June 22, 2015

Finest Hour 106, Spring 2000

Page 36

By Steve Walker

Elgin and Churchill at the Colonial Office 1905-1908, by Ronald Hyam. London: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968. 574 pages. Typical price for fine jacketed copies $75+. Frequency: very scarce.

Read Sir Martin Gilbert’s single-volume Churchill: A Life and you’ll find only twenty pages covering the period 1905-1908. In the official biography, 130 pages give us a more in-depth discussion of this period encompassing Churchill’s first government office. But for anyone tantalized by this period, the standard work by Cambridge lecturer Ronald Hyam provides nearly 600 pages detailing life at the Colonial Office during the tenure of Churchill, the undersecretary, and his senior, Lord Elgin (pronounced “El’-gan”). The author charmingly dedicates the work to “those of my friends who, though they will not read this book, encouraged me to persevere.”

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The work is divided into five parts. The Introduction comprises a fascinating presentation on Lord Elgin, a man we barely glimpse in passing as we study the life of Winston Churchill. Next come two chapters covering the formation of the great Liberal government which some historians hold the most brilliant in modern British history, which brought Elgin and Churchill together.

The bulk of the book consists of three central parts which Hyam defines in his Preface as “attitudes and policies with respect to three things”: the principle of continuity of policy (1905-06); the principle of self-government (1906-07); and “the so-called native question” (1907-08). These are followed by a Conclusion, with chapters on the conduct of business at the Colonial Office, and the departure of Lord Elgin from the ministry. Also in this part is a summarizing chapter entitled “The watershed of the Empire-Commonwealth: the imperial policy of the Liberal government, 1905-1908.” This last chapter alone is almost worth the cost of buying the book.

While the core of the book is chronological, each part contains geographical or thematic chapters which address, for example, South Africa, West and East Africa and Ceylon; the Colonial Conference of 1907; the definition of a native policy for British Africa; the development of dependencies; and Churchill’s 1907 tour which resulted in his book, My African Journey.

Readers of Churchill’s only travelogue will enjoy the chapter on his tour— and its consequences: “[u]nfortunately, the African tour did not turn out quite as Elgin had expected when he blessed it.” The Colonial Secretary hadn’t realized what would happen when he released his young dynamo on the world. The number of on-the-spot decisions made by his young under-secretary, as well as the volume of memoranda and telegrams sent home for action, were utterly unanticipated.

In his Conclusion, Hyam provides a remarkably perceptive examination of the conduct of business at the Colonial Offices under Elgin and Churchill; their differing styles, and how they got along. An interesting paradox is the team itself, a study in contrasts: Elgin “never opened his lips in Council [and was] no use in general debate.” Even when Elgin was appointed to his first public office (in 1886, as treasurer in the Queen’s household), the Queen had “objected to him because he was not talkative.” Can we imagine this reticent man dealing almost daily with that most garrulous of men, Winston Churchill? And Elgin, Dr. Hyam says, was a dour Scot, while “[n]obody ever contrived to get so much fun out of official business as Churchill,” quoting WSC’s Liberal colleague Lord Morley as saying that Winston “now and then mistakes a frothy bubble for a great wave.” (That was just as valid a criticism 40 years later.)

When I first took up this book I was certain it would prove to be a plodding, boring work, one I would have to slog through. But the author’s style is enlightening, interesting, and brings life to a short but critical period of Churchill’s public career. I was grateful also for the opportunity to learn about Winston’s boss, the 9th Earl of Elgin, presented as an intelligent, conscientious, and distinguished public servant who was dismissed in a shabby fashion by Asquith. Unfortunately, the book is difficult to find, so if you see a copy in a used book store, snag it, because you may never see it again.

Mr. Walker is a longtime member and a collector of books about Churchill who resides in Norman, Oklahoma.