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' . FINEST HOURSpring 1997 • Number 94

Journal of The Churchill Center and The International Churchill Societies

THE CHURCHILL CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.PATRON: THE LADY SOAMES, D. B. E.

THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETIESUNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • CANADA • AUSTRALIA

Founded 1968, the International Churchill Societies preserve interest in and knowledge of the life, philosophy and heritage of theRt. Hon. Sir Winston S. Churchill, KG, OM, CH, MP (1874-1965), and are independent non-profit organizations which sponsor

Finest Hour, special publications, international conferences, tours, and local events. Founded by ICS in 1995, The Churchill Center isan international academic resource which encourages study of the life and thought of Winston S. Churchill; fosters research abouthis speeches, writings and deeds; advances knowledge of his example as a statesman; and, by programmes of teaching and pub-

lishing, imparts that learning to men, women and young people around the world. Website: <www:winstonchurchill.org>.

THE CHURCHILL CENTERA non-profit corporation, IRS No. 02-0482584

TRUSTEESThe Hon. Celia Sandys, Fred Farrow, George Lewis

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORParker H. Lee, HI117 Hance Road, Fair Haven NI07704Tel. (908) 758-1933, Fax. (908) 758-9350E-mail: [email protected]

BOARD OF GOVERNORSWilliam C. Ives, Richard M. Langworth,Parker H. Lee III, Dr. John H. Mather,Dr. Cyril Mazansky, James W. Muller,John G. Plumpton, Douglas S. Russell,Jacqueline Dean Witter

DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEEColin D. Clark, Max L. Kleinman,Richard M. Langworth, Richard A. Leahy,Parker H. Lee III, Michael W. Michelson,Alex M. Worth, Jr.Consultant: Anthony GillesPO Box 1071, Knoxville TN 37901-1071Tel. (423) 974-7396 Fax (423) 974-8781

COUNCIL OF CHURCHILL SOCIETIESThe Rt. Hon. Jonathan Aitken, MP, Chairman45 Great Peter StreetLondon SW1P 3LT, England Tel. (071) 233-3103

ICS HONORARY MEMBERSWinston S. Churchill, MPSir Martin Gilbert, CBEGrace Hamblin, OBERobert Hardy, CBEJames Calhoun HumesYousufKarsh,OCWilliam ManchesterThe Duke of Marlborough, JP, DLAnthony Montague Browne, CBE, DFCColin L. Powell, KCBWendy Russell RevesAmbassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr.The Lady Soames, DBEThe Rt. Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, FRSThe Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger, GBE

ICS AUSTRALIASubscriptions and renewals:Robin Linke, 181 Jersey Street, Wembley, WA 6014

ACT Representative: David Widdowson167 Chuculba Crescent, Giralang, ACT 2617

ICS CANADARevenue Canada No. 0732701-21-13Ambassador Kenneth W. Taylor, Hon. Chairman

Garnet R. Barber, President4 Snowshoe Cres., Thornhill, Ont. L3T 4M6Tel. (905) 881-8550

ICS Canada, continuedJohn G. Plumpton, Secretary130 Collingsbrook Blvd, Agincourt ON M1W 1M7Tel. (416) 497-5349 Fax. (416) 395-4587E-mail: [email protected]

Bill Milligan, Treasurer54 Sir Galahad Place, Markham ON L3P 3S5

Committee MembersEdward Bredin, QC; Leonard Kitz, QC

The Other Club of OntarioBernard Webber, President3256 Rymal Road, Mississauga, Ont. L4Y 3C1

Sir Winston Churchill Society of Vancouver (Affiliated)Leslie A. Strike, President701-1565 Esquimalt Av., W.Vancouver BC V7V1R4

ICS UNITED KINGDOMCharity Registered in England No. 800030

David Boler, ChairmanJoan Harris, Membership SecretaryPO Box 244, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN3 0YFTel. and Fax. (01892) 518171

UK TRUSTEESThe Hon. Nicholas Soames MP (Chairman)The Duke of Marlborough, JP, DL; Richard G. G.Haslam-Hopwood; The Hon. Celia Sandys;David J. Porter; Geoffrey Wheeler

COMMITTEEDavid Boler (Chmn.); Wylma Wayne (Vice-Chmn.)Tim Hicks (Treasurer); Dennis Jackson OBE, DL,RAF(ret); David Jones; Jill Kay; Mark Weber

ICS UNITED STATES, INC.A non-profit corporation, IRS No. 02-0365444

Ambassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr., Chairman208 S. LaSalle St., Chicago IL 60604Tel. (800) 621-1917, Fax. (312) 726-9474

USA TRUSTEESAmbassador Paul H. Robinson, Jr., ChairmanRichard M. Langworth, George A. LewisWendy Russell Reves, The Hon. Celia SandysThe Lady Soames, DBEThe Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger, GBE

USA DIRECTORSR. Alan Fitch, William C. Ives,Richard M. Langworth, Parker H. Lee III,George A. Lewis, Dr. John Mather,Dr. Cyril Mazansky, James W. Muller,Douglas S. Russell, Jonah Triebwasser,Jacqueline Dean Witter

Richard M. Langworth, President181 Burrage Road, Hopkinton NH 03229Tel. (603) 746-4433, Fax. (603) 746-4260

ICS United States, continuedWilliam C. Ives, Vice President77 W. Wacker Dr., 49th fir., Chicago IL 60601Tel. (312) 634-5034, Fax. (312) 634-5000

Dr. Cyril Mazansky, Vice President50 Dolphin Road, Newton Centre MA 02159Tel. (617) 527-0522, Fax. (617) 296-2872

Parker H. Lee III, Secretary117 Hance Road, Fair Haven NJ 07704Tel. (908) 758-1933, Fax. (908) 758-9350E-mail: [email protected]

George A. Lewis, Treasurer268 Canterbury Road, Westfield NJ 07090Tel. (908) 233-8415, Fax. (908) 518-9439

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARYDerek Brownleader1847 Stonewood Drive, Baton Rouge LA 70816.Tel. (504) 752-3313

CHURCHILL STORES(Back Issues and Sales Dept.)Gail GreenlyPO Box 96, Contoocook NH 03229Tel. (603) 746-3452 Fax (603) 746-6963E-mail: [email protected]

LOCAL ACTIVITIES CONSULTANTDr. John H. Mather, 12144 Longridge Lane,Bowie MD 20715 Tel., days 202-565-8312E-mail: [email protected]

EXECUTIVE COMMIITTEEWilliam C. Ives, Parker H. Lee III,Richard M. Langworth, George A. Lewis,Dr. Cyril Mazansky

ONLINE COMMITTEEHomepage: www.winstonchurchill.orgJohn Plumpton, Web Editor <[email protected]>

Listserv: [email protected]: <[email protected]>Online Bulletin Editor: <[email protected]>Assistant: Ian Langworth <[email protected]>

ACADEMIC ADVISORSProfessor James W. Muller (Chairman)

University of Alaska Anchorage1518 Airport Heights Dr., Anchorage AK 99508Tel. (907) 786-4740 Fax. (907) 786-4647E-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Keith AUdritt, University of British ColumbiaDr. Larry Arnn, President, Claremont InstituteProf. Raymond Callahan, University of DelawareProf. Eliot A. Cohen, Johns Hopkins UniversityProf. Kirk Emmert, Kenyon CollegeProf. Barry Gough. Wilfred Laurier UniversityProf. Warren F. Kimball, Rutgers UniversityProf. Patrick Powers, Assumption CollegeProf. Paul A. Rahe, University of TulsaDr. Jeffrey Wallin, President, National AcademyProf. Manfred Weidhorn, Yeshiva University

CONTENTS

Spring 1997

FINEST HOURJournal of the International Churchill Societies Number 94

12 The Portraits That Changed My LifeThe world-renowned photographer tells what helearned from the portraits that made him famous.by YousufKarsh, O.C.

14 From the Canon: "The Scaffolding of Rhetoric""The orator is the embodiment of the passions of themultitude....Before he can move their tears his ownmust flow. To convince them he must himself believe."by Winston S. Churchill in 1897

18 "Shall We All Commit Suicide?"Winston Churchill and the Scientific ImaginationChurchill is an equal-opportunity prophet:"Under sufficient stress—starvation, terror, warlikepassion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—the modernman we know so well will do the most terrible deeds,and his modern woman will back him up"by Paul K. Alkon

26 Absent Friends"England Hath Need of Thee": H. Ashley Redburn"She Got There on Her Own": Pamela Harrimanby Richard M. Langworth

29 Last Words: Edmund Murray, Ashley Redburn

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111724313744464748

Amid These StormsChurchill Center ReportInternational DatelinesLocal & National EventsRiddles, Mysteries, EnigmasWit and WisdomAction This DayDespatch BoxWoods CornerChurchill in StampsAmpersandChurchilltriviaImmortal Words

32 Churchill OnlineThe latest Cyberspace exchange on Listserv Winston

33 Thanks to Our 1996 Heritage Fund Supporters"Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."Compiled by George Lewis & Barbara langworth

BOOKS, ARTS & CURIOSITIES:34 Many who claim to revere Churchill hold muchless reverence for his devotion to principle, says theEditor, who also recommends Books on Tape, the ulti-mate audio library...The History Book Club picksWarren Kimball's new Churchill-Roosevelt opus...Woods Corner appraises the Complete Speeches andOfficial Biography...Timothy Benson proposes"Churchill by Low" in aid of the Churchill Center...Lt.Col. John P. Chutter offers a 1941 glimpse of the P.M.surrounded by gangsters and firing a tommy gun...Churchill in Stamps meanders into the postwar years.

41 ChurchillianaCommemoratives Calendar, Part 41942-1950;A bone china mug from the Churchill Archives Centre;Wartime sepia transfers, more on the unidentified bust,and well dressing Churchill style.by Douglas J. Hall

Cover: The second of three Karsh pho-tographs taken following Churchill's great

fighting speech ("Some chicken... someneck!") to the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa,30 December 1941. Sir Martin Gilbert, who

regards this as photo as appropriate to SirWinston's mood following the famous ora-tion, chose it for the jacket of In Search ofChurchill: the first time it appeared on aBritish book. Honorary Member Yousuf

Karsh remembers the occasion, and FH pub-lishes his other two photos, on pages 12-13.

FINEST HOUR 94 /3

FINEST HOURISSN 0882-3715

Barbara F. Langworth, PublisherRichard M Langworth, EditorPost Office Box 385Hopkinton, New Hampshire03229 USA Tel. (603) 746-4433E-maili [email protected]

Senior EditorsJohn G. Plumpton130 Collingsbrook Blvd.Agincourt, OntarioM1W1M7 CanadaE-mail: [email protected]

Ron Cynewulf Robbins198 St. Charles St.Victoria, BC, V8S 3M7 Canada

News EditorJohn Frost8 Monks Ave, New Barnet,Herts. EN5 1D8 England

Features EditorDouglas J. Hall183A Somerby Hill, GranthamLines. NG31 7HA England

Editorial AssistantGail Greenly

ContributorsSir Martin Gilbert, United KingdomGeorge Richard, AustraliaStanley E. Smith, United StatesJames W. Muller, United StatesDavid Boler, United KingdomWm. John Shepherd, United StatesCurt Zoller, United States

FINEST HOUR is published quarterly forThe Churchill Center and the InternationalChurchill Societies, which offer several levelsof support in their respective currencies.Membership applications and changes ofaddress should be sent to the appropriatenational offices on page 2. Permission tomail at non-profit rates in the USA grantedby the US Postal Service, Concord, NH,Permit no. 1524. Copyright 1997. All rightsreserved. Designed and produced for TheChurchill Societies by DragonwyckPublishing Inc. Production by New EnglandFoil Stamping Inc. Printed by ReprographicsInc. Made in U.S.A.

AMID THESE STORMS |

Subscribers should know that our autumn number (92) was posted in NorthAmerica and air expressed to the UK for European distribution in mid-Novem-ber. Winter issue (93) went out likewise on February 15th. This issue will be

posted and shipped in early May.

Publishing a journal with as much information as FHcontains is a constant battlebetween conflicting sources, English-American translations, "experts" who disagreewith each other and inexorable deadlines. We have never had a fully paid professionalstaff; that we make as few gaffes as we do in the course of 75,000 words every quarteris, under the circumstances, remarkable. I have what Lord Morley referred to as "afew books" (5000+), and not one of them is without errors. Some apparent mistakesare the result of our bilingual character (articles are published in both "British" and"American" depending on their origin) and Fowler's (Modern English Usage) ideasabout editorial style. For instance, Christie's auction house is officially rendered withthe apostrophe; strict interpretators might suggest "Christie's's"! We do try to makecorrections, even if we have to make them twice. Always consult our errata boxes!

•$• One erratum I wish to correct prominently. In this space in issue 92 I wrote abouta Rolls-Royce said to have conveyed Sir Winston up to London for the last time inOctober 1964. Two very reliable sources believe it is unlikely, indeed almost impossi-ble, that he should at that time have traveled in the Rolls-Royce, and that if ever sucha thing did happen it could only have been when his own usual Humber was out ofservice or otherwise occupied. I also incorrectly stated that this car appeared atChartwell "at the behest of Grace Hamblin." This is not the case. Finally, Phil John-son, the owner of the Rolls-Royce, writes to say that the encounter with Alice Bate-man came in one of Sir Winston's Humbers, not the Rolls-Royce. This subject re-ceived the ink it did because of the Alice Bateman story, not the car involved. I regretthat so many errors crept in and offer my apologies to all concerned.

•$• Little did we know when we accepted Paul Alkon's outstanding article, "Churchilland the Scientific Imagination" (pages 18-23), how relevant it would be to currentevents. First came the news that Scottish scientists had succeeded in cloning a sheep,followed by ominous media assurances that human clones weren't far behind; thencame the tragedy in California, where a lunatic cult figure led thirty-eight of his fol-lowers to a mass suicide, in order that they might cast off their earthly bodies andbeam up to the spaceship he had solemnly assured them was waiting for them just be-hind the Hale-Bopp comet.

"Churchill is like the Bible," said a correspondent on the Internet. "You canuse him to prove anything." Perhaps—but you can surely find in the vast span ofWinston Churchill's thought much that is relevant to modern times.

Professor Alkon offers a new and fascinating account of Churchill's view ofscience not, as he explains, the "administrative" science of the battlefield, but "theimaginative core of Churchill's relationship with scientific ideas and their technologi-cal consequences." With media stories about human clones ringing in our ears,Churchill's 1931 speculation about a race of artificially bred beings hit us like asledgehammer (page 7). With the tragic news from California on the airwaves, weread Churchill's speculation that "a fortunate collision with some wanderingstar...might be a merciful deliverance." But there is a difference between Churchilland the poor deluded souls in California: he would have stood fast here on earth. Hewould have counselled: "Never Despair." We must try to listen.

RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

FINEST HOUR 9 4 / 4

The Churchill Center Report: Spring 199?The mission of the Churchill Center, in Washington, D. C, is to encourage international study of the life and thought of SirWinston Churchill; to foster research about his speeches, writings and deeds; to advance knowledge of his example as a states-man; and, by programmes of teaching and publishing, to impart that learning to men, women and young people around theworld. Programmes include course development, symposia, standard and electronic libraries, CD-rom research, an annual

Churchill Lecture, visiting professorships, seminars, publishing subventions, fellowships, and publications.

THE CHURCHILL CALENDARLocal event organizers are welcome to send entries for this calendar; owing to our quarterly schedule, however, we need copy at least three months in advance

19973 May: Clementine Churchill: a slide lecture by Marianne Almquist, noontime, Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Mass.15-16 May: Executive Committee Meetings of ICS/USA and the Churchill Center, Lenox Hotel, Boston, Mass.Spring: Annual General Meeting of ICS United Kingdom (date will be sent by posted notice to Friends of ICS/UK)26 July: Centenary of Churchill's Maiden Political Speech, American Museum, Claverton Down, Bath, Somerset.28-29 August: Churchill Panel at the American Political Science Association convention, and launch of Churchill as

Peacemaker, (papers from the first Churchill Center Symposium), Washington, D.C.September: Inauguration of the course, "Winston Churchill: The Making of a War Leader,"Edinburgh University, Scotland.16-19 October: 14th International Churchill Conference, hosted by ICS, Canada at Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario.1 November: Annual General Meeting of the Churchill Center Board of Governors, Lenox Hotel, Boston, Mass.30 November: Sir Winston Churchill's 123rd Birthday Anniversary.

199%1-2 May: Executive Committee meeting of the Churchill Center.15-16 May: Third Churchill Center Symposium, "Winston Churchill's Life of Marlborough," Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.15-27 May: Ninth International Churchill Tour: Blenheim, Lake District, Edinburgh, Scottish Lowlands, Yorkshire.1 June: International Churchill Society 30th Anniversary5-8 November: 15th International Churchill Conference & First Annual Churchill Lecture, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

1999July: "Winston Churchill's Escape Into Fame," Tenth International Churchill Tour: South Africa.Autumn: 16th International Churchill Conference

2000Spring: Fourth Churchill Center Symposium14-17 September: 17th International Churchill Conference, Anchorage, Alaska.

2003Twentieth International Churchill Conference and 50th Anniversary of the Bermuda Conference, Hamilton, Bermuda

Students, Professors discuss My Early Life

and Thoughts and Adventures at Pont Seminar

THE Churchill Center launched another segmentof its many-faceted array of Churchill Studieswith the kind help of Ethel M. Pont, chief sup-

porter of the Manard E. Pont Seminar at StanfordUniversity on April 18-19th. Sixteen distinguished stu-dents and six professors assembled to discuss two ofWinston Churchill's most readable and philosophicworks, My Early Life: A Roving Commission and Thoughtsand Adventures (akaAmid These Storms). Friends of ICSand the Center were invited to take part in the two-dayevent, which also included addresses by Professors JamesW. Muller, Paul A. Rahe and Mark N. Blitz.

The Seminar was the outcome of planning whichbegan in San Francisco last year following the Churchillpanel at the American Political Science Association con-vention. Ethel Pont, a founding member of the ChurchillCenter who strongly supports its efforts to bringChurchill to the notice of college students, generouslyoffered to be the chief benefactor of the seminar, whichwas named for her late husband and prominentChurchillian, the distinguished physician Manard E.Pont. Important financial assistance was also receivedfrom the Intercollegiate Studies Center.

At this writing we are waiting anxiously for the out-come, and particularly for the views of our student pre-senters. In requesting student recommendations, theChurchill Center said that familiarity with Churchill'swritings was not a requirement. The vast majority of pre-

F1NESTHOUR94/5

Forthcoming Books Produced with the Aid of the Churchill Center

Summer 1997: Churchill Proceedings, 1994-1995.August 1997: Churchill as Peacemaker: Papers from the First Churchill Center Symposium (Cambridge Univ. Press)Late-1997: Churchill's "Sinews of Peace": Papers from the 50th Anniversary Sinews of Peace Conference, Fulton, Mo.Early 1998: Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, by Richard M. Langworth (Brasseys UK Ltd.)Mid-1998: Winston Churchill in the Postwar Years. Papers from the Second Churchill Symposium.1999: The River War Centenary Edition (the 1899 unabridged edition, the 1902 additions and a critical appraisal).

Pont Seminar, continuedsenters were reading Churchill's autobiography and his1932 collection of essays about life and politics for thefirst time. The views of newcomers to the canon are par-ticularly valuable.

Preliminaries began Friday the 18th with afternooncheck-ins and an orientation meeting for Pont Fellowsand faculty at the Stanford Park Hotel, followed by areception for all participants and guests. This was fol-lowed by James Muller's address "Churchill the Writer," ata dinner for Fellows and faculty.

Faculty and Fellows moved to the Hoover Institution,Hoover Memorial Building, Stauffer Auditorium onSaturday the 19th for the morning session on My EarlyLife. Luncheon included Paul Rahe's presentation, "TheRiver War: Nature's Provision, Man's Desire to Prevail, andProspects for Peace." The afternoon session dealt withThoughts and Adventures, and a dinner in honor of the lateManard E. Pont, MD at Stanford Park Hotel finished theevening. The speaker, Professor Mark N. Blitz, delivered atalk entitled, "What Churchill's Gathering Storm Teachesabout Statesmanship."

Manard E. Pont Seminar FacultyPaul K. Alkon, Leo S. Bing Professor of English,

University of Southern CaliforniaMarkN. Blitz, Professor of Government,

Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, Calif.Gerald A. Dorfman, Senior Fellow,

Hoover Institution, Stanford UniversityJames W. Muller, Chairman, Dept. of Political Science,

University of Alaska AnchoragePaul A. Rahe, Jay P. Walker Professor of American

History, University of TulsaPeter Stanksy, Frances & Charles Field Professor of

History, Stanford University

1997 Manard E. Pont FellowsAdam K. Ake, United States Military AcademyJeffrey R. Giesea, Stanford UniversityJulie A. Johnson, Stanford UniversityMahindan Kanakaratnam, University of TorontoRohit Khanna, University of ChicagoJeffrey P. Metzger, University of Notre DameAlicia R. Mosier, University of TulsaMark A. Pickup, University of CalgaryDavid A. Raksin, Cornell University

Daphna Renan, Yale UniversityCaleb W. Richardson, Stanford UniversityMicah J. Schwartzman, University of VirginiaKathryn E. Shea, Harvard UniversityDark M. Spiers, University of Southern CaliforniaKevin C. Wack, Stanford UniversityScott L. Watson, Claremont McKenna College

The Churchill Center is grateful to the Seminar organiz-ers, James W. Muller, Parker H. Lee III and Jacqueline DeanWitter; to the Hoover Institution at Stanford; to the Fellowsand Faculty listed above; to the Intercollegiate StudiesInstitute; and, most deeply, to Mrs. Ethel M. Pont.

Celia Sandys a Churchill Center Trustee

GREAT Britain is represented in the administration ofthe Churchill Center by The Honorable Celia

Sandys, who has been named to the Board of Trustees,which exercises general oversight of the activities of theCenter and is regularly consulted by the Board ofGovernors. She also serves as a Trustee of ICS UnitedKingdom. Her infectious enthusiasm for family historyculminated in the publication of her first book, The YoungChurchill, which was a bestseller on two continents. Celia'ssequel will center on young Winston Churchill's adven-tures in the Boer War, and she is also presently workingwith the editor on the 1999 Centenary tour of"Churchill's South Africa." Celia lives in Marlborough,Wiltshire, with her husband, Maj. Gen. Ken Perkins, andtheir two children, Sophie and Alexander. {Finest Hour 88covered their visit to Chartwell).

Churchill Center Annual Report

ASIX-PAGE Annual Report, including financial reportsfor 1996, was distributed to Founding Members of

the Churchill Center and supporters of the 1995ICS/USA Heritage Fund in February, together with theircopies of the Churchill-Conover Correspondence edited bySir Martin Gilbert. The Annual Report was also sent to allother Friends of ICS/USA, who may obtain a copy of theCorrespondence by sending a donation to the ChurchillCenter c/o Parker Lee, address on page 2. (Contributorsto the 1996Heritage Fund will receive the new edition ofChurchill Proceedings 1994-1995, scheduled for publica-tion later this year.) M

FINEST HOUR 94 /6

INTERNATIONAL DATELINES

QUOTE OF THE SEASONH rT~there seems little doubt that it will be possible to

JL carry out in artificial surroundings the entire cyclewhich now leads to the birth of a child. Interference withthe mental development of such beings, expert suggestionand treatment in the earlier years, would produce beingsspecialized to thought or toil....A being might be producedcapable of tending a machine but without other ambitions."

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, "FIFTY YEARS HENCE/THE STRAND MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 1931.REPRINTED IN THOUGHTS AND ADVENTURES /AMID THESE STORMS, 1932.

AIRBORNE BATTLESHIPS!

LONDON, NOV. 6TH— Churchill proposedlifting battleships out of the water toclear shallow straits on a daring inva-sion of the Baltic Sea in 1939, it wasrevealed today by Sir David Nicholas,retired former chairman of ITN. SirDavid's research ("a kind of hobby")started several years ago, but he onlyjust found this bold scheme whilebrowsing Churchill's admiralty papers.

Like the Gallipoli expedition, theBaltic invasion ("Operation Catherine")had major potential value. Churchillwanted to sweep German naval and airforces from the Baltic, cut off Germanyfrom its supplies of Swedish iron ore,threaten Hitler from the rear and possi-bly bring Scandanavian neutrals intothe war. He proposed using 26,000-tonRoyal Sovereign class battleships, send-ing them through the "VengeanceShoal" between Fyn Island (Swedish)and Denmark. "There are at present no

PHOTOMONTAGE: JONATHAN ANSTEE

guns commanding this channel and thestates on either side are neutral," wroteChurchill. "Therefore there would be noharm in hoisting the armour belt [usu-ally below the waterline on battleships]temporarily up to the water level."Churchill proposed to do this with"caissons"—air-filled floats attached oneither side of the battleships, increasingtheir beam from 102 to 142 feet.

The plan was shelved by the FirstSea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, who saidsending surface ships into the Balticwould be "courting disaster." But on 9April 1940, the shock news came thatHitler had invaded Denmark and Nor-way. That morning Churchill received atelegram from Admiral Lord Cork, whosaid that if only "Catherine" had goneahead, "what an ideal force we wouldhave together to go right in and breakup the German fleet."

-Christopher Bellamy

MAIDEN SPEECH CENTENARYBATH, SOMERSET, 26 JULY 1997

This day, a Saturday, marks the100th Anniversary of Churchill's firstspeech (not counting the impromptu,largely unrecorded peroration at Lon-don's Empire Theatre in 1894, when hehelped tear down the "chastity barri-ers" erected by the marvelously namedMrs. Ormiston Chant).

The 1897 speech was sponsored bythe Primrose League, the Tory partysupport group, at Claverton Down,Bath, presently the site of the AmericanMuseum. Beginning with the well-worn cliche, "unaccustomed as I am topublic speaking," Churchill outlinedthe Tory-backed Workmen's Compen-sation Bill, which the Conservatives hadrevived after the failure of the Liberals'"Employers' Liability Bill." ("Observehow much better the Tories do thesethings. [Ours] is a much nicer name.")He also promised to "hold down" the"slap-dash, wholesale, harum-scarumpolicy of the Radicals" who, he said,reminded him "of the man who, onbeing told that ventilation is an excel-lent thing, went and smashed everywindow in his house and died ofrheumatic fever."

The 23-year-old Churchill went onto praise "the rising tide of Tory democ-racy," which had more to offer, he said,than "the dried up drain-pipe of Radi-calism." He urged voters to obliteratethe Liberals in the 1901 general electionand, in the meantime, "to uphold theEmpire" and "carry out our mission ofbearing peace, civilisation and goodgovernment to the uttermost ends ofthe earth." Interrupted twenty times bycheers from the partisan crowd, it was arollicking good speech of a style thatwould soon become familiar to Mem-bers of Parliament.

The Maiden Speech will be reprint-ed in its entirety in the Summer Num-ber of Finest Hour, posted on theChurchill Home Page on the Internet,and marked by an ICS commemorativecover posted at Bath on the 100thAnniversary.

SOLD DOWN RIVERLONDON, NOVEMBER 27TH— O n e of t h e

most distinctive portraits of Churchillwas sold by Sotheby's to an anonymous

CONTINUED OVERLEAF >»

FINEST HOUR 94/7


foreign buyer for£150,000 today.St. Stephen'sConstitutionalClub, which con-tains a numberof MPs, commis-sioned the workby Mr. Frank

Salisbury (1874-1962) in 1943. Salisburyis the same artist who did the famouspainting of WSC in the reception roomat Chartwell. Known as "Blood, Toil,Tears and Sweat" after Churchill'swartime speech, it was borrowed byPrime Minister Thatcher who hung it inTen Downing Street.

The painting was sold to raisefunds for work on the Club's buildingin Westminster. Club chairman DavidBright said: "The decision to sell has notbeen an easy one and we are very sadto lose this treasured possession."Angry veterans' associations said thepainting should have been bought withNational Heritage Funds. Charles Peallof the Burma Star Association, whichrepresents those who fought in the FarEast, said, "We consider it rather blas-phemous for anything of this nature togo out of the country."

CHURCHILL ON THE EURO?LONDON, SEPTEMBER 11TH— " O u r fe l low

Europeans have just come up withanother good reason for opposing a sin-gle currency," writes the Daily Express:"They want one of the new bank notesto feature the face of Chancellor HelmutKohl. The idea was put up by the Ger-man finance ministers. Kohl is the onlyliving politician on the shortlist. Therest, such as Winston Churchill,Francois Mitterrand, General de Gaulleand Konrad Adenauer, are all dead."

Euro banknote design recommen-dations have gone to a selection com-mittee consisting of the fifteen presi-dents of EU countries' central banks.Putting Churchill on a Euro note might

be one way to convince the British tojoin the European Monetary Union, butwe suspect it will take more than that.

IVORROBERTS-JONES, R.I.P.LONDON, DEC.

12TH— Thefamed Welshsculptor of thebest-knownstatue of SirWinston hasdied aged 83.Ivor Roberts-

Jones's massive bronze, gazing at St.Stephen's Tower from across Parlia-ment Square, was only his second full-scale commission. Getting the assign-ment was an uphill battle, since LadyChurchill had wanted the job to go toOscar Nemon, and the difficulties ofmaking a twelve-foot figure were enor-mous. Later the artist told about havinghad nightmares of a monstrous bronzefigure lurching across the lawns of Par-liament Square.

The Royal Fine Arts Commissionhad already approved his maquetteshowing Churchill in garter robes(cover, FH 86) when Lady Churchillsaid she preferred to show Sir Winstonas a war leader. The sculptor decided togarb Churchill in a military overcoat,which created more problems. "PutWinston into ordinary clothes and helooks quite dapper," Roberts-Jones said."Put him in uniform and it looks asthough a boiled sweet is emerging fromthe tight clothes. You just can't make astatue out of a boiled sweet."

But the critics loved it. Thoughmany were astonished by the finishedwork's strength and bristling character,it had a beneficial effect on the artist'scareer. Apart from two furtherChurchill commissions (for Oslo andNew Orleans), Roberts-Jones undertookthe spectacular "Two Kings" at HarlechCastle, the Rupert Brooke memorial atRugby School, and famous heads ofYehudi Menuhin and Kyffin Williams.His works entered the collections at theNational Portrait Gallery, the Tate andthe Contemporary Arts Society. Successdid not change his quiet and unflam-

boyant temperament. He lived andworked in East Anglia, where he pur-sued the other great love of his life, sail-ing. He was appointed CBE in 1975 andmade an RA in 1973.

DESMOND FLOWER, R.I.P.LONDON, JANUARY 7TH— The head of Cas-sell's, the publishing house responsiblefor the English editions of allChurchill's later books, has died at 89.In 1946, Desmond Flower was assignedby his father, Newman, to publishingThe Second World War followed by AHistory of the English-Speaking Peoples.Desmond thought the first volume, TheGathering Storm, the best of the warmemoirs, "for it was Churchill's ownwork, rather than one in which hesprayed Gibbonian style onto the workof his researchers," according to theDaily Telegraph: "Never can an authorhave had as baroque a method of work-ing as Churchill did. This involved hiswords being set in print—at his ownexpense—and corrected numeroustimes before being dispatched to thepublisher, who, alas, could not makeuse of this typesetting as it was thewrong size. (In the English GatheringStorm, Flower used a very small type-face to save on rationed paper, incur-ring the wrath of WSC, who demandedand got a larger face for the later vol-umes.) "I was never in awe of him,"Flower later recalled. "But, like so many

others, [I] felt adeep affectionand love, suchas one mightfeel for arevered andf a v o u r i t euncle."

Flower at thebeginning ofhis career, 1931

FINEST HOUR BACK ISSUESPeter Coombs, a past director of

ICS/UK, is cleaning house and offers acollection of back numbers, issue #51(Autumn 1981) through Summer 1996for best offer. Telephone him at (01935)814559 or write 32 Hillbrook Ct. Acre-man St., Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3NZ.

FINEST HOUR 9 4 / 8


Local and National EventsMANCHESTER, UK22 MAY NEXT— "Churchill: What thePapers Say," an exhibition produced bythe Churchill Archives Centre and JohnRylands University Library in Manch-ester, will be open through 6 Septem-ber. Rylands is the third largest aca-demic library in the country and hometo one of the finest collections of rarebooks, manuscripts and archives in theworld. The original Rylands Librarybuilding is a stunning example of lateVictorian Gothic Architecture.

The second major exhibit ofChurchill Archives following last year'sLondon showing, this includes papersnever previously seen in public.Manchester is an ideal venue because ofChurchill's long connection with thearea. It is fifty years since he acceptedthe Freedom of the City in December1947, and almost 100 years since hisfirst real links with the region. He con-tested the Oldham constituency in 1899,won it in 1900 and represented itthrough 1904. He then crossed the floorto join the Liberal Party, for whom heheld the seat of Manchester North Westfrom 1906 to 1908.

Admission is free and the exhibitwill be open weekdays from 1000 to1730 and Saturdays 1000-1300. TheRylands Library is located at 130Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH, tele-phone (0161) 834-5343.

MAINEBATH, FEBRUARY 19TH— The Bath IronWorks, builder of the U.S. Navy's 31stAEGIS class destroyer USS WinstonChurchill (DDG-81) celebrated the firstsignificant event in the life of the newship with the ceremonial first cutting ofsteel. The selection of the name WinstonChurchill was announced by PresidentClinton in November 1995 (see FH 89).

Allan Cameron, President andC.E.O. of Bath Iron Works, shared thespeaker's platform with Rear AdmiralG. A. Huchting, USN, Program Execu-tive Officer for Surface Combatants/AEGIS; Commodore Michael Gregory,RN, Naval Attache to the British

Embassy; and B.I.W. officials. Com-modore Gregory noted that two previ-ous Royal Navy ships had borne thename Churchill: one of the fifty destroy-ers sent to Britain as part of Lend-Leaseduring World War II and a modernBritish-built nuclear submarine. Thedestroyer was sunk in the White Seawhile on loan to Russia during the war;the submarine was retired from activeservice in 1990.

Commodore Gregory was invitedto participate in the actual cutting of thefirst two pieces of steel plate for theWinston Churchill by piloting the com-puter-programed burning machinery.He deftly accomplished this task andhull number 467 is on its way to keellaying in 1998 and launch in 1999. Thecommissioning is scheduled for early2000. -Fred Koch

(Mr. Koch of Georgetown, Maine, aretired U.S. Navy officer who servedwith the Office of the Supervisor ofShipbuilding in Bath for over 23 years,is the Churchill Center's liaison to theU.S. Navy on this building project andwill continue to keep us informed.)

BRITISH COLUMBIAWEST VANCOUVER, MARCH 7TH— T h e Sir

Winston Spencer Churchill Society ofBritish Columbia enjoyed their latest"Evening with Churchill" tonight at theHollyburn Club, where over fifty mem-bers and guests were on hand for wineand cheese, followed by several presen-tations. Mr. Justice Martin R. Taylor,QC, who recently retired from the B.C.Court of Appeal, showed a Vancouver-produced video on Donoghue v.Stevenson, a famous case with ramifica-tions throughout the world of EnglishCommon Law. It demonstrates howunelected judges play an essentialdemocratic lawmaking role under theparliamentary system. In addition,members heard a presentation by Stan-ley Winfield on his experience as aninternational observer at last Septem-ber's elections in Bosnia, an area ofmuch concern for Sir WinstonChurchill, and where his son Randolph

ERRATAFH 92: Apologies to Markku

Ruotsila, author of the excellentpiece on Churchill and Wilson,for misspelling his name onpages 2 and 18.

Page 8: Arggh! DouglasHall's original letter (issue 91 p5)proposed a Roosevelt not aChurchill underground station, areciprocal gesture to the USSChurchill (issue 89 p7)—as the textof that letter, but not our title,clearly stated. Our errata lastissue compounded this error.

FH 93: Page 3 cover blurb: for"mountbank" read "mountebank."

Pages 14 and 38: Mr. Halllives in Lincolnshire (per p4), notDerbyshire.

Page 42: The firm we called"Christies" actually calls itself"Christie's"; our omission of theapostrophe had to do with otherconsiderations besides their pref-erence. (See "Amid TheseStorms.")

saw service with partisan forces duringWorld War II. Finally, Vice PresidentMalcolm Pinteau reported on theEighth Churchill Tour sponsored lastautumn by ICS, which included theChurchill Conference in England.

The Churchill Society of BritishColumbia meets frequently around the year.For further details -please contact Leslie A.Strike, President, 701 - 1575 EsauimaltAve., West Vancouver, BC V7V 1R4 (tele-phone and fax 604-926-5342).

OHIOCOLUMBUS, JANUARY 24TH— Thirty-fiveFriends of the Churchill Center andSociety met on the 32nd anniversary ofWinston Churchill's death and the 70thanniversary of the passing of Lord Ran-dolph Churchill, for a computer-gener-ated presentation on Churchill's life byDon Jakeway. This presentation isavailable for other ICS functions, can bemodified for audio and video, and canaccommodate additional information.

A special story was shared byHenry "Butch" O'Neil, Jr. WhenChurchill passed through Ohio after his1946 "Sinews of Peace" speech in Ful-

CONTINUED OVERLEAF >»

FINEST HOUR 94 / 9

ton, Missouri, he met the Mayor ofColumbus, James Rhodes. WSC askedthe Mayor if he would like a cigar and adrink; the Mayor responded that heneither smoked nor drank. "You'llnever be a success in politics, my boy!"Churchill replied with consternation.(But Rhodes went on to become Gover-nor of Ohio!

Churchill Memorabilia was also ondisplay, many items obtained fromChurchill Stores. Several present weremaking plans for the Churchill Confer-ence in Toronto this October, and atWilliamsburg in 1998.

Ohio Churchillians will next spon-sor a reception marking Churchill's firstPremiership in May 1940, with speakersdiscussing his years as Prime Minister.For further information please contactDon Jakeway, 3667 Scioto Run Blvd.,Hilliard OH 43026; home phone (614)777-4851; office (614) 644-9389; [email protected]; fax (614)644-0745. In Northeast Ohio please con-tact Michael T. McMenamin at hisoffice: (216) 781-1212.

CHICAGOHOW CHURCHILL USED THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGEby Virginia Carter

Read by Nick Carter at the Chicago Dinnerin honor of Sir Winston's 122nd Birthday

(See report in issue #93, page 10).

WINSTON Churchill, a most elo-quent and expressive states-

man, was both a master and a slave ofthe English language. His extraordinarycareer may fittingly be regarded as onemagnificent monologue. Day after day,and often night after night, he pouredforth a tumultuous torrent of wordsand phrases, inspiring, exhorting, mov-ing, persuading, cajoling, thundering,bullying, abusing and energizing. PiersBrendon wrote that Churchill's singlegreatest contribution was his oratory;President Kennedy remarked thatChurchill proved that the pen wasmightier than the sword. Another biog-rapher wrote: "The people of the freeworld are still free because, whenwords were all we had to fight with, hechose the right ones."


The fighting spirit of the Englishpeople found their expression in him.Men and women were proud to besharing part of a lifetime with this man.

Drafts of his speeches were oftenshown to Clementine for comment. Herpractical sense made her a perfect coun-selor, seeing facets of a speech that heoverlooked in his enthusiasm. Her sen-sibility was often evident in what hesaid. It was compelling, and so was theway he said it.

The stirring cadences, the gruffintimacy, the comic quirks of pronoun-ciation ("Narzees") all made him aspellbinder, especially on radio. He wasas great an actor as he was an orator.His character breathed through everysentence: He was at once simple,ardent, innocent and incapable ofdeception, yet also chivalrous, heroicand great-hearted.

He wrote amusingly in My EarlyLife: "By being a slow learner I gainedan immense advantage over the clever-er boys. They all went on to classes inLatin and Greek. But I was taughtEnglish....I got into my bones the essen-tial structure of the ordinary British sen-tence—which is a noble thing!"

Yet despite his mastery of the lan-guage he was in no sense a born orator.With his youthful lisp and stammer, itseemed inconceivable that he wouldever impress an audience. He laboredheroically to overcome these disabili-ties. He saw speech specialists, prac-ticed constantly, and chose words care-fully to avoid words with an "s." Hedeeply regretted his lack of an Ox-bridge education, realizing early that heneeded training in classical literature.One hundred years ago, he was com-pleting a massive effort of self-educa-tion, devouring all the great works hemissed at Sandhurst. As a young sol-dier in need of income, he began writ-ing books and articles, and these alsosharpened his abilities. Later, when hehad a family, he continued to earnmoney in this way, and during thoseyears he lived, as he said, "from mouthto hand."

Churchill once remarked, "Wordsare the only things that last forever." Inhis case at least, this confident predic-tion has become a fitting epitaph.

OXFORDSHIRE

WOOD-

STOCK, OCT.

2ND—

RemarksbylCS/USAChairmanAmbas-sador PaulH. Robin-son, Jr.;Blenheim

Award Dinner for The Duke of Marybor-ough, Blenheim Palace.

Your Graces, Lady Soames, Hon.Celia Sandys, distingushed guests,

ladies and gentlemen: As a representa-tive of Winston Churchill's mother'sland, it is a great honor to be in thecountry and the Palace of his birth. Wein the International Churchill Societiesstrictly adhere to Lady Soames's statedpurpose of ICS, "to keep the memorygreen and the record accurate." We willcontinue to cooperate in all respectswith the Churchill organizationsaround the world to achieve this goal.

Much has been said and writtenabout the special relationship betweenAmerica, Great Britain and the Com-monwealth. Churchill himself referredon several occasions to what he called"The Unwritten Alliance." In that con-nection I refer to his speech at HarvardUniversity in September 1943 whichbest summarizes the Anglo-Americanrelationship:

"If we are together, nothing is im-possible. If we are divided all will fail. Itherefore preach continually the doc-trine of the fraternal association of ourtwo peoples, not for any purpose ofgaining invidious material advantagesfor either of them, not for territorialaggrandizement or the vain pomp ofearthly dominion, but for the sake ofservice to mankind and for the honourthat comes to those who faithfully servegreat causes."

Let's keep it that way.It is very good to be with you this

evening. M

FINEST HOUR 94/10

Send your questions (and answers) to the Editor

Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas

Q I wish tocreate a

menu in honorof Sir Winstonand am trying tofind informationon his food pref-erences.

The informationon cigars andspirits onChurchill FAQpage of yourwebsite wasquite useful.Where mightone find similardata about foodand menus?-]ason Clevenger

AThe best source on Churchill'sfavorite dishes is Georgina Lande-

mare's Recipes from No. 10 (London:Collins 1958, reprinted 1959). She wasthe Churchill family cook and accom-panied them to Downing Street. Thebook is scarce but may be obtainablefrom a large library or inter-libraryloan. In brief, he was a fan of Frenchhaute cuisine and of English traditionaldishes like fowl and roast beef withYorkshire pudding. He preferred"limpid" soups to thick, creamy ones.He enjoyed shellfish more than fish andStilton more than sweet desserts, but hecould easily be persuaded to take bothof the latter. In our Churchill dinners atthe Savoy Hotel we have served menushe would have particularly enjoyed:raw oysters, Petite Marmite, Beef &Yorkshire, dessert (pudding) and Stil-ton. Indeed the Savoy's good archivescould help you considerably.

QHow did the Spencers become attachedto the Churchills?

A The First Duke of Marlboroughj t \ . w a s surnamed Churchill but hiseldest son died in childhood and his

daughter Henrietta had no childrenwho could inherit. Thus the son of heryounger sister Anne, who was marriedto this Charles Spencer, becameCharles, Third Duke of Marlborough.When George Spencer became the FifthDuke in 1817 he was authorised to"take and use the name of Churchill, inaddition to and after that of Spencer."

\I have an Ezra'Brooks bourbon

bottle in the likeness ofChurchill beside a col-umn, giving a V-sign,sculpted by FrancineZak, commemoratingChurchill's Iron CurtainSpeech. A decal on thebottom says: "First Edi-tion of the Winston

Churchill Commemorative bottle, as pre-sented to the Honored Guests at the dedica-tion of the Winston Churchill Memorialand Library in the United States - May 7 -1969." Can you tell me more about it?

AWhile not a good likeness, this1969 commemorative became col-

lectible when the moulds weredestroyed. Perfect examples, with bothstick-on labels intact (EB label on podi-um base, small oval label "genuine Her-itage china" halfway up the podium), afunctioning cap and the bottom decalintact are worth about $100-150, but aresometimes offered at higher prices. Thecap was apt to break off, leaving halfthe cork in the opening; such examples,or ones with missing labels, are worthhalf as much. The bottle is scarce, butperfect examples are rare.

Q lng. Patricio Giangreco, Naples, asksa number of questions regarding pho-

tographs ofChartwell, appearing in thepiece on Celia Sandys in FH #88, at whichwe will take a stab...

1) Why is there a bust of Napoleon onChurchill's study desk?

Churchill admired Napoleon andhoped to write a biography of him; heasked Charlie Chaplin to star in a filmabout Napoleon which he hoped toscript. But other things got in the way.

2) Has the configuration ofWSC'sstudy desk always been as it is today?

No: the desk is as it was when WSCleft Chartwell for the last time on 15October 1964. Earlier photos differ.

3) Why is the current stand-up desk dif-ferent from earlier photos?

The original stand-up desk was acruder affair built by a local carpenter.At some point, I believe after WW2,members of his family presented SirWinston with an improved model.

4) Is the Chartwell study different fromthe Chartwell library?

Yes. The upstairs study is whereChurchill spent most of his time andwrote and dictated most of his works.The downstairs library was often usedby guests who needed a quiet place towork during their visits.

5) Is the ICS publication "28 Hyde ParkGate" still available?

Yes, $10/£4 from Churchill Stores(address on page 2).

6) Why doesn't someone reproduce thesignet ring of Churchill?

The original, now owned by Win-ston Churchill MP, consists of a medal-lion bearing the Churchill crest from thecoat of arms and holding, but freelymoving around, four gold bands. It hasin fact been reproduced individually:by WSC's great-grandson RandolphChurchill, by Robert Hardy, by DavidBoler of ICS/UK, and by my wife as agift to me. Mass reproduction for saleeven within ICS would involve ques-tions of propriety; the last three ringsmentioned above have been careful toavoid copyright infringement by notcopying the family device on the origi-nal. It is, however, perfectly possible tohave such a ring, bearing your owndevice, made by a jeweler. The original,and Robert Hardy's, were made byGarrad's in London, who undoubtedlyhave accurate patterns to go by. M

FINEST HOUR 94/11

COVER STORY

The Portraits That Changed My LifeThe world-renowned photographer tells what he learned fromthe portraits that made him famous: "God is always close by"BY YOUSUF KARSH, O.C.PHOTOGRAPHS PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR

IWAS IN MY darkroom when the call came. After Ihad hung up the phone I sat looking out the win-dow, hardly seeing the bright December sunshine

splashing across the sill.The call was from the office of Canadian Prime

Minister Mackenzie King who, over the years, hadbecome my patron and friend. Winston Churchillwould be in Ottawa shortly to address the combinedhouses of Parliament. And I had been invited to takehis portrait.

I thrilled at the prospect of photographing such agiant at this crucial stage in history. At that time in19411 was a relatively unknown photographer whoprincipally made portraits of women.

Women. I smiled in warm recollection as mythoughts went back to my boyhood in Armenia whenwe children would sit at my mother's knee as she readthe Bible to us. God's promises were the only goodthings we had in those days in the early 1900s whenChristian Armenians suffered under the persecution ofthe Turks. But mother helped us even through that.

One day after school some Turkish children stonedme. With a bleeding forehead, I ran home crying to mymother. "Tomorrow," I said, "I will throw the stones!"

Mother drew me close. "My son," she said, "if youmust throw a stone in self-defense, be sure you miss."

Love and forgiveness were lessons we were taughtearly. We also learned that God had a purpose in lifefor each of us. And if we tried to live close to Himthrough compassion for others, we would be guided toour true destiny. The persecution in Armenia intensi-fied. I saw relatives massacred; my sister died of star-vation as we were driven from village to village.

Then light shone for me in the form of my uncle,George Nakash, who offered to bring me to Canada. Iwent there with a dream of studying medicine. Aftertwenty-nine days in steerage I arrived, an awkward15-year-old who knew little English and thus was

Mr. Karsh is an Honorary Member of ICS, Canada. His articleis reprinted by permission from Guideposts from August1974.We are also grateful to Jerry Fielder and Woodfin Kemp.

placed in the fourth grade. But I found love and under-standing from fellow students who not only gave memarbles and encouraged me to play with them—buteven made sure that I won. I was astonished and grate-ful. It was then that my love affair with Canada began.

In the meantime I was helping Uncle George, whowas a photographer. For a birthday present he gaveme a Brownie camera. Delighted with my new toy, Iwandered out to take some pictures. I was entrancedby a group of delighted children tumbling on a pile ofhay. Inwardly my spirit laughed with them and Isnapped the joyful scene. I gave a print of it to a friendfor a Christmas gift. Without my knowing, he enteredit in a Toronto photo contest where it won first prize.

Uncle George, perceiving my growing interest instudying photography seriously, sent me to his friendJohn Garo, a photographer in Boston, where I workedas an apprentice. Garo was famous, and many promi-

FINESTHOUR94/12

Opposite: "Karsh 1," the most famous of the photos taken inOttawa in 1941. To Mr. Karsh it was an unknown quantity,though he had some hopes for "Karsh 2," the smilingChurchill on our cover. But no sooner did the first photoemerge than the technician exclaimed: "This is a triumph."Below: "Karsh 3," the little known third photograph includ-ing Mackenzie King. Churchill appears as a cross betweenthe first two, better known photographs. As far as we know,this photograph has previously been published only in HisGreatest Years, a softbound photo documentary produced bySwann Publishing in Toronto in 1965. All photographs ©Karsh of Ottawa, republished by permission of the author.

nent musicians, artists, journalists and statesmen cameto his studio where, after sittings, they remained tovisit. I hung around in the background and listened,enthralled, to the rich conversations of men like ArthurFiedler, Serge Koussevitzky and Charles FrancisAdams. I learned that appreciating the fullness of lifeis more than sharpening one's professional skill—thatit is immersing oneself in others, learning theirthoughts and aspirations.

By the time I moved to Ottawa to open my ownstudio, I had dedicated myself to photographing thosewho left their mark on the world. But more than mak-ing an image of a person's face, I now endeavoured tocapture a living essence, hoping to reveal an inner life.One did not do this by simply squeezing a shutter. Ifound that I had to get to know the subject; it was likea physician diagnosing a patient. To be effective, Ilearned that the subject must become the only person

in my life at that hour.In a sense, my original desire to be a physician was

fulfilled. For the sitter must emotionally reveal his trueself, as a patient does to a trusted physician in the con-sultation room. In getting the subject to drop hisarmour, you catch the heartbeat of the soul,

This became my calling—whether it was a youngsoldier being photographed before he left for war or amother who wished her children to have a remem-brance, or a young girl wanting something of herselffor her fiance, on each I concentrated all my energyand attention. After all, the Lord said, "Whatsoeverthy hand findeth to do; do it with thy might."

By now the sunshine had left my studio windowand I snapped myself out of my reverie.Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of a country

already two long years at war, had flown to the UnitedStates after the attack on Pearl Harbour. He wouldarrive soon in Ottawa. I had little time to prepare.

Mackenzie King had invited me to come to thespeaker's chamber and set up my equipment the nightbefore but, more important, he had also invited me tobe present to hear the great man speak.

"When Churchill finishes his speech," said Mr.King, "I will bring him directly to you."

After a sleepless night, I hurried over to Parliamentwhere I joined the audience and listened to Churchillgive one of his most inspiring speeches. Caught up inthe rumbling thunder of his prose, I leaned forward,responding to his bold call for courage.

Then, during the enthusiastic roar of applause fol-lowing the speech, I went across the hall to the speak-er's chamber. I waited anxiously.

Soon I heard the approach of many feet and themutter of voices. I switched on the floodlights. Thegroup halted outside; Mr. King, walking arm-in-armwith Churchill, ushered him into the room. Churchillstood there defiantly, his bulldoglike face bristlingwith surprise. "What's going on?" he demanded.

His entourage started to laugh. From their faces Icould see that no one had thought to inform him aboutthe photograph. That did not make my task any easier.

I bowed respectfully, quaking inside. "Sir, I hope tobe fortunate enough to make a worthy photograph ofthis historic occasion."

"Why wasn't I told?" he barked, chewing vigorouslyon his cigar. Everyone looked at the floor; no oneanswered. Churchill turned to me. "All right," he con-ceded, "you may take one."

He reluctantly followed me to where my lights andcamera were set up. I offered him an ash tray for hiscigar but he pointedly ignored it, his eyes boring intomine. continued overleaf »>

FINEST HOUR 94/13

At the camera, I made sure everything was in focus,closed the lens and stood up, my hand ready to squeezethe shutter release, when something made me hesitate.

Then suddenly, with a strange boldness, almost as ifit were an unconscious act, I stepped forward and said,"Forgive me, sir." Without premeditation, I reached upand removed the cigar from his mouth.

His jaw tightened in belligerence; his eyes blazed. Iclicked the shutter.

Then he relaxed. "All right," he grunted as he as-sumed a more benign attitude, "you may take anotherone."

In a few minutes he stood up, strode across the room,shook my hand and said, "You can even make a roar-ing lion stand still to be photographed." Then he wasgone.

I hurried to my studio with the film of the shots.With the first I wasn't exactly sure of what I had; I hadhopes for the second one.

In the darkness of the lab, I waited as anxiously as afather expecting his first child. But I wasn't quite pre-pared for the words of the technician as she watchedthe image materialize: "This is a triumph!"

There, glowering from the still wet emulsion, wasthe resolute determination of a man who was to leadhis people to victory.

Of course it was the first shot.Within weeks it appeared throughout the free

world, including the cover of Life magazine. Edward R.Murrow, the famed war correspondent, wrote whenhe saw it, "Ah, here is the face which marshaled theEnglish language and sent it into battle when we hadlittle else."

Since then it has been my privilege to photographmany of the world's leaders in all phases of endeav-our. I have tried, every time, to capture the personwhen he is most himself.

I remember the face of Gamal Abdel Nasser, sternand impassive, until the musical voices of his childrenat play in the courtyard drifted through the window—then his face softened into that of a loving father.

Once in Connecticut, I was photographing MarianAnderson when her accompanist arrived for arehearsal. "Play the music for The Crucifixion," I whis-pered. At the sound of the first chords, the great con-tralto forgot about the camera and began to sing. Inthat instant the camera caught the deep faith of thatcompassionate artist.

Many times I think back to the portrait of Churchillin Ottawa which changed my life. Was it a lucky acci-dent? I don't think so. For I believe that when oneapproaches the work that God has given him withfaith and dedication, God is always close by. $5

From the Canon:The Scaffolding of Rhetoric,"The orator is the embodiment ofBefore he can inspire them with anyby it himself. Before he can moveTo convince them he must himself

BY WINSTON S. CHURCHILL

We receive many requests for this article, which wasnever formally published, though some of the ideas in it wereincorporated in Savrola, the author's novel. Written a cen-tury ago, it provides Churchill's formula for a good speech,which is as sound advice as ever. It is republished on its cen-tenary by kind permission of the Churchill Literary Estateand Winston S. Churchill, MP.

OF ALL the talents bestowed upon men, none isso precious as the gift of oratory. He whoenjoys it wields a power more durable than

that of a great king. He is an independent force in theworld. Abandoned by his party, betrayed by hisfriends, stripped of his offices, whoever can commandthis power is still formidable. Many have watched itseffects. A meeting of grave citizens, protected by allthe cynicism of these prosaic days, is unable to resistits influence. From unresponsive silence they advanceto grudging approval and thence to complete agree-ment with the speaker. The cheers become louder andmore frequent; the enthusiasm momentarily increases;until they are convulsed by emotions they are unableto control and shaken by passions of which they haveresigned the direction.

It is however freely written and frequently re-marked that the day of oratory is passing. The news-paper report and the growing knowledge of men have,it is said, led to the decline of rhetoric. Now no rhetori-

1897-1997the passions of the multitude,emotion he must be swayedtheir tears his own must flow,believe/'

cian would be likely to admit that his art had lost itspower, and if this proposition be generally affirmed,the conclusion follows that there are at present no ora-tors. But it by no means follows that the future will beequally barren. There was once a party in the state thatthought that the power of personality in politics was athing of the past, that took as a motto "Measures notMen," and forthwith proceeded blindly to follow agreat man for thirty years. Human weakness appearsto be one of the few unvarying features of life and weare convinced that those primary forces which fromearliest antiquity have appealed to men will continueto influence their actions. The sentimental and emo-tional parts of the human mind will even derive newvigour from the spread of education and the easinessof intercourse. Nor does this belief depend on specula-tion alone. The people of the United States of Americaare more highly educated than any other great com-munity in the world. Whatever can add to theimprovement of the individual—whether by materialinventions or political institutions—is there found ingreater proportion than elsewhere. In no country doesso great a volume of educated public opinion exist andyet in no country is the influence of oratory so marked.

The nature of so great and permanent a force maywell claim and has often received careful investigation.Is it born or acquired? Does it work for good or ill? Is itreal or artificial? Such are the questions that philoso-phers from the days of Aristotle have revolved. Nor dothey remain unanswered. And yet, with respect to theoratory of the English speaking peoples, there is roomfor further inquiry. It appears that there are certain ele-ments inherent in all rhetoric: that there are certain fea-tures common to all the finest speeches in the Englishlanguage. In painting, partly mechanical arrangementsof colour give pleasure to the eye. In music, certaincombinations of chords and discords are agreeable tothe ear. And the art of oratory has also its "values" andits "thorough base": and this it is the ambitious aim ofthis article to examine.

AS the analysis proceeds we shall observe thatrhetorical power is neither wholly bestowednor wholly acquired, but cultivated. The pecu-

liar temperament and talents of the orator must be hisby nature. Their development is encouraged by prac-tice. The orator is real. The rhetoric is partly artificial.Partly, but not wholly; for the nature of the artist is thespirit of his art, and much that appears to be the resultof study is due to instinct. If we examine this strangebeing by the light of history we shall discover that heis in character sympathetic, sentimental and earnest:that he is often as easily influenced by others as othersare by him. Indeed the orator is the embodiment of thepassions of the multitude. Before he can inspire themwith any emotion he must be swayed by it himself.When he would rouse their indignation his heart isfilled with anger. Before he can move their tears hisown must flow. To convince them he must himselfbelieve. His opinions may change as their impressionsfade, but every orator means what he says at themoment he says it. He may be often inconsistent. He isnever consciously insincere.

The dominion of matter over mind, her rebelliousslave, is in this state of human development almostabsolute: nor can we proceed with this inquiry withoutbriefly considering the indispensable physicalattributes of the orator. First of all a striking presenceis a necessity. Often small, ugly or deformed, he isinvested with a personal significance, which varying inevery case defies definition. Sometimes a slight andnot unpleasing stammer or impediment has been ofsome assistance in securing the attention of the audi-ence, but usually a clear and resonant voice givesexpression of his thoughts.

The direct, though not the admitted, object whichthe orator has in view is to allay the commonplaceinfluences and critical faculties of his audience, by pre-senting to their imaginations a series of vivid impres-sions which are replaced before they can be too closelyexamined and vanish before they can be assailed. Thefollowing appear to be the six principal elements bywhich this object is attained.

I. Correctness of Diction. Knowledge of alanguage is measured by the nice and exact apprecia-tion of words. There is no more important element inthe technique of rhetoric than the continual employ-ment of the best possible word. Whatever part ofspeech it is it must in each case absolutely express thefull meaning of the speaker. It will leave no room foralternatives. Words exist in virtue of no arbitrary rulebut have been evolved by the taste and experience ofmankind and the instinct of language is implanted »

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very deeply in the human character. There are fewaudiences so ignorant as to be incapable of admiringcorrect diction—for even if they have never heard theword before—they will, if it be rightly used under-stand its meaning. The Scots have been described as a"stern and dour" folk. "Dour" is a rare and uncommonword: but what else could it convey to the Anglo-Saxon mind than the character of the people of a cold,grey land, severe, just, thrifty and religious. So power-ful indeed is the fascination of correct expression thatit not only influences the audience, but sometimeseven induces the orator, without prejudice to his sin-cerity, to adapt his principles to his phrases.

The unreflecting often imagine that the effects oforatory are produced by the use of long words. Theerror of this idea will appear from what has been writ-ten. The shorter words of a language are usually themore ancient. Their meaning is more ingrained in thenational character and they appeal with greater forceto simple understandings than words recently intro-duced from the Latin and the Greek. All the speechesof great English rhetoricians—except when addressinghighly cultured audiences—display a uniform prefer-ence for short, homely words of common usage—solong as such words can fully express their thoughtsand feelings. It suffices to mention as a famous exam-ple the name of John Bright. Indeed the great sayingsof most countries have been expressed in aboriginalwords. "Wirfuerchten allein Gott" said Bismarck, andthereby gave an impulse to the German nation whichhas not yet died away. What can be more simple? Thewords employed are all among those that the humanmind would earliest evolve.

II. Rhythm. The great influence of sound on thehuman brain is well known. The sentences of the ora-tor when he appeals to his art become long, rolling andsonorous. The peculiar balance of the phrases pro-duces a cadence which resembles blank verse ratherthan prose. It would be easy to multiply examplessince nearly every famous peroration in the Englishlanguage might be quoted. We prefer to allude only tothe opening lines of Dr. Johnson's Rasselas as a remark-able instance of correctness of diction and rhythm—which in a speech could not have failed to produce atremendous effect upon an audience.

III. Accumulation of Argument. The cli-max of oratory is reached by a rapid succession ofwaves of sound and vivid pictures. The audience isdelighted by the changing scenes presented to theirimagination. Their ear is tickled by the rhythm of thelanguage. The enthusiasm rises. A series of facts is

brought forward all pointing in a common direction.The end appears in view before it is reached. Thecrowd anticipate the conclusion and the last words fallamid a thunder of assent.

IV. Analogy. The affection of the mind for argu-ment by analogy may afford a fertile theme to the cyni-cal philosopher. The ambition of human beings toextend their knowledge favours the belief that theunknown is only an extension of the known: that theabstract and the concrete are ruled by similar princi-ples: that the finite and the infinite are homogeneous.An apt analogy connects or appears to connect thesedistant spheres. It appeals to the everyday knowledgeof the hearer and invites him to decide the problemsthat have baffled his powers of reason by the standardof the nursery and the heart. Argument by analogyleads to conviction rather than to proof, and has oftenled to glaring error.

In spite of the arguments of the cynic the influenceexercised over the human mind by apt analogies is andhas always been immense. Whether they translate anestablished truth into simple language or whether theyadventurously aspire to reveal the unknown, they areamong the most formidable weapons of the rhetori-cian. The effect upon the most cultivated audience iselectrical:

"They [Frontier wars] are but the surf that marksthe edge and advance of the wave of civilisation."(Lord Salisbury. Guildhall.)

"Our rule in India is, as it were, a sheet of oil spreadover and keeping free from storms a vast and pro-found ocean of humanity." (Lord Randolph Churchill.)

"A strong nation may no more be confiding of itsliberties than a pure woman of her honour." (Bishop ofDerry, Albert Hall, 1892)

IT is impossible to imagine any argument that couldkeep the field in the face of these or similar analo-gies. One such will make a speech or mar a measure.

A tendency to wild extravagance of language—toextravagance so wild that reason recoils—is evident inmost perorations. The emotions of the speaker and thelisteners are alike aroused and some expression mustbe found that will represent all they are feeling. Thisusually embodies in an extreme form the principlesthey are supporting. Thus Mr. Pitt, wishing to eulogisethe freedom possessed by Englishmen:

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"The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance toall the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof mayshake: the wind may blow through it; the storms mayenter, the rain may enter—but the King of Englandcannot enter! All his forces dare not cross the thresholdof the tenement."(Earl of Chatham. Speech on the Excise Bill.)

Or Mr Bryan, anxious to display the superiority of asilver over a gold standard: "You shall not press acrown of thorns upon the brow of labour or crucifyhumanity on a cross of gold."(William Jennings Bryan. Speech. 1896.)

The effect of such extravagances on a political strug-gle is tremendous. They become the watchwords ofparties and the creeds of nationalities. But upon theaudience the effect is to reduce pressure as when asafety valve is opened.

Their feelings are more than adequately expressed.Their enthusiasm has boiled over. The orator whowished to incite his audience to a deed of violencewould follow his accumulative argument, his rhythmi-cal periods, his vivid word-pictures, by a moderateand reasonable conclusion. The cooling drink will bewithheld from the thirsty man. The safety valves willbe screwed down and the people will go out into thenight to find the expression of their feelings for them-selves. But a fortunate circumstance protects societyfrom this danger. The man who can inspire the crowd

by words, is as we have already observed, under theirinfluence himself. Nor can he resist the desire toexpress his opinions in an extreme form or to carry hisargument to the culmination. But for this cunningcounter-poise, rhetoric would long since have beenadjudged a crime.

WE CONCEIVE that by this analysis we havedisplayed the principal elements of Englishoratory. So detailed and disconnected an

examination of the structure favours the impressionthat rhetoric is to be regarded as an artificial science,which may be acquired by any who possess the physi-cal qualifications. Experience shows that this conclu-sion would be incorrect. Throughout the country aremen who speak well and fluently, who devote oppor-tunity, talent and perseverance to improving theirspeaking, and yet never deserve to be called orators.The subtle art of combining the various elements thatseparately mean nothing and collectively mean somuch in an harmonious proportion is known to a veryfew. Nor can it ever be imparted by them to others.Nature guards her secrets well and stops the mouthsof those in whom she confides. But as the Chemistdoes not despair of ultimately bridging the chasmbetween the organic and the inorganic and of creatingthe living microcosm from its primordial elements, sothe student of rhetoric may indulge the hope thatNature will finally yield to observation and persever-ance, the key to the hearts of men. $

Wit andWisdom

Sir Winston Churchill was known as amaster of the English language. The testwords in this selection are taken from hisspeeches during the Second World War.Tick the word or phrase nearest in mean-ing to the key word. Answers are on page31. Republished by permission of Reader'sDigest, January 1980.

(1) imponderable (im pon' der uhb'l)—A: manifest. B: confining. C: inca-pable of being evaluated. D: meditative.

(2) retaliate (rf tal'ee ayt)—A: torepeat. B: add on. C: repay in kind. D:nullify.

(3) cede (seed)—A: to impregnate. B:begin. C: retreat. D: yield.

(4) vitiate (vish'ee ayt)—A: toimpair. B: reject. C: quicken. D:enhance.

(5) acumen (a kyew'men)—A: accu-racy. B: shrewdness. C: force. D: obtuse-ness.

(6) temerity (ti mer' T ti)—A: fear. B:recklessness. C: diffidence. D: ruthless-ness.

(7) fabricate (fab' ri cayt)—A: tostretch. B: concoct. C: indulge. D: daz-zle.

(8) juncture (junk' cher)—A: begin-ning. B: obstruction. C: critical moment.D: complexity.

(9) calumny (kal' um nee)—A: clev-erness. B: hardship. C: compliment. D:slander.

(10) verbiage (ver' bee ij)—A: fecun-dity. B: precision. C: wordiness. D:foliage.

(11) blandishment (blan' dishment)—A: nonsense. B: threat. C: abra-sion. D: flattery.

(12) ignoble (ig no' b'l)—A: aloof. B:unknown. C: bizarre. D: dishonourable.

(13) compass (kum' pass)—A: pas-sageway. B: point. C: scope. D: restric-tion.

(14) daunt—A: to intimidate. B: over-whelm. C: dare. D: show off.

(15) brazen (bray' z'n)—A: glowingB: unbreakable. C: irresponsible. D:shameless.

(16) legion (lee' jun)—A: distance. B:rampage. C: multitude. D: motto.

(17) arrears (a rears')—A: disorienta-tion. B: throwback. C: holding pattern.D: unfulfilled obligations.

(18) deployment (de ploy' ment)—A:dismissal. B: spreading out. C: seizure.D: judgement.

(19) subvention (sub ven' shun)—A:deception. B: subsidy. C: evasion. D:descent.

(20) resilient (rf zil ' yent)—A:rebounding. B: animated. C: resource-ful. D: tenacious.

Answers on page 31.

FINEST HOUR 94/17

"Shall We All Commit Suicide?"Winston Churchill and the Scientific Imagination

Churchill is an equal-opportunity prophet:"Under sujficient stress—starvation, terror, warlike passion, or even

cold intellectual frenzy—the modern man we know so wellwill do the most terrible deeds, and his modern woman will back him up"

by Paul K. Alkon

MUCH has been written about the administrativeside of Churchill's long and important involve-ment with science. As First Lord of the

Admiralty in 1911, Churchill presided over great advancesin warship armament, speed, and endurance that he him-self describes in a very technical chapter of The WorldCrisis ironically entitled "The Romance of Design."1

Historians have noted other influential activities rangingfrom his encouragement of military aviation, tank devel-opment, and chemical warfare during the First World Warthrough his concern as Prime Minister with radar, rockets,proximity fuses, asdic, atomic research, and other facets ofwhat in his memoirs of World War II he fancifully calls"The Wizard War."^ Well known are Churchill's singularfriendship with his scientific mentor, ProfessorLindemann, and his role in the establishment of ChurchillCollege at Cambridge University as a center for the studyof science—upon continuing mastery of which, Churchillinsisted in one of his last speeches, depended England'sfuture.

Far less remarked is the imaginative core of Chur-chill's relationship with scientific ideas and their techno-logical consequences. But even such phrases as "WizardWar" and "The Romance of Design" are telling clues tothe fact that the possibilities of modern science stirred hisvivid imagination no less than his powerful intellect.

Imaginative engagement with science was one ofChurchill's fundamental traits. It is perhaps the feature ofhis mind and writing that best allows us to understand hisremarkable flexibility in dealing with the staggeringchanges that he confronted in moving to the Atomic agefrom his origins as a Victorian cavalry officer whose entirecurriculum at Sandhurst, as he ruefully noted long after-wards, consisted of "Tactics, Fortification...Mapmaking,Military Law...Military Administration...Drill, Gymnas-tics and Riding."4 Had Churchill not on his own gone far

Dr. Alkon, a Professor of English at the University of SouthernCalifornia, participated in the Manard E. Pont Seminar, sponsored atStanford this April by the Churchill Center.

beyond this education for Colonel Blimphood to graspimaginatively the social and military implications of twen-tieth-century science, it is likely that the Battle of Britain,the Second World War, and with it human history, wouldhave taken a very different and disastrous course. And that(as he warned in his most famous speech) could haveplunged our planet into "the abyss of a new Dark Agemade more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by thelights of perverted science."5 Far from clinging (as somecharge that he did) to Victorian dreams of progressbrought about by the march of science, Churchill wasquicker than most to discard the underlying Enlighten-ment equation of reason, science, and Utopia.

AKEY text is "Shall We All Commit Suicide?" firstpublished in the September, 1924 number ofNash's Pall Mall magazine, issued also that year as

a separate pamphlet (omitting "All" from the title) by theEilert Printing Company in New York, adapted within theconclusion of The Aftermath in 1929, reprinted inChurchill's 1932 collection of essays Thoughts andAdventures I Amid These Storms, and in 1948 quoted earlyin The Gathering Storm, volume one of The Second WorldWar. Reprinted from the Eilert version in 1994 by ICS,this essay is available from Churchill Stores.

Churchill begins "Shall We All Commit Suicide?"with an irritating truth not universally acknowledged:"The Story of the human race is War. Except for brief andprecarious interludes, there has never been peace in theworld; and before history began, murderous strife wasuniversal and unending."^ He meliorates this Hobbesianvision of human relationships only to the extent ofremarking that "up to the present time the means ofdestruction at the disposal of man have not kept pace withhis ferocity" (3). Churchill devotes the rest of the essay toexplaining why, thanks mostly to "Science on the Side ofWar," humanity confronts for the first time the possibilityof annihilation: "It was not until the dawn of the twenti-eth century of the Christian era that War really began toenter into its kingdom as the potential destroyer of the

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human race" (4). After glancing at the new machinery ofdeath employed in World War I, and also providing aminiature alternate history by explaining how much moredevastating the campaigns of 1919 would have been hadnot the Armistice intervened to prevent deployment ofimproved weapons—a topic on which there is in TheWorld Crisis an entire chapter entitled "The UnfoughtCampaign"^—Churchill then speculates about the futureof explosives:

Have we reached the end? Has Science turned its lastpage on them? May there not be methods of using explo-sive energy incomparably more intense than anythingheretofore discovered? Might not a bomb no bigger thanan orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy awhole block of buildings—nay to concentrate the force ofa thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at astroke? Could not explosives even of the existing type beguided automatically in flying machines by wireless orother rays, without a human pilot, in ceaseless processionon a hostile city, arsenal, camp, or dockyard? (8-9).

After dwelling with equal prescience on future possi-bilities of chemical and bacteriological weapons, and onsocial conditions likely to foster such warfare, Churchillwinds up by suggesting, not very hopefully, that "disasterscompared to which those we have suffered will be but apale preliminary" can only be averted by strengthening theLeague of Nations, which "raises feebly but faithfully itsstandards of sanity and hope" (11).

WHAT stands out in "Shall We All CommitSuicide?" is Churchill's inclination to imag-ine—and invite readers to imagine—future

science and alternate pasts. Both are staples of science fic-tion. Both recur in Churchill's writing frequently enough

to be characteristic features of his style, though not inevery text. (His only free-standing alternate history is "IfLee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg." This, how-ever, is a classic of its genre.)8 Most of Churchill's alternatehistories are embedded in other texts, sometimes over sev-eral pages, sometimes in compressed form as in the sen-tence about a "new Dark age" in his "Finest Hour" speech,and a paragraph in The Aftermath outlining how Britainwould have fared had she, not Germany, been defeated inWorld War I.9 In The World Crisis there is much specula-tion on how World War I might have ended more quicklywith far fewer casualties had the Gallipoli campaign beenfought more aggressively by admirals and generals on thespot, and had tanks been initially deployed en masserather than dribbled onto the battlefield in quantities toosmall to be decisive. In Churchill's hands, as in much sci-ence fiction, alternate pasts are sometimes used not onlyto identify what he calls in The Aftermath "turning points"or "hinges of Fate" (390, 466) and to suggest whatdepended on them, but also as invitations to think aboutUtopian or dystopian futures.

Churchill's chapter on "The Unfought Campaign" of1919 is in a decidedly dystopian mode, culminating in ahorrific Wellsian vision of an offensive that never was butmight yet be, as Churchill once imagined it and nowinvites his readers to imagine it:

"My mind amid a vivid life of movement and activityalways rested on one picture of the future: 10,000 fightingtanks, large and small, specially adapted to the groundthey had to travers, moving forward simultaneouslybehind the artillery barrage on fronts of assault aggregating300 or 400 kilometres; behind them, working with them,British, French and American infantry; and behind theseagain, 10,000 caterpillar vehicles unarmed and unar-moured, but each carrying forward across country, over

1. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1914 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924), pp. 125-48.2. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. II: Their Finest Hour (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1949; reprinted 1985), pp. 337-52.3. See R. F. Harrod, The Prof: A Personal Memoir of Lord Cherwell (London: Macmillan, 1959); Frederick, second Earl of Birkenhead, The

Professor and the Prime Minister: the Official Life of Professor F. A. Lindemann, Viscount Cherwell(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962);Thomas Wilson, Churchill and the Prof (Lon&on: Cassell, 1995); and on Churchill's speech at Churchill College see Martin Gilbert,WinstonS. Churchill: Vol. VIII "Never Despair" 1945-1965 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), p. 1302-3.

4 Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930; reprinted: New York: Macmillan/Scribner's, 1987), p. 43.5 Winston S. Churchill, "Their Finest Hour" (Speech delivered first to the House of Commons and then broadcast, June 18, 1940),

published in Blood, Sweat, and Tears (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1941), p. 314.6. Winston S. Churchill, Shall We Commit Suicide? (1924; reprinted by the International Churchill Societies, 1994), p. 3. Subsequent page

citations to this edition will appear parenthetically in my text. The 1924 Eilert Printing Company pamphlet, of which the 1994 ICSedition is a photographic facsimile, dropped the word "All" from the title, which in other printings of the entire essay during Chur-chill's lifetime appears as "Shall We All Commit Suicide?" He evidently preferred the slightly longer and much more arresting title.

7. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1916-1918, Part 2 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927), pp. 193-217. Subsequent pagecitations to this edition will appear parenthetically in my text.

8. See Paul Alkon, "Alternate History and Postmodern Temporality," in Time, Literature and the Arts: Essays in Honor of Samuel L. Macey, ed.Thomas R. Cleary, English Literary Studies Monograph Series, no. 61 (Victoria: University of Victoria, 1994), pp. 65-85.

9. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis: The Aftermath 1918-1928 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929), pp. 221-22. Subsequentpage citations to this edition will appear parenthetically in my text identified as The Aftermath.

FINEST HOUR 94/19

fields and trenches, all the food, ammunition, kit andsupplies of every kind which one platoon would require,while the roads remained clear and free for the advance ofartillery and reserves." (The World Crisis 1916-18, II: 217).

This "picture of the future" that Churchill saysobsessed him while serving as Munitions Minister in 1918stands as a prophetic warning that everything in it andmore might yet take place in the reader's future if peacecannot somehow be established by political settlementsbetter than the Versailles treaty.

BEFORE turning in The Aftermath to his blisteringcritique of Woodrow Wilson and other leaders at theVersailles conference who succeeded only in aggra-

vating rather than removing conflicts that could lead toanother world war, Churchill indulges in a Utopian alter-nate history presented in the venerable form of a dream-vision: "one of the many Armistice Dreams" (TheAftermath, 7). In it Wilson, Clemenceau, and LloydGeorge, instead of delaying as they did in thereal world, meet promptly after 11 %X^rJNovember 1918—and with better politicalpreparation at home by Wilson. They decidethat "the new instrument of world-ordershould be armed with the new weapons ofscience." They establish for that purpose anew "International Air Force" whose pilots—mostly World War I aces—will be (Wilsonsays enthusiastically) "the new nobility."This, Clemenceau suggests, will be in effectto revive '"the old Orders of chivalry like theKnights Templars and the Knights of Maltato guard civilization against barbarism'" (TheAftermath, 11-12). Shortly after this exchange, Churchillends his vision of a past that never was and a future thatnever will be with a conventional account of the dream-er—here himself—awakening again to dismal reality: "thespell broke. The illusion of power vanished. I awoke frommy Armistice dream, and we all found ourselves in therough, dark, sour and chilly waters in which we are swim-ming still" {The Aftermath, 12).

Churchill's vison of a nobility of the air as enforcer ofa new world order is if anything more Wellsian than H.G. Wells, though one thinks of The War in the Air (1908),and especially of The World Set Free (1914) with its air-craft, atomic bombs, and reconstitution of society afternuclear Armageddon. To review Churchill's Armisticedream is to understand better the Utopian impulse under-lying his eloquent tributes in 1940 to The Few—"theseyoung airmen...going forth every morn to guard theirnative land and all that we stand for...of whom it may besaid that 'Every morn brought forth a noble chance / Andevery chance brought forth a noble knight.'"10

If the Armistice dream is Churchill's Utopia lost, hisand our impending dystopia is outlined with passages ofOrwellian power in "Fifty Years Hence," an essay firstpublished in the December 1931 Strand and included in1932 along with "Shall We All Commit Suicide?" inThoughts and Adventures I Amid These Storms. This essayhas rightly been identified as "a kind of acid test ofChurchill's relevance," offering, in addition to predictions,"a diagnosis of the predicament of modern man."11 AgainChurchill's premise is that "this power called Science" hasnow accelerated the pace of change and come to dominatehumanity in unprecedented ways: "None of the genera-tions of men before the last two or three were ever grippedfor good or ill and handled like this."12 Accordingly theremote past is no guide to the future. Would-be prophetsmust discard methods employed by historians in favor ofscientific extrapolation:

There are two processes which we adopt consciously orunconsciously when we try to prophesy. We can seek a

period in the past whose conditions resemble asclosely as possible those of our day, and presumethat the sequel to that period will, save for someminor alterations, be repeated. Secondly, we cansurvey the general course of development in ourimmediate past, and endeavour to prolong it intothe near future. The first is the method of thehistorian; the second that of the scientist. Onlythe second is open to us now, and this only in apartial sphere. By observing all that Science hasachieved in modern times, and the knowledgeand power now in her possession, we can predictwith some assurance the inventions and discover-

ies which will govern our future. We can but guess, peer-ing through a glass darkly, what reactions these discoveriesand their application will produce upon the habits, theoutlook and the spirit of men." {Thoughts and Adventures,273).

This remarkable passage deserves wider currency. Itshows that Churchill, for all his immense industryand well-deserved reputation as a conventional his-

torian, was acutely aware that the modern period—thankslargely to science—was in crucial respects an unprecedent-ed break in the continuity of human history and accord-ingly demanded new modes of historiography, includingthe occasional practice of future history: accounts (as bestthey can be constructed) of what has not yet happened.13

Here Churchill applies to the task of writing future histo-ry a scientific (and science fictional) mode of imaginationvia extrapolation rather than a conventional historian'smethod of looking to the past for archetypes.

What results is portrayal in "Fifty Years Hence" of

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Utopian, the other dystopian. Churchill's Utopia is anamusing pastoral vision of teeming cities transformed intouncrowded countrysides whose inhabitants enjoy gardensand glades, "Wireless telephones and television," vat-grown chicken breasts, and other "synthetic food."Because this is, after all, a Churchillian Utopia, readers areassured that the "the pleasures of the table" will remainavailable: "That gloomy Utopia of tabloid meals neednever be invaded. The new foods will from the outset bepractically indistinguishable from the natural products,and any changes will be so gradual as to escape observa-tion" {Thoughts and Adventures, 276). But this gardener'sand gourmet's paradise is less persuasively elaborated thanChurchill's Orwellian nightmare, introduced by allusionsto Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1931) and KarelCapek's Rossum's Universal Robots (1920), of humanityfirst falling into spiritually empty materialism and ulti-mately displaced altogether by a posthuman race of bio-engineered android slaves serving a power-hungry despo-

.14tism:

"The production of such beings may well be possiblewithin fifty years.They will not be made, but grown underglass. There seems little doubt that it will be possible tocarry out in artificial surroundings the entire cycle whichnow leads to the birth of a child. Interference with themental development of such beings, expert suggestion andtreatment in the earlier years, would produce beings spe-cialized to thought or toil....A being might be producedcapable of tending a machine but without other ambi-tions" {Thoughts and Adventures, 277).

To Churchill, unusually alert as he was to the possi-bilities of real science, even if a little off in his estimate ofwhen artificial gestation might be fully realized, Capek'sscience fiction classic was no mere political parable or fan-ciful prophecy unrelated to reality, but rather a stimulus toan even more sobering exercise of future history with animportant moral for the present..

THE key to all futures, Churchill suggests, will beatomic energy: "Nuclear energy is incomparablygreater than the molecular energy which we use

today...There is no question among scientists that thisgigantic source of energy exists. What is lacking is thematch to set the bonfire alight, or it may be the detonatorto cause the dynamite to explode. The Scientists are look-ing for this" {Thoughts and Adventures, 274). Given suchprospects, the social outcome—Utopian or dystopian—will depend on humanity's psychological and moral quali-ties.

On this issue Churchill is an equal-opportunityprophet: "The nature of man has remained hitherto prac-tically unchanged. Under sufficient stress—starvation, ter-ror, warlike passion, or even cold intellectual frenzy—themodern man we know so well will do the most terribledeeds, and his modern woman will back him up"{Thoughts and Adventures, 279). As in "Shall We AllCommit Suicide?" Churchill urges his readers to considerthe consequences of clinging to old attitudes. He argueseloquently that human survival depends on setting asideselfish materialism in favor of developing our capacitiesfor "Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love" {Thoughts andAdventures, 279).

That was Churchill's policy. It is neither his fault norhis preference that he was destined to be famous, not as anadvocate of mercy, pity, peace, and love, but as the PrimeMinister who could only offer blood, toil, tears, andsweat. In "Fifty Years Hence" his all too well justified fore-boding culminates in an apocalyptic vision of science mis-applied by tyrannies for dehumanizing purposes:

In a future which our children may live to see, powerswill be in the hands of men altogether different from anyby which human nature has been moulded. Explosiveforces, energy, materials, machinery will be available upona scale which can annihilate whole nations. Despotismsand tyrannies will be able to prescribe the lives and eventhe wishes of their subjects in a manner never known since

10. Winston S. Churchill, "Dunkirk" (Speech in the House of Commons, June 4, 1940), Blood, Sweat, and Tears, p. 293.11. James W. Muller, '"A Kind of Dignity and Even Nobility': Winston Churchill's 'Thoughts and Adventures,'" The Political Science

Reviewer, 16 (Fall, 1986): 297.12. Winston S. Churchill, Thoughts and Adventures (1932; reprinted London: Thornton Butterworth, Ltd., Keystone Library ed., 1934), p.

270. Subsequent page citations to this edition will appear parenthetically in my text, identified as Thoughts and Adventures.13. For the backgrounds of future history as a form of imaginative literature, see Paul K. Alkon, Origins of Futuristic Fiction (Athens:

University of Georgia Press, 1987).14. Churchill mentions the surprise that Karel Capek's play about robots (in which that term was first used) elicited in London. Olaf

Stapledon's Last and First Men, published in 1931, is not mentioned by name although it is doubtless the work alluded to whenChurchill remarks that he "read a book the other day which traced the history of mankind from the birth of the solar system to itsextinction. There were fifteen or sixteen races of men which in succession rose and fell over periods measured by tens of millions ofyears. In the end a race of beings was evolved which had mastered nature. A state was created whose citizens lived as long as they chose,enjoyed pleasures and sympathies incomparably wider than our own, navigated the inter-planetary spaces, could recall the panorama ofthe past and foresee the future. But what was the good of all that to them?....No material progress, even though it takes shapes wecannot now conceive, or however it may expand the faculties of man, can bring comfort to his soul" {Thoughts and Adventures, 280).Stapledon's panoramic future history stimulated Churchill's literary as well as moral imagination.

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"If to these tremendous and awful powers is addedthe pitiless subhuman wickedness which we now see embodied

in one of the most powerful reigning governments, who shall say that theworld itself will not be wrecked, or indeed that it ought not to be wrecked?

There are nightmares of the future from which a fortunate collisionwith some wandering star, reducing the earth to incandescent gas,

might be a merciful deliverance. " -Churchill: Thoughts and Adventures, 1932

time began. If to these tremendous and awful powers isadded the pitiless subhuman wickedness which we nowsee embodied in one of the most powerful reigning gov-ernments, who shall say that the world itself will not bewrecked, or indeed that it ought not to be wrecked? Thereare nightmares of the future from which a fortunate colli-sion with some wandering star, reducing the earth toincandescent gas, might be a merciful deliverance{Thoughts and Adventures, 278).

Here Churchill is sublime. Readers are taken in imag-ination beyond our planet's problems to its end. This fear-ful vision is placed within a moral framework that invitesus against all our instincts and vanity to consider that endas a possible blessing. This variety of what I would call thescience fictional sublime is rare in Churchill's writing butnevertheless altogether characteristic.

It is no late development. A similar invitation to con-sider future catastrophes on an astronomical scaleappeared before 1900 in Churchill's novel Savrola, whichhe began writing in 1897 and published first in serialform in Macmillan's Magazine in 1899 before its appear-ance as a book. In one episode its protagonist, an idealizedself-portrait of the young author, gazes at Jupiter througha telescope. Then, as that "beautiful...world of boundlesspossibilities enthralled his imagination," he thinks of "theincomprehensible periods of time that would elapse beforethe cooling process would render life possible on its sur-face, of the slow, steady march of evolution, merciless,inexorable," and arrives at a "mournful conclusion": evenif biological evolution there leads to some kind of extrater-restrial Utopia, eventually and inexorably "the cooling pro-cess would continue; the perfect development of lifewould end in death; the whole solar system, the wholeuniverse itself, would one day be cold and lifeless as aburned-out firework."15 This sublime meditation mightalmost be a precis of the far future scenes of a dying planetin an expiring solar system at the end of H. G. Wells's TheTime Machine (1895).

In Savrola Churchill provides in concise form an ele-gant variation on one apocalyptic theme of that great sci-

entific romance: the prospect that—thanks to the irondeterminism of thermodynamics—human history, andthus all individual achievements, will ultimately be ren-dered meaningless by the oblivion into which they will beplunged by the final extinction of life everywhere. If thatis to be the case, both works invite their readers to won-der, what then (sub specie aeternitatis) is the point ofambition or achievement? Why should a politician—orfor that matter anyone—live strenuously?

Elsewhere too, as I hope the passages of Utopian anddystopian speculation that I have singled out here suffi-ciently demonstrate, there are many striking imaginativeaffinities linking Winston S. Churchill with science fic-tion. His quarrels with H. G. Wells have often beenremarked, especially their acrimonious disagreements overthe British Empire, which Wells despised and Churchilldefended, and their discord over what Churchill rightlysaw as Wells's naive approval of the Soviet Union. " Farless familiar is Churchill's lavish praise of Wells as an"unquestionably great English writer." This magnanimousphrase is from Churchill's essay on H. G. Wells in theSunday Pictorial of 23 August 1931 where, after castigat-ing again (and as usual) Wells's political views, Churchillturns to invite appreciation of "the gifted being to whosegay and daring fancy and to whose penetrating vision somany of us owe so much":

I am a great reader of Wells. It must be more thanthirty years ago that I first discovered his SelectConversations with an Uncle....I responded at once to hisintellectual stimulus and literary dexterity; and when Icame upon The Time Machine, that marvellous philosphi-cal romance, not unworthy to follow at some distance, butnevertheless in the train of, Gulliver's Travels, I shoutedwith joy. Then I read all his books. I have read them allover since. I could pass an examination in them. Onewhole long shelf in my small library is filled with a com-plete edition....Here is entertainment and frolic. Here areshrewd ideas of peace and war. Here are prophecies of thefuture, not a few of which we have lived to verify andendure.1'7

FINEST HOUR 94/22

"I am a great reader of Wells....I responded at once to his intellectual stimulusand literary dexterity; and when I came upon The Time Machine,

that marvellous philosphical romance... I shouted with joy.Then I read all his books. I have read them all over since.

I could pass an examination in them. "-Churchill: "H. G. Wells," 1931

CHURCHILL'S enthusiasm in this panegyric, whichcontinues for several paragraphs, reveals mentaland stylistic affinities, shared tastes and concerns,

even more than direct personal influences. These are thetones of someone who has discovered a kindred spirit, butnot the reaction of someone whose life or writing wasgreatly changed as a result of the encounter.

A similar though more subdued appreciation ofaffinities appears apropos the history of tank developmentin The World Crisis, where Churchill discusses the adventof the tank. He notes that although the idea of anarmored land vehicle had a long history, and could not becredited to any one individual includinghimself, it was nevertheless undeniablethat H. G. Wells, "in an article writtenin 1903, had practically exhausted thepossibilities of imagination in thissphere."18 Clearly Churchill had beenmuch taken with Wells's story "TheLand Ironclads." This piece, like Wells'sother science fiction, may have in some measure influ-enced Churchill's writing and thinking, but it is morelikely to have provided a kind of ratification of directionsin which Churchill was being independently led by hisown powerful imagination to envision more clearly thanmost of his contemporaries the military and social impli-cations of science.

The Sunday Pictorial essay also goes on to expresspreference for Wells over Jules Verne on grounds thatWells belongs mentally to the twentieth century eventhough he (like Churchill) got started as a writer late inthe Victorian fin de siecle milieu:

Jules Verne delighted the Victorians....He showedthem the possibilities of science applied to the nineteenthcentury. Wells took up his work in the twentieth, carriedit much further in a far more complex scene; and Wellssaw the bloody.accomplished fact, illustrating his pageswhile their ink was wet."1^

In this matter of Wells versus Verne, as on so manyother more weighty issues, Churchill shows himself athome if not altogether happy in the post-Victorian world.His sympathies are for writers, whatever their chronologi-cal roots, who remain a vital part of the twentieth century.

The subtleties of elite avant-garde mod-ernists like T. S. Eliot, Henry James, and

) • oRM£(i»H Jarries Joyce had notoriously little appeal'- ^ for Churchill. But he was much more

responsive to—and familiar with—thosescience fiction masters like H. G. Wells,Karel Capek, and Olaf Stapledon who,arguably in a century so dominated by

the applications of science, dealt with themes of morepressing urgency and greater philosophical moment.

Churchill's ability and willingness to adopt the formsof science fiction as he did, though in smaller and morescattered doses, is an insufficiently appreciated sign of hisliterary versatility, skill, and power. Not least, Churchill'simaginative affinity with so many techniques, themes andwriters of science fiction is a significant measure of hisopenness to the future, of his capacity to imagine thesocial consequences of science, and thus of his remarkableability not only to survive in but to shape for the betterthe twentieth century. $

15. Winston S. Churchill, Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania (1900; reprinted New York: Random House, 1956), pp. 34-35.16. For an excellent survey of relationships between Wells and Churchill that does not, however, dwell on the Wellsian affinities in Churchill's

own writing, see Manfred Weidhorn, A Harmony of Interests: Explorations in the Mind of Sir Winston Churchill (Rutherford, Madison,Teaneck, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London & Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1992), pp. 25-30, 40-44.

17. Winston S. Churchill, "H. G. Wells," in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Centenary Edition, ed. Michael Wolff (London:Library of Imperial History, n.d. [1975]), Vol. 3, Churchill and People, pp. 52-53. The lasting impression made by The Time Machineon Churchill's imagination is also attested by a conversational remark recorded in 1947 when he was over seventy years old: "Wells is aseer. His Time Machine is a wonderful book, in the same class as Gulliver's Travels. It is one of the books I would like to take with me toPurgatory." (Lord Moran [Charles Wilson], Churchill: Taken from the Diaries ofLordMoran, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966, p. 352).It is pleasant to know that in Churchill's view even the burdens of Purgatory may be lightened by a choice library including at least onescience fiction classic.

18. Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis, 1915 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923), p. 69-70.19. Churchill, "H. G. Wells," p. 53.

FINEST HOUR 94/23

A C T I O N T H I S D A Y BYJOHNG.PLUMFTON

One hundred years ago:Spring 1897 • Age 22"A clever young man..."

May marked the end ofChurchill's almost superhuman effortto educate himself by reading yards ofclassic literature and studying theAnnual Register for all years since hisbirth. Now his search for fame andaction was demanding his returnfrom India. Though Lady Randolphresisted this on grounds of cost, andfeared he would get a reputation fornot sticking to anything, Churchillwanted action. The Greeks and Turkswere at war in Crete, where he askedhis mother to get him a corresponden-cy. On May 8th he sailed on theGanges but the war in Crete was overbefore he reached Port Said. SoChurchill visited Naples, climbedVesuvius, "did" Pompeii and Rome,and visited his brother in Paris beforereturning to England. Aboard ship hemade friends with a Colonel, IanHamilton, who was to affect his lifegreatly in later years.

He and his mother worked toadvance his political prospects whilein London as seen in this letter fromthe Conservative Central Office to alocal Conservative association: "Willyou allow the late Lord RandolphChurchill's son, Mr. Winston S.Churchill, also to speak at your gath-ering on [July] 26th? He is very keenabout politics and about the PrimroseLeague and has told us he would liketo address a few political meetingsbefore rejoining his regiment, the 4thHussars, shortly in India. We have nodoubt you would be rather glad tohave him at your meeting; he is aclever young man and his presencewould no doubt be of some interest tothe Bath Conservatives." The resultwas Churchill's maiden politicalspeech, which will appear in the nextissue of Finest Hour.

Seventy-five years ago:Spring 1922 • Age 47"To end the horrors..."

Concerned about IRA attempts toscuttle the Irish Treaty, Churchill, asColonial Secretary, wrote to MichaelCollins that "an explosion would bedisastrous and even a continuance ofthe present tension tends to stereotypethe border line and make it into a for-tified military frontier, which is thelast thing in the world you want."After the horrifying murder of aCatholic family in Belfast, Churchillwrote the leaders of the warring par-ties that "if men carrying weight andinfluence with the opposing factionswere to come together, a way [can] be

found to end the horrors."He told the House of Commons

that Britain's aim was to help the Irishpeople "shake themselves free fromthe convulsion and spasm—due, nodoubt, to the tragedies of the past."

By the end of March Churchilland the Irish leaders had negotiatedan agreement designed to end "thereligious and partisan warfare"between Protestants and Catholics.On 31 March the Irish Free State Billbecame law, with Churchill havingearned much of the credit. However,there was considerable hostility in Ire-land and republican opposition to theProvisional Government of the IrishFree State continued to grow.Churchill was particularly upset thatan electoral pact might be reachedbetween Collins, representing the Pro-visional Government, and de Valera,representing the republican opposi-tion. On 20 May Collins and de Valerasigned a Compact, but Collinsinformed Churchill that this wouldnot prevent the establishment of anIrish State with a British connection.He argued that accommodation withthe republicans was essential to theelectoral process itself. Consequently,in the House, Churchill subsequentlysupported the Collins-de Valera Com-pact. Ulster supporters were not con-vinced. They believed that it guaran-teed a republican South and contin-ued civil war in the North.

In mid-June the Irish people gavethe most seats in the Dail Eireann topro-Treaty supporters of MichaelCollins and approved the new Consti-tution. Republican opposition was notstilled. They controlled many areas ofIreland and showed their power bymurdering Sir Henry Wilson, Chief ofthe Imperial General Staff, on thesteps of his home in London. No onefelt safe, least of all the Colonial Secre-tary. He was known to be on the IRAlist for assassination. He was guarded

FINEST HOUR 94/24

by armed detectives and an armchairin his room was reinforced withmetal. He slepi in the attic of hishouse behind a metal barrier, with agun at his side. He was always pre-pared to "fight it out" if necessary.While this must have caused consid-erable stress, their daughter Mary saidthat her mother "never made much ofit, either at the time or afterwards."

Fifty years ago:Spring 1947 • Age 72"When I was Chancellor..."

The prewar years were verymuch on Churchill's mind as heworked on his Second World Warmemoirs. His thoughts were carriedinto the debates of the House of Com-mons. Speaking on the National Ser-vice Bill, he chided Labour for bring-ing in a conscription bill "after twoyears of peace, when all our enemieshave surrendered unconditionally.Why, these were the very politicianswho, four months before the outbreakof the war, led their followers into theLobby against the principle of com-pulsory military service, and then hadthe face to accuse the ConservativeParty of being guilty men." Nonethe-less, the Churchill-led Conservativessupported the Bill.

This debate launched a verbalbattle between Churchill and ClementAttlee. The Labour Prime Ministerretaliated by calling Churchill the"most disastrous Chancellor of thecentury" for putting Britain back onthe gold standard. "He sinned, nodoubt in all ignorance, but much ofour troubles today can be traced backto that error of ignorance and his sim-ple trust of others in a field where hehad little knowledge." Churchillresponded that while he was Chancel-lor "the real wages of our workpeoplesteadily and substantially increased."He accelerated his attacks by askingwhy Britain should be "the only

debtor country in the world, whilethose she had rescued and those shehad conquered went into the futurewithout having to drag a terriblechain of debts behind them." Thisattack led to a reduction of the Britishwar debt.

Churchill's Conservatives alsosupported Labour initiatives on theIndian subcontinent, provided theyled to Dominion status for India andPakistan. Attlee had appointed twoChurchill supporters to bring India toindependence: Lord Mountbatten andLord Ismay. But Churchill disagreedwith the name "Indian IndependenceBill." Dominion status, he said, "is notthe same as Independence, although itmay freely be used to establish Inde-pendence. It is not true that a commu-nity is independent when its Ministershave in fact taken the Oath of Alle-giance to the King." This would havebeen news to Canadians, Australians,New Zealanders and South Africans.In this case, Churchill was not clearlyunderstanding the evolution of theEmpire into the Commonwealth. Hisattention was focused on Europe, itsrebuilding, restructuring and defence.He continued to support the UnitedEurope concept and acknowledgedthe importance of the support of theUnited States, particularly the recentpassage of the Truman Doctrine.

With the assistance of his son-in-law, Christopher Soames, he contin-ued the development of farmingactivities at Chartwell including thepurchase of an adjacent one hundredplus acres. His publishing activitiesprospered. Most significant was theselling of serialization rights of hiswar memoirs to Life magazine, TheNew York Times and the Daily Tele-graph. The Times expected the work tobe "one of the greatest and most bril-liantly written historical documents ofall time." It was.

In May Churchill went to Paris toreceive the Medaille Militaire, aunique honour for a foreign citizen.

Twenty-five years ago:Spring 1972"Young Winston" Debuts

Carl Foreman's film, "YoungWinston," directed by Richard Atten-borough, opened to decidedly mixedreviews. Time magazine called it "anti-septic and servile, as empty of conflictas a biographical entry in the Britanni-cfl...an enervating epic about a youngman, unpromising at school, whoseparents did not pay him quite enoughattention...the battles in which hefought [have] all the fury of a gradeschool recess. He has better luck withthe actors, perhaps because he is anactor himself. Simon Ward is crediblein the thorny role of Winston, RobertShaw superb as his father. The sec-ondary characters are all cast andplayed faultlessly, with Ian Holm aseditor of The Times and Anthony Hop-kins as Lloyd George especiallyengaging. Anne Bancroft, who oughtto have been perfect as Lady Ran-dolph, is thwarted largely by a partthat asks her only to be coquettish orlong-suffering. 'Young Winston' suf-focates her restless dynamism, just asit does the true power and substanceof Churchill's early life." But London'sDaily Mirror, quoted in Finest Hour#24, called it "an epic [which] getsright under the skin of its leadingcharacter, presenting the ego, thebrashness, the warts and all," whilefilm critic Rona Barrett compared it to"Lawrence of Arabia."

On April 17th Lady Churchillwrote the City of Long Beach, Califor-nia, giving permission to name one ofthe restaurants aboard the newlyinstalled Queen Mary "Sir Winston's."

And in May there appeared thisLondon press notice: "The latestmemorial to Churchill is the Interna-tional Churchill Society (UK Branch),conceived in America in 1968 as aphilatelic exercise but now withbroadened horizons..." M

FINEST HOUR 94/25

A B S E N T F R I E N D Sby Richard M. Langworfcn

"England Hath Need of Thee"

H. Ashley Redhurn, O.B.E., T.D.

"It was such a happy day." Owermoigne, Dorset, 28thSeptember. L-R: Jaime Snell Mendoza, Ashley Redburn,Elizabeth Snell, Gert Zoller, Richard Langworth, MargaretRedburn, Garry Clark, Curt Zoller. Photo by James Snell.

TWO issues ago I wondered sadly whetherWestern Civilization needed a war every fewgenerations to maintain its vigor. Ashley

Redburn was a man who believed it. "England," hesaid, "needs to be conquered in war and occupied by avengeful enemy before its spirit can be revived.Germany and France between them have ruinedEurope for two centuries and are now ganging up tosubjugate the continent. Perhaps it doesn't matter.Somewhere in the universe there must be other beingswho are making a better test of things than the inhabi-tants of this planet. You and I will never know, but twogenerations hence they may."

In his warm tribute to my editorial predecessor fif-teen years ago, Ashley suggested that Dalton Newfieldwas more qualified than anyone to be a joint citizen ofBritain and America. He would resist the comparison,but Ashley equally deserved that honor. A friend, goesthe saying, is someone who knows all about you butlikes you; he knew all about Americans, and liked themdespite all he knew.

There was never in Ashley Redburn a hint of thatodd combination of envy and scorn displayed towardAmericans by some of his countrymen; and, equally, nohint of the overbearing way some Americans treat theEnglish. Mark Twain said of the Anglo-American

Churchill, "Behold, the perfect man." Ashley Redburnwas so aware of the strengths and weaknesses of thetwo fraternal nations that representing anything lessthan his frank views, which were not optimistic, wouldbe disrespectful to his memory.

Ashley maintained that nowadays "the bulk of thebest work on the study of Churchill is being done byAmerican academics." Citing such exceptions as SirMartin Gilbert, Paul Addison, David Stafford and a fewothers, he believed there is "not much zeal in respect ofWinston in British universities." He wished he couldattend Churchill Conferences ("if I were only 48 insteadof nearly 84"), but reacted to them as if he had beenthere. Of the 50th Anniversary "Sinews of Peace" con-ference in Fulton last year he wrote, "I am glad LadyThatcher took the opportunity to emphasize the impor-tance and prescience of Churchill's Fulton speech—andshe was the one to do it. I cringe when I view today'stop leaders. As I told our local MP recently, theConservative Party should reflect on the fact that theirfortunes have been in steady decline since they sackedher...'England hath need of thee,' as Wordsworth wroteof Milton. De Gaulle said rightly that politics is muchtoo important to be entrusted to politicians. They sel-dom understand human nature and will not admit thatmankind is incapable of natural goodness. The almostuniversal exhibition of envy and covetousness, assidu-ously cultivated by the media, is sickening."

On the controversy over the purchase by Britain ofthe Churchill Papers with National Lottery money lastyear, Ashley was typically pithy: "I followed with inter-est the outraged howls in the press...The smell ofmoney, particularly other people's money, drives mostEnglish people mad, and deprives them of rational dis-cernment. I am reminded of the comment of CecilRhodes on arriving in London for the Enquiry on theJameson Raid. Knowing he would have been lionizedhad the Raid succeeded, he found himself execratedbecause it had failed. In answer to a reporter's questionhe referred to 'the unctuous rectitude of my country-men.' 'Don't you mean anxious?' 'No,' he replied, Tsaid unctuous and I mean unctuous..' The comment isapposite regarding the Churchill Papers affair."

He looked upon America and Britain as a dispas-sionate observer—perhaps "mourner" would be a bet-ter word—deploring what he viewed as a relentlessslide toward mediocrity, the ebbing of individual liber-ty and responsibility, the rise of all-permeating Statismand a vague, unsatisfying, unequal egalitarianism:

FINEST HOUR 94/26

"Both our countries are becoming third world states;we in England more rapidly than you because theSecond World War impoverished us, and our povertyin 1945 was compounded by the reign of socialism.Imperial Britain is defunct and Imperial America willfollow suit. I have lived the greater part of this centuryof decline—will our offspring fare any better?" Andnothing upset him more than the problems of the RoyalFamily: "The monarchy will survive in spite of calls fora republic, particularly from some in the LabourParty...but it angers me that the family of probably thebest monarch we have had for centuries should have sodiminished the monarchy itself."

Occasionally he suggested panaceas: "I hope theWest will find wisdom and take up the challenge of thePacific Rim. There lies our joint future—an economicbloc of Europe and NAFTA, a super-economic combine:for NATO read NAEFTO (North American-EuropeanFree Trade Organization). The USA and Britain are dis-sipating their seed corn of capital in bolstering worth-less regimes and are in danger of impoverishing theirnext generations. Small wonder that many of my gener-ation feel life has been in vain."

A harsh judge? Indeed, but he was qualified to beone. Born in Leicestershire in 1912, he took a Historydegree from Nottingham University and spent fouryears teaching History in South Africa and England. In1936 he joined the Territorial Army; three years later hemet Winston Churchill, and wrote about it in FH 60. Helanded on Sword Beach in the vanguard of theNormandy Invasion on D-Day; then, in November1944, he joined the mopping up forces in Burma.Mentioned in despatches, he was demobilized inDecember 1945 with the rank of Lt. Col, the O.B.E.(Military) and the Territorial Decoration. In 1949 hereturned to the academy as Director of Education forBamsley, South Yorkshire, until his retirement in 1972.In 1939 he married Margaret, second daughter of Eng.Rear Admiral Sir Robert Beeman; his wife and theyounger of their two sons survive him.

IFIRST met Ashley around the time of his retire-ment—when he began seriously to get busy! DalNewfield had often mentioned this fascinating

scholar, and the novelty that he then lived in Rutland,Britain's smallest county. Ten years later when Dalpassed away, Ashley Redburn became a senior editor ofFinest Hour, which is what we call people who become,to this magazine, simply indispensible.

He wrote the most wonderful book reviews—eru-dite, polished, witty and wise, studded with pricelessquotes from the classics. But they were increasinglyhard to get because of his workload. Like Churchill, theidea of retiring appalled him. For ten years at least he

labored on his Bibliography of Works ConcerningChurchill; to his great credit he had "finished the job"before his death, and his friends are now determined tosee it published. Last year, when I persuaded him toundertake two more book reviews, he declared he wasacceding to Long Sunset only because of his admirationfor its author; and to Churchill's Grand Alliance onlybecause he felt sorry for its author: "Such an excitableyoung man, still at heart an undergraduate...I shall haveto be very careful to put down my inner prejudices."

HE continually warned of his punishing sched-ule: "By the end of 1996 I shall have finishedthe Bibliography and all Churchill study.

Then I will concentrate on my own reading—literaturechiefly, and the Greek and Roman authors (not in theoriginal!). Greek civilisation fascinates me: If denied inthis life I hope to become proficient in it in the next. Ioften think Churchill would have become a great Greekscholar in other circumstances." Now that he has got toHeaven, Ashley will certainly spend a considerable por-tion of his first million years studying Greek civiliza-tion, and so get to the bottom of the subject.

I never knew Ashley to have a healthy year, and heoften reminded me he would not be around forever.Partly in recognition of that, but mainly because he sodeserved it, the ICS/USA Directors voted to presenthim a Blenheim Award last year, and I arranged forhim to accept it as last autumn's Churchill Tour waspassing close by his home. The afternoon before thepresentation, because his wife would not be present forthe latter, his friends made a small delegation and visit-ed them for tea. "It was such a happy day," he said,having seen the Snells recently, but not the Zollers orme for five years at least. That evening he gave a mosteloquent acceptance speech—and was typically dismis-sive about it. It is published on page 30—I think youwill find that it is as I, not he, described it.

IN his last letter, Ashley urged that the ChurchillCenter continue what he called its vital work: "Keeptilting at the rewriters of history: their books have

taught them so little of life. The classroom of Academeis no substitute for the classroom of Life. I wish I couldjoin you in the fray."

He gave so much—to his country and to the memo-ry of her greatest son, and he had more to give. But hewas weary, too, and one cannot believe he minded theapproaching shadows. I am writing these words onEleuthera, a long, high island on Bahamas outer banks,whose name, from the Greek, means "freedom." I thinkhe would like that, and apply his favorite word, saying,"How apposite you should write it there."

Farewell, dear friend.

FINEST HOUR 94 / 27

She Got There On Her Own:

Amhassador Pamela Harriman

I!"N 1941, WinstonChurchill brought

.the house down atthe United StatesCongress (and dis-armed whateverremaining critics hehad there), when hesuggested that, "hadmy father been

American and my mother English, instead of the otherway round, I might have got here on my own." PamelaHarriman was by heritage all-English, yet she rose tohigh American office on her own, serving asAmbassador to Paris from 1993 until her death onFebruary 7th.

Small-minded people, and there are more of themthan ever these days, belittled her lack of education, herglittery life, her famous friendships with the great. Itwas easy to mock, but it missed the big picture. Her col-league Richard Holbrooke rated her quite differently.Summarizing her Ambassadorship he said, "She spokethe language, she knew the country, she knew its lead-ership. She was one of the best." President Chirac com-pared her to the most notable American ambassadors toParis, Franklin and Jefferson. He awarded her aCommander of the Legion of Honor's Order of Artsand Letters, France's highest cultural award: prettygood for a girl from the sticks who left home early,determined to succeed on her own.

PAMELA Digby's first marriage, at age nineteen in1939, was to Randolph Churchill, a decisiontaken on the fly. Randolph was off to war and,

thinking he might be killed, anxious to produce an heir.Later she would tell stories about sleeping in a double-decker bunk in the Prime Minister's bomb shelter whilepregnant with her son Winston, "one Churchill aboveme, another inside." She loved and admired WinstonChurchill, and did amusing imitations of him in herown deep voice. Once the PM insisted that, in the eventof invasion, each member of his family must "take oneGerman with you." Pamela protested that she wouldn'tknow what to fight with. The great man fixed her witha benignant smile over his spectacles and said, "But mydear, you can use a carving knife."

As friends had warned her, marriage withRandolph was not destined to be smooth, and theydivorced at war's end. With little in her pocket exceptdetermination she moved to Paris, where she was soonenjoying a lavish life as the friend of several notablepersonages before marrying Broadway producerLeland Hayward (renowned for "South Pacific" and"The Sound of Music") This marriage did last, untilHayward's death in 1971. Six months later she marriedAverell Harriman, then almost eighty—and was criti-cized roundly as an opportunist. In fact, they were oldfriends and lovers, and those who knew said no onetook better care of the aging diplomat than his newwife. When Governor Harriman passed away, Pamelaaccepted in his place honorary membership in theInternational Churchill Society.

THROUGH Harriman, Pamela gained an interestin American politics, and here again she broughtChurchillian determination to a difficult craft.

Viewing the Democratic Party's disarray in the wake oftwin sweeps by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984Presidential elections, she reminded her friends of twoChurchill dictums: "in war you can only be killed once,but in politics, many times," and "never give in."Recalling how often her father-in-law had been countedout and recovered, she rallied the Democrats, hostingglamorous parties and fundraisers at her famous homeon "N" Street in Washington. "She had an ability toattract people around her, and a willingness to try to bea catalyst for the party," said Norm Ornstein of theAmerican Enterprise Institute. "Almost anybody whowas asked was going to come to one of the gatheringsat her spectacular house." Another person much closerto her told this writer that, politics aside, she was "oneof the most conservative people I know. She wouldhave brought the same zest to politics had she marriedRonald Reagan."

As both these comments suggest, Pamela Harrimanwas admired from both sides of the aisle. She spoke atthe 1984 Democratic convention, supported the 1988Dukakis campaign and the 1992 Gore campaign, thenthrew her support behind Bill Clinton, raising $12 mil-lion after he won his party's nomination. Her efforts ledto the Ambassadorship in Paris. Yet at her confirmationhearings she was praised to the skies by the most con-servative member of the Foreign Relations Committee,Senator Jesse Helms.

In Finest Hour #58 we published her own "take" onthe Churchill Fulton speech—as you might expect, dia-metrically different from that of another honorarymember, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense CasparWeinberger. ICS/USA Chairman, Ambassador PaulRobinson, Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to Canada,

FINEST HOUR 94 / 28

read her article, disagreed, and confessed that heremained among her greatest admirers. Earlier he hadchosen her and Caspar Weinberger as vice presidentsduring his chairmanship of the English-SpeakingUnion. "They were both superb," he said.

Shortly before Mr. Clinton arrived in office he pro-claimed his admiration of Winston Churchill (FinestHour #77), and we sent him, through Pamela Harriman,a blue jogging sweatshirt emblazoned with theChurchill 5c U.S. commemorative stamp. She was sodelighted that she delivered it herself, and her enthusi-asm was such that we made her a pink version. Shetelephoned me personally to express her thanks, withthe same husky opening line that must have thrilled athousand Washington insiders: "This is Pamela." Itwould have been, and always was, superfluous to ask,"Pamela who?"

Not many people could have journeyed so success-fully and far, from the Dorset countryside to the ParisEmbassy, with a formal education that ended at the ageof 16. How did she do it? Historian Michael Beschloss

said, "She was very graceful, and graceful in a lot ofdifferent worlds." She was at home equally in WinstonChurchill's air raid shelter during the London Blitz oron the Champs Elysees or her party's convention floor.

During her term as Ambassador, Paris andWashington argued over alleged U.S. espionage, the"Europeanization" of NATO, leadership of the UnitedNations, peace initiatives in the Middle East, and powerrivalries in Africa. Pamela Harriman represented theinterests of her country with consummate skill, retain-ing the respect of her hosts despite those many tests. AsPresident Chirac remarked, "To say that she was anexceptional representative of the United States inFrance does not do justice to her achievement: she lentto our longstanding alliance the radiant strength of herpersonality. She was elegance itself. She was grace. Shewas a peerless diplomat." The French don't say suchthings often.

Sir Winston must be smiling with satisfaction at hercareer, because above all she succeeded in the thing heheld most important: she served her country. $

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvLast Words: Edmund Murray

Sir Winston's bodyguardfrom 1950 to 1965,

\ Edmund Murray was' memorialized last issue.

This is his last letter to theeditor, 26 January 1996

ABOVE: Eddie Murray withEisenhower and the Boss,Washington, 1959. BELOW: WithRobert Hardy at the launch of theWar Papers, London, 1993.

H:ere we are again,entered into a

brand new year, andmore memories arebeing stored in ourheads. One wonderswhatever for? I feel surethat after many years,each new one displacesa memory already there,like the "replace" com-mand on the computer!

During the early partof 1995 I spent many hours recording my life story ontape at the Imperial War Museum, London. It came outduring one of my interviews that my Uncle Joe, a veter-an of World War I, had been there a couple years previ-ously doing even more tapes than I, covering mainlyhis experiences during the Gallipoli campaign. Justbefore he died a couple of years ago, I asked him if he

thought that Churchill was responsible for the Gallipolicatastrophe. He said very firmly, "No, certainly not—the Navy let him down! The idea was brilliant."Incidentally, Uncle Joe had been very left wing, evenCommie, during his life and was union organiser of theLondon busmen for many years. He assisted NewZealand General Freyberg with the Dardanelles part ofhis memoirs.

One of my nicer assignments lately was to appear ata Catholic children's school near Bath, where I did notgive a speech but arranged for the children (ages 10-12)to prepare questions. I was bombarded with about 100intelligent queries about Sir Winston, and two hoursjust flew past. After tea I was presented with some fiftythank-yous, hastily scribbled on pieces of notepaper. Itwas most rewarding. [Photo p.8 last issue. -Ed.]

In September 1995 we were invited to participate atceremonies celebrating the Japanese surrender and toremember those of the Foreign Legion, French forcesand civilians, and my old Maquis organisation, whohad died in Indo-china. It was most impressive anddignified, very moving.

In recent Finest Hours I have read the tales of carsused by Churchill and the kindness of the Rootes broth-ers with their Humbers and Hillmans, but one realstory remains to be told. During one of the rare visits ofSir William Rootes to Hyde Park Gate we chatted aboutSir Winston and the trouble he had getting in and out ofthe car. I asked if it would not be possible to organisethe nearside rear seat so that it slid forward and turned

FINEST HOUR 94/29

outwards at the end of its move forward, to facilitate SirWinston's entry and exit. Sir William thanked me formy concern and asked his brother Reginald, the engi-neer of the two, to see what could be done. Days after-wards HLM963, Sir Winston's Humber Pullman, wasdeclared non-utilisable and Joe Bullock, Sir Winston'schauffeur, was issued with a replacement. When itappeared, Sir William came with it to demonstrate thenew moving seat. Sir Winston was delighted andwould use no other vehicle...except when I drove himround the Chartwell grounds and Bardogs Farm in theHillman estate wagon. Sir William became Lord Rootes;Sergeant Murray remained Sergeant Murray, and oftenwondered if the seat design was ever patented.

Cheerio, God Bless, and we hope that 1996 willprove to be a wonderful year for you both. $5

Last Words: H. Ashley RedburnUpon receiving the Churchill Society USA's BlenheimAward, Sherborne, England, 28 September 1996

Ifeel like the noble peer who dreamed he was makinga speech in the House of Lords, and woke up to find

that he was.May I express my deep thanks to Richard

Langworth and the Directors of ICS United States forthe signal honour they have done in bestowing on methe Blenheim Award, which is itself a splendid object. Ifeel as if I have been given an Oscar, with the differencethat those who receive Oscars believe they deservethem, whereas I know I do not in this case, especiallywhen I read the list of previous and worthy recipients.

I understand the Award is for my contributions toFinest Hour and for my Bibliography of WorksConcerning Sir Winston Churchill. I became a Friend ofICS through the late Dal Newfield, its President andEditor from 1970 through 1975, and that membershiphas brought a richness to my life in my retirement.

When Dal induced me to compose the BibliographyI little realised what an undertaking it would turn outto be. Some of you will be familiar with the originalSection A, which was published as part of ChurchillBibliographic Data some years ago and remains in print,I understand, until publication of my revised work.That section has now expanded to 620 titles, includingmulti-volume entries, and the whole work has grown tocontain nearly 7,000 items. I hope it can be publishedsoon. I am greatly indebted to a host of people whohave helped me in the undertaking, two of the mostprominent, Richard Langworth and Curt Zoller, beinghere tonight.

My family have often referred to a certain week inApril 1912 as a week of two disasters, one the sinking ofthe Titanic and the other (minor) one my birth. It seemsthat all through my life I have been associated with thiscentury of wars and disasters, both as an observer and,in a small way, helping to make history in both aspects.I remember vividly the events of the First World War,and as a small child I was familiar with the names ofthe Allied generals, admirals and politicians throughcollecting cigarette cards. The cards depicted theseimportant people, including Winston Churchill, andwere avidly collected by us boys.

Through my studies I have long been aware of theimportance of the United States, not only in the contextof 20th Century historical development but in relationto Britain in particular. Many of you will be aware ofthe current chatter and controversy concerning the"Special Relationship" between our two countries,highlighted by revisionist historians. The argumentswill continue, but I believe that whatever interpretationmay be put upon the affair, there is a special under-standing between us: We share the common culture ofWestern civilisation, in some part a common kinship,and a common language.

Every country pursues its own self-interests as apriority and the United States is no exception. Duringthe War I was posted from Europe to Burma, and had abrief stop enroute in Bombay. There I met some mem-bers of the U.S. Office of War Information (our govern-ment felt that the Americans would be more acceptablein keeping India on the side of the Allies). One of them,a charming young lady, told me with disarming frank-ness that we British were fools to allow them in Indiasince the Americans were now busy in cornering ourmarkets in that part of the world. And why not?

As individuals we all need friends; so do even themost powerful of countries. In this world both yourcountry and mine have many enemies, actual andpotential. I like to think that in my lifetime Britain hasacted as the best friend the USA has had, and continuesto have. That aside, I have through the ChurchillSocieties a special relationship of my own with so manyin the English-speaking world, and particularly withAmerica. Moreover, my schooldays' sweetheart emi-grated to the United States many years ago (but notbecause of me) and we still correspond. There is aneven more special relationship in that my son emigrat-ed to America more than twenty years ago and showsno sign of returning to England.

May I express my gratitude for the welcome youhave given me and say again what great pleasure mem-bership in the International Churchill Society hasbrought to my life, and how happy I am to receive theBlenheim Award. H

FINEST HOUR 94/30

FH 88 PORTRAIT ADDENDAIn researching portraits of Churchill I

have come up with some informationregarding the portrait of Winston at agefour. Your credits cite the original as be-longing to Peregrine Churchill. Pere-grine has told me his is not the original,which belonged to Sir Winston's valet.

The valet, previously Lord Ran-dolph's valet, was Thomas Walden, whodied of pneumonia in 1921 at age 53.WSC hand-wrote a moving letter toWalden's wife on the day of his death,recalling, "...We had been together formany years—it was more than thirtysince he first came to look after my fa-ther—and he followed me to two wars& for the last few years did everythingfor me. I was so fond of him, and I thinkhe knew that he always had me behindhim as a friend. His poor face lit up solast night when I told him how much Icared for him. I am thankful indeed tohave seen him once again...." (From aprivately owned letter.)

After Walden's death, the paintingwas in the possession of his wife, Eliza-beth, who passed it on, with otherChurchill memorabilia, to her niece. Theniece is now deceased, and her heirshave recently contacted me; they are of-fering to sell the portrait for a substan-tial price based on an auction house ap-praisal. Interested parties may contactme by phone or fax.

Incidentally, my research does notsupport the theory that the portrait is byCyron Ward or by any other knownartist of the period. Jennie Churchill hadfriends named Ward when Winston wasa small boy, and it may have been someamateur in that family that painted theportrait. I would be glad to get any fur-ther information on this point. I am alsoeager to receive information on personalaccounts related to portrai ts ofChurchill, or the whereabouts of por-traits in pr ivate collections for myresearch. JEANETTE GABRIEL

1341 STANFORD ST.,SANTA MONICA, CA 90404 USA

TEL. (310) 289-5779. FAX (310) 271-1854

"BOX ON!"(Randolph Churchill's Motto)

I wish to express my appreciation forthe commemorative from the October,1995 conference and the wonderfulphoto of my daughter Caitlin and CeliaSandys taken at the time. What a won-derful conference.

Caitlin is a student at Boston Collegeand has chosen political science as hermajor. She has been elected to the stu-dent senate and is quite eloquent—nodoubt inspired by her start at theInternational Churchill Conferences.

PATRICIA MURPHY,BOSTON, MASS., USA

MYSTERY FACESThe Edward Ward portrait of Lord

Randolph Churchill which hangs inWSC's study at Chartwell contains twodistinct faces in the wood paneling. Aphotocopy of the portrait with the facesindicated is enclosed.

Who are the men in the paneling andwhat is their significance?

PHILLIP A. BATTAGLIA,HICKORY HILLS, ILL., USA

Editor's Response: Neither John Mather,the author of the article, nor 1 can providean answer. Can any reader enlighten us?

CHURCHILL CENTERANNUAL REPORT

If you can work so hard and write soeloquently—and eloquence comes fromthe heart—I can offer a contribution.

I had the pleasure of hearing you twoyears ago at a Washington meetingwhich I attended as a teacher of twoboys from St. Albans School whose es-says were recognized. I am also influ-enced in that my father served as a divi-sion commander, 45th Infantry Division,in the Mediterranean theater side byside with British units and commandershe greatly respected. And not least, youyourself did me the personal favor ofcarrying a letter to Sir Martin Gilbert inwhich I urged him to speak to the stu-dents of St. Albans School when he nextvisited Washington. In fact he repliedthat he would be happy to do so. I failedto pursue the project, which I would liketo revive. Even now two of our veryablest seniors are writing term paperson Churchill and feel personally movedby his greatness. EDWARD P. EAGLES,

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Editor's Response: I will be pleased toreceive a copy of those term papers for possi-ble publication or abstracting here, andhope you will pursue your plans with SirMartin. Thanks very much for your verykind contribution and even kinder words.Kind words are always hard to come by.

DESPATCH BOXAnswers to Quiz on page 7

(1) imponderable—C: Incapable of beingevaluated or measured precisely; as "theimponderable results of our decisions." Latinimponderabilis (not weighable).

(2) retaliate—C: To repay in kind; as, "toretaliate with new import quotas." Latin retal-iare.

(3) cede—D: To yield or surrender; giveup. "You have ceded the ports to them." Latincedere.

(4) vitiate—A: to impair the quality, char-acter or effectiveness of; invalidate. "To vio-late neutrality may vitiate the Allied cause."

(5) acumen—B: Shrewdness; keen percep-tion; as, "his legal acumen." Latin (the sharppoint of anything).

(6) temerity—B: Recklessness; rash con-tempt for danger; foolhardiness. "We mustnot underrate the temerity of the enemy."Latin temeritas.

(7) fabricate—B: To concoct; make up afalse account; as, "the fabricated story of aplot." Latin fabrkare (to form, forge).

(8) juncture—C: Critical moment; turningpoint. "There was danger of war at this junc-ture." Latin junctura (a joining).

(9) calumny—D: Slander; false and mali-cious statement intended to damage a reputa-tion; as, "the propaganda of calumny andlies." Latin calumnia (trickery).

(10) verbiage—C: Wordiness; as, "to stripthe speech of its verbiage." Old French verbeier(to chatter).

(11) blandishment—D: Flattery, remark oraction intended to persuade or coax. "Suchblandishments have been the prelude to vio-lence." Latin blandiri (to flatter).

(12) ignoble—D: Dishonourable; unwor-thy. "It is not from any ignoble shrinking frompain we pray for peace." Latin ignobilis.

(13) compass—C: Scope; extent or reach;as, "not beyond the compass and strength ofGreat Britain." Old French corn-passer (to goround).

(14) daunt—A: To intimidate; cause to losecourage when it is needed; as, "[enemy] num-bers do not daunt us." Latin domitare (to tame).

(15) brazen—D: Shameless; unscrupulous;as, "being the brazen front of the enemy." OldEnglish braes (brass).

(16) legion—C: Originally a Roman mili-tary force of 6,000 soldiers; therefore, anylarge number; a multitude. "Those who havefaith in our sailormen are legion." Latin legere(to collect).

(17) arrears—D: Unfulfilled obligations;overdue debts. "The air programmes werefalling into arrears."

(18) deployment—B: Spreading out, as oftroops, into a more open formation; strategicarrangement; as, "the deployment of enemyships." Latin displicare (to unfold).

(19) subvention—B: Subsidy or grant ofmoney to provide assistance; as, "a state sub-vention." Latin subvenire (to come to help).

(20) resilient—A: Rebounding; springingback into shape; able to recover from trouble;as, "the resilient strength of Britain." Latinresilire.

Vocabulary Ratings20-19 correct excellent18-16 correct good15-14 correct fair Jy

FINEST HOUR 94/31

CHURCHILL ONLINEINTERNET EXCHANGES ON SIR WINSTON

The Churchill Home Page: http://www.winstonchurchill.org

THE CHURCHILL WEBSITE:Aim your web browser at the aboveInternet address and the ChurchillPage should appear. Press any of thered buttons to be led to the latestChurchill Center - Churchill Societyinformation. The "Finest Hour" buttonproduces the earliest publication of thenext issue. If you experience any diffi-culty please email John Plumpton:<[email protected]>

CHURCHILLAND LAWRENCE:HELP WANTED

From: 100344.3 7 07 ©CompuServe, com(Jeremy Wilson, author of the Authorised Biography ofT. E.Lawrence and editor of the Lawrence of Arabia Factfile)

TWO Churchill-related issues have been men-tioned recently on the T. E. Lawrence discus-sion list. One is the celebrated question of

whether Churchill offered Lawrence Allenby's job inEgypt. A new book of essays on Lawrence (by one J.Lockman) claims to throw new light on this, but Ihaven't seen it yet. My own thoughts are that ifChurchill offered Lawrence such a job he must havevery badly misjudged Lawrence's qualities, personali-ty and ambitions. I don't know enough aboutChurchill to be able to guess whether that was likely.It seems to me at least as probable that Churchillraised the matter, or mentioned it in some way, merelyas a way of expressing the level of his gratitude toLawrence, perhaps even of flattering him, in the fulland safe knowledge that Lawrence would refuse sucha posting. Have you ever given any thought to thequestion?

The other issue was Churchill's fulsome praise forLawrence in 1935-36. It has been said to me that, whilethis may have reflected real regard for Lawrence, itprobably owed at least as much to the attraction at thatmoment of a "popular" subject on which Churchill'svoice would get itself heard. Is this fair comment?

LISTSERV "WINSTON":Subscribe free to the Churchill Internet

community: send the e-mail message"SUBSCRIBE WINSTON" to:

Listserv® VM.Marist.edu —you'llreceive confirmation and may then

send and receive all messages to theChurchill Online community by e-

mailing to: [email protected]. In case of problems, [email protected]

From: [email protected] (the editor):I suspect not. Lady Soames's

accounts of Lawrence's many visits toChartwell, and how he was receivedand listened to, suggest that his

father's praise was genuine. Sir Winston was manythings, but he was not two-faced.

I am a great admirer of Lawrence and thinkChurchill's essay on him in Great Contemporaries wasone of the latter's best character sketches. In 1922 afterChurchill lost his Commons seat, Lawrence wrote ofhim: "The man's as brave as six, as good-humoured,shrewd, self-confident & considerate as a statesmancan be: & several times I've seen him chuck the states-manlike course & do the honest thing instead."(Official Biography, Vol 4, English edn. p. 895). Ofcourse WSC knew his limitations. In 1955, he told hisprivate secretary, Anthony Montague Browne,"[Lawrence] was a very remarkable character, andvery careful of that fact....He had the art of backinguneasily into the limelight." This is a lovely pair ofquotes, which gives the lie to the notion that Churhcillwas not a good judge of people, the first of whichapplies to the speaker equally, the latter not at all.Winston Churchill had no problem about plungingenthusiastically into the limelight.

HOME PAGE REDESIGNEDJohn Plumpton has been at work! The result is a

brand new Home Page (illustrated above) with manymore "buttons" (departments), including speeches andbooks. Log on and check it out! M

FINEST HOUR 94 / 32

"Give us the tools, and we will finish the joh."THE CHURCHILL CENTER AND THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY, U.S.A.

ARE DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO THE SUPPORTERS OF THE 1996 HERITAGE FUND

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BOOKS, ARTS

& CURIOSITIES

If Only Our Rulers Were ListeningRICHARD M. LANGWORTH

Churchill on Courage: Timeless Wisdomfor Persevering, by Frederick Talbott.Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas NelsonPublishers. Hardbound, 162 pages,bookshop price $12.99, CC Book Serviceprice $11. Available from the editor.Shipping add $5 for first copy, $1 foreach additional book.

THIS is an odd little book, sixinches square and packed withnothing but Churchill quotes

on the subject of courage. The editor,a professor at Vanderbilt University'sOwen Graduate School of Manage-ment, provides a two-page forewordsaying courage is important, and thenoffers about 150 Churchill speechquotes. The quotes are organized inchronological order; there is, alas, noindex.

But as you read it, Talbott's littletome grows on you. First, he has care-fully attributed all his quotes—some-thing not every Churchill quote bookdoes. Second, the citations are accu-rate—something not every...etc., etc.Third, Talbott provides the contextualdetails, informing us of the generalmessage of the speech from which thewords are drawn. Fourth, the book ishandsomely designed and printed.You would pleased to present it toyour son or daughter—perhaps youshould.

Professor Talbott is deeplyfamiliar with the canon—somethingnot every quotebook editor can claim.It is too bad that he draws his quotesonly from speeches, for there aremany courageous passages in Win-ston Churchill's books that wouldbetter fit the title than some of thoseincluded here. It is difficult, for exam-

ple, to see expressions of courage insuch remarks as "wars come verysuddenly" or "we are evidently in fora hard fight." It would be quite easyto use this formulation as an excusefor uncourageously ducking a battle,as well as engaging in it. Come tothink of it, someone recently did.

Though virtually half the quotesare from World War II, the span runsfrom 1904 to 1959. The very first isChurchill's announcement of his can-didacy as a Liberal for North-westManchester, shortly after he had"crossed the floor" from the Tories:"Consider your principles, consideryour cause." Talbott's footnote states:"Churchill urged followers to matchactions and beliefs, calling for aneconomy favoring justice and liber-ty." Given the recent behavior of ourpresentday rulers—both sides of theaisle and both sides of the pond—thisquote is a sad reminder that manywho claim to revere Churchill todayhold much less reverence forChurchill's political philosophy.

There is much to learn simplyby browsing the pages (and this is thebest way to read the book). I was sur-

prised, for example, to find that "thenose of the bulldog has been slantedbackwards so that he can breathewithout letting go" was said first in a1914 speech on naval strategy, not toJoachim von Ribbentrop in 1937.

It is pleasing that Talbottunerringly fastens onto all the greatcourageous perorations of the waryears, especially that unsurpassableyear, 1940. And he is no slave to hisart director: when he has a good,meaty quote to fit on a page hereduces the type size, not the quote.

THE book, says its jacket, is"sure to inspire and enlight-en." It will inspire, but will it

enlighten? It reminds us that politicswas once a more honorable profes-sion than it is today; that in WinstonChurchill's day politicians generallywrote their own speeches, and princi-ple generally governed how theyspoke and voted. Their pronounce-ments were never measured against apoll or focus group, or vetted bysome sleazy mouthpiece, or variedaccording to how much moneythey'd just been handed.

Quoted here, Churchill said in1941: "We are spirits, not animals,and something is going on in spaceand time and beyond space and time,which, whether we like it or not,spells duty." And in 1950 he added:"At this moment everyone ought toconsider very carefully what is hisduty towards his country, towardsthe causes he believes in, towards hishome and family, and to his own per-sonal rights and responsibilities."

Duty, Honor, Country. If onlyour rulers were listening.

FINEST HOUR 94/34

The Ultimate Audio LibraryThe Story of the Malakand Field Force,The River War, London to Ladysmith viaPretoria, My African Journey, The WorldCrisis, My Early Life, Marlborough,Great Contemporaries, The Second WorldWar, History of the English-SpeakingPeoples, The American Civil War, Heroesof History, by Winston S. Churchill.Audio cassettes by Books on Tape, New-port Beach, California. Rentals $9.95-19.50, purchase prices $30 to $112 pervolume (most around $70). Available forpurchase from Churchill Stores, or forrent from Books On Tape, telephone(800) 626-3333.

BACK in Finest Hour 91 wemistakenly said that "theAudio Books industry has

recently discovered WinstonChurchill." This may be true inBritain, but Books on Tape has beenpublishing Churchill talking bookssince the mid-1970s and todayoffers the widest assortment of all—-plus a very modestly priced rentalscheme. There's nothing like theirselection anywhere, and the tapesare uniformly of the highest quality.The company has consistently sup-ported The Churchill Center andSociety with attendance at confer-ences, gifts and contributions. Theirtapes are now offered at modestdiscount by Churchill Stores.

I used to think audio bookswere only for people with bad eye-sight. Then I acquired B-O-T's ren-dering of The River War by DavidCase, and bunged the first tape intomy car's cassette player during along trip. Quickly hooked, I wassoon looking around for excuses todrive somewhere to finish the set!

Tapes allow you to enjoyChurchill on land and sea and inthe air: during long drives,monotonous downwind sails andboring airline flights. They are per-fect antidotes to muzak, dumbHollywood productions, andpatronizing thank-yous from theairline you wish you weren't flyingwith. (You may not always have a

choice of air travel, but you are stillmaster of your fate, and of your ears.)

Books On Tape began in the1970s with The Second World Warand have now worked up to tentitles plus two spin-off excerptsfrom the English-Speaking Peoples:The American Civil War (which takesmuch less time than Ken Burns totell you what that conflict was allabout) and Heroes of History (a kindof Great Contemporaries of the past).These last two cost only $30 or so,take five/six hours to play and areideal for moderate drives or flights.Other good single volumes are thewonderful Boer War adventurestory London to Ladysmith (10.5hours), the delightful My Early Life(13.5 hours), the incisive GreatContemporaries (12 hours) and theexotic My African Journey (5 hours).The Second World War and EnglishSpeaking Peoples are full-scaleunabridged audio books (the Britishversion in FH 91 is an abridge-ment), and these require far moretime: The Gathering Storm alonetakes 25 hours, and is worth it—thisis one of Churchill's most rivetingsingle volumes.

Incidentally, this is only the tipof the B-O-T iceberg. Their 400-pagecatalogue offers nearly 4,000 titlesincluding Sir Martin Gilbert's out-

standing biography, Churchill: ALife, John Keegan's excellent Chur-chill's Generals and A. L. Rowse'spanoramic The Churchills.

It bears mentioning that threeof the B-O-T recordings areabridgements: The River War (it usesthe 1902 text), Marlborough (1965edition edited by H. S. Commager)and The World Crisis (1931 one-vol-ume edition). The abridged textsare fine listening, however, andhardly unsubstantial: The WorldCrisis runs over 40 hours. In partic-ular, I strongly recommend TheRiver War. Narrator Case's dictionand inflections are faultless as thelistener is taken back to the perilouscharge at Omdurman, or toKitchener's side when youngWinston rides up to report aDervish Army as vast as the eye cansee, approaching at top speedthrough a cloud of dust.

Several important Churchillworks need B-O-T's treatment. Myhope is that Thoughts and Adventureswith its wonderful reflections onlife and politics will be the next onethey offer. I can't praise too highlywhat they've already done, andurge readers who might also like tohear a Churchill book to order theirfavorite title, and tune out thatmuzak. "We know you have achoice in air travel and we thankyou for choosing Churchill ontape..." RML

Preview: ill and

Bookshop shelves are thickwith books that offerprovocative takes on the

Churchill-Roosevelt relationship.There are books that set out toprove that Churchill was a geniusand FDR a witless dilettante, andothers that present Roosevelt as thesavior of the Anglo-Americanalliance. Then there are books thatcast a jaundiced eye on the twomen's ethics and motives, someasserting that Churchill withheldknowledge of Japan's coming attack

on Pearl Harbor to ensure the endof American neutrality, otherspositing that FDR knew in advancethat Pearl Harbor would bebombed but kept a lid on the newsto spur America to war. WarrenKimball, Robert Treat Professor ofHistory at Rutgers University andan academic advisor to the Chur-chill Center, prefers to sidestepthese and other speculations, offer-ing instead something far moreinteresting: the truth.

continued overleaf...

FINEST HOUR 94 / 35

Churchill and FDR continued

Forged In War: Roosevelt, Churchill andthe Second World War, by Warren F.Kimball. New York: William Morrow &Co. Hardbound, 384 pages, illus. Book-shop price $25. CC/ICS member price$20. Available from the editor. Shippingadd $5 for first copy, $1 for each addi-tional book. Visa/MC on orders over $50or any orders from outside USA.

WARREN Kimball is editorof the seminal Roosevelt-Churchill Correspondence

and several other books on diplo-macy and foreign policy duringWorld War II. His new book com-bines the wartime actions ofChurchill and Roosevelt into acohesive narrative. It is not the onlywork to address this topic, yet itstands out from the multitude ofChurchill-Roosevelt studies becauseit is balanced, entertaining, accessi-ble to the general reader, and free ofany hidden agenda.

Though they met once in 1918,Roosevelt and Churchill had norelationship before World War II.Roosevelt had been introduced tothe then-Minister of Munitions inLondon in 1917, and was put offwhen he found that Churchilldidn't remember it. (Just as well:FDR had referred to the youngishMP as "a stinker.") Churchill for hispart had been disappointed not tobe given an interview withRoosevelt when he visited theUnited States in 1929.

Nor were the two in perfect har-mony after World War II madethem close allies. Kimball pointsout that both "made mistakes injudgment, disagreed about how towin and how the postwar worldcould (and should) look, andlooked to their own countries' inter-ests." But their partnership was asuccess "because time and again, atthe most crucial moments, they put

This preview is mainly derived fromthe History Book Club. A review willappear in a future issue of FH.

FORGED IN WAR: A ROOSEVELT-CHURCHILL SOUVENIR

Celwyn Ball, former Chairman of ICS, Canada writes: "During the summer, our youngestdaughter Alison found an exceptionally nice tin-framed picture of Churchill and Roosevelt in

an antique shop and sent it to me. It had been used to promote Stanfield's, a Nova Scotiamanufacturer of year-round sportswear and underwear. Some years ago, Robert Stanfield led

the Conservative Party in Canada and lost an election bid to be Prime Minister. We sent acopy to Stanfield's, asking if they could help us establish its provenance."

F. Thomas Stanfield, President of the firm, replied:"I do not know the origin of the picture. This is the very first time I have been aware of thiseven being done, and all the people who would have been associated with it are no longeralive. I could suggest that my grandfather, Frank Stanfield, his brother John and my father,Frank T., were very interested in British traditions. Our family originated in England. My

great uncle John was in the armed services during the Great War. My father was a member ofthe House of Commons for a short time in the late Forties and early Fifties. There is sufficientmemorabilia around our offices and factory to indicate that there was a strong British influ-

ence on the company for many years. Therefore, I do not think it surprising to find somethinglike this picture being associated with Stanfield's Ltd. However, I do not know the reason for

the picture nor do I know to whom it was distributed."This is a good portrayal of the two great leaders (though WSC looks too grumpy) and we aregrateful to those who saw fit to create it so long ago. We are thinking of reproducing it. We

would be glad to know if readers would be interested.

their wartime alliance first."Both took pride in representing

democracies, but both were cluelessabout each other's form of govern-ment. Churchill was perhaps theworse of the two: as the child of anAmerican mother he flattered him-self by thinking that he understoodthe American political system.

Kimball charts the course of thepar tnership beginning with thecrises that brought the two states-men to power—the GreatDepression in America, the inva-

sion of Poland in Britain—andshows how Churchill and Rooseveltworked together for six years topreserve Britain, defeat NaziGermany, and lay the groundworkfor the postwar world that wouldendure until the collapse of theSoviet empire.

Warren Kimball is a regularpresenter at Churchill Center eventsand always worth hear ing (anddebating!). Without having seen it,FH can easily recommend what iscertain to be a seminal work. $i

FINEST HOUR 94/36

W O O D S C O R N E RA BIBLIOPHILE'S COLUMN NAMED FOR THE LATE BIBLIOGRAPHER, FRED WOODS

Six of the eight volumes.

THE COMPLETE SPEECHESA READER writes: "I have never

seen Winston S. Churchill: The CompleteSpeeches, edited by Robert RhodesJames (8 vols, Chelsea House/Bowker1974). Can you tell me what it con-tains and how much it costs?

The Complete Speeches containsalmost everything, from Churchill'sfirst political speech at Bath on 26 July1897 through his speech (read byRandolph) thanking PresidentKennedy for Honorary American Cit-izenship on 9 April 1963. It is wellindexed and annotated, with goodintroductions. It originally sold for$250. The typical price today is $500for fine copies and about $300-350 forex-library copies (which many ofthem are). Sometimes there are bar-gains: we recently heard of a fine setfor $100, $80 less than the New BookService charged when it was new!

Not every speech is here (butmost of them are), and there are someinexplicable omissions. For example,some of the best parts of the post-Munich speech ("I have watched thisfamous Island descending the stair-case which leads to a dark gulf") areabsent. Also, be sure to inspect apotential purchase carefully—one ofmy volumes has a missing signatureof 32 pages. Bottom line: a very desir-able addition to your library. But donot confuse the 20" wide, hardbound,9,000-page original with the soft-bound abridged version, also 8vols.,which is much less comprehensive.

THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHYWe are regularly asked how to

buy, and what to pay for, the 23vol.(to date) opus by Randolph Churchilland Sir Martin Gilbert. American edi-tions are generally cheaper, except forVolume 6, which had only two print-ings and often sells for over $100/£60in fine condition (both the first editionand the reprint). The choice of Ameri-can (half-buckram bindings) vs.British (maroon sailcloth) is individu-al, but if you ever plan to obtain theCompanion Volumes you may preferthe British. UK Companions are easi-er to find—and uniform. (The Ameri-can Companion Vol 5 Part 3 is boundin British style.) Also, British bio-graphic volumes have uniform dustjackets, whereas American biograph-ies switched to a different style ofillustrated jacket for Volumes 6-7-8.Of course, if you've started on U.S.biographies, you could keep thoseand accumulate British companions.

BIOGRAPHIC VOLUMES: A set ofAmerican first editions, fine in dustjackets (including the elusive Volume6, subtitled Finest Hour 1939-1941)generally costs $400-800. Volumes 1-3and 7-8 are relatively easy to find insecondhand bookshops; Volumes 4-6are harder and may require aChurchill specialist bookseller. Firsteditions can be told by the date at thebottom of the title page; undated titlepage means a reprint. Gilbert signed500 limited editions of Vols. 6-7,which were also sold as boxed pairs.

Literary Guild editions for Vol-umes 1-3 (the latter in two parts) areshorter, squatter, thicker, printed oncheaper paper, worth under $5 each.

British firsts cost around the sameas the Americans, though perhapsless in Britain, where odd volumescan often be found for £15 or so insecondhand shops. Volumes 5 and 8have gone out of print, so these willbecome increasingly valuable on thesecondhand market.

Don't confuse uniform editionswith the so-called "Popular Editions,"which have cheaper bindings, nocolor frontispiece, unstained top pageedges and illustrated jackets. They aremirrored by the Canadian Stoddarteditions of Volumes 6-8. British uni-form editions have maroon sailclothbindings, color frontispieces, two-color title pages, and uniform dustjackets with the Churchill arms on thefront. There are also paperback edi-tions, which are not recommended;paperbacks this thick don't wear well.

American Editions.1 Vol. 4, Companions to Vol. 4, Vol.5, one of its three Companions and Vol 6. Note thechange in jacket style on Vol. 6.

COMPANION VOLUMES containall the relevant documents relating tothe main volumes. They number fif-teen to date: three each for Volumes2, 4 and 5; two each for Volumes 1and 3; and a new series called theChurchill War Papers (London: Heine-mann, New York: Norton) compris-ing, thus far, two companion volumesfor Volume 6. Another is in theworks, followed by four Companionsto Volume 7 and, it is hoped, threevolumes of "Peace Papers" corre-sponding to Volume 8.

Companions to Volume 1 are stillfairly common, Volumes 2/3 less so;Volumes 4/5 are rare. Companions toVolume 5, published in three hugeparts of about 1500 pages each, nowsell for $200-400 each, when available.(Most are being hoarded to make upcomplete sets, which specialist book-sellers offer at around $1500-3000 forall fine first editions of all 23 vols).The War Papers remains in print,although the English Edition costs£95, the American only $75, and asidefrom publisher imprints they areidentical. Our New Book Service sellsthem for $135 and $60 respectively, M

FINEST HOUR 94/37

"Low on Churchill"A Book Proposal to Benefitthe Churchill Centerby Timothy Henson

IN collaboration with the Cartoon Study Centre atthe University of Kent, I have completed a cartoonbiography of Sir Winston Churchill through the car-

toons of David Low. The general editor is LawrenceFreedman, CBE, Professor of War Studies at KingsCollege London. The Foreword is by the Rt. Hon. SirEdward Heath, Prime Minister during 1970-74 and lastsurviving member of the last Churchill Government.

My aim is to raise money through profits from thebook to support theChurchill Center andSocieties. I hope that thissynopsis of my book willhelp put me in touch with areader who is a publisher,or has publisher contacts.

No cartoonist is betterable to illustrate Churchill'sgreat achievements, as wellas his political misjudg-ments, than his contempo-rary David Low, who wasjudged by many as thegreatest political cartoonistthis century. (See FH 80).No other cartoonist featuredChurchill over such a longand momentous period. Infact, many of the cartoonsfeatured in this book coverrelatively obscure aspects ofChurchill's political life.

The book has been designed to appeal to readers ofall ages, to professional historians and Churchillophileswho wish to gain further insight or amusement fromevents in Churchill's long and eventful life. The generalpublic, many of whom do not wish to wade through800 pages of biography, will enjoy its humorous yeteducational nature. For schools and colleges, it wouldprovide valuable reference material. Apart from its his-torical interest, it will be popular with those who enjoycartoons. Over 90 percent of the cartoons have neverbeen republished since they appeared in newspapers.

The text, aside from explanatory captions, compris-es an evaluation of Low's perception of Churchill, who

was himself an avid admirer of Low cartoons; andChurchill's perception of Low. The two had a forty yearassociation; they shared both mutual hostility andrespect. Churchill's aristocratic traits were anathemas toLow, who had had an egalitarian upbringing in NewZealand and Australia. After arriving in England fromthe Antipodes, Low quickly developed a distaste forthe snobberies and inequalities of British society.Although he retained an open mind about the outcryagainst Churchill after the disastrous Dardanelles cam-paign during World War I, he waxed indignant overwhat he perceived as Churchill's let-'em-eat-cakeapproach to the working classes, his zealous supportfor the White Russians in 1919, and his aggressive atti-tude towards the coal miners during the 1926 GeneralStrike. When Churchill, during his election campaigns,promised that a Labour Government would mean

Bolshevism atWestminster, there wasrich material for Low toridicule.

On the whole,Churchill took the jibes ingood heart: "I owe him nogrudge. Tout comprendrec'est tout pardonner."Churchill had a strongaffection for cartoons andgreatly admired Low'sdraughtsmanship. In hisarticle, "Cartoons andCartoonists" (first pub-lished in The Strand in June1931, republished inThoughts and Adventures /Amid These Storms)Churchill wrote: "Low is amaster of black and white;he is the Charlie Chaplin

of caricature, and tragedy and comedy are the same tohim." The statesman even collected certain originals ofLow's cartoons, and requested the last one Low everdrew of him, in the summer of 1962.

Of course Churchill had only scorn for Low's politi-cal outlook, writing in 1931: "He is a little pre-warAustralian radical. When he was growing to years ofdiscretion, the best way of getting a laugh was to gibeat the established order of things, and especially at theBritish Empire. To jeer at its fatted soul is the delight ofthe green-eyed young Antipodean radical."

When Churchill became Prime Minister Lowoffered support, as represented by his famous cartoon,"All Behind You, Winston." But Low was never a syco-

"WINTERTON'S NIGHTMARE": Evening Standard, 21 May 1942The House of Commons was debating whether the war should be

controlled by a Chiefs of Staff Committee under Churchill orwhether it should be run by one man (Churchill). Some MPs,

including Earl Winterton, believed the latter state existed already.

FINEST HOUR 94 / 38

phant, and Churchill frequently complained to the pro-prietor of the Evening Standard, Lord Beaverbrook,about the damage Low's cartoons were doing to thegovernment's credibility, describing Low as "aBolshevik of the Trotsky variety."

Undoubtedly Low could be cruel, and his attackson Churchill after WSC's "Gestapo" speech during the1945 General Election campaign contributed toLabour's landslide victory. While crediting Churchillwith the leadership that won the war, Low remorseless-ly castigated his victim in the peace. "MicawberChurchill, waiting for something to turn up" caused anuproar amongst Evening Standard readers, who filledthe letters pages demanding Low's head. "What shallwe do with Low?" said the editor. "Send him back toNew Zealand," said a retired Admiral.

Churchill also worked for the Evening Standard dur-ing the 1930s, pro-pounding, in agreementwith Low, opposition tothe government's poli-cy of Appeasement. By1937, Churchill wassacked because of hisviews, but not Low,whose cartoons, albeitof the same opinion,were far too popular.

Churchill's hostilitytowards Low grewwhen the latter created"Colonel Blimp" as asymbol of the EnglishEstablishment. ForChurchill this fictionalcharacter was just too close to home. Many at the timefelt that Blimp was modelled on Churchill, especially inhis attitude towards India. John Charmley's biography,Churchill, The End of Glory, refers to this period inChurchill's life as "The Last Stand of Colonel Blimp."Churchill saw the 1943 film, "The Life and Death ofColonel Blimp," as a personal attack upon himself andhis leadership. He spent much time and effort, in themidst of a world war, attempting to ban what turnedout to be a rather innocent if not slightly dull film whichhad little to do with Low's Colonel Blimp anyway.

Low produced an astonishing 288 Churchill car-toons between 29 October 1919 and 17 August 1962.They were originally published in The Star, The EveningStandard, The Daily Herald, and The Guardian, and arespread out fairly evenly over the forty-three years. Mycentrefold, which could be a presentational pull-out,will be the large coloured cartoon that Low drew forIllustrated to mark Churchill's eightieth birthday in

•BTCOD REST-YOU MKRRY. CENTLEMAN, LET NOTHtWC YOU DISMAY

1954. Aside from Finest Hour 80, where it ran as acolour centerspread, it has never been republished, andhas in itself become a collector's item. This surely willincrease the commercial viability of the book.

Reproduction quality is important, so I will useLow's originals when possible. I have also haddesigned an eye-catching dustwrapper which shouldappeal to a world-wide market. As this book is beingpublished in collaboration with Kent University, whereI am researching for a PhD on the subject, Low's syndi-cators are prepared to waive copyright while assigningroyalties to the Churchill Center and Societies.

There should be a high-profile launch coincidingwith an exhibition of original Low artwork, includingthe first showing of "All Winston" in forty years. Thiscartoon is considered Low's most celebrated, and it was

Churchill's favourite. There is also the possibility ofshowing Churchill'sown collection of car-toons, which havenever been on publicdisplay. The ImperialWar Museum and theNational PortraitGallery, which oftenuse the services of theCartoon StudiesCentre at Kent, haveboth shown interest inan exhibition. I amalso designing a lec-ture based on thebook, and wouldagree to purchase anyremainder copies,

which are unlikely: Low's popularity is still strong, notonly in Britain but in the USA, Australia, New Zealand,and Europe. None of Low's cartoon collections has everbeen remaindered, and all of them are today collector'sitems.

David Low's daughter, Dr. Rachael Whear, hasbeen most supportive over the project, as has SirWinston's family. Lady Soames has written, "I shalllook out for your book, as I greatly admired Low'sdepiction of my father."

Low on Churchill offers a unique opportunity toeducate, inform, and amuse all generations and is com-mercially very viable. I would like to hear from pub-lishers, or anyone with connections in the publishingfield, to help me get this project off the ground in aid ofthe Churchill Center and the International ChurchillSocieties.

-Timothy S Benson, 27 Southover,Woodside Park, London N12 7JG, UK $

FINEST HOUR 94/39

Glimpses: The P.M.and the Tommy GunBY LT. COL. JOHN P. CHUTTER, M.B.E.

1

^ "Grand Oldt -/*-"' Evergreen," a

Low cartoon fromFebruary 1954 which

Churchill liked somuch that he askedfor the original (see"Low on Churchill,"

previous spread).

IN 19411 was a Lieutenant in TheRoyal Warwickshire Regiment.My battalion was stationed at

Gorleston-on-Sea, just South ofGreat Yarmouth on the East Coastof England, avidly awaiting Hitler'spromised invasion. With the aid ofthe Sappers we had sewn minesand erected anti-tank scaffoldingalong some five miles of coast. Aninnovation to the establishment ofbattalions guarding the coast wasthe formation of a CommandoPlatoon. I was appointed Com-mander of our Commando Platoonand naturally the first thing I had todo was attend a Commando SchoolCourse at Lochailort, in the ScottishHighlands, about thirty miles Eastof Fort William.

It was a pretty tough course. TheWar Office allowed up to five per-cent casualties, fatal or otherwise.We learned how to improvise boobytraps, do demolitions and lay mines,and did a lot of field firing and tar-get practice on the ranges with allsorts of weapons. We also enjoyednumerous forced marches and pa-trols of thirty miles or more carryingfull equipment (usually somebodyelse's as well) by day and night,

Lt. Col. Chutter is a member of theSir Winston S. Churchill Society ofBritish Columbia, the ChurchillCenter's esteemed affiliate.

plus a good number of fiendishlydevised assault courses duringwhich we were shot at, blown up,gassed and nearly drowned. Twoofficers were killed.

One morning we were doingTommy Gun firing on the range atfigure targets which portrayed thefaces of Hitler, Goering, Himmler,and Co. I was officer-in-charge ofthe Firing Point. Our professionaland experienced instructors wereactually gangsters—three PublicEnemies paroled from Sing Sing,loaned to us by the U.S. govern-ment to instruct us in the variousways to fire a Tommy Gun!

The fact that they were firingthese guns with live ammunitionwhile their Military Police escortsmerely had side-arms certainlyshowed a great deal of trust.However, where could you obtainbetter experts than these threegangsters, who were all serving lifesentences for murder, or possiblyincome tax evasion? And fate hadplaced us all on the same side....

In the middle of this activity alarge black Daimler with two MPescort vehicles drew up just behindthe Firing Point. One of theDaimler's rear doors opened andout popped a young ATS Corporal(whom today we know as The LadySoames, DBE), followed by a cloudof tobacco smoke. There thenemerged the famous figure ofWinston Churchill, clad in a darksuit (no overcoat, although it wasNovember) wearing his well-known Homburg hat, and chomp-ing a large cigar. He was accompa-nied by the Commandant of theCommando School, a Lt. Col. in theRoyal Irish Fusiliers.

As OIC Firing Point, I was intro-duced to him and he said he'd heard

a lot about these Tommy Guns.Hearing that they were included inthe Commando Course at Lochailortand being in the vicinity, he'd cometo have a look himself.

The thought of having threearmed gangsters within a few yardsof the Prime Minister of Britain gaveme more than a little concern. How-ever, as he was determined he want-ed to see the firing of these weapons,there wasn't much I could do aboutit, nor did I dare reprimand him forsmoking on the Firing Point.

I had the three gangsters demon-strate their Tommy Gun capabili-ties, and I must say they were pret-ty good. The figure targets weresimply riddled with holes in thehead, chest and stomach. I couldsee that the P.M. was very im-pressed, so I said, "Would you liketo have a go, Sir?" I can't rememberhis exact reply, but I know it wasthe 1941 equivalent of "I thoughtyou'd never ask!"

One of the gangsters showedhim how to fire from the hip, andthen from the shoulder, and finally,by removing the butt, to fire it fromthe navel. We were then all enter-tained by the Prime Minister,crouched over and firing from thehip, whilst puffing away at hiscigar. In effect he certainly lookedthe part of a Chicago "Hit man"and, give him his due, after a cou-ple of bursts he was right on target.

He appeared delighted with hisshooting, and grinned like a school-boy with a new toy. He thankedthe gangsters for their demonstra-tion and tuition, and thanked mefor the chance to fire the gun. Thenhe was off to his car, followed byhis daughter Mary. As she passedme she thanked me for helping herfather relax from his normal duties.In 1979, at her inauguration asPatron of the Churchill Society herein Vancouver, I reminded her ofthis incident and she assured meshe remembered it well. $•!

FINEST HOUR 94/40

Above: "Our Gang" caricatures from St. Joseph's High School, Chingleput, India, 1942 andBovey Pottery, Devon, 1943. At right is the "Victory" toby modelled by Ernest Bailey forBurgess and Leigh of Burslem, 1942. Below: Carved wood tobacco jar from Germany, 1945,where carvers had recently made Adolf Hitler images; a Royal Doulton tankard, 1943, part ofa range of tableware carrying the same portrait transfer and backstamped with a quote fromthe "Finest Hour"speech; a Victory bell, 1945, cast from metal from downed German aircraft,sold in aid of RAF charities.

D O U G L A S H A L L ' S C H U RC H I L L I AN A

Churchill Commemoratives Calendar Part 4: 1942-50

THE flood of commemorativeitems subsided slightly after1941, but only slightly. There

were fewer expensive ceramic piecesbut a wide variety of popular memo-rabilia at affordable prices. Even thebombing of the House of Commonsin 1941 was turned into a virtue inthe following year when pieces ofthe damaged stone were made intosouvenirs which were sold in aid ofthe Red Cross. Some of these items,ash trays for example, had a portraitmedallion of Churchill cast in leadfrom the demolished roof. Also in1942 Arthur Pan, a Hungarianrefugee, painted one of the finestwartime portraits of Churchill. Onethousand prints of the portrait weremade by Frost & Reed of Bristol andsold in aid of Mrs. Churchill's "Aidto Russia" fund.

In 1943 Bovey Pottery in Devonand St. Joseph's High School in Chin-gleput, India both produced carica-ture figures of Churchill based on the"Our Gang" cartoons in a popularnewspaper. The two figures have aremarkable similarity in spite of hav-ing been potted half a world apart. Inthe same year the Universal PlayingCard Company produced a pack ofplaying cards with Churchill's por-trait, a bulldog and a Union Jack onthe backs. A silver teaspoon, hall-marked in Sheffield in 1943, has arelief portrait on the handle with theinscription, "Rt Hon WinstonChurchill MP Prime Minister."

Royal Doulton brought out arange of tableware in cream earthen-ware carrying a sepia portrait ofChurchill surrounded by a garlandof oak leaves and acorns. Ernest Bai-ley designed an amusing toby jug forBurgess & Leigh; entitled "Victory,"it had a squat Churchill making a V-sign with his left hand and giving athumbs-up with his right. It was a

worthy successor to Bailey's earlier"Bulldogs" toby. Harry Richards de-signed a horse brass featuringChurchill in 1944 but was not al-lowed to manufacture it in quantityuntil the war was over and the brassno longer needed for munitions.However, at least one got away,since it is known that an examplewas presented to President Rooseveltbefore he died in April 1945.

The end of the War was markedby a flurry of commemorativepieces. The Victory Bell, cast frommetal from shot-down German air-craft, sold in large numbers in aid ofRAFA charities. Engstrom's Medallic

FINEST HOUR 94/41

Portraits of Sir Winston Churchill cat-alogues four Victory Medals, fromCanada, the USA, France andBritain. The finest is undoubtedlythat designed by A. Loewental ofLincoln, in an edition of 1000 inbronze. Silk scarves and matchboxcovers carried Churchill's portrait.The Dutch produced a tall andhandsomely decorated biscuit tinfeaturing Roosevelt, Stalin and Chi-ang Kai-shek as well as Churchill.Perhaps most evocative of all, Ger-man woodcarvers, with a greatsense of opportunity, burned theirstocks of carved wood Hitler to-bacco jars and quickly turned out a

continued overleaf

stock of carved wood Churchilltobacco jars in time for the arrivalof lots of khaki-clad "tourists"!

In 1946 Douglas Chandor createdhis excellent portrait of Churchill inRAF uniform. The picture was paint-ed at the request of President Trumanand now hangs in the NationalPortrait Gallery in Washington. Itwas widely reproduced in print formon both sides of the Atlantic. Later in1946 Jacob Epstein sculpted his con-troversial bronze bust of Churchill.The latter took a dislike to the bustwhilst Epstein was still working on itand cancelled further sittings. Epsteincompleted his work from pho-tographs and made ten castings.Seven of these remain in semi-publiclocations in the UK whilst the otherthree have crossed the Atlantic atever increasing prices—the last threeyears ago for $25,500. LeonardJarvis's superb Churchill toby datesfrom 1947. Fewer than 100 weremade and the jug is extremely rare—an example sold in the USA in 1993for $2500. In 1949 Mr. R. A. Pikeringmodelled his delightful little bronzebust which was to be much copied inmany different materials over thenext twenty-five years.

Churchill Archives Centre China Offered

Left: TheEpstein bust,1946. Onlyten were pro-duced. Sevenremain in theUK and threein the USA.

Right: TheJarvis toby,anotherrarity.Fewerthan 100were pot-ted andprices haveexceeded$2000/£1200.

Last year, delegates to the International Churchill Conference avidly acquired morethan fifty of these handsome mugs, produced by The Churchill Archives Centre,

which held over its first exhibit of Churchill Papers for our visit. The mugs are nowavailable worldwide and proceeds from sales help underwrite the Archives

Centre's day-to-day running costs. If this project is successful, others will follow.The white bone china mug is 3 1/4" tall and 3" in diameter with a gold rim line,

made in England at the Berkshire pottery. On the front is a black and white portraitof Churchill taken from a photo owned by the Centre, with a facsimile of his signa-

ture beneath. The back is inscribed as in the photograph.Prices including packing and postage: £5.70 each for UK/EC and £7.45 each for the

rest of the world (inclusive of airmail). If paying in currency other than sterlingplease send an international money order in sterling or add £10 to the total value of

your order for bank charges. No credit cards please. Order from:Ms Tamsin Pert, Churchill Archives Centre,

Churchill College, Cambridge CB3 0DS, England (Tel. 01223) 336-087

WARTIME SEPIATRANSFERS

FROM 1940 to 1945 a vast arrayof tableware was decoratedwith a simple sepia transfer of

the Prime Minister, looking left,wearing his homburg hat and smok-ing a cigar. Wartime restrictions onthe use of raw materials prohibitedthe potteries from using any moreelaborate form of decoration. Thushouseholds up and down the land,as they replaced their China—maybe as a result of a close visitfrom the Luftwaffe—found thattheir choice was limited ... athoughnot too many objected to that.

Winston Churchill's portrait wasfound on cups, saucers, mugs,plates, dishes, teapots, jugs, ashtrays,beakers and every conceivable itemof tableware. All the major potteriesused the transfer—Skerrett's,Paragon, Wellington, Lancaster's,Sutherland's, Gray's, etc.—and there

were also manyunmarked pieces.Quality variedenormously, thebetter potteriescontributed someexcellent designsmanufactured to a

high standard but there were alsosome rather shoddy specimens.

A good deal of this tablewareremains available on the secondarymarket. The better quality itemshave become very collectable withthe result that a piece like ParagonChina's bone china cup and saucerset may fetch £140 or more. Even ahumble earthenware mug in anattractive barrel-shaped design canreach £50. The 8 1/2-inch-tall ArtDeco earthenware jug illustratedhas the same shape and lining as anOvaltine advertising jug which wasissued during the 1930s—it is back-stamped "AV Reg No 805205."Various dishes and containers were

FINEST HOUR 94/42

fttM 3manufactured, many in bone china,but makers' marks are often quiteindecipherable. The jug and somedishes are rare and I have not seenmany examples on the secondarymarket.

A RARE BUSTNoticing this bust on a dealer's

stand at a recent Newark Fair I hada strong feeling of deja vu. I knew Ihad seen it before, but where? ThenI remembered. David Porter hadwritten enclosing photographs of abust in varnished plaster which hewas unable to source. He thought itdated from 1923-1927 and soughthelp from a Finest Hour reader toestablish its provenance. It wassigned on the reverse of the upperleft shoulder "J H Bird."

I had not seen the bust before andneither could I find any reference toa sculptor called J H Bird. I thoughtit might be rather later than Mr.Porter's dating—many artists andsculptors used some artistic licencein respect of Churchill's cranial cov-ering after he became follicularlychallenged. And then this oneturned up at Newark. It is in var-nished plaster, rather moreruggedly cast than Mr. Porter's ex-

ample but clearly from the samemould. The mystery is that this oneis signed on the reverse of theupper left shoulder "MLindman"—and I can find no refer-ence to him/her either! So theconundrum is compounded. Canany Finest Hour reader, anywhere inthe world, assist with the prove-nance of this Bird/Lindman bust?

WELL DRESSED—SAYIT WITH FLOWERSMore than sixty villages in

Derbyshire participate each sum-mer in the age-old custom of welldressing. It is thought that the prac-tice was originally brought toBritain by the Romans, who cere-moniously worshipped their watergods at streams, springs and wells.The early church opposed thesepagan acts and de-clared such wor-ship sacrilegious, but the custompersisted in several remoteDerbyshire villages and has contin-ued for more than a thousandyears. Over time the well dressingscame to be adopted by the parishchurches and were often dedicatedto particular saints.

Nowadays, of course, houseshave a piped water supply and thewells are no longer needed for theiroriginal purpose. Many have beenretained as decorative features but

many more have long since disap-peared. The lack of a well does notdeter any Derbyshire village fromparticipating in this charming anduniquely regional custom. Largehalls, churches, schools, public hous-es and even private garages providethe site for these demonstrations.

The floral garlands are in fact pic-tures, often several feet across, madeon large wooden boards coveredwith a half-inch thick layer of clay.The design is drawn full-size onpaper and then the outline is prickedthrough into the clay. Infilling thepicture can take weeks. Long-last-ing materials are applied first—typ-ically bark, berries, leaves, lichen, pep-percorns and seeds—and the all-important petalling to complete thedesign takes place over several franticdays with volunteers often workingthrough the night in shifts.The flowerpetals, in every colour of the rain-bow, are carefully pressed into placebeginning at the bottom of the pic-ture so that each row overlaps likethe tiles on a roof. Thus any rainwa-ter can run off without harming thedressing. In hot weather the dress-ings are sprayed regularly withwater to pre-vent the clay fromcracking and to keep the petals fresh.

In 1995, to celebrate the 50th an-niversary of VE-Day and VJ-Day,many villages took that as theirtheme. The dove of peace was incor-porated into several dressings. AtHolmesfield a large tableau depict-ed a 1945 street party and forces'charities benefited from the dona-tions of visitors to the well. The vil-lage of West Hallam, six miles NEof Derby, always has a PersonalityWell as one of its topical themes. InJuly 1995 Ruth Gregory and herteam of helpers celebrated the an-niversary by designing and makinga six foot diameter dressing depict-ing Winston Churchill giving his fa-mous V-sign against a backgroundof images of World War II. $5

FINEST HOUR 94/43

Churchill in Stamps:The Lion in Opposition

BY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH

Pages 241-246: PURSUIT OF SECURITYCatalogue numbers are Scott (#) and Stanley Gibbons (sg). Aslash mark (/) indicates a set with a common design from whichany value is usable. Cams and Minkus catalogue numbers aresometimes used, and identified by name.

Churchill commemoratives specifically relating to the postwaryears are scarce, requiring the plentiful use of Churchill-related(CR) stamps to fill out a chronological bibliography. Fortunately,CR's are plentiful, and it is not difficult to trace Churchill's life inthe five years following Victory.

241. Liberia produced a colorful set to mark the Centenary. Mostappropriate here is the souvenir sheet, which shows Churchillpainting, I believe at Madeira (#C205, sg MS 1010). This mini-sheet is also found imperforate. Gilbert & Ellice Islands #235, sg241. is similar. Churchill and Colonist II are shown on Dominica#404, sg 434. Filler stamps are Antigua #160, sg 173. The bestportrait of a horse I could find was a Nazi semi-postal, Germany#B285,sg885!

242. A page marking Churchill's role in the founding of theUnited Nations is easily handled with the Barbuda Churchill setoverprinted for the UN 30th Anniversary (Minkus 235-8, sg 233-6), the American UN stamp with Roosevelt quote (#928, sg 925),and the first five stamps of the United Nations (UN #1-5, sg 1-5).

243. Marshall (German Fed. Rep.) and Acheson (USA 1981) areaccompanied here by the Adenauer value from an Ajman set alsocontaining Churchill; and Federal Republic from the 1950s and1960s. NATO is represented by British, American and French is-sues.

244. The India-Pakistan split is denoted by India #203/5, sg305/8 and #200/1, sg 301/2 and miscellaneous stamps ofPakistan. Mountbatten, shown on a Bardsey Europe 1980 local,reminds us of Churchill's remark to him about India, and anordinary stamp of the Raj is used as filler.

245. While the Royal Wedding of 1981 was commemorated byhundreds of stamps from Britain and the Commonwealth, theRoyal Wedding of 1947 was philatelicly unnoted until its SilverAnniversary in 1947. Given the relative success of the two result-ing royal marriages, this is indeed an irony. Cook Islands #335-8,sg 433-6 produces four fine period photos of the 1947 event, andSir Martin Gilbert's Official Biography provides plenty of copy.

246. Churchill returned to office in 1951, again unremarked onpostage, though a few later Churchill commemoratives use pho-tographs from that time. Some of these are Fujiera #74, sg 74(perf and imperf), and Paraguay Minkus 1361/8 (overprinted"MUESTRA" meaning "sample").Barbuda #203, sg 206, usesartwork which might have been based on '51 photos.

(To be continued)

FINEST HOUR 94/44

241.

242.

Valediction

Out of office. Churchill resumed with fervor his chief hobby of painting,lie had painted only one picture during the war; now, with more time onhis hands, he resumed his courtship oi' the Muse, who was ever ready toentertain him. "When I get to heaven I mean to spend a considerableportion of my first million years painting." he said, "and so get to thebottom of the subject. But then I shall require a still gayer palette...

...I expectorange andvermilion will IK[he darkest,dullest coloursupon It. andbeyond themthere will he awhole range ofwonderful newcolours whichwill delight Ihecelestial" eye.'

Ills son-in-law.ChristopherSoamcs.encouragedChurchill to lakeup horse raring.The Churchillstud containedmany successfulhorses.Including thewhimsicallynamed "PolRoger," but the

t fgst s sful

VALEDICTION

CHURCHILL AND THE UNITED NATIONS

With Roosevelt, Churchill conceived the idea of a United Nations(FDR came up with the name), and held that It would work wherethe League had failed because of the participation of the UnitedStates. He failed to forsee in this the limitations of the worldbody and the effectiveness of the Security Council veto.

Barbudaoverprintedits Churchillcommemorativestamps tomark the UN ' s30th Anni-versary.

Valediction

MARSHALL PLAN AND NATO

"There can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and aspiritually great Germany," Churchill said In Zurich. U.S. Secretary ofState George C. Marshall later told Churchill that the Zurich speechinspired the Marshall Plan, which Churchill called "a turning point in thehistory of the world." The Atlantic Pact, which followed in 1949, wascalled by Churchill "one of the most important documents ever signed bylarge communities of human beings."

Secretary ofSlalc George C.Marshall,honored by aGerman stamp,and DeanAcheson, laterhis successor,who made theMarshall PlanInto a reality.

KonradAdenauer,builder of the"spiritually greatGermany"Churchill heldessential to therevival ofEurope.

The NorthAtlantic TreatyOrganization,founded 1949,the longestsurvivingmultinationalalliance in thehistory of theworld.

245.

Valediction

ROYAL WEDDING

On 7 July 1947, Churchill learned from the King's Private Secretary thatGeorge VI had "given his consent to the betrothal of Princess Elizabeth toPhilip Mountbatten." A special announcement would be made on the 9th:"till then it is a profound secret." "The young people have known eachother for some years now," the King replied in answer to Churchill'sletter of congratulation, "& it is their happiness which we hope for intheir married life."

On 20 Novemberthe Churchillswere among thevast concourseat WestminsterAbbey for theRoyal Wedding."The Ceremonyitself wasbeautiful,ClementineChurchill wroteto a friend, "andwe went to anEvening Party atBuckinghamPalace whichwas really gay &brilliant."

It was thebeginning ofChurchill's deeplove and respectfor the Princessfor whom hewould laterbecome her firstPrime Minister.

Valediction

INDEPENDENCE FOR INDIA

Churchill had fought the India Bill, providing a modest degree of self-government, in the 1930s, though he later sent Ghandi his personal goodwishes. When Attlee appointed Lord Louis Mountbatten as the lastViceroy, Churchill did not object. But Mountbatten arbitrarily moved thedate of independence from June 1948 to August 1947, and the bloodbaththat followed the abrupt departure of British troops lived up to the worstof Churchill's predictions fifteen years earlier.

The Hindus andMoslems ofIndia could notbe reconciled,and the onlysolution was tosplit the countryinto twoseparate states,India andPakistan.

Later Churchillturned away

Mountbatten ata Londonreception:"Dickie, don't." hesaid. 'What youdid in India waslike striking meacross the facewith a ridingcrop."

246.

VALLDICTICii

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1951

At the age of 77, Winston Churchill once again led his party ina general election. This time he had Labour's five-year recordof austerity and rationing to pounce upon, and the Conservativeswon a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. Tory policy,however, was not markedly different in concept from that of theSocialists; Britain continued to build a welfare state.

Giving the V-signduring theelectioncampaign of 1951*WSC roared andrailed againstClement Attlee1sLabour Party--"Our masters,as we are.iuppoed to callthem."

Another V-sign,quickly flashedas the finalreturns giveChurchill aresounding14,793 voteplurality Inhis owndistrict ofWcouford.

AMPERSAND•M •

Audio Review:"Churchill andthe CabinetWar Rooms"

On 31 March The HistoryChannel, an American cable

and satellite television network,presented a one-hour documentaryon Churchill and the Cabinet WarRooms, which is a popular publicexhibit of the Imperial WarMuseum in London. This documen-tary may reappear periodically.Videocassettes are offered for$19.95 plus shipping: call (800) 708-1776 in USA.

In contrast to the HistoryChannel's previous Churchill offer-ing (one hour on WSC's alleged let-ters offering peace to Mussolini,which he supposedly burned afterthe war), this presentation wasaccurate, and the actor playingChurchill, whose name I didn'tcatch, was quite good, avoiding theusual caricatures. Included is excel-lent footage of Churchill in WW2and the excerpts from war speecheswere not all the old chestnuts.

A couple of odd errors crept in.It was the French generals, notHitler, who said England would"have her neck wrung like a chick-en." The "Action This Day" labelwas not pasted over memos so youcouldn't read them. Churchillwould have been more likely totake brandy, not Champagne, lateat night, and he had more than one"siren suit." But on the whole thiswas well done without the exagger-

ation and melodrama that attendmany of these entertainments.

Overemphasis of the WarRooms continues, probably becausethe truth is rather prosaic. WinstonChurchill, who thoroughly dislikedthe "hole in the ground," held onlya couple dozen War Cabinet meet-ings and spent exactly three nightsthere out of the 1,562 nights of thewar according to Sir Martin Gilbert.

When you next visit Whitehall,stand on the other side of the streetin St. James's Park and look to theright of the War Rooms entrance toa doorway well above ground. Tothe right of that doorway is a set ofsix windows ending in a curvedwindow at Storey's Gate. Cementplugs flanking these windows markthe former location of metal air raidshutters. This is "Number TenAnnexe," where Churchill really ranthe Second World War (when hedid not slip back to DowningStreet). -RML

Covers by Marcus:75th Anniversaryof the Irish Treaty,30 March 1997

That Churchill is regarded bysome historians as father of the

modern Irish State may surprisethose unschooled in his career.Nevertheless, as Colonial Secretaryin the Lloyd George government, itfell largely to Churchill to negotiateIrish Home Rule and shepherd theresulting bill through the House ofCommons. Negotiations were noteasy. Sinn Fein sent as representa-tives to London Arthur Griffith andMichael Collins, committed rebelswith no record of compromise.

Churchill bargained hard, con-vincing them of his sincerity—andthe impossibility of includingUlster in the Irish Free State. At onesticky point, Collins complainedthat Britain had put a price on hishead. Churchill shot back: "At least

it was a good price." Snatchingfrom his wall the framed 1899 Boerwanted poster for the escaped warcorrespondent Churchill, he contin-ued: "Look at me: £25 dead or alive.How would you like that?" Collinssmiled for the first time.

The Irish Treaty carried the DailEireann in January 1922, and wasratified by the Commons on March30th, after an impassioned speechby Churchill. In August, MichaelCollins was ambushed by extrem-ists who believed he had compro-mised too far. His last message toLondon was: "Tell Winston wecould never have done anythingwithout him."

!$.__ —SM—ram r <ftJ...ii...l.i..ui.l..|- ».I..'..«H

Number 48 in a series of com-memorative covers marking impor-tant events in the Churchill sagawas posted in Dublin on 29 Aprilowing to the Easter Holiday on the30th, using an Irish stamp com-memorating the 1922 Treaty anddecorated with one of the earlyIrish Free State stamps. It was air-mailed automatically to all currentsubscribers on the cover list.

Commemorative covers areissued periodically and the next onewill mark the 100th anniversary ofChurchill's maiden speech at Bathon 26 July next.

Covers are free, but you mustask to be put on the mailing list andmust be a current subscriber. Sendyour request to Dave Marcus, 3048Van Buskirk Circle, Las Vegas NV89121 USA. A small supply of theIrish Treaty cover is available. Ifyou wish a copy, please enclose acheque payable to "ICS" for US$3,C$4 or £2. Your cheque will be for-warded to the appropriateChurchill Society.

Our thanks to Dave Marcus,who has been producing our cov-ers for nearly thirty years. $

FINEST HOUR 94 / 46

CURT ZOLU-R'S CHURCHI

TEST your knowledge! Most ques-tions can be answered in backissues of Finest Hour or other

Churchill Center publications, but it'snot really cricket to check. 24 questionsappear each issue, answers in the fol-lowing issue. Questions are in six cate-gories: Contemporaries (C), Literary(L), Miscellaneous (M), Personal (P),Statesmanship (S), War (W).

Note: Last issue's questions were not inthe usual order (C, L, M, P, S and WJoursets of each). This issue's questions are cho-sen to provide eight of each type over thecourse ofFH93 and FH94. Next issuereturns to the usual order.

769. Who was General Eisenhower'sDeputy Supreme Commander forSHAEF? (C)

770. Did Churchill meet Hitler atMunich's Hotel Continental in 1932? (C)

771. In which of his books did Churchilldescribe a typical day while in the ser-vice of the 4th Hussars in India ? (L)

772. In what context did Lady Churchillcomment: "I do feel that as longas [Lloyd George] is PM it would bebetter to hunt with him, than lie inthe bushes and watch him careeringalong with a jaundiced eye."? (S)

773. Why did Churchill believe theLeague of Nations failed ? (S)

774. How many Prime Ministers didJohn Colville serve as Private Secretary?(C)

775. Who commented: "You appear tobe leading a perfectly uselessexistence," and to whom was itaddressed? (P)

776. When did Churchill give his lastspeech in Parliament? (P)

777. Where did Churchill write: "Greatpeoples in the enjoyment of freeinstitutions are always groping for thetruth."? (S)

778. In what context did Churchill com-ment: "The policy which the UnionistParty ought to pursue must be a policyof imperialism, but not a one-sidedimperialism."? (S)

779. Which Commonwealth PrimeMinister tried to prevent Churchill'sappointment to the government in1939? (C)

780. How did Lady St. Helier contributeto Churchill's future ? (P)

781. To whom did Churchill say, "Weare all worms, but I do believe thatI am a glow-worm."? (P)

782. Name some of the 1930s peoplewho helped WSC obtain intelligenceinformation while out of office? (C)

783. How did Churchill's childrenaddress Grace Hamblin? (M)

784. Which American politician accom-panied Churchill to Moscow to tellStalin there would not be a SecondFront in 1942? (W)

785. Which newspaper press publishedThe British Gazette? (M)

786. In 1921 Churchill inherited theGarron Tower estate in County Antrim.What income did he receive in annualrent and revenues? (M)

787. When did Churchill comment, "Ialways avoid prophesying beforehand,because it is much better policy toprophesy after the event has alreadytaken place."? (S)

788. What was General Montgomery'sresponse when Churchill wanted toaddress the 21st Army Group on theevening of D-Day? (W)

789. Of whom did WSC say: "In defeatindomitable; in victory unbearable"? (C)

790. Who was appointed Lord Presidentof the Council in Churchill's WarCabinet in May 1940? (W)

791. Name the Cinque Ports, of whichChurchill was Lord Warden. (M)

792. What was the name of Churchill'sheadquarters at the ARGONAUT Con-ference and where was it located? (W)

Answers to questions 745-768:

(745) Mark Twain (SamuelClemens) introduced Churchill whenhe spoke at the Waldorf-Astoria on theanniversary of his escape from Pretoria.(746) Lt. Churchill visited the MilitaryAcademy at West Point with Lt. Barneson 13 November 1895 and called onCol. Mills, the acting superintendent.(747) Churchill was taken to Lenox HillHospital after having been knockeddown by a New York taxi in December1931. (748) Churchill wrote, "I pursueprofit not pleasure in the States" in aletter to Bourke Cochran dated 25November 1900. (749) WSC's plea fortime and tolerance referred to EdwardVIII's desire to marry Mrs. Simpson.

(750) Churchill wrote toBourke Cochran on 16 July 1904 that heconsidered himself "a Democrat as faras American politics are concerned."(751) Churchill was joined by T. E.Lawrence, Gertrude Bell andClementine, among others, when visit-ing the pyramids in 1921. (752) On 17June 1940, after Pe'tain sued for peace,Churchill promised to "defend ourisland and fight on" until Hitler wasdefeated. (753) The "Garden Suburb"was set up by Lloyd George; its mem-bers were to keep an eye on the variousDepartments and keep the PMinformed. (754) Arthur James Balfourwas appointed First Lord of theAdmiralty by Asquith after Churchillresigned in May 1915.

(755) The first Churchill poemwas by Canon H. D. Rawnsley, aneight-line stanza, "To WinstonChurchill, Escourt" on 15 November1899. (756) WSC wrote an introductionto The Secret Battle by A. P. Herbert.(757) Churchill wrote "The Doctor andthe Soldier" for The Bravest Deed I EverSaw, a collection of heroic tales pub-lished in 1905. (758) CountCoudenhove-Kalergi was consideredthe father of the European Unity move-ment. (759) Grosse Zeitgenossen is theGerman title of Great Contemporaries.

(760) £14.25 million was setaside to purchase the Churchillarchives. (761) Gustavus Ohlinger inter-viewed Churchill at the University ofMichigan on 9 January 1901. (762)"Send for Churchill" and the V-signwere on a pin for the 1951 general elec-tion. (763) General John J. Pershingthought Churchill was "well informedon American affairs" when he met theMinister of Munitions in 1917. (764)Contrary to the "national instinct,"WSC supported, in 1911, sending theBritish Army to fight alongside anallied army on the Continent.

(765) "Dynamo" was the codeword for the evacuation of Dunkirk,commanded by Admiral BertramRamsey. (766) The Political WarfareExecutive, directed by Robert BruceLockhart, was the highest policyauthority on all matters of propaganda.(767) The Government Code andCipher School responsible for crackingand reading enemy codes was atBletchley Park, an estate inBuckinghamshire. (768) Based on astudy by a Royal Commission headedby Lord Fisher, Churchill convertedfrom coal- to oil-fired new battle-ships. $•$

FINEST HOUR 94 / 47

IMMORTAL W O R D S

"NEVER GIVE IN"We must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp

and what is long and tough.It is generally said that the British are often better at the last...

Another lesson I think we may take,just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and

now,is that appearance is often very deceptive,

and as Kipling well says, we must"...meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same..."But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period

—I am addressing myself to the School—surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson:

Never give in, never give in,never, never, never, never,

except to convictions of honour and good sense.Never yield to force;

never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy...

You sang here a verse of a School Song;you sang that extra verse written in my honour,

which I was very complimented by and which you have repeatedtoday.

But there is one word in it I want to alter—I wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to.

It is the line: "Not less we praise in darker days."I have obtained the Head Master's permission to alter "darker" to

"sterner":Do not let us speak of darker days;

let us speak rather of sterner days.These are not dark days:

These are great days—The greatest days our country has ever lived;

and we must all thank God that we have been allowed,each of us according to our stations,

to play a part in making these days memorablein the history of our race.

Second Speech to the Boys at Harrow School, 29 October 1941

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