Download - Winston Churchill

ICONOGRAPHY: Perhaps, heeding Dr. Richard Toye, Britain should put H.G. Wells (left)on the Twenty and Sir Winston in the Plagiarism Pen for “Gathering Storm.” But here isa prototype we like a great deal. (Photoshop® work by Barbara Langworth)was reading Progress and Poverty, by theAmerican economist Henry George,who proposed taxing private ownershipof basic elements like land instead ofwealth or income. In 1911, WSCreached his radical crescendo, fightingfor prison reform, old age pensions andabandoning the House of Lords. Thenwar clouds captured his attention. Butclearly, Churchill derived his radicalpolitics from economists and philosophers,not science fiction writers.“The Gathering Storm” dates asfar back asThe Federalist, but Toye’sclaim is specifically refuted by the officialbiography. In volume VIII, publishednearly twenty years ago, SirMartin Gilbert noted that it was literaryagent Emery Reves who suggestedthe title. Churchill merely approved ofit (pages 394-95):A final telegram from Emery Reves[January 1948] was decisive in anarea of utmost importance, the titleof the first volume. Churchill hadchosen ‘Downward Path’ as thetheme of the years 1931 to 1939.This title, Reves telegraphed,‘sounds somewhat discouraging.’The American and other publisherswould prefer a ‘more challengingtitle indicating crescendo events.’Reves suggested ‘GatheringClouds,’ ‘The Gathering Storm’ or‘The Brooding Storm.’ The titleChurchill chose was ‘The GatheringStorm.’Of course one could say, “Right,it was Emery Reves who read ‘TheGathering Storm’ in The War of theWorlds and handed it to Churchill.”But that’s really being silly, isn’t it?WINSTON ON THE £20?LONDON, NOVEMBER 3RD— War veteransstormed back into battle to support acampaign by The Daily Mirror to getSir Winston Churchill put on the new£20 note. They are furious that 18thcentury economist Adam Smith hadbeen picked to replace the face of SirEdward Elgar, saying that Smith wasobscure by comparison.Ricky Clitheroe, 72, an ex-Parafrom Catford, South-East London,said: “We agree with the Mirror. Wewant Sir Winston on our £20. Hesaved this country. We don’t want aScot, we don’t even know who he is.”Wealth of Nations author Smith isdue to appear on Britain’s 1.2 billion£20 notes from this spring. War vetsset up a stall under the Churchill statuein Parliament Square to collect petitionsignatures backing WSC. They tookthe petition to the Cenotaph onRemembrance Sunday and eventuallyhanded it in to Downing Street.Yet another campaign group hadpushed for composer Elgar to remainon the notes until after his 150th birthdaynext year. MPs from Herefordshireand Worcestershire, joined by the ElgarFoundation, have called for the delay.The Bank of England replied that “agreat majority of £20 notes in circulationwill still have Sir Edward Elgar onthem and will continue to circulatealongside the Adam Smith £20 notesfor several years after that.”Meanwhile, The Fabian Societyhas called for a black face to be put on£20s to reflect Britain’s changing socialmake-up.—VANESSA ALLEN, DAILY MIRRORGILBERT AT FULTONFULTON, MO, MARCH 24TH— Sir MartinGilbert, Churchill’s official biographerand author of seventy-seven books, washosted at a dinner by the Board of theWinston Churchill Memorial andLibrary at Westminster College. Gilbertalso held a book signing, and a collectionof Churchill photos by Richard J.Mahoney was on display. The nextafternoon Gilbert delivered the annualKemper Lecture on Churchill.Last year, in the midst of the 60thanniversary of the Fulton “Iron Curtain”speech, Chris Campbell, editor of thestudent newspaper, was quoted in theSt. Louis Post-Dispatch as questioningwhether his school name-droppedChurchill too much and whether itshould move on to a new claim tofame. The day the story ran, Campbellwas told by the school’s college relationsdirector that he could not get a presspass to the weekend’s anniversary eventsif he planned to speak to other mediaoutlets. Campbell did not want to paywhat it would have cost to go to theevents, so he acquiesced to the school’swishes. But, he complained: “I thoughtit was unfair what they did. I feel likethey were trying to stop me from speaking.”The school said it was not tryingto suppress Campbell’s views.We think Westminster Collegeshould continue name-droppingChurchill, particularly his goodEnglish, discouraging sentences like “Ithought it was unfair what they did.”MALAKAND:Y’ALL COME, HEAR?BATKHELA, PAKISTAN, DECEMBER 1ST— Thebattlefield of a far-off imperial war thatonce gripped the imagination of theBritish public is to be opened up forthe first time to tourism. It is“Churchill’s Picket,” where the youngWinston fought with the 1897Malakand Field Force, the subject ofhis first book, published 1898.The Malakand battlefield area hasbeen under tight military control sinceWinston Churchill’s eyewitness accountsof the campaign were published in TheDaily Telegraph in 1897. The governmenthas now decided to grant access >>FINEST HOUR 135 / 11