April 4, 2015

Finest Hour 133, Winter 2006-07

Page 6

Quotation of the Season

“If our policy should end in mocking disaster…our unfortunate experience would be trumpeted forth all over the world wherever despotism wanted a good argument for bayonets, whenever an arbitrary Government wished to deny or curtail the liberties of imprisoned nationalities.”
—WSC, HOUSE OF COMMONS, 17 DECEMBER 1906


COVER: THE HERNANDEZ BUST LONDON, NOVEMBER 29TH, 2005— A remarkably fine bronze bust was unveiled by the present Winston Churchill at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. The sculptress is Margarita Hernandez, a Colombian who spends half of each year in London. It measures 17x60x70 cm, weighs 85 kilos and stands prominently in the College’s entrance hall. Colombian Ambassador Alfonso Lopez attended the ceremonies.

The bust was specially commissioned by the Royal College, which owes its origins to the recommendation of a Cabinet committee in 1922, presided over by Churchill, who was then Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was established in 1927 as the Imperial Defence College, adopting its current title in 1970. The College runs year-long courses for senior service officers, diplomatists and other government officials. Members of the 2005 course came from fortyone different countries.

Readers note: A second, identical bust has been produced by Ms. Hernandez and is available. Interested parties may contact her directly in England at (+44) 7771636901, or by email to [email protected].

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PRIX TOCQUEVILLE TO COLIN POWELL ON SIR WINSTON’S BIRTHDAY

CHATEAU TOCQUEVILLE, FRANCE, NOVEMBER 30TH— James Lancaster, Finest Hour’s French-based senior editor and a prolific contributor to our new educational website, DiscoverChurchill, attended the Prix Tocqueville ceremonies for Churchill Centre honorary member, Secretary Colin Powell, on Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday today. Mr. Lancaster, a translator and interpreter for the Association Alexis de Tocqueville, was invited by Mme. Heinis, a nine-year member of the French Senate, to the prize giving here just four miles from where he lives.

James told Mme. Heinis about Secretary Powell’s long-standing admiration for Winston Churchill, and that the choice of date could not be more propitious. She was excited to learn this, and mentioned it in her opening speech, which James translated. Many distinguished figures attended from Paris, including the former French President Giscard d’Estaing, along with quite a few English Tocqueville scholars. The strong American contingent sprang from the American winner and the fact that Tocqueville has for long been part of the American educational curriculum. There were quite a few Tocqueville scholars from England, and our old friend, Christian PolRoger, of Champagne Pol Roger in Epernay, generously donated many magnums to the reception.

Favorite Quotation

In 1992, then-General Powell asked The Churchill Centre to track his favorite Churchillian statement. In one of the finest pieces of writing about war, Churchill is describing the Agadir Crisis of 1911, when Germany and France almost went into battle. The Admiralty had sent a warning message to the fleet following Lloyd George’s belligerent Mansion House speech, assuring the Germans that Britain would fight with France:

“So now the Admiralty wireless whispers through the ether to the tall masts of ships, and captains pace their decks absorbed in thought. It is nothing. It is less than nothing. It is too foolish, too fantastic to be thought of in the twentieth century. Or is it fire and murder leaping out of the darkness at our throats, torpedoes ripping the bellies of half-awakened ships, a sunrise on a vanished naval supremacy, and an island well-guarded hitherto, at last defenceless? No, it is nothing. No one would do such things. Civilization has climbed above such perils. The interdependence of nations in trade and traffic, the sense of public law, the Hague Convention, Liberal principles, the Labour Party, high finance, Christian charity, common sense have rendered such nightmares impossible. Are you quite sure? It would be a pity to be wrong. Such a mistake could only be made once—once for all.”
THE WORLD CRISIS I, 48-49

WHO REALLY WON THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN?

LONDON, AUGUST 25TH— If a prime aim of historical revisionism is to create a rumpus, then three academics at the Joint Service Command & Staff College have succeeded in spades with their claim in History Today that it was the Royal Navy which prevented Hitler invading Britain in 1940, not the pilots of the Royal Air Force.

The revisionists argue that such was the might of the Home Fleet that a German seaborne invasion would never have reached British shores, and that the aerial battle that blazing summer was little short of irrelevant.

This particular piece of reinterpretation is hardly new. It has been knocking around since the 1950s. But its ability to stir deep passions remains undimmed. In reality, the Battle of Britain saw the first defeat for Hitler’s war machine and in the process gave Britain a priceless morale boost after the humiliation of Dunkirk.

It also helped swing American opinion behind the British cause, thanks in no small part to the inestimable war reporting from London of Edward R. Murrow. This was a heroic defensive victory and was to be Britain’s last taste of glory until the offensive victory at El Alamein in 1942, which finally started to turn the tide of the war. It is also worth noting that the revisionist claim of naval impregnability hardly sits comfortably with what happened at the Battle of Crete in 1941, when the Royal Navy was cut to pieces by the Luftwaffe.

There are usually sound historical reasons why the great events in the national story are remembered, and that is as true of the Battle of Britain as it is of the defeat of the Armada and the victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo. It is on such battles that history pivots. Winston Churchill understood this well enough—and also knew the vital importance of demonstrating to the world that a country could not be bombed into submission.

That is why his tribute to “The Few” when the battle was won remains so poignant. The Royal Navy might have defeated a German invasion. That is conjecture. The Royal Air Force did defeat a German invasion. That is fact.
Daily Telegraph

HAIG RESCUES HAIG

LONDON, SEPTEMBER 10TH— George, the second Earl Haig, is waging an admirable filial battle to defend the reputation of his father, the Field Marshal who sentenced 306 British soldiers to be “shot at dawn” for cowardice in World War I— an act now disavowed by the British government, which is granting posthumous pardons to the executed. Haig has also been condemned by many historians for squandering lives in futile “over the top” campaigns to take a few yards of trenches in Flanders. Aged 88, the son remembers and reveres his father as a “compassionate man,” for whom every death warrant caused “agonies of doubt.” He particularly disapproves of Winston Churchill’s reports in The World Crisis 1916-1918 (1927) of Haig’s role in the battle of Passchendaele, during which 448,000 allied soldiers were killed or wounded.

After Churchill’s book appeared, WSC was invited by Haig to tea. His son reports: “I was perched between my father and Sir Noel Birch and the atmosphere positively crackled with fury. I thought the car was going to explode. I distinctly remember my father saying that Winston did not understand what had happened or why the battle had to be fought. [But] my father welcomed Churchill as a friend and behaved as a warm host should.”

Perhaps Earl Haig is unfamiliar with what WSC wrote of his father in Nash’s Pall Mali m 1928 (reprinted in Great Contemporaries, 1937): “If there are some who would question Haig’s right to rank with Wellington in British military annals, there are none who will deny that his character and conduct as soldier and subject will long serve as an example to all.”

YALE’S QUOTATIONS

CAMBRIDGE, OCTOBER 1ST—The newly published Yale Book of Quotations is the first major quotation book to emphasize modern sources, to use state-of-the-art computer-assisted research methods, and to trace quotations to their accurate origins. There is a good section of Churchill quotations, including new discoveries as to the earliest evidence for quotations by Churchill or attributed to Churchill. More information about the book is at www.quotationdictionary.com or at www.amazon.com.

SIR MARTIN HEADS WEST

LONDON, ONTARIO, SEPTEMBER 1ST—The University of Western Ontario has scored a coup in attracting Churchill’s official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert to join its faculty for a five-year term.

Sir Martin regularly commutes from his home in big London (England) to his wife’s home in little London (Ontario). Perhaps his stays here will last a bit longer now that he has been lured to one of Canada’s top universities as an adjunct research professor. Gilbert wanted to return to lecturing after being absent from the classroom for almost four decades.

Word of Sir Martin’s regular trips to visit his wife, Esther, a writer, had reached Western officials. They acted on the opportunity. “It was fortuitous. But fortuitous in the best possible way,” said Ben Forster, chairman of the university’s history department.

Sir Martin’s appointment comes at a time when Canadian universities are looking to bolster their reputation on the world stage, and reflects their success in attracting high-profile scholars. Gilbert will be hosting lectures, continuing his research on Jewish and Arab history, and will keep his office door open to students who want advice or are interested in Churchill and 20th century history. “It was thought that as I’m around it would be good to have a relationship with the students,” he said from his London (Ontario) home. “It seems silly for somebody who likes to teach not to be able to teach. Teaching is something I used to do and I miss it,” he said. “It will be very good to be in teaching again. The time has come, I think, to repay Canada for having been such a wonderful host to me all those years ago when I was a little boy of 3 1/2 years old,” he said. (Gilbert was evacuated to Canada as a child, and wrote a book about it.)

The Churchill Centre warmly congratulates Sir Martin and Lady Gilbert on this appointment and welcomes their more regular presence in North America.

GELLER TO PRESIDENT’S UNICEF COUNCIL

CHICAGO, OCTOBER 23RD— Churchill Centre co-chairman of Trustees, business leader and philanthropist Laurence S. Geller has joined the President’s Council of the Midwest Region of the U.S. Fund for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. (Mr. Geller was keynote speaker at the recent Chicago Churchill conference; see page 22.)

“We are thrilled to welcome Laurence Geller to the President’s Council,” said Vince Hemmer, President of the Midwest Board of Directors. “His leadership skills and his commitment to children are tremendous assets to us as we implement UNICEF’s Child Survival initiative.” As a member of the President’s Council, Mr. Geller will support strategies to raise awareness in Chicago of UNICEF’s mission to promote the survival, protection, and development of children throughout the world. In addition, he will serve as Honorary Chair of the Designs of Hope Gala, scheduled for 20 May 2007 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago.

SIR WINSTON ’96

BROOMHALL, FIFE, SCOT
LAND, SEPTEMBER 5TH— Wine writer William Lyons pronounced Pol Roger Champagne’s Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill 1996 (r), tenth in the series, as possessing “the full-flavoured style Churchill preferred,” and reviewed the previous Churchill cuvees at a tasting here. “The ’88 was undoubtedly the star of the show, possessing a wonderful intense, Mersault-style flavour. The ’90 had lost its primary fruits and matured into a complex, nutty, honeyed wine with a gentle , sloping finish. Pol Roger has some of the deepest cellars in Epernay, which slows down the secondary fermentation, giving the champagne smaller bubbles. This, coupled with the robust style, means that PR wines will outlive many of their counterparts…. the ’93, ’95 and ’96 are all remarkably young and will go on drinking for another fifty years at least.”

Lyons also offers encouragement for those of more modest means: “For all the strong character and robustness Pol Roger achieve in their vintage blends it is the lightness and elegance they achieve in their non-vintage “White Foil” (above) that really excites. The Brut Reserve possesses a wonderful creamy mousse, has small compact bubbles and a light, crisp finish. It is the sort of champagne you can serve before dinner without overwhelming your palate; we drank it with scallops and it married well.”

Pol Roger is still in family hands—devoted Churchillians all—a relevant factor in its consistent quality. Because the family makes the final choice every year, the style is passed on continually.

RIGHT ON THEIR DOOR

LONG SUTTON, HAMPSHIRE— Walter Kahn wrote The Times that in 1954 he moved into the second-floor flat at 33 Eccleston Square, Churchill’s home from 1909 to 1919 and the birthplace of Randolph Churchill. (His landlady was none other than the widow of Charles Lightoller, the only surviving officer of RMS Titanic) “The Trades Union Congress moved into number 32 next door in 1918,” Kahn writes. “A London cabbie, who often took WSC home ‘after a good night out with friends,’ told me that Churchill took his dog for a walk on most nights and trained him to relieve himself on the TUC front door. If only buildings could talk.”

A WORTHY PANEGYRIC

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES, 27 FEBRUARY 1927: One could not read the last paragraphs of Mr Winston Churchill’s accounts of the Somme Battles, as given in [your serialization, Mr. Churchill’s Book] without rejoicing that Kitchener’s Army has at last received a worthy panegyric. Personally I have long recognized that Winston Churchill had the finest prose style of any contemporary, and it is indeed a splendid thing that he should use it to do that which seemed impossible—namely, to give an adequate t appreciation of that glorious Army of patriotic volunteers who gave themselves so ungrudgingly to their^ country’s service.

CHURCHfLLlANA FUTURES RISING

LONDON, MARCH 26TH— Churchill memorabilia is a collector’s paradise. Even insignificant items, such as a letter apologizing for not making a supper appointment and signed “W,” can fetch £4000. A pair of his monogrammed blue velvet slippers was bid to £6325 eight years ago. Auction houses have seen a doubling in value for Churchilliana in the past decade: In 1998, Sotheby’s sold one of his side arms for more than £17,000. Four years later another of his revolvers fetched £32,000.

An engraved silver snuff box given by Sir Winston to William Brimson, head doorkeeper of the House of Commons, in 1941 to replace the one he lost when the chamber was bombed in May 1941, was sold at Sotheby’s for £14,400. Mr. Brimson retired in 1943 and died aged 80 in 1958.

A complete set of Churchill books could, at a pinch, be bought for about £1000 in 1990. Now you would be hard pushed to see change from £3000, and that’s not even for first editions. On eBay, a rare four-volume edition of The Collected Essays attracted sixteen bids and went for £746.

The normal precautions apply: mint copies are far more valuable than dog-eared examples. It is worth avoiding copies that have been leatherbound by the owner—original bindings are always far more attractive to collectors. The most valuable are first editions of the vanity-published Mr Brodrick’s Army and For Free Trade: a 1903 copy of Brodrick’s was sold for £50,000.

And then there are the paintings. In 1998, Lord Harris of Peckham paid a record £150,000 at Christies for Churchill’s painting of the Duke of Westminster’s house in the south of France. It had been bought in 1965 by an American collector for £9500.
—ELIZABETH DAY, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

CHARLES GOES RETRO

LONDON, JUNE 9TH— HRH Prince Charles, who has usually reached out to futuristic solutions, has set up the Prince’s Cambridge Programme For Teaching, to promote traditional methods of teaching English and history in state schools. “For all sorts of well meaning reasons,” he says, “teaching has omitted to pass on to the next generation not only our deep knowledge of literature and history, but also the value of education.” Charles is right, says William Rees-Mogg in The Mail on Sunday: “A nation that loses its culture suffers an irreparable loss. British culture reflects the development of our independent, tolerant and liberal society. History and literature need to be well taught; they deserve to be enjoyed.”

DODONA MANOR

LEESBURG, VIRGINIA, OCTOBER 23RD— General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War II, made Dodona, 35 miles west of Washington, his home from 1941 until his death in 1959. Lived in by his step-daughter after his death, the Leesburg house had declined to wrack and ruin by the 1980s. Several years ago, a local group took the place up and began a painstaking renovation of home and grounds. Saved from destruction and likely redevelopment in fast-growing Leesburg, it is open on weekends for informative guided tours—and briefly, a Churchill treat.

From October to December, an upstairs room housed an exhibition, “With Affection and Admiration: The Letters of George C. Marshall and Winston S. Churchill.” With the cooperation of the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge University, fullsize color reproductions of some twodozen (often hand-written) letters were displayed along with photos of the two men, and often other leaders (especially Sir John Dill, and General Eisenhower). Several relevant books were also displayed, including volumes of The Second World War with pages open to show Churchill’s references to Marshall. The letters and photos on display dated from the war years and into the 1950s when Churchill was again in power and Marshall was in retirement. Hanging over the fireplace for part of the exhibit period was Churchill’s 1951 “View of Tinerhir,” painted while on a visit to Morocco. Given by Churchill to the Marshalls in 1953, it was owned by Mrs. Marshall’s granddaughter, but was recently sold at auction for about £350,000.

HILLSDALE TO REPRINT OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY!

HILLSDALE, MICHIGAN, NOVEMBER 1ST— Hillsdale College Press announces the complete reprint of Winston S. Churchill by Randolph Churchill and Sir Martin Gilbert: all eight biographic volumes, hardbound with paperbacks to follow; all document volumes, including the as-yet unpublished ones to complete the set. Each biographic volume will have a new introduction by Sir Martin.

The schedule for biographic (BV) and document (DV) volumes:
BV1 and DV1 (2 parts), Nov 2006
BV2 and DV2 (3 parts), May 2007
BV3 and DV3 (2 parts), Nov 2007
BV4 and DV4 (3 parts), May 2008
BV5 and DV5 (3 parts), Nov 2008
BV6 and DV6 (3 parts), May 2009
BV7 and DV7 (1942), Nov 2009
DV7 (1943, 1944, Jan-Jul 45),
2010 BV8 and DV8 (3 parts), 2011

Paperback editions of each main volume will be published six months after the hardback.

Readers may order the volumes individually, get reduced prices by subscribing to the eight biographic volumes alone, or even greater reductions by subscribing to the full set. Volume I was published in November at $45 (biography subscribers $36, full subscribers $31.50), along with the first two document volumes ($70, full subscribers $49). For an order blank or information please contact Hillsdale College Press (fax 517-607-2658), www.hillsdale.edu.

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