February 10, 2015

Churchill was becoming increasingly embroiled in Irish politics as die Government spokesman, partly because of his natural bent for leadership. As his son would later comment: “If there was a battle he always aspired to be in the front line, even if not in actual command.”

The prospect of civil war in Ireland was very real and Tory anger was unmitigated at Liberal proposals to enforce Home Rule. Churchill was the target for most of their attacks. He was called everything from a “Lilliput Napoleon” to “Lord Randolph’s renegade son.”

Europe was hurtling toward war and Churchill was working fervently to have the Navy ready. This included a well-equipped and well-armed Royal Navy Air Service of 120 pilots. The First Lord’s attraction to flying himself brought this admonition from his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough: “I consider that you owe it to your wife, family and friends to desist from a practice which is fraught with so much danger to life. ” Others had similar concerns. Churchill wrote his wife: “My business proposals do not go smoothly – for the reason that the insurance companies try to charge excessive premiums on my life – political strain, short-lived parentage and, of course, flying are the reasons they give.” Reluctantly he agreed to stop flying but only because of his love for his wife. “This is a gift – so stupidly am I made – wh costs me more than anything wh cd be bought for money. So I am vy glad to lay it at your feet, because I know it will rejoice and relieve your heart. Anyhow I can feel I know a good deal about this fascinating new art. I can manage a machine with ease in the air, even with high winds, and only a little more practice in landings wd have enabled me to go up with reasonable safety alone. I have been up nearly 140 times, with many pilots, and all kinds of machines, so I know the difficulties, the difficulties and the joys of the air – well enough to appreciate them, and to understand all the questions of policy wh will arise in the near future.”

Churchill’s advocacy of air power received wide public support. Punch published a cartoon entitled ‘Neptune’s Ally’ showing the great god of the sea watching a plethora of air machines over the water and a winged Churchill supplying their motive power. The European scene continued to cause concern. In April King George V visited Paris but the British refused to participate in a Paris-initiated naval convention with Russia. In June an Anglo-German agreement was initiated. Most specifically about the Baghdad Railway, it reflected a desire of both sides to remove many outstanding colonial difficulties. But by late June Germany and Austria were deeply embroiled in the politics of the Balkans. Vienna favoured an alliance with Bulgaria and Turkey while Berlin had been urging Austrian reconciliation with Serbia, Rumania and Greece. On Sunday, 28 June, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his morganatic wife Sophie, began a good- will tour of the Bosnian city of Sarajevo to express their sympathy for the aspirations of loyal Slav nationalists. Shots that still ring round the world would end their lives and led to the same fate for millions of others.

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