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

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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
Diary ior 1928, continued...February12-13th: Chartwell, where Clementine is ill; to London.14th: London; Treasury Chambers.15th: London; Treasury Chambers; Lord Asquith dies.16th: Downing Street; Cabinet meeting in respect for Asquith.17th: Cabinet Meeting agreed to WSC's economic plans.27th: Policy Committee meeting.March5th: Policy Committee meeting; dispute over rating reliefcontinued, difficulty again with Chamberlain.6th: Treasury, London.9th: London; Treasury Chambers.12th: Policy Committee meeting on de-rating plans.18th: London, 11 Downing Street.23rd: London; Treasury Chambers.26th: Policy Committee meeting.28th: Policy Committee; argues with Chamberlain.April2nd: Cabinet.3rd: Cabinet reconvenes without WSC or Chamberlainpresent; Policy Committee meeting.4th: Cabinet reaches compromise on de-rating .4-23rd: At Chartwell almost without interruption; briefforays to London for Cabinet and House sessions.24th: Commons. Fourth Budget Speech (3 1/2 hours).24-27th: London; Treasury Chambers.MayApril 28-May 10th: Chartwell; in bed with influenza.10-13th: Chartwell, recovering from 'flu.13th: Night express to Scotland and Duke of Westminster'shouse Rosehall, in Sutherland.14-19th: Rosehall. Churchill reads, fishes, reviews proofs ofBeaverbrook's book, Politicians and the War.20-31st: Chartwell to prepare for Budget Debate.June5th: Commons; WSC introduces Finance Bill.5-8th: Commons debate on Budget and Finance.19th: London; Treasury Chambers.July5th: Meeting of Committee of Imperial Defence; WSC proposesan extension of the Ten Year Rule (budget formilitary assumes no major war within ten years). TheTen Year Rule is renewed.22nd: London; Treasury Chambers.August1st: Cabinet meeting, London.3rd: Chartwell; cables birthday congratulations to Baldwin, 61.4-8th: Chartwell.9th: Chartwell; lunch with Bernard Baruch.10-1 lth: Chartwell with Victor Cazalet, Randolph, Lindemann.September21st: Chartwell weekend guests include James Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, later MP for Renfrew, Scotland (1931-45), who writes: "Winston is building with his ownhands a house for his butler, and also a new gardenwall. He works at bricklaying four hours a day, andlays 90 bricks an hour, which is a very high output.He also spends a considerable time on the last volumeof his war memoirs....His ministerial work comesdown from the Treasury every day, and he has to givesome more hours to that. It is a marvel how muchtime he gives to his guests, talking sometimes for anhour after lunch and much longer after dinner. He isan exceedingly kind and generous host, providing unlimitedChampagne, cigars and brandy. Even poor oldProf who is really a teetotaller is compelled to drinkten cubic centimetres of brandy at a time, because hewas once rash enough to tell Winston that the averagehuman being could imbibe ten cc of brandy withoutcausing any detectable change in metabolism."(Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 5, p. 301).22-23rd: Chartwell24-27th: To Balmoral, Scotland (rail via London-Rugby-Perth,car to Balmoral) for stag hunting with King George Vand further dictation of The Aftermath. WSC writes:"The King is well—but ageing. He no longer stalks butgoes out on the hill where the deer are 'moved about forhim,' & it may be that some loyal stag will do his duty."28th: Returned to London.October1st: Cabinet meeting, discussed 30 May 1929 as possible datefor the next General Election.3rd: Chartwell.1 Oth: London, Cabinet meeting.17th: London, Cabinet meeting.19th: Paris for discussion of War Debts with P.M. Poincare.25th: Epping. Speech to his constituency, "A DisarmamentFable" (see. Arms and the Covenant, page 15, whichrecords this speech incorrectly as October 15th).29th: London, Cabinet meeting.31st: London; Treasury Chambers.November5th: WSC a guest at Baldwin's eve-of-session dinner.1 lth: Dinner and film show at Beaverbrook's London house.19th: London; Treasury Chambers.21st: London. "Baldwin has gone to Scotland & I am incharge." (Gilbert, Companion Vol. 5, Part 1, p. 1383.)29th: Birthday dinner at House including Philip Sassoon, ProfessorLindemann, Lord Harmsworth and VictorLaski. 30th: Churchill's 54th birthday at Chartwell.3rd: London; Treasury Chambers.4th: To Duke of Westminster's Eaton Hall, near Chester.December25th: To Chartwell for Christmas and the New Year. $FINEST HOUR 103 / 36
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.JOURNAL OFTIIE CHURCHILL CKNTER AND ... - Winston Churchill

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