April 25, 2015

Finest Hour 119, Summer 2003

Page 06

QUOTATION OF THE SEASON

‘[The French] want the best of all worlds—not to fight in the war, but to remain a great power.”
—WSC to Sir William Strang, Downing Street, 6 July 1953 (see “Action Tkis Day,” 1953, page 17)

Paraphrasers

QATAR, APRIL 29TH— Addressing American troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: “You have driven a repressive regime from power, ending a threat to free people everywhere, protecting our country from a growing danger and giving the Iraqi people a chance to build a free nation.” When asked by a soldier whether he had been flooded with apologies from critics Rumsfeld replied, “There were a lot of hand wringers around weren’t there?…You know, during World War II Winston Churchill was talking about the Battle of Britain and he said, ‘Never…was so much owed, by so many, to so few.’ A humorist in Washington…sent me a note in which he said, ‘Never have so many been so wrong about so much.'”

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Now the questions are over what kind of government Iraq will get. And to paraphrase Churchill’s acerbic defense of democracy, it might turn out to be the worst system we could devise, except for all the other systems.

Gretchen Unveils Winston

NEW YORK, MAY 15TH— Few FH readers may subscribe to Elle, a magazine for young women who desire to be instructed in ways and means to excite young men into marriage. (What a commentary on today’s youth! A sweater two sizes too small was all that was needed when I was young; our girls were cunning enough to generate paroxysms of desire among boys with no instruction whatsoever, indeed in defiance of instruction from various busybodies. But I digress.) The “Elle Recommends” column of the June “Sex and Body issue” contains the following:

“Yale Law School professor Gretchen Rubin tackles one of the twentieth century’s most towering and voluminously written-about statesmen in her inventive Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill a biographical collage that offers glimpses of the great man as a brilliant wordsmith, formidable military strategist, prodigious drinker, closet crybaby, and political genius—and a fascinating distillation of, as Churchill himself famously described Russia, ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.'” (Rubin has fallen for Churchill’s pretense about his liquor consumption; and actually, WSC was a public crybaby.)

This may not be exactly what the Centre’s next generation campaign has in mind, but we need new forums, fresh audiences. Perhaps we should invite Prof. Rubin to take part in one of our academic panels. Might she bring along a posse of dewy-cheeked Elle readers, eager for instruction in the romantic arts known only to veterans of Sterner Days? —Terry McGarry

“The Ultimate Conceit”

PLACENTIA, CALIF., MARCH 15TH— Over the years our Patron, Lady Soames, has impressed upon us this rule of conduct: “Thou shah not proclaim what my father would do in modern situations.” She always asks people who presume to know what Sir Winston would do: “How do you know?”

There has been a great deal of this lately, what with the Iraq business and the sorry events leading up to it. To draw lessons from Churchill’s experience and apply them to current situations is different from proclaiming precisely what he might do in response to current situations.

The difference is a fine one, often missed. But it is crucial to observe, as Professor David Freeman said today to a chapter of the Dartmouth Alumni Association: “When someone asked Alonzo Hamby, the Truman biographer, to speculate on what Truman would have done about a certain current situation, Hamby replied that for a biographer to speculate on what his subject would do about something in the present is the ‘ultimate conceit.'”

Professor Freeman’s topic was “Churchill the Peacemaker,” illustrating what WSC had done in various situations to secure peace. “My aim was to make the talk relevant to current events, but avoid indulging in the ‘ultimate conceit.’ Although my audience spanned the political spectrum, I received a positive response. I think the trick is to explain what Churchill did in a specific situation, leaving it to individuals to decide what conclusions to draw: ‘using without abusing.'”

“Gallant and Honourable”

LONDON, MAY 11^th— Former War Minister John Profumo CBE, who in 1963 was forced to resign from the Cabinet for lying to the House of Commons over his affair with call girl Christine Keeler, may be rehabilitated. In a Commons motion, five MPs declared today that the country owed John Profumo “a huge debt of gratitude” for voting against his party in May 1940: the vote of confidence which helped propel Chamberlain out of office, and Churchill in.

They said the Tory rebels, among whom Profumo is the last surviving member, ensured “the survival of this country,” leading to victory by the Allies in 1945. Churchill’s grandson, Tory MP Nicholas Soames, has also signed the motion. There is a campaign to get the Prime Minister to reinstate the Privy Council status Mr. Profumo gave up when he resigned, a move backed by the present Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith. Since 1963 John Profumo, now 88, has devoted himself to charity work. —Paul Rowley, BBC

Vituperation is Back

NEW YORK, APRIL 29TH— William Safire, in his op-ed column in The New York Times, welcomed the rebirth of vituperation, citing an exchange between deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. “Gingrich, whose ethical decisions I castigated when he was riding high, may wish to respond to the Armitage counterattack with a cool analysis of institutional spinelessness at State,” Safire writes. “Perhaps he can use this example of invective without rancor:

‘”I remember, when I was a child,’ said Winston Churchill in the Thirties, directing his Commons oratory at J. Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government, ‘being taken to the celebrated Barnum’s Circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit which I most desired to see was the one described as The Boneless Wonder. My parents judged that the spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes,’ said Churchill, fixing a cherubic gaze at MacDonald, ‘and I have waited fifty years to see the Boneless Wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.'”

Churchill Meets Havurah

TUCSON, ARIZONA, MARCH 12TH— David Druckman spoke for an hour tonight before seventy members of Havurah, a Jewish oriented group, touching on WSC’s philosophy with a quotation from Benjamin Franklin: “The only way to secure peace is to be prepared for war.” Churchill’s supposed defects were next on the agenda: Druckman punctured the “lazy, cigar-smoking, alcoholic” charges, finally coming to the familiar cant that WSC refused to help the Jews.

“I showed pictures of Churchill’s Jewish friends, including Cassel, Laski, Baruch, Isaacs, Blum, and lastly Chaim Weizmann, who led major Jewish organization in the early 20th century to establish a Jewish State and was first president of Israel,” Druckman says. “I noted that before World War I Churchill, representing Manchester North West, fought against the Aliens Bill, which attempted to curtail Jewish immigration after a Russian pogrom. Moving to WW1 and its aftermath, I discussed how Churchill fought the Bolsheviks and, as Colonial Secretary, set the borders of Palestine, which eventually allowed 320,000 Jews to emigrate there before World War II, in spite of the 1939 White Paper discouraging such emigration.”

Most of the presentation was about World War II: Churchill’s assets and liabilities, and how he was confronted with anti-semitism; why he could not get the U.S. Air Force, which was responsible in that area, to bomb the concentration camps and rail lines. Churchill’s pro-Zionist postwar support of Israel (in spite of the death of his friend Lord Moyne at the hands of Zionist extremists) was mentioned.

“I related several personal stories, such as Churchill’s near meeting with Hitler in 1932, quoted Chaim Weizmann’s praise of Churchill, and Churchill’s own remarks to the U.S. Congress in 1952, redeclaring his support for a Jewish national home,” Mr. Druckman continues. “Lastly I asked the support of Havurah to ‘keep the memory green and the record accurate,’ to challenge the revisionists, to remember the greatest statesman of the 20th century, and to teach the young. I was asked to prepare another talk for later in the year.”

Covers Program Ends

LAS VEGAS, JUNE 1ST— One of the last links with our philatelic origins ended today as Dave Marcus, who has managed the commemorative cover program since the early 1970s, called an end to his efforts, which have produced over fifty covers bearing stamps, postmarks and cover designs marking important Churchill anniversaries. Diminished interest, modern postal practices which deface covers in the mail, and the advent of a similar programme by ICSUK are the reasons.

The old Churchill Study Unit produced its first cover in 1969 to mark the 95th anniversary of Churchill’s birth. Bearing a rubber stamp imprint and Churchill commemorative stamps, it was postmarked at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. After Dave took over cover management in 1971, design and print quality increased dramatically.

Among notable achievements over the years was a cover carried to South Africa by David Druckman and postmarked at railway stations along the escape route Churchill had followed in eluding the Boers ninety years earlier. Another cover was postmarked in Iran to mark the 90th anniversary of the Teheran Conference—a project which caused Dave to produce a supply of fail-safe covers from a domestic post office in case the Iranians refused to cooperate! The final commemorative cover, marking the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s comeback victory in the 1951 General Election, was posted from Woodford, WSC’s constituency, on 26 October 2001. Complete collections from #1 to #54 are few (not to mention numerous variants and “fail-safe” covers produced in case some exotic mailing went wrong). We predict they will be highly collectible.

Over the years the covers program has made important contributions to the revenue of the Churchill Study Unit, International Churchill Society and Churchill Centre. Dave Marcus has held his job longer than anyone else in our history. He enters well-earned retirement with the thanks of all. RML

The Nazis Invade (Again)

WASHINGTON, MAY 7TH— PBS television offered yet another rehash on the “If Britain Had Fallen” theme first expounded by Norman Longmate in his historical fiction by the same title (reviewed in Finest Hour 33 in 1982). Two Nazi books, compiled by German intelligence officer Walter Schellenberg, were the basis for this effort. The first was The Black Book, identifying for elimination 2,820 British government officials, European emigres, and the cream of the intellectual and cultural elite, including Noel Coward, E.M. Forster, and H.G. Wells. The second was Schellenberg’s Informationshefl G.B.—the blueprint for the domination of Great Britain. Outlined here were the rules for how occupying German troops should initially behave (e.g., stand politely in line when shopping), what groups are to be coopted, what others killed (by Einsatz death squads), and when to begin the deportation of Jews back to Europe.

In the telecast “Hitler’s Victory,” the Germans invade on 24 September 1940. Auxiliary units created in secret by Churchill to harass German troops are history in two weeks. During fierce fighting in Kent on October 15th, the British mount a disastrous counterattack. A massive air attack on London kills Churchill in his war rooms. The royals are evacuated to Canada. By November 1st the Nazis parade through London and install the Duke of Windsor as King; he sits irrelevantly at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. With Britain gone, Hitler strikes east in May 1941, rather than late June. The weather is better and the Soviet Union falls. America is alone, while Werner Heisenberg develops the atomic bomb and Werner Von Braun works on rockets that eventually will send a German to the moon. The interviews with surviving members of Britain’s “auxiliaries”—aging citizens organized by Churchill who volunteered to murder every invader they could get close to— interesting adjuncts to the plot.

War Rooms Extension

LONDON, APRIL 8TH—The official opening to the extension to the Cabinet War Rooms (CWR) was conducted by the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who made a remarkable speech citing Churchill as the saviour of the world. Many distinguished guests attended, including Lady Soames and members of the Churchill family. About 250 people were there, including six members of ICS/UK. After speeches by Mr. Brown and Admiral Sir Jock Slater, Chairman of the Imperial War Museum Trustees, there was a lunch and a conducted tour of the extension. This includes state-of-the-art educational facilities including video conferencing which will enable children (and others) to be given tours of the CWR from parts of the world which have these facilities. More rooms are being gradually opened up and restored to the state they were in during WW2. The museum is due to open in 2005 and items are now being collected.

Erratum, FH 118, page 24

We stated that Churchill took flying lessons in 1913, “though already 34 years old”; he was actually 39. Thanks to Terry Reardon for this correction.