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whom both my husband and I owe so much and forwhose wise guidance during the early years of my reign Ishall always be so profoundly grateful.” 14We may think of Churchill as an amiable or evenreverent agnostic, who conceived of himself not as a pillarof the church but perhaps as a flying buttress. He didnot invoke the Deity casually or cynically, a fact whichconfers its own interest upon his touching and heartfeltreply to the Queen:Our Island no longer holds the same authority or powerthat it did in the days of Queen Victoria. A vast worldtowers up around it and after all our victories we couldnot claim the rank we hold were it not for the respect forour character and good sense and the general admirationnot untinged by envy for our institutions and way of life.All this has already grown stronger and more solidlyfounded during the opening years of the present Reign,and I regard it as the most direct mark of God’s favour wehave ever received in my long life that the whole structureof our new-formed Commonwealth has been linked andilluminated by a sparkling presence at its summit. 15The monarchy signified for him something of infinitevalue, at once numinous and luminous; and if youwill allow the remark in parenthesis, ladies and gentlemen,do you not sometimes long for someone at thesummit of our public life who can think and write atthat level?Sir Winston was not mistaken in drawing attentionto the Queen’s role within the Commonwealth. Hecould not have foreseen how quickly governments in thiscountry, as distinct from many millions of individual citizens,would cease to feel any serious interest in theCommonwealth. Indeed, it is not clear that the associationcould have survived in a recognisable form but forthe Queen’s unfeigned commitment to it.We have failed in knowledge, by which I meanthat we have been far too ready to accept one-sidedaccounts of our relations with countries in every part ofthe Commonwealth; and we have failed in self-belief, forif we cannot be troubled to defend ourselves againstassertions that Empire was nothing more than a cloakfor greed and extortion, we should scarcely be surprisedif others multiply such allegations, sometimes on themost grotesque scale. Now we need an exercise of constructiveimagination, to realize what Commonwealthconnections can do, not only for us but for a muchwider community. Though much has been lost beyondretrieval, a good deal remains. To give fresh life to thoseconnections, to promote better understanding betweencountries and friendship between races, is of supremeimportance. Perhaps that fact is now a little more apparentthan it was, say, ten or twenty years ago. It is a taskin part for politicians, but also for all of us; and, giventhe Queen’s identification of herself and the monarchywith the Commonwealth over a span of sixty years, forthe coming generation in the Royal Family.When Churchill, nearing the age of eighty, lookedupon the Queen’s picture in a newspaper, he murmured“The country is so lucky.” 16 Exactly so; we should be lessshy of acknowledging the fact.“We have failed in knowledge, bywhich I mean that we havebeen far too ready to accept one-sidedaccounts of our relations with countriesin every part of the Commonwealth; andwe have failed in self-belief, for if wecannot be troubled to defend ourselvesagainst assertions that Empire was nothingmore than a cloak for greed andextortion, we should scarcely be surprisedif others multiply such allegations, sometimeson the most grotesque scale.”Endnotes1. There are many versions of this story in print, but the most reliableis in Chambers, R.W., Man’s Unconquerable Mind (London:Jonathan Cape, 1939), 380-81.2. On the resignation of Anthony Eden as foreign secretary, 20February 1938. Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War, vol. 2,Their Finest Hour (London: Cassell, 1949), 201.3. WSC to the King, 5 January 1941, ibid., 554.4. Churchill’s capacious memory produced this quotation ofShakespeare (Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3) in the House of Commons, 22October 1947. Churchill, Europe Unite (London: Cassell, 1950), 168.5. WSC to Princess Elizabeth, 20 May 1951. Gilbert, op. cit., 613.6. House of Commons, 19 November 1951. Churchill, Stemmingthe Tide (London: Cassell, 1953), 194.7. Colville, John R.,The Fringes of Power (London: Hodder &Stoughton, 1985), 640.8. House of Commons, 11 February 1952. Stemming the Tide,op. cit., 244.9. Ibid., 245.10. WSC to Lord Moran, 3 February 1953. Moran, Charles,Churchill: The Struggle for Survival (London: Constable, 1966), 427.11. Ibid., 429.12. Hart-Davis, D. (ed.), King’s Counsellor (London: Weidenfeld& Nicolson, 2006), 344.13. Ibid., 340.14. The Queen to WSC, 11 April 1955. Gilbert, op. cit., 1126.15. WSC to the Queen, from Sicily, 8 April 1955, ibid., 1128.16. WSC to Lord Moran, 4 November 1953. Moran, The Strugglefor Survival, op. cit., 528. ,FINEST HOUR 135 / 53