June 23, 2015

Finest Hour 114, Spring 2002

Page 16

By Michael McMenamin

125 Years Ago:

Spring 1877-Age 2

“Dressed…Like a Girl”

A letter from his mother described life in Dublin with her young son: “Winston is flourishing tho rather X the last 2 days more teeth I think. Everest has been bothering me about some clothes for him saying that it was quite a disgrace how few things he had &c how shabby at that.” Churchill’s granddaughter, Celia Sandys, offers this portrait: “Winston had arrived in Dublin a month after his second birthday dressed, as was the fashion, like a girl. At that time children were dressed alike, making boys and girls indistinguishable one from the other, for the first few years of their lives.”

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It was early days in Ireland for Churchill’s 28-year-old father. In his biography of Lord Randolph, Churchill writes of the routine into which his father soon settled: “Five minutes’ walk from the Viceregal Lodge, on the road to the Phoenix Park, there stands, amid clustering trees, a little, long, low, white house with a green verandah and a tiny lawn and garden.

“This is the ‘Little Lodge’ and the appointed abode of the private secretary [Lord Randolph] to the Lord-Lieutenant. By a friendly arrangement with that gentleman Lord Randolph was permitted to occupy it; and here, for the next four years, his life was mainly lived. He studied reflectively the jerky course of administration at the Castle. He played chess with Steinitz, who was living in Dublin at this time; he explored Donegal in pursuit of snipe; he fished the lakes and streams of Ireland, wandering about where fancy took him; but wherever he went, and for whatever purpose, he interested himself in the people and studied the questions of the country.”

100 Years Ago:

Spring 1902-Age 27

“The Politics of the Future”

In April, Churchill and the other Hooligans voted with the Liberals against the Tory Government in support of a British journalist named Cartwright who, after serving a twelve-month sentence in South Africa for criminal libel over an article critical of Kitchener, was denied the right to return to England. The reason the Government offered was: “it seemed inexpedient to increase the number of persons in this country who disseminated anti-British propaganda.”

Speaking in the House, Churchill said, “What reason has the government to be afraid of Mr. Cartwright? There are many people in this country who spread what is called anti-British propaganda, but does that alter the opinion of the British people? Has it in any way impaired the security of the British Government? No Government has benefited so much by the strong support and opinions of the masses of the country as this Government. No Government has less right not to allow those masses to receive any opinion within the law which may be properly expressed to them. This is a great constitutional principle.”

Dining with the Hooligans that evening, after the Liberal Party’s motion had been defeated, Joseph Chamberlain criticized the young Tory MPs for their lack of support: “What is the use of supporting your own Government only when it is right? It is just when it is in this sort of pickle that you ought to have come to our aid.”

Churchill records in My Early Life that at the conclusion of the dinner where Chamberlain had been “most gay and captivating,” he offered this parting advice: “You young gentlemen have entertained me royally, and in return I shall give you a priceless secret. Tariffs! There are the politics of the future, and of the near future. Study them closely and make yourselves masters of them, and you will not regret your hospitality to me.” Indeed, it was Chamberlain’s and the Conservative Party’s support for tariffs and opposition to Free Trade which would lead Churchill out of his party in less than two years. At the time, however, Churchill gave no appearance of courting the Liberals’ favor.

The Liberal Parry’s motion on that occasion had been placed by John Morley, whom Churchill had sharply criticized, along with Liberal leader Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, at a Conservative Party dinner in Manchester a month earlier: “I admire those who display a great deal of patient toleration. Some people are violent for war; others are violent for peace. People in Manchester recently listened to one of the most bellicose peacemakers of the time, Mr. John Morley. (Laughter.) I disagree from Mr. Morley in almost every single important particular, but I have great respect for Mr. Morley. Although Mr. Morley’s views are pernicious—would be pernicious if they attained to an electoral majority—it must nevertheless be recognized that his are the views of an honest man, a man who, somehow, in spite of his views, one does not altogether dissociate from the fortunes of his country. (Hear, hear.)

“One would not like to say the same about Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. (Laughter.) One cannot say that he is an honest exponent of the views of a strong man. (Renewed laughter.)….The words a great satirist of the last century applied to Sir Robert Peel might be brought up to date and made to read (in the phraseology of the satirist’s last will and testament), ‘I give and bequeath to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman my patience. He will want it all before he becomes Prime Minister of England. But in the event of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s becoming Prime Minister of England my patience is then to revert to the English people.’ (Loud laughter.)”

75 Years Ago:

Spring 1927 • Age 52

“Buoyant Mischievousness”

Churchill’s third budget represented, in his own words, “the limits of what could be done by way of taxation without checking a trade revival.” Churchill was opposed to further tax increases. As he wrote privately on 16 April after presenting his budget: “We have assumed since the war, largely under the guidance of the Bank of England, a policy of deflation, debt repayment, high taxation, large sinking funds and Gold Standard. This has raised our credit, restored our exchange and lowered the cost of living. On the other hand it has produced bad trade, hard times, an immense increase in unemployment involving costly and unwise remedial measures….This debt and taxation lie like a vast wet blanket across the whole process of creating new wealth by new enterprise.”

Nevertheless, Churchill’s budget was well received. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin wrote to the King describing Churchill’s presentation to the House: “Mr. Churchill as a star turn has a power of attraction which nobody in the House of Commons can excel….There is in Mr. Churchill an under current of buoyant mischievousness which frequently makes its appearance on the surface in some picturesque phrase or playful sally at the expense of his opponents.”

Lord Winterton, who as Edward Tumour was an original member of The Other Club, wrote in a private letter on 6 June: “The great Parliamentary event was Winston’s Budget speech, I thought it a masterpiece, and about the best I have ever heard. Winston is a wonderful fellow…head and shoulders above anyone else in the House (not excluding Lloyd George) in Parliamentary position, and both oratorical and debating skill he has suddenly acquired, quite late in his Parliamentary life, an immense fund of tact, patience, good humour and banter on almost all occasions; no one used to ‘suffer fools ungladly’ more fully than Winston, now he is friendly and accessible to everyone, both in the House, and in the lobbies, with the result that he has become what he never was before the war, very popular in the House generally—a great accretion to his already formidable parliamentary power.”

50 Years Ago:

Spring 1952-Age 77

“He Hated Yes-Men”

In a cabinet meeting on 13 March, Churchill’s proposals on three defense issues—the sale of arms to India and Pakistan; priority over civil production for certain defense equipment; and the enlargement of industrial capacity for tank production—were all overruled. Martin Gilbert quotes Lord Alexander, the Minister of Defence, on how WSC handled disagreements: “Winston loved argument. Whenever I saw him and Brendan Bracken together they were quarreling. That’s what Winston liked; he hated yes-men—he had no use for them. What he wanted was people who would stand up to him. Winston would put forward some point of view and Brendan would say straight out, ‘That’s all wrong.’ Then Winston would question him at length, probing his position. Once, in Cabinet, when I was Minister of Defence, Winston began running down the Army. I got very angry and burst out: ‘That’s all nonsense. You don’t know anything about the Army….’ I was very outspoken. Winston just grunted. When I had finished my outburst I thought, ‘That’s done it. I’ve overstepped the mark.’ That same night we were to dine together at a mutual friend’s house. I was rather anxious. Winston came up to me, and I began to apologize. Then a smile came over his face. ‘Dear boy,’ he said, you said what you felt had to be said.’ And we sat down to dinner. He bore no malice.”

Churchill continued to be concerned about the after effects of his stroke, telling Lord Moran on 23 March: I have noticed a decline in mental and physical vigour. I require more prodding to mental effort….I’m as quick at repartee in the House as ever I was. I enjoy Questions there. Do you think I ought to see Brain?” The suitably named Sir Russell Brain was Churchill’s neurologist.

On April 29th, his daughter Sarah was in the United States and read a message from her father at Carnegie Hall upon the fourth anniversary of the creation of Israel: “As a Zionist from the days of the Balfour Declaration, I have watched with admiration the courageous effort of Israel to establish her independence and prosperity. May this and future anniversaries be celebrated with growing confidence and good will by Israel’s friends throughout the war.