and bathe. While Churchill was splashing about 

in the tub and inspector Thompson was checking over the 

room, there was a knock at the door. Thompson opened 

the door and was surprised to find President Roosevelt in 

his wheelchair all alone. Thompson remembered the President 

looking "curiously beyond me, not with fright but 

with something very unlike approval." Thompson turned 

around to see Churchill standing in man's most natural 

state, smiling cordially, a drink in one hand, a cigar in the 

other. When Roosevelt tried to excuse himself, Churchill 

insisted that he come in. In Thompson's words, "the 

Prime Minister posed briefly and ludicrously before the 

President," then said, "you see, Mr. President, I have 

nothing to hide." 33 

Much of the Churchill folklore that took shape 

during the war involved tales of his smoking and drinking. 

In October 1943, James Reston of The New >» 

FINEST HOUR 108/33


York Times, wrote a light-hearted appraisal of Churchill's 

cigars. Reston joked that it takes a man of great popularity 

to get away (in newsreels) with puffing smoke at people. 

He recounted Churchill's flight to Moscow, after which 

the co-pilot exclaimed, "he filled the plane so full of 

smoke that we had to open the bomb doors." 34 One of 

Churchill's more celebrated quotes came from a conversation 

that purportedly took place when General Bernard 

Montgomery was appointed 

by Churchill to 

command the British 

Eighth Army. According 

to the Associated 

Press, Montgomery 

commented, "I don't 

smoke, I don't drink, 

and I am 100 percent 

fit." Churchill replied, 

"I both smoke and 

drink, and I am 200 

percent fit." 35 

Drinking, and 

especially smoking, did 

not carry the same negative 

connotations with 

Americans in the 1940s 

that they do today. Alcohol 

had been rejuvenated 

by the repeal of 

Prohibition, and the 

dangers of smoking 

were not fully understood. During the war, rumors of 

Churchill's drinking capacity projected a manly image and 

his cigars were tangible symbols captured frequently on 

film. His drinking and smoking were not viewed as detrimental 

to his work, but only served to enhance his popularity. 

It became part of the legend that Churchill outdrank 

the Russians and out-smoked the Americans, but 

had the prowess to out-fight the enemy. 

Much of Churchill's popularity was derived from 

the impression that he was made for the job of 

leading his country. A terrific showman, he 

performed all his tasks with vigor, as he always seemed on 

the move. A child's impression of Churchill during the 

war read as follows: "Mr. Churchill is a very busy man. He 

never seems to be in the place we think he is. He smokes a 

lot of cigars. I wonder where he gets them. He annoys the 

enemy a lot by holding up two fingers and by calling 

them Naarzies.... He is a very busy man." 3^ 

During the Blitz, British newsreels captured the 

energy of Churchill's wartime leadership. He was shown 

visiting factories, shipyards, and portions of cities demolished 

by German bombs. Cantering rather than walking, 

he always seemed to be in a hurry. He carried walking 

sticks, which were not crutches, but devices to prod and 

strike. He chewed cigars and flashed his V-signs for victory, 

or gave two 

thumbs up. The 

"Mr. Churchill is a very busy 

man. He never seems to be in 

the place we think he is. 

He smokes a lot of cigars. 

I wonder where he gets them. 

He annoys the enemy a lot by 

holding up two fingers and by 

calling them Naarzies.... 

He is a very busy man." 

A CHILD'S LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES, 22 AUGUST 1943 

British bulldog became 

the "superman with 

the big cigar." 3 '' 

Before the United 

States entered the war, 

such images were rarely 

shown to American audiences. 

Efforts by private 

newsreel companies 

to capture the war 

on film were lackluster. 

Despite public interest 

in the war, many theater 

owners remained 

reluctant to show war 

footage because they 

regarded movies as an 

escape from harsh realities. 

Newsreels continued 

to focus on sports 

and other news stories 

that had entertainment value. It was widely accepted that 

hard news was most effectively disseminated through 

print or over the radio. Furthermore, the United States in 

1940-1941 was still divided over how to respond to the 

global crisis. Some theaters even proclaimed their neutrality 

with signs that read, "no war news shown here." 

Beginning in 1942, Churchill appeared frequently 

on film. The images that had earlier boosted 

British morale now had a similar effect on audiences in 

the United States. Churchill was shown conferring with 

Allied leaders, inspecting Allied troops and positions, and 

parading before cheering crowds. Americans were especially 

fascinated by his attire. Held by some of his detractors 

to be an exhibitionist, Churchill dressed in a variety 

of costumes, including zippered blue or gray coveralls he 

called "siren suits." In September 1943, Churchill 

launched the Third U.S. War Loan drive by purchasing 


the first $ 100 bond from Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. 

Donning a white suit and lighting a fresh cigar, 

Churchill modeled what he thought the perfect costume 

for the 50,000,000 Americans to whom Morgenthau 

hoped to sell an extra $100 war bond. 38 

As the war went on, Churchill was occasionally 

upstaged. For example, in the newsreel footage of the 1943 

Teheran Conference, Churchill appeared as only one of the 

Big Three leaders, seated alongside Roosevelt and Joseph 

Stalin. Churchill looked tired as he slumped over in his 

chair, while Roosevelt sat next to Stalin, smiling and chatting 

with the Soviet leader. In contrast, Churchill seemed 

almost left out. Relying mainly on hindsight, some historians 

have used this particular episode to support the idea 

that Churchill had been demoted to junior partner and 

that Britain had become a second rate power. It is true 

that, by 1943, the British war effort had been overshadowed 

in the U.S. media by the growing might of the 

United States and the horrendous fighting in the Russian 

theater. Yet Churchill's warrior image remained largely intact. 

He had already secured the admiration and gratitude 

of the American people. He continued to be portrayed in a 

positive manner and remained immensely popular. 39 

On 8 May 1945, Churchill formally proclaimed 

an end to the war in Europe. Though he called 

for unity in the unfinished fight against Japan, it 

was clear that Britain's coalition government was splitting 

apart. Although Churchill's popularity was never in question, 

there was a growing sense in Britain that postwar issues 

required new approaches and solutions that the Conservative 

Party could not provide. This sense began to 

spread beyond Britain. Gradually, the American media 

gained a better understanding of British politics and the 

shifting mood of the electorate, although few commentators 

predicted that Churchill would lose his job. 

As the results of die British elections came pouring 

in on July 26th, it was clear that Labour had won by a landslide. 

After recovering from the initial shock, the U.S. 

media attempted to put the results in perspective. It was 

apparent that the overriding concern of the British electorate 

was not Churchill but employment and the rebuilding 

of the country. A reprint of an editorial from The Times 

of London suggested that contact with U.S. soldiers had 

impressed many Britons with the idea that a higher standard 

of living could be reached if traditional class restraints 

were replaced by more egalitarian practices. It was also explained 

that Churchill's willingness to support the far right 

in Italy, Spain, and Greece too closely resembled the old 

Right: "Man of the Year," in 

Time for 6 January 1941. 

Ten years later Time named 

Churchill "Man of the 

Half-Decade. "A half century 

on, Time declared 

him an implacable 

enemy of women's right! 

and Gandhi. 

Plus ca change... 

Tory adventurism.^0 

A popular 

notion in 

the United 

States was that 

the results signaled a repudiation 

of the Conservative Party for the 

practice of appeasement, which was blamed for leading to 

war. Solace was taken in the fact that, unlike the United 

States, the British electorate had to vote for a party, not a 

leader, and that Churchill himself was reelected. 

What later critics have called "the Churchill legend" 

developed almost naturally out of Churchill's 

achievements as a war leader and qualities as a statesman. 

He not only led his nation through its greatest peril, but 

came to embody British determination in sombre times. 

By injecting his personality into his statesmanship, he became 

a sensation in the U.S. media. More flamboyant, 

witty, and candid than most politicians, he always made 

good copy for reporters. He also carefully flattered the 

United States and its citizenry, which enhanced his popularity. 

He was adored by U.S. photographers who focused 

their lenses on his cigars, walking sticks and V-signs, all of 

which became Churchillian symbols. Although short, 

bald, and overweight, the media transformed him, wearing 

an assortment of suits and headgear, into an affable 

figure. Finding it easier to generate public support for a 

person rather than abstract ideas, the media latched on to 

Churchill and made him larger than life. Their promotion 

of Churchill cultivated the martial spirit and helped 

prepare the United States to defend its interests. 

It is an exaggeration to say that Winston Churchill 

cast U.S. leaders under his spell, but it is clear that 

through the American media, Churchill's legend charmed 

the American people. He was such a dominating personality 

throughout the war that, had he retired from public 

life in 1945, he still would have remained a hero in the 

United States. But Churchill's legend was to grow even 

larger, with ramifications that have outlasted the man. 

Footnotes overleaf... 

FINEST HOUR 108/35

Watch Tkis Space! 

CABINET WAR ROOMS MOVE TO EXPAND 

PHIL REED 

Mr. Reed (preed@iwm.org.uk) is curator of London's Cabinet 

War Rooms. His article is reprinted by permission from 

the Imperial War Room Despatches, August 2000. 

For the past few years I have been in severe danger of sounding 

like a squeaking door, the proverbial broken record and 

a clamorous news vendor combined. I cannot count the 

number of occasions on which I have said, in one form or another, 

"Watch This Space," as I promise news of plans to extend the 

Cabinet War Rooms. Now, like Churchill in his Mansion House 

speech after victory at El Alamein (something I hear repeated on 

the CWR sound system several times each day—forgive me if I 

sink into his rhetoric), I can announce: "We have a victory!" 

After six years of negotiations with the Treasury and its 

private sector partners, after the collapse of one PFI* scheme and 

its transformation into another, after a period which has seen a 

change of Director-Generals, the realisation of the American >» 


Footnotes 

1 Time, 4 September 1939, p. 24. 

2 CBS broadcast, 10 May 1940, on Edward R. Murrow, A Reporter 

Remembers: The War Yean, Vol. 1 (New York: Columbia Masterworks, 

1966), 33 1/3 rpm sound recording, In Search of Light: The 

Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, 1938-1961, edited by Edward Bliss 

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), p. 24. 

3 New York Times Magazine, 2 March 1941, p. 6. 

4 Collier's, 17 June 1939, p. 58; 2 November 1940, p. 17. 

' CBS broadcast, 10 May 1940, A Reporter Remembers. In 

Search of Light, p. 24. 

" D. F. Wenden, "Churchill, Radio, and Camera," in Churchill, 

edited by Robert Blake and William Roger Louis (Oxford University 

Press, 1993), p. 222. 

7 Saturday Review of Literature, 19 April 1941, p. 5. 

" CBS broadcast, 24 February 1946, A Reporter Remembers. 

9 CBS broadcast, 4 September 1939, A Reporter Remembers. 

10 CBS broadcast, 15 September 1940, in Edward R. Murrow, 

This is London (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941), p. 175. 

11 CBS broadcast, 1 October 1940, This is London, p. 196. 

12 CBS broadcast, 29 December 1940, This is London, p. 226. 

13 CBS broadcast, 9 March 1941, In Search of Light, p. 46. 

14 For characterizations of Churchill during the first two years 

of the war see Time, 30 September 1940, p. 22; 26 January 1941, p. 

23; 25 August 1941, p. 76; Life, 27 January 1941, p. 68; 21 April 

1941, p. 79; Saturday Evening Post, 21 October 1939, p. 5; Readers' 

Digest, January 1941, p. 119; June 1941, p. 79; New York Times Magazine, 

19 May 1940, p. 4; 8 September 1940, p. 7; 14 September 

1941, p. 3; 28 December 1941, p. 3; New Republic, 10 June 1940. p. 

787. During the war, the New Republic and The Nation were the most 

widely circulated journals that generally subscribed to a leftist ideological 

viewpoint. Both praised Churchill's defiance of Hitler, but regularly 

criticized his support of British imperial interests and handling of 

relations with the Soviet Union. 

15 CBS broadcast, 3 December 1940, This is London, pp. 216-7. 

16 Time, 6 January 1941, p. 23. 

17 Life, 26 January 1941, p.70. 

18 Robert T. Elson, Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing 

Enterprise, 1923-1941, edited by Duncan Norton-Taylor, Vol. 1 

(New York: Athenaeum, 1968), p. 409. 

19 Ibid., p. 429. 

20 Time, 23 June 1941, p. 59. 

21 See especially Life, 25 August 1941, pp. 26-29. 

22 The New York Times, 23 December 1941, p. 5. 

23 Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 

Vol. 18, no. 794, 23 December 1941 (New York: Da Capo Press, 

1972), pp. 382-92. 

24 Newsweek, 5 January 1942, p. 23. 

2 5 Ibid., p. 5. 

26 Life, 5 January 1942, p. 28. 

27 Time, 5 January 1942, p. 12. 

28 Newsweek, 5 January 1942, p. 19. 

29 The New York Times, 27 December 1941, p. 1. 

30 Time, 5 January 1942, p. 11. 

31 Life, 5 January 1942, p. 28. 

32 Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History 

(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), pp. 442-43. 

33 Walter Henry Thompson, Assignment Churchill (New York: 

Farrar, Straus and Young, 1955), p. 248. 

34 The New York Times Magazine, 17 October 1943, p. 33. 

35 The New York Times, 17 November 1942, p. 1. 

3< > The New York Times Magazine, 22 August 1943, p. 11. 

37 Wenden, "Churchill, Radio, and Cinema," p. 236. Martin 

Gilbert, The Complete Churchill. 4 Vols. Produced by BBC-TV in association 

with Arts and Entertainment Network, 1992. VHS video 

recordin 

3. The New York Times, 4 September 1943, p. 1. 

39 Radio Yesteryear. December 1940-1945. 8mm films 

40 Life, 6 August 1945, p. 26. 

FINEST HOUR 108/36

War Rooms... 

Air Museum and the Holocaust exhibition and the rise of 

the Imperial War Museum-North, the CWR has finally 

set its foot firmly on the path of its own expansion. 

As is the way with such long campaigns, the issue 

was resolved in a very short space of time, as all parties 

suddenly and very rudely found themselves up against immutable 

tight deadlines. After years of occasional meetings, 

drawn out correspondence and discussions over 

drinks at Departmental parties, in a matter of weeks a triangle 

of law firms, a bevy of consultants and a charm of 

government officials generated a pile of faxes, e-mails and 

notes of telephone conversations that now fill half a filing 

cabinet. 

The saga began in 1994 with the first announcement 

of a PFI scheme to develop the building under 

which we dwell, known by its rather biblical sounding sobriquet 

of GOGGS, or, more prosaically, Government 

Offices Great George Street. This seemed to me to offer 

the last chance for the CWR to "reclaim" the territory 

that it once owned, but which had been cruelly annexed 

since the war by the Ministry of Defence Photography 

Unit and HM Treasury's archive. Few people were even 

aware that what one sees today in the CWR is what it 

comprised in 1940; that by early 1941 it had grown by 

200% to accommodate a dining and kitchen facility for 

Winston and Clementine Churchill, a bedroom for her 

and rooms for detectives, servants and select ministers; 

and that by 1943 it housed major elements of military intelligence, 

planning and deception. 

The plan is to restore and open to die public the 

"Churchill suite" and ancillary rooms, to create an improved 

education and public information facility, to make 

a second shop to meet the growing demand, alongside a 

conference facility with all modern appurtenances, to 

make more entrances and exits (to accommodate anticipated 

greater numbers)—and! last but far from least—to 

establish, as an intrinsic part of the CWR, a museum covering 

the whole of Sir Winston Churchill's life, career and 

achievements. 

We now have firm legal agreements which will 

allow us to occupy these historic spaces in two phases by 

August 2002. The commercial developer of the GOGGS 

building, Stanhope pic, and its construction partner Bovis 

Lend Lease, have generously offered nearly half a million 

pounds worth of fee work, equipment and actual works to 

speed the project along and our consultants are beavering 

away to produce a full business plan, feasibility study and 

project presentation. And feelers are already out to find 

the funds necessary to realise the scheme which are currently 

loosely estimated at around eight million pounds. 

Any mention I make of the scheme to interested 

parties is consistently greeted with huge enthusiasm and 

an assertion of its worthwhile nature and inevitable success. 

I tend to feel the same, but, professionally I cannot 

let myself think that realisation of the project—and particularly 

the fund raising—will be quite as straightforward 

as many people would have me believe. As I look at the 

prospects for the next few years, die words of Churchill's 

1942 Mansion House speech again ring in the background: 

"This is not the end. This is not even the beginning 

of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning." 

Watch This Space! 

Ironically, as I sign up for more of it, space is the one 

tiling I am currently running out of. I have spent the 

last ten Saturdays in the company of our equally keen 

(for keen read mad) architectural consultant, crawling 

hundreds of yards on our bellies under the shallow steel 

girders of the slab (where we were rewarded with a stillcoiled-up 

hundred-yard length of barbed wire [What, no 

Nazi spies caught in it, Phil -Ed.] and a number of Second 

World War cigarette packets), wading through fetid 

water in the sub-basement (to find two pristine period 

pumps—and a lot of less-than-pristine detritus), and generally 

pillaging the Treasury for architectural reclamation: 

a rather elevated term to cover our snatching period furniture, 

light shades, spades, switches and signs. My office resembles 

that of the "Steptoes." The Treasury's corridors 

around here are tliose of a repossessor's yard. 

These exertions have combined with the efforts 

of those Friends who have kindly contributed small, but 

vital bits of office paraphernalia, to enable us to furnish 

several period rooms in our expansion. The solid support 

of the Treasury and the generosity of Stanhope and Bovis 

have set us well on our way to guaranteeing diat the first 

part of the expansion will be open within a matter of two 

to three years. I am confident that die small matter of several 

millions of pounds will be found and the whole 

"Churchill Project" completed within a matter of five to 

six years. As I always say: Watch This Space. $ 

*PFI = Private Finance Initiative, a scheme whereby the 

private sector pay for a building construction which is 

then rented back to the government for a few decades, before 

ownership reverts to the government. 


Succeed Admirably, 

Fail Anyway 

Richard M. Langwortn 

Churchill: His Radical 

Decade, by 

Malcolm Hill. 

London: Othila 

Press 1999. 144 

pp., large format, 

illustrated. 

Published at $35, 

member price $30 

In 1854 in the United States, President 

Franklin Pierce vetoed a bill to 

finance a federal hospital for the mentally 

ill because "I find nothing in the 

Constitution to authorize this." In 

1896, President Grover Cleveland opposed 

a bill for federal flood relief on 

the same grounds. Ten years later in 

Britain, when the Liberal Party swept 

into power in a landslide election, the 

ground shifted. The Liberal Government 

of 1906 held it a State responsibility 

to create what Churchill called "a 

Minimum Standard," below which no 

citizen should be allowed to fall. Not 

until the Franklin Roosevelt's New 

Deal did similar ideas arrive in America. 

Churchill's Liberals created a rudimentary 

welfare state twenty years before 

FDR, and might have extended it 

had World War I not intervened. 

Little has been published on 

Churchill's decade as radical-Liberal 

(roughly the first decade of the 20th 

century) when he became disenchanted 

with the Conservative Party, crossed 

the floor to the Liberals and, encouraged 

by Lloyd George, railed against 

the privileges of his class. Criss-crossing 

the country in what Alistair Cooke 

BOOKS, ARTS 

& CURIOSITIES 

compared to "a gigantic vaudeville act," 

Churchill and Lloyd George championed 

old age pensions, prison reform, 

unemployment insurance, public 

health care, and reform (if not elimination) 

of the House of Lords. Malcolm 

Hill, whose book addresses this obscure 

period, believes Churchill's quest was 

"hopeless" because he did not believe 

the state should "take responsibility by 

taxation for retirement, education, 

health and welfare"; but that Churchill 

showed "unusual stature" in his efforts 

to mitigate poverty, far in advance of 

better known reformers like Franklin 

Roosevelt. 

Hill argues that Churchill was as 

great a statesman in peace as well as 

war, and that his first decade in Parliament 

was his finest in peacetime. Nevertheless, 

Hill continues, the premature 

death in 1908 of the first Liberal Prime 

Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 

irrevocably altered the course of 

Churchill's party. From basic reforms 

to eliminate poverty, the Liberals 

moved to mitigate poverty's effects: 

treating the symptoms rather than the 

disease. Campbell-Bannerman's successor, 

Herbert Asquith, "had no creative 

political imagination" and allowed 

David Lloyd George, "a dazzling performer," 

to formulate domestic policy, 

with Churchill as his "admiring lieutenant." 

Together they devised "popular 

schemes for national insurance 

against unemployment and sickness, 

labour exchanges, schemes against 

'sweated labour' and the like, without 

thought of the reason why the great 

majority of society found themselves in 

such a condition of poverty." Hill 

claims this set back the course of true 

reform for a century to come. Really 

Hill considers Churchill's radical 

years in twelve chapters ranging from 

his entry into Parliament through the 

Parliament Bill debate of 1911, and in 

a final chapter, "The Passing of Radi- 

CHURCHILL CENTER BOOK 

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in the world; airmail extra). 

Mail with cheque to Churchill Center 

, PO Box 385, Contoocook NH 

03229 USA. Visa or Mastercard welcome; 

state name, numbers and expiration 

date and sign your order. 

calism" ("The End of Radicalism" as 

the chapter heads read in a rather 

loosely edited book). By 1912, Hill 

concludes, "the issues were slipping 

from political life. Churchill's love of 

the bright lights and ambition allowed 

the question to fade in his political 

thinking....The First World War finally 

buried liberal thinking." The promises 

of free trade and taxation reform, 

which Hill thinks would have helped 

to eliminate poverty at its root, were 

lost with the Great War. "Political 

thought has not recovered its pre-war 

scale. The people have become more 

heavily oppressed and government has 

become increasingly powerful, but impotent." 

The question Churchill asked 

still remains: "...what is the general 

cause in society of poverty among ablebodied 

persons That alone contains as 

large a question in peacetime as survival 

does in war. Why should such a 

noble creature as man live under injustice 

when not at war" 

The author, a biographer of 

Anne-Robert Turgot and Henry 

George, believes that their concept of 

community land value taxation was the 

key to eliminating poverty at its source. 

Turgot and George saw that "communities 

created land value as a natural 

fund for taxation and that all manmade 

things should be exempt from 

taxation." During settlement of the 

American West, wrote the American 

George, all went well "as long as settlers 

would work on free land. Earnings 

rose to what a man or woman could 

earn by themselves on their own land. 

But once land was fully enclosed...new 

arrivals had to seek work in competition 

with each other from landlords. 

Earnings fell to the least that a man 

would accept and that depended on 

the state of competition between those 

seeking work. A pool of unemployed 

FINEST HOUR JOS / 38

dragged the level of earnings to the 

minimum that an unemployed man 

would demand." 

Campbell-Bannerman and 

Churchill grasped the nature of 

poverty, Hill says, but Lloyd George 

didn't. Once Churchill attached himself 

to Lloyd George as junior lieutenant, 

true reform was lost to political 

expediency. Lloyd George had no political 

principles, Hill believes, and attempts 

at land value taxation were 

gradually whittled down and disappeared. 

Thus perished the opportunity 

truly to eliminate the cause of poverty, 

giving way to government sponsored 

welfare schemes paid for by direct taxation. 

"The people may go about with 

state spectacles and state dentures, but 

they may be made unemployed by the 

taxation required to pay for these 

things. Whereas the individual can take 

steps to remedy poor eyesight and poor 

teeth, he cannot overcome the condition 

of poverty himself." 

Almost alone among the Asquith 

cabinet, Hill continues, Churchill saw 

the truth but was unable to serve it. Yet 

his 1908 statements on taxation "merit 

inscription in gold lettering wherever 

men deliberate state expenditure": 

Taxation, raise it as you please, is a 

gross and unredeemable evil....All 

taxation is an evil, a necessary evil, 

if you will, but still an evil, in so 

far as taxation is concerned, harsh, 

unmingled, and unmitigated.... 

When the state takes arbitrarily 

from the savings or earnings of the 

people sums of money, great or 

small, it withdraws that money 

from the healthy fructifications of 

industry and trade and it diminishes—cannot 

fail to diminish— 

the consuming & productive energies 

of the people. 

It would take a better student of taxation 

and economics than this writer to 

evaluate Mr Hill's argument. For example, 

are the issues Turgot and George 

raised at the turn of the last century 

valid in a world where land has long 

been enclosed, where millionaires are 

created without any reference to landholdings 

But whatever his regrets over 

the opportunities squandered by 

Churchill's radical decade, Malcolm 

Hill has rendered a detailed and useful 

account of a little-known period in 

Churchill's career. 

It may be ironic that modern admirers 

of Sir Winston point to his role 

in creating the English Welfare State if, 

as Hill says, that concept was wrong 

from the beginning because it failed to 

address the root causes of poverty. It 

may also be that Churchill's accomplishments 

during 1904-11 were comparable 

to what Larry Arnn has described 

as his accomplishments at Yalta 

and Potsdam: "the best he could do in 

the situation that then prevailed." 

Older Titles Reviewed: A Flavo(u)rrul Light Soul 

Charles W. Snyder 

Mr. 

Churchill: 

MrChurx-l! ii! A Portrait, 

by Philip 

Guedalla. 

I 

London: 

Hodder & 

Stoughton, 

1 

1941, rep. 

m 

1945; New 

York: Reynal& 

Hitchcock, 

1941; London: 

Pan 

Books (shortened to end in May 

1940, source list deleted), 1951; Paris: 

La Jeune Parke, n.d. (paperback); 

Stockholm: P. A. Norsted & Soners 

Forlag, 1942; Toronto: Musson, 

1942; Buenos Aires: Claridad, 1942; 

New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1943. 

346 pages, illustrated. Current availability: 

common and low priced. 

Philip Guedalla's Mr. Churchill 

(1941) portrays its subject at the 

pinnacle of his prestige, the man of the 

hour, the bulwark of a Britain whose 

survival still hung in the balance. If we 

cast our minds back to the sterner days 

of 1941, it is easy to imagine the appeal 

this book had, not only in Britain 

but in America, where many wondered 

how Churchill, the British bulldog 

who rallied his embattled nation, had 

become the great man who by then 

dominated the world stage. 

Is Mr. Churchill worth reading 

today Certainly it can be read with en- 

Mr. Snyder is a longtime Churchill Center 

member in Savannah, Georgia. 

joyment, for its style is pleasing and its 

pace is fast. This is a very readable 

book. But the sources available to the 

author were scant, necessitating a superficial 

treatment of many topics. 

Compared with the meatier volumes 

now available, especially the Official 

Biography and such one-volume "lives" 

as Pelling's, Gilbert's, Rose's and Morgan's, 

Guedalla's is a very light souffle 

indeed. 

It is a flavorful dish nonetheless. 

Philip Guedalla wrote with flowing 

style and subtle humor. Because of the 

book's readability, one might be 

tempted to recommend it to younger 

readers, who would like to learn the 

basic facts of the Churchill saga before 

tackling more detailed and scholarly 

treatments. But Mr. Churchill does not 

fully fit that bill because it ends with 

the German invasion of Russia, and so 

much must be learned that came afterward. 

One would certainly want a student 

of Churchill to know about his 

role in the many strategic decisions of 

the war, the conferences with other Allied 

leaders, the Fulton speech, the 

Nobel Prize, and the return to Downing 

Street in the 1950s. 

Still, Mr. Churchill retains some 

interest. For one thing, just as the biographies 

Churchill himself wrote tell 

as much about their author as their 

subjects, Mr. Churchilltdh us much 

about its author, himself a notable figure. 

Philip Guedalla (1889-1944) was a 

popular historian and a failed politician, 

who would die from disease contracted 

while on a wartime mission in 

the Middle East. He attained early 



Light Souffle... 

celebrity as President of the Oxford 

Union in 1911, and was described by 

David Walter, one of his successors, as 

one of the all-time greats in that office: 

"He was so well-known and admired as 

an undergraduate that people stared at 

him as he walked down the High 

Street. His epigrams are said to have rivalled 

Oscar Wilde's. He was the ultimate 

champion of style over content." 

Guedalla found later that the polished 

style he had honed at the Oxford 

Union did not always go down well at 

the hustings. He failed in four attempts 

to win election to the House of Commons 

from 1922 to 1931. As Lord 

Elton observed, "Working-class audiences...were 

sometimes mystified by 

speeches which retained all the epigrammatic 

glitter of his Oxford Union 

days." 

The glitter still shines. Consider 

Guedalla's comment on the events of 

1915: "The cause of national unity demanded 

the elimination of Lord Haldane, 

who had made the Army, and of 

Winston Churchill, who had mobilized 

the Navy." Or consider this very Oxonian 

picture of Churchill in political isolation 

in the early 1920s: "Life as an 

anti-Socialist Stylite on a lonely pillar 

in the political Thebaid would lead 

nowhere." (There is nothing wrong 

with dispatching the reader to consult 

the dictionary now and again.) 

It is striking to contrast Mr. 

Churchill With the very different picture 

the author drew back in 1924, in a 

collection of portraits entitled A 

Gallery. There, one is startled to read 

that "High up on the short waiting-list 

of English Mussolinis one finds the 

name of Winston Spencer Churchill." 

Seventeen years later Churchill had not 

changed—but Guedalla had. Instead of 

comparing him to Mussolini, Guedalla 

in 1941 likened Churchill to British 

leaders who had faced and defeated 

continental autocrats who had tried to 

dominate the whole of Europe, placing 

him alongside Cecil, Marlborough and 

Pitt, and concluding, "Mr. Churchill is 

not far from Chatham." 

Mr. Churchill was written at a 

time that was terrible and yet stirring. 

It has within it the glow of that momentous 

hour, and this is the best reason 

for reading it. Here is Churchill in 

his prime, taking his place with the 

other great leaders of British history, 

from the days of the Spanish Armada 

onward, defying the tyrants, standing 

guard to protect the heritage of freedom 

that is the birthright of the English-Speaking 

Peoples. This is the 

Churchill the world remembers best. 

Guedalla offers a snapshot of the man 

taken at the pinnacle of fame, a fact 

that gives his book a certain drama absent 

from more detached and detailed 

studies drawn long after the storm was 

over. Philip Guedalla tried to write a 

portrait of a man; he succeeded better 

in preserving the special flavor of a remarkable 

epoch. 

Sir Winston's Other Wmd—and Jack LeVien's 

It's Higk Time for a New Video on Churchill's Paintings 

The Other World of Winston 

Churchill. Produced by Jack LeVien, 

1964. Videotape, 54 minutes 

Film maker Jack LeVien, a Churchill 

fan who produced the favorable 

documentary "The Finest Hours," is 

less well known for his "The Other 

World of Winston Churchill," a documentary 

about Churchill's pastime of 

painting in oils. 

Unfortunately, not all of its 54 

minutes are devoted to its proclaimed 

subject, and there is some pretty corny 

stuff: extensive stock footage showing 

what people do for leisure—everything 

except paint, it seems—while the voice 

of Churchill, provided by an actor, 

talks about the need for hobbies (or 

doesn't talk at all). On the positive side, 

there is a touching if halting testimony 

by Churchill's artist friend Paul Maze, 

author of A Frenchman in Khaki, for 

which Churchill wrote the foreword in 

1934. Maze, who was one of 

Churchill's artist-coaches, doesn't tell 

us much about his technique, but is 

eloquent on what Churchill meant to 

patriotic Frenchmen. 

; There is also some superb footage 

of Churchill, especially that from his 

earlier years, although a still of him in 

1901 is used to portray him during the 

Dardanelles crisis of 1915. Some of the 

later illustrations are haphazardly captioned. 

A shot of WSC in the 1951 

election is said to be from 1945; 

panned shots of the brick walls at 

Chartwell built by himself include 

much higher walls he did not build; 

the sign on the wall he did construct, 

"...built by Winston with his own 

FINEST HOUR 108/40

Other World, continued 

hands," is misquoted. Sian Phillips 

plays Lady Lavery, who first taught 

Churchill how to "attack the canvas," 

and succeeds much better than she did 

playing Lady Churchill in "The 

Wilderness Years." The Churchill 

voiceover is not bad, but Robert Hardy 

would do it better. Painting friends 

Lady Birley and Montgomery are more 

interested in talking about themselves, 

and Monty is especially amusing—a 

voice like that and he commanded 

whole armies! 

This film was produced in 1964, 

and is showing its age. We hear that a 

new documentary is in the works, and 

we look forward to it. RML 

RIDDLES, 

MYSTERIES, 

ENIGMAS 

Send your questions 

to the editor 

QA writer at 

Time Inc. 

(actually Sports Illustrated,) 

editing 

an article on the 

Sydney Olympics 

asked us to confirm 

a remark by 

Churchill that he 

did not want Australia's support during the war because Australians 

came from "bad blood. " The writer did not know 

where he got the quote. 

AWe've heard variations of this but could not find it in 

• any of the usual source books or our database, and 

didn't have the TIME to track it down. Nor are we sure it's 

accurate. Of course Churchill wanted Australia's support— 

and spoke well of Aussie troops on numerous occasions. It 

would be just like Time Inc., whose misrepresentation of 

Churchill in their "Person of the Century" issue was despicable, 

to dredge up the one negative he may have uttered 

about Australia, just in time for the Olympics. Perhaps they 

should stick to their January singsong about his opposition 

to "women's rights." Clearly, they will print anything. 

QWhere could I find information on the honorary degree 

that Sir Winston Churchill received from the University 

of Miami -Lourdes G. Castano, University of Miami Advancement 

Research 

AChurchill accepted an honorary degree at the University 

of Miami on 26 February 1946, just two weeks 

before delivering his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton, 

Missouri. He spoke before a crowd of 17,500 in Burdine 

Stadium and joked that: "I am surprised that in my 

later life I should have become so experienced in taking degrees 

when, as a school-boy, I was so bad at passing examinations." 

-Allen Packwood, Churchill Archives Centre, 

Churchill College Cambridge 

QElizabeth Snell informs us that on February 7th The 

Times of London ran an article tritely entitled, "How 

did Winston Churchill manage to save the world while drinking 

like a fish" Another reader sent us apiece by Matthew 

d'Ancona, in Life & Times for 7 February 1992, who wrote 

that Churchill's daily intake of alcohol was 22 units, more than 

the recommended safe weekly allowance. How do we explain 

this Was he impervious to the stuff 

AHis capacity was exaggerated, by himself and latterday 

reporters. Matthew d'Ancona said he drank a glass of 

hock at breakfast, a bottle of Champagne and some brandies 

at lunch, scotch and soda in the afternoon, more Champagne 

and cognac at dinner, more scotch as he worked in 

the small hours. In fact, morning hock was occasional, and 

the Champagne bottles were Imperial pints (a small size 

now extinct owing to EU regulations). The scotch in his 

highball barely covered the bottom of the glass before it was 

drowned with soda or water ("it was more like mouthwash," 

said Jock Colville). And the brandy count was sometimes 

exaggerated. He had, undoubtedly, a formidable capacity; 

but no observer ever saw him drunk. 

QI am reading A Touch of Treason (1990) by Ian Hamilton, 

the ringleader in the theft of the Stone of Destiny 

from Westminster Abbey in December 1950. Is Churchill know 

to have commented on the incident -Jim Kirk 

AThe only evidence that I have found in the Churchill 

Papers would suggest that Churchill did not want to 

comment on the Stone of Scone theft. John Campbell from 

Glasgow wrote to him on 10Jan51 complaining that "The 

controversy aroused by the disappearance of the Coronation 

Stone has led to much abusive criticism of Scots and 

Covenant leaders....every effort has been made by Covenant 

leaders to interview you and Mr. Attlee. Every path to 

friendly discussion has been blocked by political intransigence. 

Repeated appeals for realistic and statesmanlike approach 

to Scotland's demand for revision of her Treaty have 

failed. National feeling has been unwisely ignored and, 

knowing the character of the Scots, you will scarcely expect 

such cavalier treatment to be endured indefinitely." The letter 

goes on to lay the blame for the theft on Parliament for 

failing to meet the demands for Scottish Home Rule, and 

urges Churchill and Attlee to enter into discussions with regard 

to the revision of the Treaty of Union. Churchill simply 

replied, "I have received your letter of January 10, the contents 

of which I have noted. Thank you for writing to me." 

(Reference: Churchill Papers, CHUR 2/113B/343-345). 

-Allen Packwood, Churchill Archives Centre $ 

FINEST HOUR 108/41

JUST PUBLISHED 

Bibliophiles are royally served with three 

important reference books (and one restocked) 

on every aspect or Churchill's 

books and books about him. 

Churchill Center New Book Service member prices beat 

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have been assigned for upcoming issues o/FH. 

To order: Send the member price (not the "official" price) 

plus shipping ($6for first book, $1 for each additional) to The 

Churchill Center, PO Box 385, Contoocook NH 03229. Visa 

or Mastercard welcome. Telephone (603) 746-4433. Email: 

malakand@conknet. com. 

"NEW BIBLE" 

Connoisseurs 

Guide to the 

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by Richard M. 

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of corrections and additions to make the ultimate 

book about Churchill's books. A combination buyer's guide, 

book review and index of all editions (English, American, 

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and frank aesthetic judgments about each. Over 200 photos. 

Nothing is left out, almost every edition is pictured, 

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» THE XJTTIMATE REFERENCE 

Churchill Historiography & Annotated Bibliography, 

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archival resources, reference sources, and books galore, 

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Published at $ 115. 1102. Member Price $95 

« FIRST BIBLIOGRAPHY SINCE "WOODS" 

Churchill: A Concise Bibliography, by Buckley Barrett. 

California State University's librarian covers both books 

"by" and books "about." Churchill's works are broken into 

three sections. Works about him are sifted into seven: literary/artistic, 

biographic/personal, politics/governance, foreign/military, 

philosophy, fiction/media and juvenile. Categories 

are arbitrary—some books overlap—and books are 

arranged in each section alphabetically by title—not 

chronological as in normal bibliographies. So it's more for 

browsing than reference, though you can find any title 

through the author, title and subject indices. This book's 

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famous expressions in his books and speeches. For instance, 

if you look up "blood, toil, tears and sweat" you'll find that 

WSC joined "blood and tears" in 1900 and added "sweat" 

in 1931. You search the book using "key-words." When 

Churchill used quotemarks around an expression, the authors 

produce the source. Mieder and Bryan lack working 

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to Churchill's works (001-965 in no logical order). 

Nevertheless, this is a singular and well-researched reference 

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Churchill's photographic memory helped him cast back for 

proverbs in writing his own books and speeches. Greenwood 

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FINEST HOUR IOS/42

WOODS CORNER 

THE SECOND WORLD WAR 

PARTI: 

A CONNOISSEUR'S GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF THE CENTURY 


Let us begin by recording all 

the major criticisms of Winston 

Churchill's most famous 

book. 1) It is not history. 2) 

It is filled with grandiose prose, 

which was inflicted on apathetic 

readers who only wanted peace 

and a quiet life. 3) It is highly biased—the 

author never puts a foot 

wrong, and publishes hundreds of 

his own memoranda and directives 

but few replies to them. 4) It moralizes 

incessantly about dictators 

and their empires—but not die 

British Empire. 5) The impact of 

the war on Britain and the details 

of Cabinet meetings are vague; 

Churchill alone confronts the appeasers, 

the French, Hitler, the Soviets, 

the Americans. As one critic says, 

"Every instance of adversity becomes an 

occasion for the narrator's triumph." 

In die words of former Prime Minister 

Arthur Balfour, these indictments 

contain much that is true and much 

that is trite, but what's true is trite, and 

what's not trite is not true. 

Professor J.H. Plumb, in 

Churchill: Four Faces and the Man 

(London: 1969, published as Churchill 

Revised in New York: 1969), refers to 

Churchill's work as A History of the Second 

World War and then says it is not 

histoiy. The faux title is often repeated. 

Churchill himself insisted, "This is not 

Excerpted from the New Revised Extended 

Edition of A Connoisseur's Guide to 

the Books of Sir Winston Churchill (London: 

Brasseys 2000), published at £40, 

member price $30 (see page opposite). 

Tine author is editor of Finest Hour. 

The Chartwell Edition of Volume I, The 

Gathering Storm: the most desirable of all 

editions, comprising the final revised text. 

history—this is my case"—his "life effort," 

on which he was "content to be 

judged." In other places he calls it "a 

contribution to history." Some of his 

admirers would say he dissembles and 

is too modest. Professor John Keegan, 

in an introduction to a recent new edition, 

calls The Second World War "a 

great history" of "monumental quality..extraordinary 

in its sweep and 

comprehensiveness, balance and literary 

effect; extraordinary in the singularity 

of its point of view; extraordinary 

as the labour of a man, already old, 

who still had ahead of him a career 

large enough to crown most other 

statesmen's lives; extraordinary as a 

contribution to the memorabilia of the 

English-Speaking Peoples." 

If that seems too pro-Churchill a 

FINEST HOUR IOS/43 

view, consider die verdict of Malcolm 

Muggeridge, longtime editor 

of Punch and no mean critic, 

who wrote that the volumes are 

"historic rather dian historical." 

Or of Manfred Weidhorn, that 

eminent and measured judge of 

Churchill's screed, in his famous 

Sword and Pen: "a record of history 

made rather than written....No 

odier wartime leader in 

history has given us a work of two 

million words written only a few 

years after the events and filled 

with messages among world potentates 

which had so recently 

been heated and secret. Britain 

was led by a professional writer." 

As a professional writer wishing to 

build up "the Churchill Legend," goes 

another familiar refrain, our author ignored 

or buried unpleasant facts, or 

twisted them to suit his purpose. Have 

you ever read a memoir that didn't Yet 

few memoirs are so magnanimous, as 

illustrated by a principle Churchill 

adopts in his preface: "never criticising 

any measure of war or policy after the 

event unless I had before expressed 

publicly or formally my opinion or 

warning about it." The effect, Keegan 

remarks, "is to invest the whole history 

with those qualities of magnanimity 

and good will by which he set such 

store, and the more so as it deals with 

personalities." 

Churchill's prose "could often be 

aversive [sic] to modern readers," wrote 

another recent analyst, and, by the time 

the books appeared, "the world had 

moved on into an exhausted flatness 

continued overleaf..

The Second World War... 

that had little to do with, and little time 

for, the high-flown attitudes 

and language of Churchillian 

rhetoric." If that's so, why 

was The Second World War 

able to sell over 300,000 

copies of each volume as it 

was published, millions 

since, eighteen translations 

into foreign languages, three 

major serializations and several 

million abridgements 

So much for the nontrite 

and non-true. The other 

criticisms are mainly valid but hardly 

crippling. The Second World War is indeed 

intensely personal, considering 

the war from Churchill's angle, not 

Britain's; and it moralizes because our 

author passionately believed in those 

morals. He even gave the work its own 

moral: "In War: Resolution; In Defeat: 

Defiance; In Victory: Magnanimity; In 

Peace: Good Will." I am not sure what 

is wrong about that. 

Churchill had a right to make his 

case. Many times in his career he had 

been second-guessed or misjudged: 

over Antwerp and the Dardanelles in 

World War I; over how to respond to 

Bolshevism; over the General Strike of 

1926; over India, the Abdication, 

Franco, Mussolini, Hider, rearmament, 

the Americans, the Soviets. During the 

war he had attacked an ally's fleet, fired 

generals, lost battleships, stalled on 

launching a second front, argued with 

Roosevelt and Stalin, engaged in carpet 

bombing....Perhaps he felt the need to 

defend his actions, knowing that very 

soon he would be second-guessed by 

postwar critics eager to seize on and 

emphasize his faults and mistakes— 

which were manifestly there. 

"Revisionism" had actually begun 

as he worked: "In view of the many accounts 

which are extant and multiplying 

of my supposed aversion from any 

kind of large-scale opposed-landing, 

such as took place in Normandy in 

WOODS CORNER 

A majestic edition o/The Second World War, 

the three-volume Memoires published by 

Editions Sphinx, Brussels, 1951-53 

1944," Churchill wrote in Volume II, 

Chapter XII, "it may be convenient if I 

make clear that from the very beginning 

I provided a great deal of the impulse 

and authority for creating the immense 

apparatus and armada for the 

landing of armour on the beaches...." 

Australian Prime Minister Robert 

Menzies (recently named as the shouldhave-been 

replacement to Churchill as 

wartime premier by an eager revisionist) 

told Churchill in 1948: "You realize 

that five years after your death...clever 

young men will be writing books explaining 

that you were never right 

about anything" Churchill snorted, 

"You think so, do you" "Yes," Menzies 

added, "but not many years later, the 

clever young men will have been forgotten, 

and your name will be seen 

clearly at the pinnacle." Well, the recent 

Churchill critiques (some good, some 

dreadful) are going out of print, and 

The Second World War is still selling. 

The merits of our author's six 

substantial volumes tend rather 

to eclipse their evident flaws. 

There is, first, what Robert Pilpel calls 

"the warm sense of communion," 

through which only a great writer can 

place the reader at his side in the march 

of events. Those events are conducted 

like a symphony. "In the great drama, 

he was the greatest," said de Gaulle of 

our author, and The Second World War 

is nothing if not dramatic. Manfred 

Weidhorn compares its great scenes 

with those of a first class 

novel: 

Such is the eerie sense of 

dejd vu and ubi sunt upon 

his return in 1939, as First 

Lord [of the Admiralty], to 

Scapa Flow, exactly a quarter 

of a century after having, 

at the start of the other 

world war, paid the same 

visit during the same season 

in the same capacity....The 

collapse of the venerable 

and once mighty France and 

Churchill's agony are beautifully 

rendered by the sensuous detail of 

the old gentlemen industriously 

carrying French archives on wheelbarrows 

to bonfires....Near the end 

of the work appears one of the 

greatest scenes of all. On the way 

to the Potsdam conference, 

Churchill flies to Berlin and its 

"chaos of ruins." Taken to Hitler's 

chancellery, he walks through its 

shattered halls for "quite a long 

time"....The great duel is over; the 

victor stands on the site from 

which so much evil originated.... 

"We were given the best first-hand 

accounts available at that time of 

what had happened in these final 

scenes." 

Amid the pathos, humour bubbles 

incessantly to the surface, Pilpel writes, 

"as if Puck had escaped from A Midsummer 

Nights Dream and infiltrated 

Paradise Lost. Few other memoirs, let 

alone histories, leaven their wisdom 

with such merry wit." There is 

Churchill's famous desert conference 

with his Generals, "in a tent full of flies 

and important personages"; an amusing 

lunch with King Saud of Arabia, whose 

religion forbids tobacco and alcohol, 

which Churchill says are mandated by 

his religion; his courtly letter to the 

Japanese Ambassador, signed "your 

obedient servant," announcing "with 

highest consideration" that a state of 


war exists with his country (WSC: 

"When you have to kill a man it costs 

nothing to be polite"); parties with 

Stalin where Churchill pooh-poohs 

the storied drinking bouts ("I had 

been properly brought up"). All this 

levity "somehow sits well with the 

cataclysmic and lugubrious matter of 

the story," Weidhorn adds, "for 

Churchill does not allow the humor 

to take the sting out of events or reduce 

war to a mere game. He simply 

refuses to overlook the light 

side....Such a tone, markedly different 

from the histrionics of the other 

side, may well be a secret of survival. As 

Shaw said, he who laughs lasts." 

Remember that The Second World 

War is not entirely memoirs. 

Each volume contains lengdiy 

appendices of personal minutes, 

telegrams and directives to military and 

civilian officials which Churchill had 

secured permission to publish. Here 

again he has been accused of bias, selectivity 

and an air of infallibility; some of 

the documents are trivial—even unworthy 

of him. But in the main diey 

kept everyone's eyes on the prize. 

My favorite example is Appendix 

C of The Grand Alliance, where Churchill 

questions General Brooke on an 

invasion exercise called VICTOR, 

which presumes the Germans land five 

divisions on the Norfolk coast and establish 

a beachhead within forty-eight 

hours. Churchill writes: 

I presume the details of this remarkable 

feat have been worked out by 

the Staff concerned. Let me see 

them. For instance, how many ships 

and transports carried these five Divisions 

How many Armoured vehicles 

did they comprise How many 

motor lorries, how many guns, how 

much ammunition, how many 

men, how many tons of stores, how 

far did they advance in the first 

forty-eight hours, how many men 

and vehicles were assumed to have 

WOODS CORNER 

A most desirable but inexpensive edition, the 

Time-Life twin pictorial volumes slipcased with 

an LP record of Churchill's speeches. 

landed in the first twelve hours, 

what percentage of loss were they 

debited with What happened to 

the transports and store-ships while 

die first forty-eight hours of fighting 

were going on Had they completed 

emptying their cargoes, or were they 

still lying in shore off the point protected 

by superior enemy daylight 

Fighter formations How many 

Fighter airplanes did the enemy 

have to employ, if so, to cover the 

landing places...I should be very 

glad if the same officers would work 

out a scheme for our landing an exacdy 

similar force on the French 

coast at the same extreme range of 

our Fighter protection and assuming 

that the Germans have naval superiority 

in the Channel... 

Professor Eliot Cohen, citing this 

memo in "The Problems of Supreme 

Command" (see Churchill Proceedings 

1992-93) tells us that General Brooke 

gamely replied, and Churchill gamely 

kept questioning his assumptions and 

comparing similar exercises by the 

British Army, until die exchange petered 

out. "What is the significance of 

this episode" Cohen asks: 

It is noteworthy, first, that the commander 

in charge of the exercise, 

Brooke, stood up to Churchill and 

not only did not suffer by it, but ultimately 

gained promotion to the 

post of Chief of Imperial General 

Staff and chairman of the Chiefs of 

Staff Committee. But more important 

is Churchill's observation that 

"It is of course quite reasonable for 

assumptions of this character to be 

made as a foundation for a military 

exercise. It would be indeed a darkening 

counsel to make them the 

foundation of serious military 

thought." At this very 

time...Churchill was arguing— 

against the position of several of his 

military advisers—that the risks of 

invasion were sufficiendy low to 

make the TIGER convoy [of armored 

vehicles to the Middle East] 

worth the attempt. TIGER went 

through, losing only one ship to a 

mine and delivering some 250 tanks 

to the hardpressed forces in the 

Middle East. By no means did 

Churchill always have it right, but 

he often caught his military staff 

when they had it wrong. Churchill 

exercised one of his most important 

functions as war leader by holding 

their calculations and assertions up 

to the standards of a massive common 

sense, informed by wide reading 

and experience at war. 

Space is running out and I haven't 

told you die half of it. The Second 

World War, a prose epic like The 

River War and Marlborough, belongs 

with them amongst die first rank of 

Churchill's books. Flaws and all, it is 

indispensable reading for anyone who 

seeks a true understanding of the war 

that made us what we are today. Manfred 

Weidhorn summarizes it better 

than anyone: "When viewed beside die 

achievements of its statesman-narrator 

[The Second World War] remains not 

just a unique revelation of the exercise 

of power from atop an empire in duress 

but also one of die fascinating products 

of the human spirit, both as an expression 

of a personality and a somewhat 

anomalous epic tale filled with the depravities, 

miseries, and glories of man." 

Next issue: Part II, The Editions. $ 

FINEST HOUR 108/45

CHURCHILLIANA 

"IN WHAT SHAPE THEY CHOOSE" 

—John Milton, "Paradise Lost" 

DOUGLAS J. HALL 

FINEST HOUR IOS/46

British potteries were prohibited under 

wartime regulations from producing decorated 

china for the home market. Making a 

virtue out of necessity, designers added interest to 

plain white "utility" tableware through the use of 

shape and form. They were permitted, indeed encouraged, 

to use a standard sepia portrait transfer of 

the Prime Minister. They were also permitted to add 

a gold rim line (usually, in fact, relatively inexpensive 

gold lustre) which, whilst decorative, was reckoned 

to have the functional purpose of protecting 

the vulnerable edges of the piece against chipping. 

And they were allowed to use a limited range of 

tinted clay bodies, normally cream or pale green, in 

place of the standard whiteware. 

Apart from those three very modest concessions to 

colour decoration it was the pottery designers' bold 

use of innovative shapes which saved the wartime 

British dining table from becoming a plain and drab 

board. Many different potteries were involved in the 

production of "utility" tableware bearing the ap- 

. proved Churchill portrait transfer. In most cases the 

individual pieces were unmarked but the following 

backstamps can be found: Gray's Pottery, Stoke-on- 

Trent; Lancaster's, Hanley; Newhall, Hanley; 

Paragon China; Skerrett's, Hanley; Sutherland 

China; and Wellington China, Longton. 

Many potteries had wholly or partly been given over 

to the production of industrial ceramics needed for 

the war effort. There was a huge demand for all clay 

products—bricks, tiles, sanitary fittings, drainpipes 

and conduits—for the construction of factories, barracks, 

aerodromes, hospitals and other essential 

premises, as well as for the repair of bomb-damaged 

buildings. In addition, the potteries were called 

upon to supply highly specialised ceramic items 

Mr. Hall is FHs Features Editor. He may be reached at Somerby 

House, 183A Somerby Hill, Granthan, Lines., England NG3 17HA, 

such as laboratory porcelain, electrolytic cells, sparking 

plugs, insulators, filters and chemical stoneware. 

The Times estimated that up until 1939 the potteries 

had been supplying 100 million pieces of tableware 

per year simply to replace normal day-to-day breakages 

in British households. From 1940, that requirement 

was substantially increased by the demand for 

crockery for the armed forces, factory canteens and 

the newly established British Restaurants,* as well as 

the need to replace domestic tableware smashed by 

the Luftwaffe. The potteries met the challenge in 

spite of significantly reduced resources for the production 

of tableware—their labour force had been 

reduced to less than half the prewar figure—and the 

difficulties caused by bombing and restrictions on 

the use of fuel for firing the kilns. The potteries 

clearly shaped up. 

These wartime "utility" pieces are often found at the 

antiques fairs. The commonplace items can be purchased 

for £20/$30 or less but the more unusual designs 

may cost much, much more. For example the 

pale green Paragon China cup and saucer set with 

the Churchill portrait transfer inside the cup (far 

right in top lefthand photo), has been seen in a wellknown 

London Wl emporium at £225/$335. 

*A hastily established nationwide chain of premises 

serving basic meals which were styled by Prime Ministerial 

decree. In The Second World War, Volume 3, 

Churchill reproduced his memorandum of 21 March 

1941 to the Minister of Food, Lord Woolton: "I 

hope the term 'Communal Feeding Centres' is not 

going to be adopted. It is an odious expression, suggestive 

of Communism and the workhouse. I suggest 

you call them 'British Restaurants.' Everybody associates 

the word 'restaurant' with a good meal, and they 

may as well have the name if they cannot get anything 

else. WSC." » 

FINEST HOUR 108/47

INSIDE THE JOURNALS 

"I passed out of Sandhurst and into the world. 

It opened tor me like Aladdin's cave..." 

Abstracts by Chris Hanger 

-WSC, My Early Life 

"Churchill in Cuba" by Michael 

Blow, Quarterly Journal of Military 

History, [fall 1990], 3:1. 

On 20 November 1895, the 

steamer Olivette entered Havana 

Harbor. Among its passengers 

were two young English subalterns, 

Reginald Barnes and Winston 

Churchill. They had come to Cuba as 

guests of the Spanish government. 

Churchill yearned for excitement and 

the thrill of hearing bullets whistling 

through the air. There had been uprisings 

in the British Empire among 

"savages and barbarous peoples," but 

not the kind of real war that interested 

him. The Cuban excursion, 

Churchill's colonel back home had 

said, would be "as good or almost as 

good as a season's serious hunting." 

Their "official" mission was to 

determine the effect and striking 

power of the new smokeless powder 

bullet used by the Spanish. Eager to 

be in the thick of fighting, Churchill 

and Barnes arranged with a Spanish 

staff officer to join one of the mobile 

columns. The young Sandhurst graduates 

told the officer that they could 

catch up with a column just forty 

miles away, but the Spaniard told 

them that they would not last five 

Chris Hanger diligently seeks out important 

articles involving Churchill and represents 

their view (not necessarily his) in abstracts. If 

you would like to see a specific article abstracted 

here, contact Chris by email 

(changer@jump.net) or better yet, send him a 

photocopy: 12904 Water Mill Cove, Austin 

TX 78729 USA. Be sure to cite the journal, 

volume, number and issue date. 

miles. Guerrilla tactics, it seems, were 

not taught at Sandhurst. 

Confused, Churchill asked where 

the enemy was. The Spanish officer 

replied, "They are everywhere and 

nowhere," a reference to their lack of 

uniforms, irregular hit-and-run tactics, 

and the inability to distinguish 

insurrectos from ordinary peasants. 

Churchill appreciated the sturdiness 

and stamina of the Spanish 

troops, who were required to bring all 

their provisions with them as they 

chased the legendary guerrilla leader 

Maximo Gomez across the landscape. 

The Cuban insurgents rode ponies, 

lived off the land with the support of 

Left: Churchill in Royal Military College cadet's 

uniform, just before the Cuban expedition. 

the civilian small farmers, and carried 

little ammunition. 

Nothing happened until November 

30th, Churchill's twenty-first 

birthday, when for the first time he 

briefly heard gunfire. Later, as he ate 

breakfast, a volley erupted "almost in 

our faces it seemed." In the melee, a 

horse behind Churchill's had been 

hit. Churchill realized that the bullet 

that killed the horse had come within 

a foot of his head. 

They were fired upon the next 

day as they were swimming in a river. 

That night a bullet went through the 

hut where Churchill was sleeping. He 

first thought of lying on the floor but 

felt safe because a rather large, if not 

fat, Spanish officer was sleeping in the 

hammock between himself and the 

gunfire. 

On December 1st the Spaniards 

continually attacked and Churchill 

was repeatedly exposed to enemy fire 

and "heard enough bullets whistle 

and hum past to satisfy me for some 

time to come." 

During this period Churchill 

gained much experience which would 

later serve him well. He met Bourke 

Cockran, a noted New York politician, 

who gave him insightful advice. 

He began his writing career and, to 

his great delight, was given the Cruz 

Rosa ("Red Cross") medal from the 

Spanish government. He had tasted 

the excitement of battle and soldiering 

that was to play an important part 

in his career. 15 

FINEST HOUR 107 / 48

Recipes From No. 10: Vegetables 

by Georgina Landemare, Churchill family cook, 1940s-1950s 

Updated and annotated ror the modern kitchen 

by Barbara Langworth (h_langworth@conknet.com) 

All recipes nave ceen pre-tested and pronounced editle by tne editors. 

cupful of cream, a little finely 

chopped shallot and pepper. Add 

the beans to this and continue 

cooking until tender. 

"Mi 

''rs. Churchill knew, '...ifyou want to keep 

1 Winston happy the first thing is to feed him 

. well. He must have a good dinner. It is essential 

to his happiness.' This embraced everything from his 

breakfast of eggs and bacon, cold cuts or fresh salmon followed 

by toast and black cherry jam, coffee or a glass of white wine, 

ending with a cup of cold consomme before retiring. To the 

last he loved his roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. On a certain 

occasion one of his clubs served his favorite meal beginning 

with petite marmite followed by filet of sole wrapped in 

smoked Scottish salmon smothered in tiny shrimp. Next a 

roast deer stuffed with pdte and truffles. The dessert was a 

pudding" 

—The Irrepressible Churchill, by Kay Halle. 

VEGETABLES 

Like many British households, Mrs. Landemare's 

kitchen kept a cookery book from the quintessential Mrs. 

Beeton. The pictures are from my ca.1930 copy of Mrs 

Beeton's Family Cookery and the recipes are, as usual, from 

Mrs. Landemare. BFL 

• French beans: Wash, top and tail the beans and 

place in boiling salted water, cook for five minutes. 

Melt a good lump of butter in a saucepan, add a 

• Petits Pois a la Francaise: Shell 

the peas and put into a saucepan 

with 11/2 oz. butter, 1 Tb sugar, 

and a cup of water to every quart 

of shelled peas. Put a small bouquet 

of parsley, salt and pepper 

and a little more butter. Peel a 

dozen small onions, add to the 

peas and allow to cook slowly for one hour. Remove the 

parsley before serving. 

• Artichauts Hollandaise: Trim off the points of 

the artichoke leaves. Cook for 1/2 hour in salted boiling 

water and serve with Hollandaise sauce.* 

• Carrots: Cut the carrots into small shapes and 

cook in a very little water to which a pinch of salt has 

been added. Add about 1 oz. of butter and allow to cook 

slowly until nearly all the liquor is absorbed, then add a 

little cream and chopped parsley. 

*Modern Hollandaise recipes are much easier than 

Mrs. Landemare's but if you'd like to try hers, here it is: 

4 egg yolks, 4 oz melted butter, juice of 1 lemon, 3 

Tb vinegar, 4 crushed peppercorns, 1 Tb cold water. 

Reduce the vinegar in a saucepan with the peppercorns. 

Remove from heat. Gradually stir in the yolks of 

eggs and half the quantity of melted butter, lemon juice, 

cold water, salt. Whisk vigorously until the mixture 

thickens, then add the remainder of the butter. This 

sauce must not be boiled and requires an even heat all 

through the cooking. $ 

FINEST HOUR 108/49

CHURCHILLTRIVIA 

By Curt Zoller (zcurt@earthlink.net) 

r'ESTyour knowledge! Most questions 

can be answered in back issues of 

Churchill Center publications but it's not 

really cricket to check. Twenty-four questions 

appear each issue, answers in the following 

issue. You can win a case of something 

vying with friends to get these right! 

Categories are Contemporaries (C), Literary 

(L), Miscellaneous (M), Personal (P), 

Statesmanship (S) and War (W). 

1081. Who paid for Churchill's stay in 

Los Angeles in 1929 (C) 

1082. Did the American and English 

Winston Churchill ever meet (L) 

1083. Who drew the cartoon entitled 

"Hold the Line," issued in late 1940 as 

an American propaganda poster (M) 

1084. Who presented Churchill with the 

marmalade cat WSC named "Jock" (P) 

1085. What was Churchill's longest 

speech in the House of Commons (S) 

1086. To which volunteer regiment did 

Gen. Redvers Buller assign Churchill 

after he returned to the Boer War following 

his escape (W) 

1087. Who wrote, "Had it not been for 

the resumption of the War, Churchill 

would not have had a dog's chance to 

crown his career as Prime Minister" (C) 

1088. Which of Churchill's works was at 

the top of National Review's list of the 

100 best books of the 20th century (L) 

1089. What was the name of the mining 

company where Churchill hid after his 

escape from South African captivity (M) 

1090. Where was Churchill imprisoned 

during the Boer War (P) 

1091. When did Churchill address Joint 

Sessions of the U.S. Congress (S) 

1092. Who were the "Cockyolibirds" 

(W) 

1093. What film studio did Churchill 

visit as guest of honor, during his tour of 

California in 1929 (C) 

1094. Name one of Celia Sandys's two 

books about her grandfather. (L) 

1095. How did Churchill celebrate his 

39th birthday (M) 

1096. In which hotel did Churchill stay 

when he visited Los Angeles (P) 

1097. "Human beings and human societies 

are not structures that are built or 

machines that are forged. They are plants 

that grow and must be tended as such" 

Where did Churchill make this statement 

(S) 

1098. What was the Knickebein System 

employed by the German Air Force (W) 

1099. What were Churchill's comments 

regarding American Prohibition (C) 

1100. Churchill wrote that the "British 

people have been confronted repeatedly 

by a great continental military power 

seeking to dominate Europe." Name one 

of the four Government leaders he referred 

to. (L) 

1101. What reward did Churchill receive 

from Lord Roberts on 5 June 1900 for 

his heroic acts in the Boer War (M) 

1102. What was the "Black Move" (P) 

1103. "Don't confront the Americans 

head on. Be patient! They will come to 

you, for there is no alternative." To 

whom did Churchill say this (S) 

1104. On 4 June 1940, after Dunkirk, 

Churchill gave his broadcast "We shall 

fight on the beaches...." What is he alleged 

to have whispered in an aside to a 

colleague while holding his hand over the 

microphone (W) 

ANSWERS TO LAST TRIVIA. 

(1057) John Howard was a naturalized 

burgher and manager of the colliery at 

Witbank, who helped Churchill escape. 

(1058) It took Churchill two days to 

travel from Durban to Cape Town. 

(1059) Asquith's comment was, "Lloyd 

George has no principles and Winston 

no convictions." (1060) Mortimer Menpes 

was the artist whose pictures of 

Churchill appeared on the cover of FHs 

105 and 79. (1061) Lord Randolph proclaimed 

"Ulster will fight, and Ulster will 

be right" in a letter dated 7 May 1886. 

(1062) The "Victory as a flower" quotation 

can be found in The River War. 

(1063) Stanley Baldwin commented on 

Churchill's "hundred horsepower mind." 

(1064) After his escape Churchill spoke 

in Durban at Old City Hall on Farewell 

Square in Durban. (1065) Churchill 

commented that Russia "is a riddle 

wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." 

(1066) The armoured train was ambushed 

near Frere in Natal. (1067) 

Churchill believed that attacking Turkey 

in 1914 would force the Balkan states to 

unite and join the Allies, and that a victory 

would forge a line of supply to the 

beleaguered Russians via the Black Sea. 

(1068) Churchill commented of WW1, 

"I am sure the mistakes made at that 

time will not be repeated; we shall probably 

make another set of mistakes." 

(1069) The suffragette leader WSC encountered 

in 1905 was Mrs. Emmeline 

Pankhurst. (1070) The Nile despatches 

were commissioned by Oliver Borthwick, 

editor of The Morning Post, and printed 

in that paper from 31 August to 13 October 

1898. (1071) "The Other Club" 

was a dining club founded in 1911. 

(1072) His appointment as Undersecretary 

for the Colonies provided 

Churchill's first administrative experience. 

(1073) The Minister of War, Lord 

Ktchener, asked Churchill to have the 

Admiralty undertake aerial defense. 

(1074) On 23Sepl4, Churchill proposed 

for the first time formally, to begin work 

on a "trench spanning car." 

(1075) Churchill's superior and Colonial 

Secretary was Lord Elgin. (1076) The author 

of the anti-Churchill poems was Osbert 

Sitwell. (1077) Churchill was out of 

the Parliament for two years following 

his loss in the election of November 

1922. (1078) The person who Churchill 

said so feared Spain that he failed to note 

the rise of France was Oliver Cromwell. 

(1079) "Making the idea of peace more 

attractive" referred to Germany as the 

enemy in World War I. (1080) On the 

first day of 1916, Churchill was appointed 

to command a Battalion of the 

6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. 

FINEST HOUR IOS/50

Thirty years 

ago at 

Woodstock, 

Oxford, the 


Study Unit, 

predecessor to 

ICS and The 


Center, issued 

its first commemorative 

AMPERSAND 

Commemorative Cover #53: 

Churchill's 125tk Birthday 

125* ANNIVERSARY ZSHSSSMSSE 

WINSTON LEONARD SPENCER CHURCHE 

BLENHEIM PAIACE 

CHURCHILL'S BIRTHPLACE 

MONDAV, i;jO A.M., 30 NOVEMBtt 5874 

cover, marking WSC's 95th birthday. The cachet was rubber stamped and 

copies were sent to each of our thirty-four members. What better way to mark 

that anniversary than to issue another one on the 125th This beautiful design 

is by our ever-faithful Dave Marcus, still our cover producer after three 

decades. Covers are free to members on the covers list, but you must write to 

be put on. To do so, send your Finest Hour mailing label to Dave Marcus, 

3048 Van Buskirk Circle, Las Vegas NV 89121. Leftover covers are sold to 

support the covers programme. They cost $3 each from Churchill Stores 

(address page 2). 

Churchill in One Sentence 

Herewith more reader entries in our contest to describe Churchill in one 

sentence of 50 words or fewer. When a reader sent multiple entries we 

chose the one that seemed to us the most unique and compelling. The winner 

will be announced later. Are there any more entries 

"His crowning triumph was his stand against tyranny, but he packed 

his life full from beginning to end, a shining example of how to wring the 

most from our allotted span: personality, writer, soldier, statesman, he 

embraced and excelled in all his many roles." 

ROBERT COURTS, ENGLAND 

"Bright and humane, a believer in the liberty of the individual, with a 

remarkable facility for forecasting threats from tyrannies, he was a dedicated 

minister, war leader, strategist and writer: enthusiastic, rarely misguided, an 

influential statesman of courage and magnanimity." 

GARRY D. HERBERT, MALAGA, SPAIN 

"He said we must all strive to rise to the level of events; but it may be 

fairer to say of him that his greatness shone brightest when events rose to the 

level of his personal genius and courage." 

JOHN BECKWITH, CHEVY CHASE, MD., USA 

HAS YOUR INTEREST 

INCOME BEEN 

DRAGGING ITS FEET 

Perhaps it's time you considered a 

Charitable Gift Annuity-wix\\ 

The Churchill Center 

Endowment Fund 

Among the benefits you can expect: 

• Guaranteed payments for life, 

partially tax-free 

• Income tax charitable deduction 

Here are some sample rates... 

Single Person 

Age 

45 

55 

65 

70 

75 

80 

85 

Rate 

5.7% 

6.1% 

7.0% 

7.5% 

8.2% 

9.2% 

10.5% 

Married Couple 

Age Rate 

45/45 5.5% 

55/55 5.8% 

65/65 

70/70 

75/75 

80/80 

85/85 

6.6% 

6.8% 

7.3% 

8.0% 

9.0% 

A Gift Annuity is a great 

way to help yourself 

while simultaneously 

supporting the work of 


FOR MORE INFORMATION, 

please contact: 

Charles D. Platt, 

Endowment Director 


14 Blue Heron Drive West 

Greenwood Village, CO 90121 

Telephone: 303-721-8550 

E-mail: cdp31@email.msn.com 

(include ages of beneficiaries) 

We will mail you without obligation 

a brochure and personalized illustration 

showing just what a Gift 

Annuity can do for you. 

THE CHURCHILL CENTER 

Washington, D.C. 

A non-profit educational organization. 

FINEST HOUR 108/51

IMMORTAL WORDS 

The Japanese onslaught has brought upon the United States and Great Britain 

very serious injuries to our naval power. 

In my whole experience I do not remember any naval blow 

so heavy or painful as the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse... 

We have a very hard period to go through, 

and a new surge of impulse will be required, and will be forthcoming. 

We must, as I have said, faithfully keep our engagement to Russia in supplies, 

and at the same time we must expect, at any rate for the next few months, 

that the volume of American supplies reaching Britain 

and the degree of help given by the United States Navy 

will be reduced. 

The gap will be filled, and only our own efforts will fill it. 

I cannot doubt, however, 

now that the 130,000,000people in the United States 

have bound themselves to this war, 

that once they have settled down to it 

and have bent themselves to it—as they will— 

that the flow of munitions will vastly exceed 

anything that could have been expected 

on the peacetime basis.... 

Not only the British Empire now but the United States are fighting for life; 

Russia is fighting for life, and China is fighting for life. 

Behind these four great combatant communities are ranged 

the spirit and the hopes of all the conquered countries in Europe, 

prostrate under the cruel domination of the foe. 

I said the other day that four-fifths of the human race were on our side. 

It may well be an understatement. 

Just these gangs and cliques of wicked men 

and their military or party organisations 

have been able to bring these hideous evils upon mankind. 

It would indeed bring shame upon our generation 

if we did not teach them a lesson 

which will not be forgotten in the records of a thousand years. 

WSC, HOUSE OF COMMONS, 11 DECEMBER 1941

journal of the churchill center and societies - Winston Churchill

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