August 13, 2013

Finest Hour 125, Winter 2004-05

Page 45

From the Canon – “PRAY FOR RAIN”

Winston Churchill to The Times, 12 June 1919

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RECOUNTED BY JAMES LANCASTER

The Duke of Rutland asked The Times
To pray for rain;
The rain came down the following day.
The pious marvelled;
Sceptics murmured ‘fluke’;
And farmers late with hay said ‘Damn that Duke’
—Maurice Baring

Churchill’s letter to The Times in 1919, signed “Scorpio,” following the Duke of Rutland’s appeal for national prayers for rain, is very witty. Only a polymath such as WSC could write such a letter at a time when he was also fighting a one-man battle in the British Cabinet, arguing for military action against the Bolsheviks in Russia. Judging by the wet 2004 summer in the UK, his call for a Royal Commission to solve the ongoing problem of the British climate is as urgent today as in 1919. The following is from a very readable book by Edward Marsh, WSC’s longtime private secretary, entitled A Number of People: A Book of Reminiscences (London: Heinemann, 1939), pp. 192-94.

In a season of drought the Duke of Rutland issued a manifesto urging that recourse should be had to the Prayers for Rain in the Prayer-book. This started Winston Churchill on a playful composition which Swift could hardly have bettered. It has never been published, and I am very grateful to him for letting me print it here. —Edward Marsh

To the Editor of The Times. Sir– Observing reports in vari ous newspapers that prayers are about to be offered up for rain in order that the present serious drought may be terminated, I venture to sug gest that great care should be taken in framing the appeal. On the last occasion when this extreme step was resorted to, the Duke of Rutland took the leading part with so much well-meaning enthusiasm that the resulting downpour was not only sufficient for all immediate needs, but was considerably in excess of what was actually required, with the consequence that the agricultural community had no sooner been delivered from the drought than they were clamouring for a special interposition to relieve them from the deluge.

Profiting by this experience, we ought surely on this occasion to be extremely careful to state exactly what we want in precise terms, so as to obviate the possibility of any misunderstanding, and to economize so far as possible the need for these special appeals. After so many days of drought, it certainly does not seem unreasonable to ask for a change in the weather, and faith in a favourable response may well be fortified by actuarial probabilities.

While therefore welcoming the suggestion that His Grace should once again come forward, I cannot help feeling that the Board of Agriculture should first of all be consulted. They should draw up a schedule of the exact amount of rainfall required in the interests of this year’s harvest in different parts of the country. This schedule could be placarded in the various places of worship at the time when the appeal is made. It would no doubt be unnecessary to read out the whole schedule during the service, so long as it was made clear at the time that this is what we have in our minds, and what we actually want at the present serious juncture.

I feel sure that this would be a much more businesslike manner of dealing with the emergency than mere vague appeals for rain. But after all, even this scheme, though greatly preferable to the haphazard methods previously employed, is in itself only a partial makeshift. What we really require to pray for is the general amelioration of the British climate.

What is the use of having these piecemeal interpositions—now asking for sunshine, and now for rain? Would it not be far better to ascertain by scientific investigation, conducted under the auspices of a Royal Commission, what is the proportion of sunshine and rain best suited to the ripening of the British crops? It would no doubt be necessary that other interests besides agriculture should be represented, but there must be certain broad general reforms in the British weather upon which an overwhelming consensus of opinion could be found. The proper proportion of rain to sunshine during each period of the year; the relegation of the rain largely to the hours of darkness; the apportionment of rain and sunshine as between different months, with proper reference not only to crops but to holidays; all these could receive due consideration. A really scientific basis of climatic reform would be achieved.

These reforms, when duly embodied in an official volume, could be made the object of the sustained appeals of the nation over many years, and embodied in general prayers of a permanent and not of an exceptional character. We should not then be forced from time to time to have recourse to such appeals at particular periods, which, since they are unrelated to any general plan, must run the risk of deranging the whole economy of nature, and involve the interruption and deflection of universal processes, causing reactions of the utmost complexity in many directions which it is impossible for us with our limited knowledge to foresee.

I urge you, Sir, to lend the weight of your powerful organ to the systematization of our appeals for the reform of the British climate.

Yours very faithfully, ‘Scorpio.’