May 2, 2013

FINEST HOUR 148, AUTUMN 2010

BY DAVID DRUCKMAN

Mr. Druckman’s visits to Churchill haunts include South Africa (FH 47), Gallipoli (FH 90), Lady Randolph’s Brooklyn (FH 129), Schloss Cecilienhof at Potsdam (FH 132), and Livadia Palace at Yalta (FH 146). Photographs by the author and Lynn Druckman.

ABSTRACT
His wartime travels proved that Churchill was always willing to put up with the worst of everything, to twist a famous remark; but he’d always settle for luxury.

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Probably quoting F. E. Smith, his closest friend, Winston Churchill declared that he was “a man of simple tastes…quite easily satisfied with the best of everything.”^[1] Thus it was with the choice of the five-star, then-74-year old Mena House as a home and meeting place for part of the 23-26 November, 1943 Cairo meeting between WSC, Roosevelt, and Chiang Kai-shek.

The conference’s primary purposes were to address the war against Japan and to review staff plans. Stalin did not attend with Chiang there, either to avoid offending the Japanese (with whom Russia was not yet at war), or because of his famous aversion to straying far from the Soviet Union. Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin in Teheran shortly thereafter (see “Getting There,” previous pages).

Giza, Egypt is a city of 2.7 million, located just west of the Nile River, 20 kilometers southwest of Cairo. Its fame comes from the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including the ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, plus the Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples. To those who know British and Middle East history, its eminence also comes from Mena House.

The intention of the four-day meeting, code named “Sextant,” was chiefly for British and American Chiefs of Staff to coordinate plans; but as Churchill says they “were sadly distracted by the Chinese story, which was lengthy, complicated, and minor. Moreover, as will be seen, the President, who took an exaggerated view of the Indian-Chinese sphere, was soon closeted in long conferences with the Generalissimo.”^[2]

At Cairo the United States agreed to “a considerable amphibious operation across the Bay of Bengal” (northeast Indian Ocean, between India and Burma) within the next few months. This would have cramped the invasion of France (Operation Overlord) and Italy, to which Churchill objected, and the plan was eventually dropped.

Overlord was discussed amongst the U.S. and British military chiefs. Meetings were held with President Ismet Inönü, of Turkey, attempting unsuccessfully to cajole him into entering the war. The conference ended with a joint “Cairo Declaration”: that “Japan be stripped of all the islands in the Pacific which she has seized or occupied since the beginning of the First World War in 1914, all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China, and that in due course Korea shall become free and independent.”^[3]

My wife Lynn and I were on an Eastern Mediterranean Celebrity cruise with only a day’s stop in Alexandria. We pre-paid for Lynn to visit the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and for me to see El Alamein, the turning point of the war in North Africa, 106 km west of Alexandria. Since we were seasoned cruisers, Celebrity offered us free round trips to Giza instead. “Provided we may also have a look at Mena House,” I said, “we accept the substitute itinerary.” (Lynn, however, required a concession, of which more anon.)

At Mena House we were greeted like visiting pharaohs. As we walked up steps, seven costumed Egyptians played the triumphal scene from “Aida”! They ushered us in to a hot buffet lunch in the expansive and elegant thousand-seat ballroom.

Suddenly I remembered that Churchill had stayed here during the 1943 “Sextant” Conference, and beckoned to the obliging hotel manager, who offered us a tour of the Churchill Suite. (We missed dessert.)

Exiting a private elevator, the three of us entered the Churchill Suite and the hallway which led to its various rooms, all in elaborate Egyptian décor. The rooms were in use by guests, but fortunately empty, and the manager made sure we were shown the two bathrooms, of which he was particularly proud. Off the living room is a tree-lined terrace with a magnificent view of the pyramids, just 700 meters away.

I did not ask about air conditioning in 1943, but of course that meeting was in cooler November. Today’s rate is $1515 per night excluding 24% service charge and tax. There is much information on the Mena House and Giza on the Internet.

We barely caught our bus back for the afternoon trip, 20 km to the world’s oldest pyramid at Sakkara, then the long ride to Alexandria, where our ship welcomed us with bagpipes, drinks and dinner. It was worth the rush. The aforementioned concession was that I promised Lynn, another cruise to Alexandria so she could visit the famous library. She twisted my arm.

Lawrence of Arabia did not particularly like Egyptian hotels. In a letter to his brother he remarked: “Here we livein a marble & bronze hotel, very expensive & luxurious: horrible place: makes me Bolshevik…”

Churchill had a rather different view. In his opinion, international summit conferences were difficult enough without the burden of sub-standard surroundings. (Significantly after returning from Yalta, he had all his clothes fumigated.) At Cairo in 1943, however, there is every evidence that he found his accommodation suitable.

My own searches for Churchill, often reported in these pages, are not unique. Churchill sites like this are available to you, too, if you give thought to where you are and where Churchill was. The keys are persistence— coupled with patient civility. Also—when the opportunity presents itself—be prepared to “drop everything!” ,

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ENDNOTES

1. Richard M. Langworth, ed., Churchill By Himself (New York: Public Affairs, 2009), 579.
2. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. V, Closing the Ring (London: Cassell, 1951), 289.
3. Sir Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. VII. Road to Victory 1941-1945 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986), 460-567.