Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

75 Years AgoWinter 1935-36 • Age 61“More stags than Tories”This winter proved as bad forChurchill’s political career as itwas for the peace of Europe.Churchill was in Barcelona whena political storm broke over the Hoare-Laval Pact between Britain, France andItaly, conceived by the anti-Nazi SirRobert Vansittart, whereby Abyssiniawas to surrender 20 percent of its territoryto the invading Italians. It wasinitially supported by Prime MinisterBaldwin and the Cabinet, but publicopinion forced them to back down. Asa result, Samuel Hoare resigned asforeign secretary and was replaced byAnthony Eden on 23 December.Churchill took no position publiclyon the Hoare-Laval Pact but hispostwar memoirs suggest some sympathyfor Vansittart’s rationale, i.e.,that Germany was a greater danger, andthat having Italy as a friend was in bothcountries’ strategic interest. Churchillwas unimpressed with Eden’s appointment,having preferred AustenChamberlain. As he wrote to his wifeon 8 January: “I think you will now seewhat a light-weight Eden is.”While Clementine returnedhome from Barcelona for Christmas atChartwell, Churchill went to Tangierand from there to Marrakesh, where hespent four days with Lloyd George.Writing to his wife on the aftermath ofthe Hoare-Laval affair, he was pessimistic:“We are getting into the mostterrible position, involved definitely byhonour & by contract in almost anyquarrel that can break out in Europe,our defences neglected, ourGovernment less capable a machine forconducting affairs than I have everseen. The Baldwin-MacDonald regimehas hit this country very hard indeed,and may well be the end of its glories.”That same day brought more badnews: His son Randolph accepted thelocal Conservative Party’s request tostand as a candidate in a Scottish byelectionin Ross and Cromarty againstRamsay MacDonald’s son Malcolm, acabinet minister in the NationalGovernment. Churchill had mistakenlythought that his son would decline outof deference to his father’s hopes for acabinet post. As he had earlier writtenhis wife, “it would put a spoke in mywheel & do nothing good for him..”He was disappointed over his son’sdecision, because his enemies in theConservative Party automaticallyassumed that WSC was responsible.His slim prospects for a cabinet positionwere diminished accordingly.In the event, Randolph had nohope of winning. As Brendan Brackenwired to Churchill in late January:“Randolph’s prospects very doubtful.Socialist win probable. More stags thanTories in Cromarty.”In mid-January, Churchill predictedto his wife that Hitler’s nextmove would be to occupy the demilitarizedRhineland, in violation of theVersailles Treaty. On 15 January, Japanwithdrew from the London NavalDisarmament Conference, refusing toaccept any limits on its Navy. WSCwrote to his wife on January 17th:“The Naval Conference has of coursecollapsed. Japan has ruptured it....Meanwhile Japan is seeking moreprovinces of China. Already more thanhalf of their whole budget is spentupon armaments. Those figures Iquoted about German expenditure onarmaments are being admitted in thepress to be only too true. One mustconsider these two predatory militarydictatorship nations, Germany andJapan, as working in accord.”In early March, the BritishGovernment issued a Defence WhitePaper which Churchill praised. OnMarch 7th, Hitler fulfilled Churchill’sJanuary prediction and sent troops intothe Rhineland. The British refused tosupport France’s request to mobilizeagainst the German actions and tobring Hitler’s violations of theVersailles Treaty to the League ofNations. And, when German foreignminister Ribbentrop said on March13th that Germany desired to cooperatein a peaceful manner in buildinga new Europe, Britain’s new foreignsecretary, Anthony Eden, issued a notewelcoming Germany’s statement—confirmingChurchill’s doubtful view ofhim in December.On March 14th, Prime MinisterBaldwin announced the creation of anew cabinet position, Minister for theCoordination of Defence. To no one’ssurprise, including his own, Churchilldid not receive the appointment. Itwent to the distinctly unqualifiedAttorney-General, Sir Thomas Inskip.The most apt comment on thisappointment was by Churchill’s friendProfessor Lindemann (in MartinGilbert’s Winston S. Churchill, volume5): “The most cynical thing that hasbeen done since Caligula appointed hishorse as Consul.”50 Years AgoWinter 1960-61 • Age 86“...I will not press it too far”Churchill spent Christmas and theNew Year at Chartwell, havingwritten earlier to his lifelong friendConsuelo Balsan, once Duchess ofMarlborough, about the recent electionof President Kennedy, with whomChurchill had exchanged post-electionmessages.On January 10th Churchill wroteto French President Charles de Gaullecongratulating him on recent favorableevents in France and Algeria: TheAlgerian referendum, Churchill wrote,“is, if I may say so, a triumph of yourpolicies and for you personally. It isheartening to see that the Frenchpeople continue so rightly to expresstheir confidence in you.”In March, Churchill again joinedAristotle Onassis on his yachtChristina, and on the 20th (as MartinGilbert writes in his volume 8), WSCpainstakingly wrote his wife in his ownhand for the first time in nearly twoyears, something his strokes had previouslykept him from doing:“Here is a line to keep us postedin my own handwriting—all donemyself! And to tell you how much Ilove you: We have travelled ceaselesslyover endless seas—quite smoothly forweeks on end and now here we are—within a few days of meeting Ari andhis family. This is the moment for meto show you that I still possess the giftof writing & continue to use it. But Iwill not press it too far.” ,FINEST HOUR 149 / 39