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

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Wit&Wisdom"THE HUN IS ALWAYS AT YOURTHROAT OR AT YOUR FEET"Dan Schneider asks, "What is thecite for WSC's great quote (above)? Accordingto Churchill, himself, it was notoriginally coined by him. The reference,in Kay Halle's Irrepressible Churchill(Cleveland: World 1966, p. 218) reads:"The proud German Army has by itssudden collapse, sudden crumbling andbreaking up...once again proved the truthof the saying, 'The Hun is either at yourthroat or at your feet.'" Halle ascribes thepassage to Churchill's broadcast fromWashington on the third anniversary ofthe Home Guard, 14 May 1943, but itdoes not appear either in thetext of that broadcast in theComplete Speeches (VI, pp.6772-74) or Onwards to Victory(pp. 87-90)."IRON CURTAIN"We've been over thisbefore, but here is new information.Natalie Adams ofthe Churchill Archives Centerwrites: "In 1951 Churchillreceived a letter fromone of the compilers of theAmerican College Dictionary,asking him whether he recalledhaving met the phrasebefore his first use of it.Churchill's response was,'No. I didn't hear of thephrase before—though everyone hasheard of the "iron curtain" which descendsin a theater.' (Reference: ChurchillPapers, CHUR 2/391)."We found this very interesting, butwondered if the phrase had neverthelessbeen read by Churchill and remained inhis capacious memory. Dalton Newfield,in Finest Hour 19 (May-June 1971, p. 5)wrote:"According to The Concise OxfordDictionary of Quotations, the term 'ironcurtain,' in reference to things Russian,was first used in a book by Mrs. PhilipSnowden, entitled Through Bolshevik Russia,in 1920. The exact wording, 'We wereAROUND & ABOUTcontinued from page 7...Lullenden, the first Churchill country home (1917-19) in East Grinstead, West Sussex,is for sale again. Called "a near-perfect example of a fine Tudor house on a modestHome Counties estate," it can be had for only £2.75 million. Agents are FDP Savills(01732) 7897OO....After he had left power in 1955, Churchill and his wife wished togive an avenue of limes and elms to Chequers, country residence of Prime Ministers,but the trustees chose chestnut and beech....According to Nigel Rosser in London'sEvening Standard, the Royal Family changed their official name to Mountbatten-Windsorin 1960 because an obscure genealogist protested that the surname Windsor impliedPrince Andrew was born out of wedlock. Rosser says Churchill "steamrollered"the Queen to adopt "House of Windsor" in 1952 because of his then-loathing forLouis Mountbatten over his performance as last Viceroy of India, according to Rosser.(They were later reconciled; will someone please advise whether this is to be believed?)....A painting offered Churchill by Lord Melchett, chairman of ICI during thewar, was vetoed for Chequers by Lord Lee (who gave Chequers to the nation) becausehe considered it "a very perfunctory example of a second-rate painter." The work wasJohn Churchill at Blenheim, by van Huchtenburgh—which the Prime Minister dulyplaced at Number Ten Downing Street.^behind the "iron curtain" at last,' is foundon page 32. Given WSC's dynamic interestin world affairs, it is not illogical tosuppose that he was an early reader of thispioneer account of Lenin's Russia, andthat the phrase was added to his bank ofknowledge to be stored for opportuneusage some quarter-century later."Second to use 'iron curtain' officially,so far as I know, was Josef Goebbels,the infamous Nazi propaganda chief,in the 25Feb45 issue of Das Reich, one ofthe Nazi journal's last issues. Translated itreads: 'Should the German people laydown its arms, the agreement betweenRoosevelt, Churchill and Stalin wouldallow the Soviets to occupy all Easternand Southeastern Europe together withthe major part of the Reich. An iron curtainwould at once descend on this territorywhich, including the Soviet Union,would be of enormous dimensions.'"Churchill himself was only third inline, but even so he first used the phraselong before Fulton. In a telegram to Trumandated 12May45 (see Triumph andTragedy, U.S. edition, p. 498) he said: Aniron curtain is drawn down upon theirfront. We do not know what is going onbehind.' And six months before the WestminsterCollege address, St. VincentTroubridge, in the 21Oct45 Sunday EmpireNews, wrote: 'There is an iron curtainacross Europe.'"Thus at Fulton on 7 March 1946,Churchill was to use the phrase for atleast the second time himself, for thefourth time in its contemporary context,and for at least the fifth time in literature.It may at first seem surprising that he waspreceded in its use by one of democracy'sbitterest enemies during the last gasps ofthe Third Reich, probably to make clearwhat was already well known—that theNazis much preferred to make their firstpeace with the Anglo-Americans. YetGoebbels, himself no slight student ofpolitics and global strategy, was probablyas capable as Churchill in recognizing theruthless ambitions of Premier Stalin, perhapsmore so, for the tyrant is well qualifiedto recognize his fellow tyrant."The Churchill Center has arrangedfor publication of Churchill's "Iron Curtain"Speech, papers from a colloquiumcosponsored in March 1996 with theChurchill Memorial & Library. (See"Quote of the Season," page 5.) M>FINEST HOUR 103 / 8
SIR ROBERT RHODES JAMESA REMEMBRANCE BY RICHARD M. LANGWORTHIn his most famous book, RobertRhodes James set out to prove thatWinston Churchill was human. Asuperfluous mission? Sir Robertreplied that Churchill had been almostcompletely deified, and that itwas high time someone brought himdown to earth. Churchill: A Study inFailure (1970) was an outstandingcatalogue of the great man's outrages,miscalculations and false steps whichleft him, in 1939, admired for hisbrilliance and feared for his lack ofjudgment.If Churchill had died at sixty-five,Rhodes James wrote, he would be rememberedas a politician who failedmore than he succeeded, which was Ithink a bit tongue-in-cheek. If Hitleror Lenin had died at thirty theywould not be remembered at all. Peopleare remembered for the totality oftheir contributions. Nor was A Studyin Failure a pioneering work, for criticalbooks about Churchill had beenappearing since the 1920s. But it wasthe best of its kind: carefully researched,deftly argued, an elegant politicalhistory, a model. In 1985 it wasnamed by the International ChurchillSociety's Churchill Bibliographic Dataas the best critical work on Churchillever published.Its author was well qualified, becauselike Churchill, Sir Robert wasthat rare combination, the politicianwriter,and, unlike most modernpoliticians, he didn't make politics hissole career. He clerked in the Houseof Commons from 1955 to 1965, returnedto All Souls as a research fellow,taught history at Stanford andthe University of Sussex, and workedfor the United Nations in New York.In 1976 he won a by-election inCambridge and held the seat despitetough challenges until he retired in1992. His toughest race was in 1987,when he eked out a close win againstthe redoubtable Shirley Williams, oneof the prominent "Gang of Four"who founded the Social Democratsout of disaffected Labour members.Aside from Study in Failure, SirRobert left a huge corpus for laborersin the Churchill vineyard, beginningwith the first biography of Lord RandolphChurchill since the one by SirWinston (who praised it) in 1962; ofWSC's great friend Lord Rosebery(1963); of Prince Albert (1983); andof Anthony Eden, whom he so admired(1986). His work was less eventhan his admirers proclaimed. BobBoothby (1991, reviewed FH78) borderedon hagiography: Churchill'sParliamentary Private Secretary, wholater fell out with his boss, hardly putsa foot wrong in that book, whichmeanwhile etiolates Churchill. Yetshort of Churchill and Roy Jenkinswe would be hardpressed to find amore valuable politician-writer.His greatest contribution wasWinston S. Churchill: His CompleteSpeeches 1897-1963 (1974), not trulycomplete but close, with two well-organizedand comprehensive indexes.He shocked me once by confidingthat he had been paid only £5000 forthe job, 55 pence per page, so niggardlya sum as to be unimaginable.It's a safe bet that he derived no incomefrom its later abridged editions,the most recent of which was Barnes& Noble's Churchill Speaks, althoughhe smiled when I told him the originaleight volumes are among the threeor four most highly sought-aftermulti-volume works about WinstonChurchill.Imet him in Washington in 1994,where he delivered a paper at ourfirst Churchill Symposium, laterquantified in Churchill as Peacemaker(1997). His colleague Paul Addison,who also participated, remembered"what fun he was to be with, a warmand generous character sparkling withgossip and full of enthusiasms." SirRobert told me that he'd written, in alighthearted vein, the story of theChurchill government that neverwas—the government Churchillwould have run had he won in 1945-What a piece of alternate history thatwould have made, no doubt on thesame plane as Churchill's "If Lee HadNot Won the Battle of Gettysburg"(see elsewhere this issue).The Washington Post said SirRobert "could be a congenial companionto those he counted as his intellectualnear-equals," which clearlyincluded Professor Addison. But noteveryone was so fortunate, and he wasnot one to hide his light under abushel. As the Post put it, he "neverlost the superior manner commonlydisplayed by clerks of the Commons."He issued a stream of complaintabout our symposium, from the factthat speakers had to stand up to thequality of certain presentations. Hisprotest over our auditorium ban onsmoking was an example, crisp anddroll: "Sex will be banned next inyour country, except between consentinggay couples in California.There is little future for the rest ofus.continued overleaf...FINEST HOUR 103 / 9
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