.JOURNAL OFTIIE CHURCHILL CKNTER AND ... - Winston Churchill

Action This Ye ear...DIARY FOR 1928RICHARD M. LANGWORTHOUR INTERNET website (www.winstonchurchill.org)offers a sectioncalled "Action This Day," which iswider in scope than FH's department by thesame name. On the website our object is to pinpointChurchill's location and activities day byday, ultimately for every day of his life.The Diary for 1928 came about by accident.I was looking for a reference to a Churchillvisit to Belfast, to support the accompanyingphoto, sent by Devoy White of Sacramento, California.Devoy's photo was from the archives of a Belfastcompany named "Shorts." I searched in vain for a 1928Churchill trip to Northern Ireland. None had occurred,but luck was at hand in the reliable official biographer. Asimilar photo is number 184 in Sir Martin Gilbert'sChurchill: A Photographic Portrait (1974). Both weretaken on the Thames, where Churchill was inspectingShort Brothers's "Calcutta" flying boat, moored oppositethe Houses of Parliament. "Throughout his life," commentsSir Martin, "he retained a keen interest in new inventionsand means of transport."The investigation led me to many other interestingevents in 1928 and ultimately resulted in the followingnotes for the website's "Action This Day." I publish themhoping they may inspire readers to tackle other years insimilar fashion.You can help complete this valuable file! Althoughwe would prefer you to be computer literate, and to sendyour year-diary by email, we also accept typed manuscripts.If you care to help, please contact John Plumpton,address on page 4. John can tell you what years stillneed to be covered. There are many to choose from.OVERVIEW OF 1928Throughout the year Churchill, aged 54, wasChancellor of the Exchequer, the most senior position inthe Cabinet next to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin.The main Exchequer issue was Churchill's scheme of derating,a kind of supply-side economics. Churchill proposedto reduce by £30 million Local Rates (taxes) onfactories and farmers, paying for it partly by an increasednuisance tax (on petrol), partly from reduced governmentspending, and partly through increased governmentrevenues generated by the resulting improved economy.His scheme was bitterly opposed by Minister of HealthNeville Chamberlain; the rift that grew between themwould affect their relationship later.A second issue, later in the year, was war debt.Churchill maintained that Britain needed enough ofwhat Britain was owed by Europe to balance what Britainowed the United States. President Coolidge had been intransigenton the subject, greeting a suggestion that theBritish war debt be reduced with the famous, laconic remark,"They hired the money, didn't they?" Churchill referredto Coolidge as a "New England backwoodsman,"and preferred to put the issue off until President Hooverwas inaugurated in March 1929.In the literary field, Churchill's chief writing projectfor 1928 was The Aftermath, published in 1929 as VolumeIV of The World Crisis.Januarylst-8th: Chartwell; political correspondence.9- 10th: to France via Newhaven-Dieppe; two days hunting wild boar in the Forets d'Eu and d'Argueswith "Bendor," the Duke of Westminster.1 lth: Back to Chartwell.16th: London; Treasury Chambers.20th: Cabinet meeting, London; at Treasury Chambers.25th: Cabinet Policy Committee meeting; Churchill sayshe hopes de-rating will start by October 1929—apregnant date, as it turned out.29-30th: Treasury Chambers and 11 Downing Street.February5th: Returned to Chartwell.7th: London; Commons debate on the King's Address,which WSC supports.9th: London; Treasury Chambers. continued overleaf...FINEST HOUR 103/35