May 30, 2013

Finest Hour 116, Autumn 2002

Page 05

QUOTATION OF THE SEASON

“This idea or not irritating the enemy did not commend itself to me….Good, decent, civilised people, it appeared, must never themselves strike till after they nave been struck dead. There were still months ot pretended war. On the one side endless discussions about trivial points, no decisions taken, or if taken rescinded, and the rule Don’t be unkind to the enemy; you will only make him angry.’ On the other, doom preparing…. ‘
—WSC, The Gathering Storm, 1948: English edition, page 454; American & Canadian editions, pages 574-75..

DIEPPE: DAY OF REMEMBRANCE

TORONTO, AUGUST 19TH— Sixty years ago today, 4,963 Canadian soldiers were part of an Allied force of 6,086 who took part in an experimental mini-invasion of Europe to assess tactics, invasion prospects and equipment for the future Allied invasion of Europe. It also was an attempt to placate Stalin, whose forces were carrying the bulk of the fighting in Europe.

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The Dieppe raid was a disaster, with 3,626 soldiers killed, wounded or captured, including 3,369 Canadians. It is a major controversy of the war for Canadians although Churchill was not directly involved in the operation. The official position at the time was that important lessons were learned, General Montgomery stating that for every life lost at Dieppe, ten were saved at Normandy. However, Montgomery also later stated, “I believe we could have gotten the information and experience we needed without losing so many magnificent Canadian soldiers.”

Now is not the time to continue the debate on this issue, but to remember and be grateful for the sacrifices that were made.
TERENCE REARDON

HOWARDS GET YOUR GUN

LEWES, EAST SUSSEX, MAY 1ST— The six-shot pinfire revolver carried by Churchill in his escape from the Boers in 1899 was back with the family of John Howard today, purchased at auction by an anonymous relative for £32,000. John Howard was the mine manager who hid Churchill in a mineshaft before smuggling him out of South Africa on a goods train bound for Mozambique. In 1901, Churchill had returned the revolver to Mr Howard in an inscribed ebony box with a glass brandy flask and a fitted silver cup. Evidently it got away; the Howard family now has it back.

DEPT. OF UTTER NONSENSE

LONDON, JULY 13TH— After the UK airing of “The Gathering Storm,” which debuted in the United States in May, the BBC ran a silly poll: “Is the life of Churchill still relevant to people today?” We waited with bated breath for the verdict: Yes, definitely, 83.8%; Maybe, to a degree, 10.4%; No, not at all, 5.8%. People who devise such things on state-supported media are a waste of the taxpayers’ money If a poll asked, “Does it rain down—or up?” 83.8% would be sure it was down, 10.4% up, and the rest wouldn’t know. Admittedly, we’re not sure they still teach gravity in the grammar schools, any more than Churchill.

“GATHERING STORM” SEQUEL?

LONDON, MAY 15TH—According to a cutting sent to us by news editor John Frost, there will be a sequel (of sorts) to the BBC-HBO television production “The Gathering Storm” (reviewed FH 115:32). Entitled “London 1940” and financed by Middle Fork Productions and British Screen, it “will tell the story of Churchill’s transition from First Lord of the Admiralty to Prime Minister between 1939 and 1941.” All well and good, but we’re still missing the period from 1936 to 1939: Munich and the coming of war.

ICS UK FINE ART AWARDS

LONDON, JULY 2ND— A £5000 first prize in the second annual Churchill Society UK Fine Arts competition was presented to 21-year-old Emma Davis of the Bournemouth Arts Institute, at a ceremony today at the Cabinet War Rooms. The competition, open to art students at Colleges of Further Education, was generously sponsored by the Telegraph Group, BP, and Daler-Rowney. Fifty-nine initial entries were submitted.

Ms. Davis’s work is primarily based on paintings of the Dorset coastline and demonstrates a continual progression in the experimentation of techniques and processes; these progressions are energetic yet personal, a form of contemplative meditation. She sees her challenge as “to create with integrity meaningful and conceptual expressions of those landscape forces which shape our emotional and intellectual selves.”

Second prize (£2,500) was won by Timothy Wood of Solihull College; two third prizes (each of £1,000) went to Natalie Bunce of Bournemouth Arts Institute and Michael Lock of Exeter College. The award presentations were made by the Hon Celia Sandys.

BILL DEEDES REMEMBERS

BERLIN, MAY 1ST— Honorary Member Lord Deedes accompanied our Patron Lady Soames to Germany, where British army senior officers and guests held a Churchill Memorial night. The next morning, Lord Deedes wrote in the Daily Telegraph, he woke to realise “it was the first time I had slept in a military establishment in Germany since November 1945….If anybody had told me then that half a century later the British Army would be occupying in Germany the vast military establishment of which I found myself part, I could not have believed it. And had they assured me that the Germans would warmly welcome such a presence (as they do), I would have found it even more improbable.

“I thought also of that day in March 1936 when Hitler announced that he intended to reoccupy the Rhineland and sent 35,000 German troops across the boundary to do it….The world still poses its threats, but Europe is incomparably a safer place today than it was then. I wonder how far this generation is aware of it.”

OUTLIVED THE QUEEN MUM ‘E DID

REIGATE, SURREY, APRIL 25TH— Reputed to be Britain’s oldest bird at 103, this blue and yellow Macaw parrot, “Charlie,” is going strong. Born 1899, when Churchill was dodging Boer patrols in the Transvaal, Charlie lived in Croydon until 1936, when he was acquired by Percy Drabner, father-in-law of present owner Peter Oram. The following year he joined a huge menagerie at Chartwell, along with black swans, tropical fish, butterflies, dogs, cats and farm animals.

Charlie allegedly spent the war at Churchill’s side, newspaper reports state. Minus most of his body feathers, which in his dotage he has plucked out, he now lives with Mr. Oram in a garden centre here. “He barely utters a word now, and is getting a bit naughty,” Oram says. “Occasionally he utters a swear word, which tradition has it was taught to him by Sir Winston.”

THE REAL DEPRESSION

LONDON, JULY 20TH— With the market sinking, the London Stock Exchange is selling its shares in pension funds and buying government bonds. Which reminds us of what Churchill said in 1945 about the Tory MP who had switched to the Liberals: “That’s the first instance I’ve heard of a rat swimming to a sinking ship.” The hypocrisy of politicians knows no bounds. Corporate retirement plans offering no alternative but devalued company stock are the devil’s own work, but Social Security built on a non-existent fund is a “sacred trust.” Laws must be passed to guarantee better accounting among private firms by governments whose own accounting practices are worthy of an indictment. We need Churchillian leaders willing to stand on principle instead of the latest group focus-hocus-pocus.

“HOLE,” “BURROW,” “PADDOCK”

NEASDEN, LONDON, APRIL 17TH—Not only did Churchill have the Cabinet War Rooms (“The Hole”) and the Down Street Underground bunker (“The Burrow”—see FH 115:41). Now The Mirror reports another secret war bunker in the North London suburb of Neasden. Presently under a modern housing estate, this hidey-hole was codenamed “Paddock.” It was protected by a five-foot thick concrete roof and three-inch thick steel doors. Inside were sleeping quarters, offices and a broadcasting studio. The Ministry of Defence sold “Paddock” in the 1970s but the original light fittings, huge generator and ventilation system are intact.

“Paddock” was to be the last refuge of the Royal Family before they were evacuated to Canada in the event of a successful invasion, and Churchill visited during the Blitz. The Network Housing Association has spent £15,000 clearing flooded levels. Surveyor Robbin Williams said, “We understand Churchill only visited it two or three times because he found it damp.”

NEW “JENNIE” BIOGRAPHY

RICHMOND, SURREY, UK, AUGUST 4TH— Anne Sebba ([email protected]) has been commissioned to write a biography of Lady Randolph Churchill and her sisters, Clara and Leonie. Ms. Sebba is planning a North American research trip to visit anyone with Jerome material. We have put her in touch with the Jerome Family Association and genealogist Elizabeth Snell. Anyone who can assist may contact her at 9 Pembroke Villas, The Green, Richmond, Surrey 1W9 1QF, England, tel. (0208) 940-0500, fax. (0208) 948-7800.

COMMON MARKET NYET

LONDON, MAY 2ND— Ephraim Hardcastle of the Daily Mail quotes Europhile Chris Patten’s Churchill Lecture to the English Speaking Union: “I don’t want to engage in the argument about whether or not Winston Churchill would have favoured British membership of the EU.” Just as well, Hardcastle says: “Field Marshal Montgomery records that in 1962 he found WSC ‘sitting up in bed smoking his cigar, shouting for more brandy and protesting against Britain’s proposed entry into the Common Market.'”

IRAQ: WHAT WOULD CHURCHILL DO?

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11TH— From politicians to pundits, scholars to buffs, people are speculating over what Churchill would do about Iraq, on which a few observations— mindful of Patron’s prime directive: never assume we know how he would handle a modern problem.

1. The admirable John Keegan’s article in The Daily Telegraph, arguing that the Churchill experience supports a preemptive strike, was secured for use in Finest Hour. We have not run it because we do not want to convey only one side of the argument. If there is a cogent counter-argument based on Churchill’s experience, we would run both viewpoints back to back in our “English-Speaking Peoples” series.

2. Like the Bible, one can use Churchill to support various sides of a question. Some have said WSC would have attacked Hitler when he marched into the Rhineland. Not quite. He was hoping for cabinet office and publicly urged no such action. Occasionally there were times when even Churchill put politics before principle.

3. A good book on whether Churchill, given plenary power in the 1930s, could have prevented war is Churchill and Appeasement, by R.A.C. Parker ($18 from the CC Book Club).

Though Parker thinks WSC could have prevented the war, neither proposed a preemptive strike. Churchill believed that firmness by the West would stop Hitler, allowing him to be toppled from within. That theory is historically contentious, but there is not a shred of evidence that Churchill ever favored a preemptive strike against Germany.

4. The two situations are not strictly comparable. Hitler was simultaneously a far greater threat than Hussein, yet more “reasonable” in the view of appeasers. They argued that after all, Hitler was willing to let the western democracies live in peace (conveniently ignoring the implications of a Europe ruled by Nazis). Today’s fanatics seem mainly interested in killing us.

5. The Iraq debate really poses a question on which Churchill’s experience can’t help us: can Iraq answer the fanatics’ call for the tools to finish the job? If Churchill knew for certain that such an enemy had such tools, it doesn’t take a wizard to imagine what he or any responsible leader would do. But on this question hinges today’s Iraq argument. And the answer has nothing to do with Churchill, —EDITOR

OLD MEN FORGET

TORONTO, AUGUST 24TH— Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien sacked Finance Minister, Paul Martin, who had ambitions for his job. The Liberal Party constitution requires a leadership review by February and most think Martin would beat Chretien—so Chretien cleverly announced he will resign: in February 2004. Chretien hopes that by then Martin, at 65 1/2, will be too old to be elected. (And you thought Canadian politics are dull?) I wrote as follows:

To the Editor, The Globe and Mail: Jeffrey Simpson (“No, Prime Minister”) suggests that with Paul Martin reaching an age of 65 1/2 in February 2004, he may be too old to be elected the Liberal leader and prime minister. A certain British politician assumed the premiership of his country the month he became 65 1/2. He became Time magazine’s Man of the Half Century.
TERENCE REARDON

Erratum: Finest Hour 115

A line was dropped from the top of page 36 of Paul Courtenay’s review: “Earlier she reveals that he crossed the floor,” etc.

YOUSUF KARSH, R.I.P.

BOSTON, JULY 6TH (AP)—Photographer Yousuf Karsh, an honorary member of the Churchill Center and Societies, who gained international prominence with his 1941 portrait of a defiant Winston Churchill, has died at the age of 93. Karsh passed away at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Jacqui Fowler. His European agent, Roger Eldridge, said Karsh died of complications following surgery.

He was catapulted to international fame with his 1941 photograph of Churchill, taken after the PM’s 1941 “Some Chicken—Some Neck!” speech to the Canadian Parliament as the British Empire stood alone against Nazi Germany. Actually three photos were taken but the “Angry Lion,” a defiant Churchill, “appealed to the whole world,” Karsh said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1989. “It caught all the bulldog determination of the British Empire It was done without premeditation but with great admiration and respect.” (For Karsh’s recollections of the experience, and photographs of all three photos taken in Ottawa on that occasion, see “The Portrait That Changed My Life,” Finest Hour 94.) —Robert O’Neill