Number 57 • Autumn 1987
Finest Hours: Grace Hamblin and Robert Hardy at the Reform Club Dinner, 4th September
THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETY • AUSTRALIA • CANADA • NEW ZEALAND • UK • USA
THE RT. HON. SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Published quarterly by The International Churchill Society and The Rt. Hon. Sir Winston Spencer Churchill Society of B.C.
THE INTERNATIONAL CHURCHILL SOCIETYA non-profit association of scholars, historians, philatelists, collectors andbibliophiles, the Society was founded in 1968 to promote interest in andknowledge of the life and thought of Sir Winston Churchill, and to preservehis memory. ICS is a certified charitable organisation under the laws ofCanada and the United States, is Affiliate #49 of the American PhilatelicSociety, and is a study unit of the American Topical Association. Finest Hoursubscriptions are included in a membership fee, which offer several levels ofsupport in four different currencies. Membership applications and changes ofaddress welcomed at the business office listed on page 3. Editorial cor-respondence: PO Box 385, Contoocook, NH 03229 USA. Permission to mailat non-profit rates granted by the United States Postal Service. Produced byDragonwyck Publishing Inc. Copyright © 1987. All rights reserved.
SIR WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL SOCIETYFounded in 1979, the Society works to ensure that Sir Winston's ideals andachievements are never forgotten by succeeding generations. All members ofthe B.C. Branch are automatic ICS members, while ICS membership isoptional to members of the Edmonton and Calgary Branches. Activities in-clude banquets for outstanding people connected with aspects of SirWinston's career; public speaking and debating competitions for HighSchool students, scholarships in Honours History, and other activities.
PATRONThe Lady Soames, DBE
ICS HONORARY MEMBERSThe Marquess of Bath Mary Coyne Jackman, BA, D.Litt.S.Winston S. Churchill, MP Yousuf Karsh, OCSir John Colville, CB, CVO The Duke of Marlborough, DL, ]PMartin Gilbert, MA Sir John Martin, KCMG, CB, CVOGrace Hamblin, OBE Anthony Montague Browne, CBE, DFCRobert Hardy, CBE The Lady Soames, DBEJames Calhoun Humes Hon. Caspar W. Weinberger
In Memoriam:The Baroness Clementine Spencer-Churchill of Chartwell, 1977
Randolph S. Churchill, 1968 Oscar Nemon, 1985The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1979 W. Averell Harriman, 1986Dalton Newfield, 1982 Harold Macmillian, Lord Stockton, 1986
The Lord Soames, 1987
ICS BOARD OF DIRECTORS * = ex-officioAustralia: William R. Galvin, Peter M. Jenkins*
Canada: George E. Temple, Ronald W. Downey, Celwyn P. Ball,Murray W. Milne, Mark R. Steven*, John G. Plumpton*
'New Zealand: Barry Collins United Kingdom: Colin Spencer,Geoffrey J. Wheeler, Richard G. G. Haslam-Hopwood*
United States: Derek Brownleader, Wm. C. Ives, Wallace H. Johnson,George A. Lewis, Donald R. Carmichael, Sue Hefner*, David Sampson
CHURCHILL LITERARY FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Sir John Colville, CB, CVO Hon. Bob Packwood, USSWallace H. Johnson Wendy Russell RevesRichard M. Langworth The Lady Soames, DBEThe Duke of Marlborough, DL, JP Amb. Paul H. Robinson, Jr.Anthony Montague Brown, CBE, DFC William R. Sch'ulz
FINEST HOUREditor: Richard M. Langworth (tel. 603-746-4433 days)
Post Office Box 385, Contoocook, New Hampshire 03229 USA
Senior Editor: John G. Plumpton (tel. 416-497-5349 eves)130 Collingsbrook Blvd, Agincourt, Ontario, Canada M1W 1M7
Bibliographic Editor: Ronald I. Cohen (tel. 514-397-1511 days)433 Elm Avenue, Westmount, Quebec, Canada H3Y 3H9
Cuttings Editor: John Frost (tel. 01-440-3159)8 Monks Ave, New Barnet, Herts., EN5 1D8, England
Contributors:George Richard, 7 Channel Hwy, Taroona, Tasmania, Australia 7006Stanley E. Smith, 155 Monument St., Concord, Mass. 01742 USASidney Altneu, 2851 NE 183rd St., N. Miami Beach, Fla. 33160 USA
ARTICLES
Martin Gilbert at Vancouver 6Churchill Society of B.C. Ninth Annual Dinnerby Frank ]. Smyth &. Derek Lukin Johnston
The Companion Volumes: An Appreciation gNever has one man written so many words so wellby John Kenneth Galbraith
Truths and Heresies: That Famous "Wanted" Poster . . . ioThe Last Word (from Finest Hour 32)by Dalton Newfield
The Sordid History of the "Collected Works" uThey're Back! The Question Is, Are They For You?by Richard M. Langworth
"The Dream" is Published 15Technical Details and Printing History
Churchill's Britain 1987 16Robert Hardy, Lord and Lady Airlie &. Sir Fitzroy MacleanGreet British, American and Canadian Members
Churchill Collector's Handbook insertSection 4, Part 2: All the Editions of All the Books
Opinion: Churchill and the Erosion of British Power . . 18A Subject of Considerable Debate: Part 2by Professor Raymond A. Callahan
DEPARTMENTSThoughts and Adventures/3 International Datelines/4 As othersSaw Him/14 Action This Day/23 Inside the Journals/24 Review-ing Churchill/25 Churchill in Stamps/26 Despatch Box/28Riddles-Mysteries-Enigmas/28 New Members/28 Woods Cor-ner/30 Poetry/31 Immortal Words/32
Produced by Dragonwyck Publishing Inc. © Finest Hour 1987 ^?J
D I
ICS BUSINESS OFFICESAustralia: Peter M. Jenkins
8 Regnans Av., Endeavour Hills, Vic. 3802
Canada: Celwyn P. Ball1079 Coverdale Rd RR2, Moncton, NB E1C 8J6
New Zealand: R. Barry Collins9 Millstream Place, Warkworth
United Kingdom: Geoffrey J. Wheeler88A Franklin Av, Tadley, Hants RG26 6EU
United States; Derek Brownleader1847 Stonewood Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 70816
Chairman of the Board: Wallace H. Johnson1650 Farnam St., Omaha, Neb. 68102 USA
Vice Chairman: Geoffrey J. Wheeler88A Franklin Av, Tadley, Hants RG26 6EU
Vice Chairman/Canadian Afrs: George Temple20 Burbank Dr, Willowdale, Ont. M2K 1M8
Executive Director: Richard M. LangworthPutney House, Hopkinton, N.H. 03229 USA
Telephone (603) 746-4433
CHURCHILL SOCIETY OF B.C.Mark R. Steven, President
1900-1055 W. Georgia StreetVancouver, BC, Canada V6E 4J2
ICS CHAPTERSCanada/New Brunswick: Celwyn P. Ball
1079 Coverdale Rd., RR2, Moncton NB E1C 8J6
Canada/Other Club of Toronto:Murray Milne
30 Duvegan Dr, Richard Hill, ON L4C 6K1
USA/Chicago: Amb. Paul H. Robinson Jr.135 S. LaSalle St, Chicago, IL 60603
William C. Ives8300 Sears Tower, Chicago, IL 60606
USA/Connecticut: Harvey William Greisman93 Richard PI, Fairfield, CT 06430
USA/Detroit: Dr. H. Wm. Winstanley90 N. Berkshire Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48013
USA/Nashville: Richard H. Knight, Jr.H.C.A., 1 Park Plaza, Nashville, TN 37203
USA/New England: Jon Richardson47 Old Farm Road, Bedford, NH 03102
USA/New York: Alfred Lurie450 E. 63rd St, Apt 8A, NY, NY 10021
USA/Northern Ohio: William Truax25 Easton La, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
USA/'North Texas: David A. Sampson5603 Honey Locust Trl Arlington, TX 76017
USA/San Francisco: Edwin Donaldson-ClarkePO Box 639, Menlo Park, CA 94026
SPECIAL OFFICERSBibliography: Ronald I. Cohen
433 Elm Ave, Westmount, PQ, Canada H3Y 3H9
Commemorative Covers: David Marcus221 Pewter La, Silver Spring, MD 20904
General Treasurer: George A. Lewis268 Canterbury Rd, Westfield, NJ 07790 USA
ICS Stores: Sue Ellen Truax25 Easton La, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
T H O U G H T S A N D A D V E N T U R E S
THE RT. HON. THE LORD SOAMES • 1920-1987
Phrases one thinks forgotten have a way of striding into the consciousnessat poignant moments. Hearing on 16 September what I didn't want to hear,but had been warned was almost certain, namely that Christopher Soameswas dead, I recalled a line in Great Contemporaries. Asked about the de-ceased, I paraphrased Ramsay MacDonald's remark about Arthur Balfour:"Lord Soames," I said, "saw a great deal of life from close up."
The truly great are marked by the violent way they react to being told thatwhat they are about is impossible. But Christopher Soames did not knowthe meaning of the word "can't." I am sure he was told it is hard to pleaseone's father-in-law, let alone manage his farm, especially if one starts with noknowledge of farming and a father-in-law named Winston Churchill; or thatno one could succeed as envoy to DeGaulle, as Common Market Commis-sioner, or as Governor of Rhodesia. He paid no attention and he won,though the realist in him oft confessed (as after Britain was admitted to theEEC) that a certain task was "a damned close-run thing."
Time and again, when his country needed shorter odds, it sent for LordSoames. "He flattered the members of the European Parliament (as yetselected by their Governments and not chosen by direct election) by takingthem seriously," wrote The Daily Telegraph. "His predecessors had tended toread them lectures." When his EEC term ended in 1976 he was showeredwith honors, but one could almost hear him, with the poet say, "I havepromises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."
The hardest mile of all came in 1979, when he was appointed to a six-month term as Governor of Rhodesia, to supervise elections and to smooththe way toward independence: a role no less fraught with peril than that ofMountbatten as last Viceroy of India.
I don't like what happened later in Zimbabwe. Neither, it is fair to record,did a lot of observers. But it is a modern failing to criticize statesmenfrom positions far removed, physically and mentally, from hard reality.Lord Soames arrived at a time few not present can possibly comprehend. Heprevented desperation from evolving to disaster. Always his informality andeasygoing ways, combined with an ability to speak his mind when the situa-tion warranted — and a wife of 33 years who won the affection of everyoneshe met — carried the day. In Salisbury, a month from independence, withthings looking blacker than ever, as he sipped a glass of Pol Roger — the onlyChampagne, his father-in-law had convinced him — someone asked himhow much longer the negotiations would take. "Thirty days," repliedChristopher Soames, "because, by gad, I have only 30 bottles of Pol Rogerleft!" As ever, he was as good as his word.
Addressing ICS in 1985, he called Sir Winston "the man I loved most inmy life," and said how grateful he was "to those in the Society, who workhard and put a lot into it, one way or another, keeping his memory green."Generous words from the man who had been 20 years Sir Winston's loyalfriend, including that time when the PM was ill, and impatient pygmiesbayed for him to go. Christopher, of course thought of those years not aswork but fun: "Especially for me, who had the luck to marry this pretty gal,and to have thrown in the joy of serving her father."
The object of his affection told me on 27 September, "His ashes wereplaced in Papa's grave" — one last promise Christopher meant to' keep, andone that evokes a promise in return. The next Finest Hour will celebrate LordSoames' career, and particularly his relations with Sir Winston.
Duty, honor, country, family — this was the stuff of life to ChristopherSoames. And though we his friends are disconsolate, and sad, so sadwithout him, we are glad that he lived his to the full, and that we were thereto know him on his journey.
RML
ERRATA & ADDENDAPlease note the following corrections to
the previous issue, Number 56 . . .P.3: The umbrella title of the new
Companion Volumes is The ChurchillPapers 1939-1965 (not -1945), as on p8.
P. 10: Churchill's uniform is that of aPrivy Councillor, not the Army (see alsoMr. Oliver's letter, "Despatch Box," page28). Prof. Callahan's initial is "A."
P. 15: The Vimy monument on stampsat lower left is, of course, to the gallantCanadians who made the fourth captureof Vimy Ridge in April 1917. (Unlike thethree earlier Allied captures, this onestuck.) While it is true that US colorswere first carried into battle at that at-tack, it occurs to me that these stampsbelong on a different page.
P.21: The correct spelling at the centercolumn, top is "Strathcona."
P.23: It hardly needs repeating that"Basingstoke" has no double s! —Editor
UMimman
COVER 29 HONORS LADYCHURCHILL
LONDON, 12 DECEMBER 1987 — ICS will issue
its 29th commemorative cover inmemory of Lady Churchill. The cachetcarries two portraits of the great lady, a1974 photo, and the 1940 painting byWSC, along with a moving poetictribute. Our usual explanatory stuffer isinside.
If you received the previous cover 28(Abdication of Edward VIII, December1986), you are on the list and will receivethis one automatically. If not, pleasesend a postcard to David Marcus, 221Pewter Lane, Silver Spring MD 20904.(In UK or Australia, order from yourBranch office.) You will then be on theautomatic list for future covers as long asyou are an ICS member.
PREVIOUS COVERSAVAILABLE
28. Abdication of Edward VIII 10Dec8627. Fulton Speech 40th Anniv. 27Jun8626. WW2 Victory, London 2Sep8526a. As above, Washington postmark25. Victory-Europe 40th 8May 8525a. As above, Dominica stamps/pmk.
24. Escape from Boers 85th Anniv. 198423. Battle of Bulge 40th Anniv. 26Dec84•22. D-Day 40th Anniv. 6Jun8421. WSC-CSC 75th Wedding 12Sep8320. El Alamein 40th Anniv. 4Nov82
To order write a personal chequepayable to ICS for US$3, C$4, A$4, UK£2 postpaid (includes airmail to UK-NZ-Australia). Send to ICS Stores, 134 N.Woodlawn, Lima, Ohio 45805 USA.Please do not order back-issue coversfrom national Branch offices.
Some earlier covers are available inlimited quantity; inquire please.
PAUL ROBINSONESU CHAIRMAN
CHICAGO, JULY — ICS congratulates adistinguished member, Paul HeronRobinson, Jr., formerly U.S. Am-bassador to Canada, Fellow of theSociety and Trustee of the ChurchillLiterary Foundation, who takes up anew and vital task: chairman of theEnglish-Speaking Union of the UnitedStates. Succeeding S. Dillon Ripley, theAmbassador joins a list of past chairmenwhich includes Anne L. Armstrong,Kingman Brewster, Lewis Douglas,Dwight Eisenhower and John HayWhitney.
Club and Army-Navy Club in Wash-ington, and the Chicago Club. He mar-ried the former Martha C. Bidwell in1953. The Robinsons have one daughter,Virginia Louise, and live in Lake Bluff,Illinois. Paul also serves as chairman ofthe Chicago Chapter of the Interna-tional Churchill Society.
STERLING SILVERPERFORMANCE
BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND, AUGUST — W a r m
congratulations to our longtime UKdirector Geoffrey Wheeler, andChristine Wheeler, "who has been withme all the way," on the 25th Anniver-sary of their electrical business. Begun in1962 when Geoffrey borrowed £50 tobuy a van, Wheelers now occupy a2000-square-foot area with a fulltime staffof 20. Among their clients have beenLord Pembroke, who engaged them tofloodlight Wilton Place before the wed-ding of Prince Charles and PrincessDiana; Lord Porchester, who called themin for the same job at Highclere Castlefor The Queen; and ICS Hon. MemberSir John Colville.
Ambassador Robinson (right), with William C.Ives and Arlene Druckman at Chicago Chapterluncheon, Chicago Club, 18 May.
Mr. Robinson heads the Chicagobrokerage firm of Robinson, Inc., whichis represented in five U.S. cities, Britain,Australia and New Zealand. Of Cana-dian ancestry, he was born and broughtup in Chicago — he could say, as Chur-chill once did, "I am myself an English-Speaking Union."
He has served on the executive boardof the Chicago council of the BoyScouts, is a member of the U.S.Chamber of Commerce, the Capitol Hill
Geoffrey Wheeler (right) with Vice Chairman forCanadian Affairs George Temple at the ReformClub ICS Dinner for Robert Hardy, Sept. 4th.
"When you need help, ask a busyman." I certainly needed help when, in1982, I asked Geoffrey to meet anemergency by filling a gaping void.Active in the Lions, St. John AmbulanceBrigade, the Chamber of Commerce andthe vintage film hobby, his spare-timecommitments were already vast. But fillit he did. For five years now he hasserved the Society, and the memory ofSir Winston, with loyalty and devotion.Thank-you, Geoffrey. _R M L
U.K. 1986 TREASURY REPORT(See last issue for other reports)
INCOMEBrought forward from 1985 . . £1,387.72Membership subscriptions . . . . 2,360.00Greeting Card Sales 208.59Other sales, FHs, etc 147.80AGM Income including sales .. . 340.50
£4,444.61EXPENSESTo USA for Finest Hour £1,000.00AGM Expenses 379.34ICS Stores Purchases 136.75Finest Hour UK postage 126.04Miscellaneous postage 54.96Printing/stationery 25.80Everest grave maintenance 23.00Bladon wreath 11.00Bank charges 5.00
£1,761.72CARRIED FORWARD: £2,682.72
OTHER CLUB ELECTIONSTORONTO, 19 MAY — Murray Milne waselected to succeed Pat Cassels as presi-dent of ICS/Toronto; Bernie Webber isvice-president, and John Plumpton wasreaffirmed in his current role of ProgramCoordinator. John announced a com-mitment by ICS to supply the annualawards for York University and theUniversity of Toronto Hart HouseDebates Committee for the next fiveyears. He will pursue the placing of an ar-ticle on Churchill and Canada (FH44) inthe newsletter of the Military Institute,to promote interest in ICS.
There is considerable member supportfor holding three meetings per year, andthe directors are now working on thatbasis. The winter program will includean educational discussion on the originsof the original Other Club by John.
If members have any program sugges-tions, anecdotes, memorabilia or othermaterial to share, Mr. Milne will bepleased to hear from them. His new ad-dress is 30 Dunvegan Drive, RichmondHill, Ont. L4C 6K1, telephone 886-1491.
THREE NEW ICS CHAPTERSResponding to the editor's call for localorganization in areas of dense member-ship, four members have offered to leadthree new ICS chapters. If you wouldlike to help, and meet interesting peoplewho share your Churchillian interest,please contact the following:
Connecticut: Harvey W. Greisman,93 Richard Place, Fairfield CT 06430(home telephone 255-6593) is a publicrelations specialist and a Churchill book
collector. He will contact all areamembers shortly.
New York City: Charles Wolfe, Op-penheimer Tower, 200 Liberty Street,New York NY 10281 (office telephone667-7868) held a black tie celebration inhonour of Sir Winston at Cafe Gary,East 73rd Street on 29 October, attendedby a number of members and friends.
Charles is joined by Alfred J. Lurie,450 East 63rd St, Apt 8A, NY 10021, inthis organizational effort. We hope astrong chapter for our over-100 areamembers will soon be a reality.
San Francisco: Edwin Donaldson-Clarke, PQ Box 639, Menlo Park CA94026 hopes to establish a strong chapterin the Bay Area, with its 50,000 Britishtransplants. Edwin will be contacting thelocal British-American Club with a viewtoward joint activities. Bay Area mem-bers are urged to contact him, and tohelp.
HO-HUM AND ZZZZ DEPT.DAVID IRVING ON
CHURCHILL: IAGO'S HISTORYOF OTHELLO
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA, 17 SEPTEMBER — H e r rHitler did not know his Nazis were wip-ing out six million Jews; Churchill was adrunken coward who prolonged the warto keep himself in power; WSC knewthrough Intelligence when London wasgoing to be bombed and made sure hewas out of town.
Yes folks, step right up, getcher truefacts about Churchill, offered up bynoted muckraker David Irving in Chur-chill's War (Veritas Press, Bullsbrook, W.Australia) — 600 pages based on privatediaries of Cabinet colleagues and newlyreleased British archives. "The onlygood words I can really say about Chur-chill are that he was a magnificent oratorand a wonderful writer," Irving remarks."Nearly everything else that has beensaid about him is a myth — one thatothers of his era have been perpetuatingto protect themselves." Oboy, how'll weever protect ourselves now our cover'sblown?
"CHURCHILL'S WAR"Yessir, ladeez and gents, count on
good oP Doctor Irving for the true scoop.Why did you know that Churchill set hissights on the Prime Ministership in 1932,after he'd been snubbed by Hitler? Thathe was aided by the international Jewish-South African conspiracy to sabotage anhonest understanding of Germany's
needs? That all Hitler wanted from Bri-tain after Dunkirk was Germany's col-onies back? That WSC, being of mixedblood, was a dupe of the ravenousUnited States? (I would not be surprisedto learn that the American lives shed inthe same war were offered up by thesame satanic cabal that gave us Chur-chill.)
Gawd, it's boring.Irving's technique is well-known — too
well-known. After his other hatchetjobs, the same tired stuff is simply dull.This is not scholarly revisionist historyof the type marked by R.W. Thompsonor even Francis Neilson (FH55/53/51).Littered with misprints, it makes errorsone can only describe as . . . dumb.(Klaus Fuchs is said to have defected toEast Germany with British atomicsecrets.) The only thing about it thatrings true is what Irving told anAustralian audience about Churchill: "Ihate him."
Anybody who could survive Alan-brooke and A.J.P. Taylor ought to beable to handle David Irving. Winstondoes.
"Despite a flurry of blows from alldirections . . . Churchill is too large afigure to be diminished in pinpricks,"writes La Trobe University political lec-turer Robert Manne in Melbourne Age."Perhaps this is what nettles Irving mostdeeply. What he has written is Iago'shistory of Othello."
Or, as WSC himself put it: "When theeagles are silent the parrots begin to jab-ber." -RML
IN FUTURE COMPANIONS?LONDON, i FEBRUARY — The Queen was soupset with the 1954 Royal Film Perfor-mance of "Beau Brummel," which shethought poked fun at her ancestorGeorge IV, that she called in the PM fora good hiding. Churchill's personalpapers reveal that he ordered the Boardof Trade to improve the quality of films.The 1956 film was "To Catch A Thiefstarring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.BoT permanent secretary Sir Frank Leewrote triumphantly to Churchill, "HerMajesty enjoyed the film!' The detailscame in papers made public under the30-year law.
NORTHERN OHIO CHAPTERMORELAND HILLS, OHIO, 20 JUNE — Bill a n d
Sue Truax hosted a meeting at which Dr.Jessie Hutchinson donated a BritishUnion Flag and sculptor Bill McVeybrought a spare bronze cigar from his
Martin Gilbert at VancouverThe Churchill Society of B.C. Ninth Annual Dinner
BY FRANK J. SMYTH, VICE-PRESIDENT, WSCSBC
Toastmaster Derek Lukin Johnston, MartinGilbert, Mark Steven & Frank Smyth. SWSCS9th Annual Dinner, Vancouver Club, 14 May.
M.G. examines the "talking stick" with MarkSteven, retiring Pres. SWSCS, and past pres. Nor-man Faiers, our 1986 ICS convention chairman.
Martin Gilbert addresses the audience of 180, aspeech new President Frank Smyth calls "one ofthe best our Society has ever experienced."
VANCOUVER, 14 MAY — T h e Sir W i n s t o nChurchill Society of British Columbiawas honoured tonight by Professor Mar-tin Gilbert as guest of honour at ourNinth Annual Banquet. The black tiedinner was held in the prestigious Van-couver Club, and the view of the har-bour with the North Shore mountainsbehind complimented a most magnifi-cent evening.
Martin Gilbert has spent 25 years (halfhis life) researching and writing about SirWinston. With this impressive back-ground and experience, he was emi-nently qualified to speak. His talk wasone of the best our Society has ever ex-
perienced, filled with humour and keenanalysis.
This writer and our president, MarkSteven, were privileged to spend a gooddeal of time with Professor Gilbert, andit was soon obvious to us that he com-bines the skill of an investigator with thetenacity of a bulldog. He related, for ex-ample, how he discovered the secret oflocating blind memos, stored in massivearchives, which reveal details of WSC'swartime decisions and directions whicheluded other researchers.
Martin Gilbert is a renowned writer ofJewish history and author of TheHolocaust. He is active in world councils
on Human Rights and, returning toEngland, stopped in the USA to receivean honorary doctorate in history fromColumbia, to visit Washington, and toaddress the United Nations. He writes 20letters a day to Soviet dissidents andtelephones Russia daily — a busyschedule of a multi-talented man.
Martin Gilbert's visit to Vancouverwas memorable, and we eagerly await areturn, when he can again enthrall uswith the legendary deeds and action ofthe man we revere, and to whosememory and ideals our Society isdedicated.
Further details opposite
Northern Ohio, continued
Washington, DC statue of Churchill.Bill said he modeled the stogie from agenuine one which WSC left inCleveland in 1929. It was saved by thesister of Kay Halle, a member of theSociety who was the key mover inWSC's honorary US citizenship.
Professor Al Cohoe of Ohio NorthernUniversity applied his psychology exper-tise to a fascinating analysis ofChurchill's character, refuting theoveremphasis on WSC's "Black Dog" ordepression. He contends that depressionis as normal to human personality ashappiness, and that "the achieved" havemore reason to experience it.
Al spoke of WSC being an "innerdirected" person — "he adjusted no
behavior to any situation." He held nogrudges; he was able to learn fromothers. A creative man, he looked atsituations from different perspectives. Hehad the outlook of a child, a fresh senseof appreciation for all things, and anability to enjoy the smallest of things.There was never any hint of scandal inhis lifetime. He simply did the right thing— period. -BILLTRUAX
SECOND BATTLE OF BLENHEIMWOODSTOCK, OXFORD, 10 MAY — L a d y
Soames, Lord King of Wartnaby and SirMark Wienberg hope to raise a £2million endowment for the repair andperpetual preservation of Blenheim, add-ing to £1.5 million already given thefund by the Duke of Marlborough. Abust of WSC by Clare Sheridan, given
6
by Lady Soames, will be displayed at theChurchill exhibit with the names of 80benefactors.
The upkeep of Blenheim is monumen-tal: since 1950, stonework alone has cost£1.5 million and £2 million more is need-ed; the Palace needs rewiring (£230,000)and the lake dredging (£300,000). Thepresent discreet appeal is being directedtowards those with charitable trusts oftheir own, but if you are interested, yourletter will be forwarded by the editor.
LINK WITH GROUCHOLONDON, 27 NOVEMBER 1986 — Debrett Goes
to Hollywood, by Charles Kidd, revealsthat WSC and Groucho Marx were con-nected by marriage. We are not sur-prised, but we prefer Winston's Havanasto Groucho's El Ropos. •
Churchill and Canada
Precis of Martin Gilbert's AddressBY DEREK LUKIN JOHNSTON
PROFESSOR Gilbert gave to the audience ofabout 180 a brilliant speech, ac-complishing the remarkable feat ofcovering the Great Man's long career, in-terspersed with many anecdotes andquotations, in about 45 minutes.
He began by saying that though he'dnever met Churchill, after 25 years asassistant and then chief biographer, hefelt he knew him as well as if he had beenpersonally close.
Yet the paths of their lives oncedistantly crossed. During the evacuationof children to Canada during 1940, thesecond of the ships, in which the youngboy Gilbert was a passenger, was sunkwith the loss of 77 children's lives,Gilbert, happily, not among them.Churchill then put a firm stop tooverseas evacuations. In April 1944,when the Mauretania was scheduled tosail from New York carrying only abouthalf her capacity in troops, WSCdirected that those women and childrenwho wished to return to Britain mightoccupy the vacant space. Gilbert wasamong these.
Martin Gilbert made many referencesto Churchill's long association withCanada and its people, which gave muchpleasure to his audience. During his 1901lecture tour, WSC wrote his motherfrom Winnipeg: "Behind this city there isan enormous wheatfield, 980 miles longand 230 miles wide." [Laughter.]
As a host to the 1908 London ImperialConference, WSC welcomed the Cana-dian delegates: "Canada has a greatpotential, a great future, and a greatrange of hope." From the trenches onthe Western Front he described a raid onthe German lines: "The Canadians weregrinning from ear to ear. Wonderfulfellows!"
Gilbert has known all the Churchillchildren (save Marigold, who died in1921), and said they'd all told him what awonderful atmosphere there had been intheir home. He drew on Randolphsreminiscences for entertaining stories oftheir 1929 trans-Canada trip. Fishing offVictoria, no one got a bite save Ran-dolph, who hooked three times but fail-ed to bring in any fish. "Never mindsaid WSC, "Tis better to have hookedand lost than never to have hooked atall."
During the long tragedy of theWilderness Years, when WSC was out ofoffice and unheeded, a strange incidentoccurred. In 1938, an anti-Hitler Ger-man general asked Churchill to write aletter of warning he could show hisfellow officers. The result was a near-prophesy. The war, Churchill wrote,would be "fought out like the last one, tothe bitter end; and you and your col-leagues must consider, not what mighthappen in the first few months, butwhere we should all be at the end of thethird or fourth year . . . Believe me also,the worse the air slaughter at the begin-ning, caused by you, the more inexpiablewould be the war to follow."
Gilbert said he could not summarise ina few minutes the course of WSC's warleadership, which had consumed over2000 pages of the biography. But henoted Churchill's special appreciation ofCanada's part, through her forces, finan-cial aid, and the "marvelous" flow offood and supplies across the Atlantic.
He also mentioned the disastrous (ex-cept for lessons learnt) raid on Dieppe inAugust 1942, of which WSC was not in-formed beforehand, was in Cairo when itoccurred, and received too favourable areport on his return. When he read thefull details he was aghast at the bungledplanning, the heavy loss of Canadianlives and the evasion of responsibility bysenior officers. He directed that there-after any project of such importanceshould be reviewed by him before it wasput into execution. However, Gilberthad never found any instance in whichChurchill had over-ridden the con-sidered opinion of his chiefs of staff. (Seealso Professor Callahan's article thisissue.)
Despite the 1945 Tory defeat, Chur-chill was glad Ernest Bevin was foreignsecretary. He had begun to understandthe duplicity and aggressiveness ofStalin's foreign policy, and in this he sup-ported Labour. Thus, on becomingPrime Minister again in 1951, he felt thatthe warnings he had given were by thenaccepted as a general principle.
Another Candian story concerned ahuge hydro-electric project on theHamilton River in Labrador, for whichPremier Joey Smallwood of New-foundland had sought Churchill's advice
on its financing. WSC sent Smallwoodto see the Rothschilds, with a recommen-dation for their support, which theygave. On the day of WSC's funeral,Smallwood and Edmund de Rothschildleft St. Paul's together. Smallwoodturned to Rothschild and said, "I'vemade a decision during the service: "It'sgoing to be called Churchill Falls."
Although Churchill retired from ac-tive politics in April 1955, he retained hiscapacity for prophetic vision. WhenPresident Eisenhower criticised him forhoping for some sort of ultimate agree-ment with the Soviets, Churchill wrotehim in July 1955: ". . . It is my belieftoday that so long as we do not relax ourunity or vigilance, the Soviet and theRussian people will be increasingly con-vinced that it is in their interest to livepeaceably with us . . . " — a prescientforecast," as Professor Gilbert, remarked,of what may be happening under Gor-bachev today.
In 1965, The Queen commanded thatChurchill should have a State Funeral —the first for a commoner since the Dukeof Wellington's in 1852. Before he died,Churchill had made the wistful com-ment: "I should like there to be plenty ofbands." Indeed there were — five in all.
The last decade of Churchill's life wasa sad one, with old age and infirmitycasting a harsh shadow. But he was sur-rounded by the love and warmth of hisfamily. Gilbert ended his speech withletters that two of his children wrote totheir father shortly before he died. Thefirst, from Randolph, read in part:
"My dear Papa,"Power must fly -and vanish; glory,
which is achieved by a just exercise of"power, which itself is accumulated bygenius, toil, courage and self-sacrifice —glory alone remains. Your glory is en-shrined forever on the unperishableplinth of your achievements, and cannever be destroyed or tarnished — it willgrow for centuries."
The second was from Mary, today ourPatron, herself a very remarkable lady:
"My darling Papa,"In addition to the feeling a daughter
has for a loving and generous father, Iowe you what every Englishman,woman and child does — Liberty itself.Thank-you."
Martin Gilbert received prolongedapplause and a standing ovation, withall those present feeling that they hadnever heard a more memorable eulogy toSir Winston. •
John Kenneth Galbraith
The Companion Volumes: An AppreciationNever has one man written so many words so well
As Martin Gilbert commences Volume 1of "The Churchill Papers 1939-1965" under the
auspices of ICS and the Churchill Literary Foundation,a celebrated economist and historian praises the
enduring value of the "Companion Volumes"
PUBLISHERS as all authors will tell you, regularly publish booksin deep secret, and considering the quality of much of thestuff that gets into print these days, one can only be grateful.But there are occasions when this compulsive commitmentto overclassification denies the public interesting readingmatter, as in the case of the CIA, the National SecurityAgency, and, possibly, the official communications concerningMs. Midge Costanza. The biggest loss of which I know is the 13books of Winston Churchill's papers, so far published in excep-tionally clandestine fashion. I've never encountered anyone,the publisher apart, who knows about them, although theremust be a fair number of students of modern British and Euro-pean history who have heard distantly of the books and aresorry their library cannot afford them. The production to datecosts $700 and requires around four feet of shelf space. In-
dividual volumes can be purchased, but I feel genuinely sorryfor anyone who doesn't have access to them all. Certainlyanyone of the requisite literacy who is being rewarded by thepresent rush of sympathy for the rich should get all the booksfor himself or herself.
The production, as again I prefer to call the Official Biog-raphy, is a double-track operation consisting (so far) ofseven main volumes of extracts from Churchill's public andprivate letters, speeches, and official papers and from theresponding communications and comment, all linked togetherby a highly competent and readable narrative that tells whereChurchill was at the time and of the political, personal, orliterary context. Then on the second track are up to threecompanion volumes per volume, consisting of letters to andfrom Churchill, more of his official papers, and a great many
letters and documents from the archives of contemporaries,expressing views, invariably strong and often adverse, onChurchill's personality or judgment.
These companion volumes I liked the best of all. Up to 1914,seven books in all, the editor was Randolph Churchill. Afterhis death by various self-destructive assaults in 1968, the jobwas taken over by Martin Gilbert. The senior Churchill,wherever he is, should be reflecting on his extraordinary luckin both editors.
I was hooked by these volumes before they were publishedwhen Randolph Churchill showed up in Cambridge one daywith the manuscripts on his father's early parliamentarycareer and asked me to look at that part of his connectivetissue having to do with economics. In those days, WinstonChurchill was heavily involved with tariff policy — he was adeeply committed free trader — as he was later with LloydGeorge in the pathbreaking first steps on social insurance andthe welfare state. 1 read the economics parts and all the restas well.
Some of the fascination is in the history itself. More is in thepolitical and bureaucratic conflict that swirled constantlyaround Churchill and of which he was truly a master. Hismastery of these terrible arts depended partly on a verycommonplace qualification: a truly fearsome certainty that hewas completely right. Nothing else, I've often thought, is soimportant for winning battles in Washington. The men whowanted to bomb North Vietnam were absolutely certain thatit would end the war. Those who were opposed only doubtedit. Churchill's confidence did not desert him even when hewas irretrievably wrong, as in his belief that the old guardfeudatories who fought the Bolshevists after the revolution —
Churchill's fearsome
certainty did
not desert him, even
when he was
irretrievably wrong.
Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel, et al - were on the wave of thefuture and that British India was forever. Churchill lost thesebattles, and he also lost some when he was right. He has beengreatly' blamed as chancellor of the exchequer for bringingBritain back to the gold standard in 1925 at the prewar price ofgold and the prewar parity with the dollar. British goods, coalin particular, when bought with the expensive pounds werenot competitive with those of foreign producers. So Britishprices had to come down, and one consequence was theGeneral Strike of the following year. Churchill, these papersshow, was rightly and deeply suspicious of the official,orthodox, and establishment pressure that forced this decision.He resisted it nearly to the end and regretted later that oneconomics his self-assurance was not as great as on other
John Kenneth Galbraith is the author of The Age of Uncertainty andother books. This article, appeared in his book A View From TheStands (Houghton Mifflin), and is repubhshed with permission.
This extraordinary
writing exists
because Churchill's
career antedated
the use of the telephone.
matters. Here are his thoughts, as of 1927, on the financialmind at work, functioning (so to speak) as mostly it still does inthe United States today:
. . . The financial policy of Great Britain since the war has been di-rected by the Governor of the Bank of England and distinguishedTreasury permanent officials who . . . have pursued inflexibly a strict,rigid, highly particularist line of action, entirely satisfactory whenjudged from within the sphere in which they move and for which theyare responsible, and almost entirely unsatisfactory in its reactionsupon the wider social, industrial and political spheres.
But the greater element in Churchill's power was his use oflanguage as a weapon. And that, in the end, is what makesthese books so wonderful. That so many millions of wordscame from one man in one lifetime is remarkable but not,perhaps, totally astonishing. That was because Churchill hada history-writing machine that kept on producing (and alsomaking a great deal of money), even when he was in the mostdemanding of ministerial offices. He also used assistants, evenfor his more casual articles. What was remarkable was hisability to make things vital, to implant an air of great excite-ment in what he wrote himself and in what others had draftedfor his amendment and revision. Partly this depended on hisability (and also, one presumes, on that of his staff) to find,select, and organize information so that even the most hostileopponent would be attracted by the instruction involved.Partly it depended on inventive, if often extravagant and some-times reckless, use of adjective and metaphor. Partly it de-pended on the power, resource, and flow of the language itself.Here he is on the BBC in 1935 opposing legislation to accordgreater self-government to India.
Sir Samuel Hoare has thrust upon Parliament the most bulky Billever known. If it was as luminous as it is voluminous, it wouldindeed command respect. But what is this India Home Rule Bill? I willtell you. It is a gigantic quilt of jumbled crochet work. There is notheme; there is no pattern; there is no agreement; there is no con-viction; there is no simplicity; there is no courage. It is a monstrousmonument of shame built by pygmies.
In 1953, Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature.It's hard to think of any misfortune for any politician sohonored that would be as devastating as the release of hisofficial prose. Churchill survives.
We have all of this extraordinary writing because Churchill'scareer, or much of it, antedated the political and bureaucraticuse of the telephone. Politicians and public servants in his timepersuaded one another by letter and memorandum. Chur-chill's telephone transcripts would not have been nearly sogood. Henry Kissinger is standing himself to considerablelegal costs to keep his from being published. On purely literarygrounds he is probably right. •
Truths andHeresies:That Famous"Wanted"PosterThe Last WordBY DALTON NEWFIELDIN FINEST HOUR #32
The handwritten rewardin Afrikaans
^fj^uz 2m*** &c*ip*: 1/
Translation.
The typeset translation(Twenty-live Pounds stg.) REWARD is'offered by theSub-Commission of. the fifth division, on behalf of th.3 Spsial Con.3tabl9of the said division, to anyone who brings the escaped prisioner of WCJT
The mysterious caption |
dead or alive to this office.For the Sub-Commission of the fifth division,
(Signed) LODK. da HAAS. Sac.•07E.-Tle 0r»J3»l.!!uj«H«f lit inn! t! WIKIM Christ on bis escape \m PrelJM, pnki it \ii r.
P d i , &?oatit1 to Ecj!i84 if ll« B«. Utttf Unka, ai U em U pr^trir o! if. ° 3
ONE of the most ubiquitous items in the field of Churchillianais the "£25 Reward" poster represented as being issued by theBoers after WSC's escape from Pretoria. It very possibly ap-pears in more books and periodicals than any one picture ofWSC; it is on display at Chartwell and "original" copies aresold at high prices in quite reputable shops.
There are three sections to this poster: The handwrittenreward offer, in Afrikaans, signed by "Lodk. de Haas" asSecretary for the Sub-Commission (for the Preservation ofPeace and Order in Pretoria), Fifth Division. The second sec-tion is a translation into English, and this is typeset. The thirdsection, which does not appear on the "original" copies up forsale, reads: "NOTE: The Original Reward for the arrest ofWinston Churchill on his escape from Pretoria, posted on theGovernment House of Pretoria, brought to England by theHon. Henry Masham, and is now the property of W.R.Burton." Let us discuss these in reverse order for clarity:
The "NOTE" indicates that there was, originally, but onecopy of the notice. Considering the state of the printer's art in
1899 and the fact that this is handwritten, it is highly unlikelythat it would have been reproduced by the Boers at all. Yetevery one of these posters we have seen is identical in the hand-written section.
Attached to the poster in Chartwell, dated London,December 26, 1944, is a note by Lod. D. DeHaas (his correctname) stating, "The correct English rendering is not 'on behalfof the Special Constable to anyone' but 'to the Special Con-stable who . . . " In other words, the offer was made to the policeand not to the general public." The NOTE obviously was notpart of the original document.
What then, about the Translation? My early questions were:Why was the Translation printed, while the notice was hand-written? Would it be reasonable for the Boers to affix anEnglish translation — would anyone who could not readAfrikaans, but could read English be expected to turn in anescaped Britisher?
There appears no answer to the first question. The answer tothe second is, "generally no — but." There were indeed a
10
Arrival of the escaped desperado: "I reachedDurban to find myself a popular hero," he wrote.
I was received as if I had won a great victory."
number of Americans and Europeans (particularly Germans)who fought with the Boers and against the British. But takenwith the NOTE, it appears obvious that the Translation wasadded by Masham or Burton to facilitate the display of the
poster.The presumption is that only the handwritten portion could
be original. For help in this area we appealed to C.R. Swart,former President of the Republic of South Africa. He, in turn,requested that the Director of Archives Department of Na-tional Education, Pretoria, look into the matter for him.
The Director (we regret we cannot read his signature) re-ported after a long interval to Mr. Swart that a thorough andextensive research was made, but "no such document, or evenmention of such a reward, was found in the TransvaalArchives Depot or in the holdings of the 'Staats ModelSchool' " Further, he reported, the De Volkstem, which waspublished daily in Pretoria during that time . . . makes noreference of a reward offered for Churchill's arrest."
This might tie with de Haas' statement that the reward was
offered to the police only and would tend to confirm thatthere was never more than one copy made. But what of theauthenticity of that copy?
The Director stated, "The name of L. DeHaas is not includedin the list of members of the Subcommission for the Preserva-tion of Peace and Order in Pretoria which appeared in DeVolkstem on the 6th October, 1899." According to the OfficialBiography, Vol. 1, p. 498, the reward was issued on 18December 1899, DeHaas might have been secretary at thetime. He further states, "No mention is made in the 'Rules andRegulations of the Subcommission', which was published inthe Staats Courant (18th, 22nd, and 29th November 1899)under Government Notice 571, that the sub-commission hadthe power to offer rewards." (Italics mine.)
In view of his history, Mr. Swart's comment deserves themost serious consideration. After a statement in which hedescribes the Archives staff as professional, well-informed andstudious, he states, "It seems clear that the poster was notofficial but merely the prank of some minor official. The £25reward seems ridiculous and the 'alive or dead' would be quitecontrary to the spirit and procedure of our Government at thattime. Furthermore, no minor official would have been used toissue such a notice in his own handwriting."
In summary, it would appear that DeHaas, for reasons of hisown and which we may never now know, scribbled the posterand put it up on Government House, from which it was takenby Masham, sold or given to Burton, who added the transla-tion and the note and displayed the whole. To this point, itwas a harmless prank and achieved what it set out to do: toprovide a humorous touch to the whole affair.
But it was apparently then copied without investigation,shown elsewhere, usually without the NOTE (which wouldhave destroyed its credibility), and reproduced in hundreds ofbooks and periodicals since, without question!
Unfortunately, it has also been sold as an original, with thetranslation but without the note, for very high prices. In 1974,an ICS member purchased an "original" from one of the mostreputable and respected dealers in Churchilliana for £300. Weasked this dealer to comment on our information and he re-plied " . . . I fear that I cannot offer any further information."He had, undoubtably, also been fooled.
One more question: Where is Burton's copy, the soleoriginal?
And one postscript: There is current, printed in English, aposter headed REWARD / £25 / IN STERLING. This isflagrant humbug, from top to bottom, where De Haas' nameis misspelled!
A copy of this blatant fraud was sent by the Londonauctioneer, Phillips, to the successor to The Morning Post, TheDaily Telegraph, which published it. But a typographer, EricFerguson, then pointed out that one of the typefaces em-ployed, Gill Sans Bold, was not designed by Eric Gill until1928 — some 29 years after WSC's escape. •
The editor would appreciate the comments of readers on this subject,particularly their analyses of any copies of the poster in their posses-sion. For the full account of the great escape, see London to Ladysmithvia Pretoria (Woods A4), which is available for $18 from the ICS Chur-chill Book Club.
11
The Sordid Historyof the"Collected Works"They're back again.The question isare they for you?
1
•
1
r
•
11
1
•
1
!• • • • • •
BY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
THE RECENT resurfacing of the34-volume Collected Works of Sir WinstonChurchill, offered in these pages and late-ly by Sotherans and Josephs in London,occasioned avid, acquisitive interestamong bibliophiles. But when Chur-chillbooks received a letter from a LosAngeles client, offering to barter hisprecious first editions for the Works, Iwrote to dissuade him from a step I wassure he would regret. In the sureknowledge that others share his impulse— and as the bookseller responsible forthe three-year effort which ended in theirrediscovery — I write to say that the Col-lected Works are not for everybody. Theirhistory is a fascinating but sordid tale.
"A GREAT VENTURE"In 1973 on the eve of the Churchill
Centenary, word broke of the first col-lected edition of Sir Winston's books,edited by Frederick Woods, published bythe Library of Imperial History in Lon-don, limited to an edition of "no morethan 3000 copies," and selling for aprincely £945, then about $2500.
Aesthetically, the set was magnificent:handbound in natural calfskin vellumwith the titling in 22 ct. gold, gilt-edgedwith each book in a deep green slipcasestamped with the Churchill Arms,printed on special 500-year archivalpaper with marbled endpapers. Thespecifications were titanic: five millionwords in 19,000 pages, weighing 90pounds, 4'/2 feet long.
To achieve publication, 11 publishinghouses in Great Britain, the UnitedStates and Canada agreed to releasetheir individual copyrights for 3000 setsonly, and that no other complete editionof Churchill's works would be published
until the expiration of internationalcopyright in 2019.
The Works were promoted with a set ofimpressive testimonials. Lady Churchill,who wrote the Foreword to Volume I,said the books would have given SirWinston, "enormous pleasure." Shepresented the first set to Prime MinisterEdward Heath, who called it "a greatventure which will at once mark thecentenary of his birth and preserve thememory of his life and his writing forfuture generations." Lord Avon referredto "this splendid edition." John Diefen-baker said it was "the finest tribute therecould be." Sir Robert Menzies wished it"great success," and Prime Minister Nor-man Kirk of New Zealand said that freemen everywhere would "cherish thesewonderful volumes."
REACTIONSQuite a set of recommendations. Yet
opinion among bibliophiles was lessuniformly enthusiastic, and not long incoming — notably in Finest Hour, overthe byline of editor Dalton Newfield.
In issue 29 of December 1973, underthe heading "Triumph? No, Tragedy!",Newfield said the Works were "tragicnews. Thousands of Churchillophilesand students of the Great Man's life willnever own this wonderful work, indeedfew will ever even see it: Few librarieswill find $2500 for an edition so expen-sive that they cannot give it general cir-culation. Up to now there has been nolibrary in which one could find all of SirWinston's works, and this edition bidsfair to change the situation hardly atall."
By limiting the edition to 3000,Newfield continued, the publishers
12
"reveal their hand completely." TheWorks were "obviously canted towardthe speculator, and even the claim that 'asubstantial part of the proceeds . . . willbe used to further the work of the Chur-chill Centenary Trust, Churchill CollegeCambridge and the Winston ChurchillFoundation in the United States' helpsvery little. 3000 x $2500 = $7,500,000and for that kind of money the pro-moters can (and obviously have) said 'tohell with ordinary people.' There is novalid reason why the plates could not beused on ordinary paper, in ordinary bind-ing, for an ordinary profit in additionto the deluxe binding, except that thedeluxe could not be sold for such an in-ordinate price if this were done."
Newfield ventured to hope that thepublishers might see fit to issue in-dividual volumes in ordinary bindings:"How fine it would be to have even areprint of Mr. Brodrick's Army on theshelf!" (This thin hope was not, as he ex-pected, satisfied, but we were all gainers:Dalton went on to publish himselfbeautiful facsimiles of Brodrick and FreeTrade which are still available today.)
"What pains most is that it is all so un-Churchillian," Newfield concluded."WSC was not unconscious of money —quite the contrary — but he did put outabridgements, cheap editions, etc., sothat people at all levels could enjoy hisworks. I am more than a little surprisedthat the Churchill Family gave their sup-port to this money-grubbing project andlook forward to learning what 'a substan-tial part of the proceeds' really means. Itwould be wonderful to own such a work.It would be wonderful if my librariescould own such a work and let me use it.It would be wonderful if greed were not
so rampant in this world of ours."Then as now, Finest Hour exerted an
influence somewhat greater than itsmodest press run would suggest. Thereaction was not long in coming. TheChurchill Family quickly made it knownthat they were not involved in the deci-sion to publish the Collected Works —approval had come from the ChurchillTrust, run by Fleet Street publishersand others for the benefit of the Estate.And in Finest Hour 30 Dalton New-field, gentleman that he always was,apologized to the Churchill Family. Butnot for his evaluation of the Works.
Aside, indeed, from the ChurchillFamily's non-involvement, Newfield'scriticisms were spot-on. Reaction fromICS members was uniformly in agree-ment. "It's a cynical attempt to trade onChurchill's reputation," wrote the ownerof one of the most complete WSCprivate libraries — "fake scholarship,phoney advertising." A respected Lon-don bookseller and Churchill specialistwrote, "I am keenly disappointed in thewhole set-up and wholeheartedly agreewith your comments."
Our angry editor sent copies of hisremarks, which he clearly labeled hisown despite universal member approval,to Churchill College, Frederick Woodsand the Library of Imperial History.Only the L.I.H., necessarily interested inquashing a bad press, bothered to reply.The Library argued that, after all, theedition was not meant for students orscholars, both by reason of its cost andcontent. "But ICS represents not onlythe collector but the student and thescholar," Newfield replied. ". . . and asone of our prime objectives is theperpetuation of the memory of the GreatMan, a speculator's edition tying up thecopyrights well into the next century isbeyond my comprehension."
He added that the latest EncyclopaediaBrittanica had three editions from $998to $5000, but "all who want to use thisvaluable reference will be able to buy itfor just under $500, and EB will knockanother $100 off if you trade in any oldedition. What a contrast!"
To Newfield's question of how muchof the proceeds would go to worthyChurchill institutions, the publisherssaid they "planned" 20 three-yearscholarships and six one-year fellowshipsfrom Canada, New Zealand and Aus-tralia to Churchill College. But he wasnot told if those grants would be fundedor a one-shot arrangement. And, "esti-mating their worth at about, £1500 perannum, there is a total of about£100,000, or slightly about 3/6 ot thegross potential of the edition. Funding
these grants would require, at 6%, about£650,000, a capital sum clearly beyondthe capabilities of this edition even con-sidering the availability of interest above6%." So much for "a substantial part ofthe proceeds."
In addition to the moral questionsNewfield raised, there were very real prob-lems of scholarship. Here again wequote from Finest Hour 30 . . .
"I. Sir Winston's works are being re-edited in this edition. Presumably byFrederick Woods, who is known to thewriter only as the compiler of the fine,but incomplete and sometimes erroneousBibliography and the collector of WSC'sdespatches into Young Winston's Wars. Iconcede that WSC's works can stand alot of editing, particularly his maps andquotations, but such editing, of course,makes the issue useless for student andscholar.
"2. What editions were reproduced? Allare said to be first editions or editionsissued in the year of the first edition ex-cepting Malakand (1916 Nelson ShillingEdition); River War (1933 3rd); Lord Ran-dolph (1952 Odhams); Brodrick's Army(2nd); Marlborough (1947 2-vol); GreatContemporaries (1938 Enlarged); WarSpeeches (1952 including Epilogue)." Ishould add that this means the one-volume abridged River War, and a re-edited Marlborough, neither of which is atrue-bill representation of the completeoriginal texts.
"3. What is meant by 'Collected Works'?The advertising was misleading. Insteadof the complete literary works of WSC,only his books and some of his speechesare included. No forewords and con-tributions to other books, no contribu-tions to press and periodicals, and mostof his speeches are omitted." (It bearsmentioning that the Library of ImperialHistory reacted to this criticism when itissued, in 1976, the Collected Essays ofWinston Churchill a four-volume compila-tion of most major Forewords and pe-riodical contributions not appearing inthe Works. This set, also found againrecently by Churchillbooks, was the firstappearance of these works in volumeform — a true contribution to the Chur-chill canon.)
BOOM AND BUSTWe have now to limn the sad, but per-
haps predictable, fate of "this great ven-ture."
Shortly after the first announcementthe price went up to £1060 in Britain and$3000 in America. This, of course, didnothing to encourage sales, and by early1976 all signs pointed to somewhat lessthan the sell-out the Library of Imperial
13
History had promised. In a much less de-luxe prospectus issued that year it wasadmitted that only 1750 of the author-ized 3000 sets "have been published." AsI have since learned, the actual press runof sheets was never 3000 but well under2000, and books were bound only asorders were taken.
Its high-sounding name notwithstand-ing, the Library of Imperial History wasnothing more than a small office; indeedit had never before published a book. Ithad been set up for this specific project.Purchasers of the Works were duly giventhe option to add the four-volumes ofEssays, although it was noticed that aninexpensive clothbound set of Essays wasoffered as well as the luxurious vellumvariety. Somebody was getting wise — ordesperate.
If they did manage to sell 1750 copiesat $3000, the firm should have grossedover $5 million, which one would sup-pose was enough to keep it going. But bythe late 1970s the Library of ImperialHistory declared bankruptcy. The re-ceivers relocated from London to RoyalTunbridge Wells, and fitful efforts weremade to dispose of further sets, withoutmuch success.
By 1982, when this writer and memberL.L. Thomas in Surrey attempted tolocate the Tunbridge people, both theyand the remaining copies of the Worksand Essays had vanished. I had word thatsomeone unnamed had bought the stockand moved it to New York, but letters tothe given address went unanswered, andwhen a New York bookseller colleaguewent personally to the location he foundit an "accommodation address."
For a year or more I tried without suc-cess to rediscover the thread of the "greatventure," mainly because of the CollectedEssays. These, I realized, were truly im-portant contributions — the only collec-tion in volume form of Sir Winston'swonderful magazine articles which, evenif all the magazines could be found,would probably cost $20,000 to compileusing originals. In despair, I even con-sidered publishing all the WSC materialin Woods Section B under the title, Col-lected Contributions. (Happily I didn't;Section B is not only incomplete, butladen with entries that really belong inSection C!)
FOUND AGAIN!Then, suddenly, I found a firm of Lon-
don solicitors who had been involved insome phase of the L.I.H. liquidation.They had no clue as to the whereabouts,but suggested that the bindery mightknow. The bindery did. For the past
continued overleaf
AS OTHERS SAW HIM:
KING ABDULLAHOFTRANS-JORDAN
I FEEL I must say something now about the man who played sogreat and important a part during the two world wars, espe-cially as concerns his attitude to the Arab cause when he wasColonial Secretary in the Government of Lloyd George.
Winston Churchill was unique among the men Great Britainhas produced in recent times, and it fell to his lot to preservethe United Kingdom and the Empire by what seems like amiracle. He carried the burden or responsibility with com-plete awareness of Germany's strength and gigantic prepara-tions, and of the hatred which every German had for GreatBritain. He also knew that the United Kingdom was unpre-
pared as a result of the ill-judged policy of its Governmentfrom the fall of Lloyd George's Cabinet to the time ofChamberlain when the war began.
How many times did he warn his people about Germany!How prophetically he spoke without getting a proper hearing,till eventually he had to bear the burden of the very disastersof which he had given the nation so clear a warning. TheBritish people had to endure enormous sacrifices and hard-ships during this terrible war, and without their loyalty andsupreme efforts even a Churchill would have failed.
England is a country which can bear every kind of misfor-tune and catastrophe and in Churchill she found an effectiveleader of her quiet, hardworking gentle and courageouspeople. She gave the world an example of true nationalism,of patient endurance, of defence in a righteous cause, ofsacrifice of life and property in the interests of the country, ofnational pride and honour. Britain fully deserved the laurels ofvictory and Churchill's leadership was an inspiration.
Excerpted from The Memoirs of King Abdullah of Transjordan(Cape, 1950), and brought to our attention by Peter Coombs,Oxford, UK.
Collected Works continuedseveral years they had been warehousingsome 180 unbound sheets of CollectedEssays and about 40 sets of CollectedWorks. The quarry had been brought tobay at last!
The unknown New York entrepreneurhad apparently bought the sheets fromthe receivers and had persuaded thebindery to make up 20 sets of CollectedWorks — not in vellum, but in redmorocco, with matching slipcases.Although the gilt lettering and coat ofarms on the books exactly matches theoriginal, the new slipcases are red, notgreen, and do not carry any stamping.Still, it was a sensational discovery.There were enough sets of Essays tosatisfy everyone who needed them, andmany collectors thought the morocco-bound Works were more handsome anddurable than the vellum.
Alas, the process of making themavailable was a test of will, strength,computer time and patience that woulddo justice to a James Bond thriller.
The bindery, while anxious to rid itselfof an unwanted store of heretoforeuseless paper, told me they were notallowed to sell! The owner of the sheetshad disappeared — even a private detec-tive hired by the bindery could not findhim — leaving them with a bill for£12,000, expended in binding the 20 setsof red morocco Works.
British law moves slowly, and thebindery was told that seven years mustgo by before it could consider the booksits own to dispose of, without risk of theowner surfacing and accusing them of
dealing in stolen property!Frustration. But not much longer.I kept at them. "Isn't there some way
you can meet the law and still get rid ofthe books?," I asked. In the Summer of1987, three years after I had located thetrove, they thought of one: sell thebooks, but keep the proceeds in anescrow account for the prescribednumber of years. In this way the binderywould meet the letter of HM Law, andthe Churchill world would get sets ofbooks which some had waited 12 yearsto own.
A few sets of the red morocco CollectedWorks still remain, and the unboundsheets can be had that way or in theoriginal vellum with gold-stamped greenslipcases if desired. The Collected Essayscan be ordered in quarter-morocco orfull vellum, although I have to say that Ithink the price asked is outlandish. Onthe other hand, the bindery will prob-ably never break even, and so cannot begreatly blamed.
EVALUATIONSWhy then did I warn off my Los
Angeles friend, who has pined for a setof Collected Works since 1974, and waswilling to trade first editions to get it?Because, as Dalton Newfield wrote in1973, lovely as they are, the Works areonly expensive reprints. Rich man's toys.Luxurious, yes. Durable, sure. Butreprints.
Nor are they, in many cases, even theoriginal text. The six volumes of TheSecond World War, for example, were
14
completely re-edited, with 300 maps andcharts redrawn. Nice — but not Chur-chill's work. Since the true collector likesto hold in his or her hands the work inthe form Sir Winston first gave it to theworld, these luxurious volumes willnever — ever — replace the first editions.Not in value. Not in desirability.
True, for the price of the CollectedWorks today ($1880 — well down, hap-pily, from the original $3000), you can'tbuy a complete set of Churchill first edi-tions. One decent Malakand will eat upmost of that, and the most recent copy ofMr. Brodrick's Army sold cost £10,000.But give me $1800 and let me spend it asI wish, on postwar first editions and fineprewar trade editions, and I will create abetter, more interesting, more textuallycorrect Churchill library than this made-to-order collector's item. I have neverworked so hard not to sell an item in mycatalogue! But I am happy to say myfriend saw the light and kept his fine firsteditions.
The Collected Essays are something elseentirely — unique, valuable, important,despite their tall price. But the ChurchillLiterary Foundation is investigating thecopyright, if any, and some day I hopewe may be able to reprint these works ina form which colleges, students, scholarsand libraries everywhere can afford. •
Tfie author is an antiquarian bookseller, alongtime Churchill specialist, editor ofFinest Hour, and admits to having fallenfor a set of the works: "Caveat emptor!"
"The Dream" is Published:Technical Details andPrinting History
THE DREAM is published! Supporters of past andpresent fund appeals who have given acumulative total of $100, £65 or $135 Cana-dian/Australian, have already received theircopy. We discussed the story's backgroundlast issue; herein, some details on thetechnical side of the production.
If we define "book" as any work in a boardbinding, The Dream is Sir WinstonChurchill's 44th single title and 64th in-dividual volume. In our expanded "Woods"list (see handbook this issue), it will carry thedesignation A149. It is the second new Chur-chill book published since the author's death.I daresay it is not the last.
The significance of the occasion, and thelimited nature of this first edition, required asfine a product as possible within our budget of£6/$ 10 per volume (Quite generous, really:modern publishers consider that selling pricesshould be at least eight times actual produc-tion costs; The Dream, if produced commer-cially, would therefore have to sell for about£50/$80).
The actual printing is by traditional letter-press rather than modern photo-offset. Thismethod, involving the making of metal plateswhich impress each sheet individually, hasalmost completely disappeared. Its advantageis clarity — an ultra-sharp appearance thatphoto offset cannot quite match.
Combined with traditional printing is themost modern, acid-free archival paper,Mohawk Superfine, an eggshell finish whichhas also been used for all three works pub-lished by the Churchill Literary Foundationto date. Its working life of 300 years meansthat your descendants will still have a finecopy of The Dream in the year 2250 andbeyond.
While padded leather was selected becauseit seemed the. only "right" material, otherbinding details of The Dream are expresslysymbolic. The gilt border is an original design,but based on the title page of DavidKirkwood's M> Life of Revolt, which waspublished by Harrap in 1935 and contains aChurchill introduction (Woods B26). Harrap,who also published Uarlborough, producedwhat I think were the most aestheticallybeautiful trade volumes of the 1930s.
The author's signature is from the first edi-tion of the one-volume abridged World Crisis,London and NY 1931 (Woods A3 lb).
The Churchill Coat of Arms was debossedpurely by accident, but we are delighted withthe result. We had planned to stamp this ingold like the rest of the cover devices, but itwas too detailed to give a sharp image, foralignment purposes, the bindery had ' kissedone cover with the plain die. When we sawhow clean the resulting image was, we decided
that all covers should take this form. Thuseach book had to be run through the stamp-ing machine twice: once for the gilt, once forthe debossment.
Handmade French marbled endpapers wereused on 20 special editions of The Dream forLady Soames (who received the proof copy),certain honorary members and Foundationtrustees. French paper was chosen in remem-brance of Sir Winston's special affection forthat country. Copies will also be sent toChristian Pol-Roger, whose Champagne-producing family was so close to WSC; thePresident of France; the President of theUnited States; and Her Majesty the Queen.
Four hundred eighty copies use moire pat-tern cloth endpapers, and the number-oneproof copy was presented to longtime ICSsecretary and "Stores" manager Sue Hefner.
One disappointment was that the clothendpapers were brighter than the samples,which were dark red to match the satin pagemarker and covers. My suggested "fix," replac-ing them with new endpapers by hand, wasconsidered too heroic by the bindery, whichwas afraid the regluing process would causeglue spillage. It is possible to stain the end-papers black using a broad felt-tip and greatcare, but I hope you will understand why I saythat is up to the individual!
Other technical lessons were that 48-pagebooks are very hard to work into paddedboards, and that cloth headbands (the redand yellow cloth rolls at the spine ends) donot easily affix to the rounded gatherings. TheDream is composed of three 16-pagesignatures; the next similar book will use4-page signatures for a "squarer" binding end.
The Dream is strictly limited to 500 copies inthis first edition. While we may some dayrender a cheaper edition for schools andlibraries, it will never be reproduced in its pres-ent form again. I hope those of you who nowhold this wonderful story in your hands willconsider it an appropriate token of ourthanks for your support of our goals.
15
HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR COPYAbout 250 individually hand-numbered
copies of The Dream are still available, foranyone whose total contribution to ICS andthe Churchill Literary Foundation reachesUS$100, $135 Canadian or Australian, or£65 Sterling. (Donations are cumulative. Ifyou supported us with $50 last year, another$50 is all it takes. If you don't remember, askthe Foundation, via the editor.)
Donations are tax-deductible in the USAand Canada. They may be sent to ICS c/oany national branch office listed on page 3.
ICS and the Literary Foundation are off toa flying start — thanks to you. We still have along way to go, many noble things to ac-complish; but we are certainly at "The End ofthe Beginning."
I have written our Canadian members, andwill soon be writing others, about thechallenges immediately before us. Tothe many Canadians who have alreadyresponded — and to everyone who aided uslast year, thank-you. This book would cer-tainly not exist without you.
AN ORIGINAL PAINTINGTO GO WITH IT
The 27xl9-inch framed original oil paint-ing, color plates of which are hand-tipped in-to The Dream and appeared on the cover ofour last issue, is offered for sale to reimbursethe artist, Sal Asaro. He created it withoutcharge, but we think he deserves the rewardof the sale. To bid, or for further details,simply contact the editor at Box 385, Con-toocook, NH 03229 USA, telephone (603)746-4433 business hours.
"But I don't know how 11the part . . . "
Arthur Simon (Hoe Farm) and Grace Hamblin. Bill Gunn of Pol Roger UK and the editor
LEFT: Grace, R.H., Barbara Langworth. ABOVE; The Speech.
LEFT: Celia Perkins, RML ponder '88 opening of "Winnie.ABOVE: Star of "Winnie" chats Maj. Gen. Ken Perkins.
LEFT: Master of Ceremonies StefanTerlezki, former MP, on ChurchillDay Bill: "in memory of the man whomade it possible for me to live infreedom." RIGHT: Editor had honorof presenting R.H. with the ChurchillSociety's Ninth Blenheim Award.
Churchill'sRobert Hardy, Lord and Lad)
Greet British, American
THIRTY-EIGHT American and Canadianmembers and 50 Britons took part in thethird ICS visit to "Churchill's Britain,"September 3rd through 13th. The tour partycame from all points: New Brunswick toBritish Columbia, New York to California,with both the Edmonton and VancouverChurchill Societies represented as well as ICS. >Twelve were returnees from previous tours:Lorraine 4k Bill Beatty (NY), Aileen & BobWilson (MQ), Margaret &. Tommy Brooks(FL), Barbara 6k George Lewis (NJ), GeorgeTemple (Ont.), tour hosts Barbara &. RichardLangworth (NH), and Betty Newfield, fromLodi, California, taking part in her third ofthree ICS journeys.
We welcomed 26 newcomers: Sue 6k MortAndron, Leo Fialkoff, Barbara Oster and BudMcElwaine (Calif.); Pat 6k John Ball (NewBrupswick); Dorothy Boyden and Marie 6kLorin Smith (111.); Barbara 6k Ben Cardozo(NY); Jeane 6k Dick Danby and Barbara 6kDon Kettyls (BC); Woody Keeney (DC) andhis parents Phyllis 6k Norwood (NH); BarneyLawrence (Ont.); Eileen 6k Wally Ross (Alber-ta); Gerry 6k Ed Rothman (Penna.); Peg 6kDan Treacy (Mich.)
We gathered at the Waldorf, London,toured most of the sites in Martin Gilbert'sChurchill's London, and held a welcomingbanquet on the 3rd. Next morning found usat Chartwell: a private tour hosted by GraceHamblin and Jean Broome; a look at arestored Bedford Army Truck and the "FinestHour" porcelain (FH55 cover) courtesy DavidPorter and Mrs. Kaye. Back in London, wejust had time to dress for the ICS Bi-annualLondon Dinner, in the magnificent Library ofthe Reform Club, arranged for us by Dr.James Scales of Wake-Forest University. Wewere honored by the presence of Celia Sandys6k Gen. Ken Perkins; Bill Gunn, representingChristian Pol-Roger; our dear friend ArthurSimon of Hoe Farm (where WSC learned topaint); Grace Hamblin; and master of t
ceremonies Stefan Terlezki, the MP who in-troduced the Churchill National Day Bill. :
A Royal Artillery band played SirWinston's favorites and, after the respectivetoasts, the British, American and Canadiannational anthems. Midway through the fivecourses, and Pol Roger Cuvee Sir Winston79 (kindly provided by Christian Pol-Roger),we were sure we heard the theme song from"All Creatures Great and Small."
Indeed we did, for guest of honor RobertHardy, known to all as Siegfried Farnon orWinston Churchill, had come to tell us aboutthe excitement and challenge of playing SirWinston in "The Wilderness Years."
It was a memorable account, filled with witand penetrating insight. Mr. Hardy focuses
More photogr
CHURCHILL COLLECTORS HANDBOOK, SECTION IV, PART II
r!
Part 2: All the Book-Length Works of Winston S. ChurchillAmplified List of Section A Editions from the Woods Bibliography
BY RONALD I. COHEN AND RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
Woods Numbers © St. Paul's Bibliographies 1979 (Bold Face) • Amplified Numbers © International Churchill Society 1987
The continuance of the Woods Bibliography, for the present, as theonly reference to the works of Sir Winston Churchill, is the reasonbehind this section of the Churchill Collector's Handbook.
While covering major ground in his discovery of Churchill's works(particularly the obscure pamphlet material), Woods was less thancomplete and consistent in his identification of editions, issues and im-pressions of the book-length volumes. This has left readers with lessthan full knowledge. More than one collector or scholar has returneda book to a dealer or library believing that he did not receive the' 'genuine article'' because the description did not match (or was notin) Woods. The need for some amplification of Woods' volumedescriptions is therefore obvious.
The following "Amplified List of the Volumes" avoids confusion byretaining all of Woods' own "A" numbers — even when researchindicates that Woods' numbers are chronologically or otherwise inac-curate. It retains all Woods "A" numbers presently found in the 1975
Second Revised Edition in bold face. The amplified numbers havebeen added in regular face — together with appropriate notes as to theedition, state and date, etc. We have also listed, whenever known, theimpressions and their dates. We welcome additions and correctionswhich may be sent to the editor, Finest Hour.
Of course, by adhering precisely to Woods' numbers, we cannothelp but repeat Woods' errors. For instance, by retaining Woods'number "A40(c)" for Blenheim (1941), we are forced to bunch theHarrap ' 'Presentation Edition'' of 1938 under A40(a). Correctly itdoes not belong here, since the text of the first edition was altered andthis 1938 appearance constitutes a new edition preceding Blenheim.But this was the only way to avoid confusion.
As long as these ground rules are borne in mind, we believe thisamplified list of book-length works by Churchill will prove indispen-sible to scholars, librarians and bibliophiles, until the appearance ofan entirely new Churchill Bibliography.
ftach;
mory
Al THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCEAl(a) The First Edition (1898)Al(aa) The First StateAl(ab) The Colonial Issue First State
Note: The Colonial Issue exists in cloth (sewn) and cardwraps; there are also variants.
Al(ac) The Second StateNote: There is a variant of the second state with a first statecatalogue and another without any catalogue at all, the latterpossibly constituting the American Issue.
Al(ad) The Colonial Issue Second StateAl(ad.l) — (ad.4): four impressions.
Note: There are stated to be four impressions but only twohave been examined to date.
Al(b) The Silver Library Edition (1898)Al(b.l) — (b.2): two impressions
Al(c) The Nelson Shillling Library Edition (1916)
A2 THE RIVER WARA2(a) The First Edition (1899)
A2(a.l) — (a.3): three impressionsNote: It is well known that the volume was also issued withoutany catalogue, which may well be the American issue. Therumoured existence of a variant cataldgue lacking the 7/8 leafis unfounded.
A2(b) The One-Volume Edition (1902)Note: Copies may exist without the catalogue and if so mayconstitute the American Issue.
A2(c) The Nelson Shilling Library Edition (1915)A2(d) The Second Cheap Edition (1933)A2(da) The British Edition (Eyre & Spottiswoode)
A2(da.l) — (da.5): five impressions 1933/40/49/51/65Note- The 1965 ' 'impression'' is more likely a remainder bind-ing of the 1951 impression, though bound in gray (not tan)cloth. Its jacket is distinguished by a "Sir" in the byline.
A2(db) The American Edition (Scribner, 1933)A2(e) The Four Square Books Paperback Edition (1959)A2(f) The Sphere Paperback Edition (1964)A2(g) The Award [American] Paperback Edition (1964)A2(h) The New English Library Edition (1973)
A2(h 1) - (h 4): at least four impressionsNote: The latest impression of this edition appeared in 1987with an introduction by Sir John Colville.
A3 SAVROLAA3(a) The First [American] Edition (1900)
A3(a.l) — (a.2): two impressionsA3(b) The British Edition (1900)
A3(b.l) — (b.3): three impressionsNote: later impressions state "New Impression" on their titlepages.
A3(ba) The [General] Colonial Issue (1900)A3(bc) The Canadian Colonial Issue (Copp Clark, 1900)A3(c) The First Illustrated [Newnes Paper] Edition (1908)A3(d) The Hodder & Stoughton 7d Library Edition (1915)A3(e) The Second American [Random House] Edition (1956)A3(f) The Beacon Books Paperback Edition (1957)A3(g) The Cedric Chivers Edition (1973)
A4 LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIAA4(a) The First Edition (1900)
A4(a.l): first impression, 1900A4(a.2): second ["New"] impression, 1900
A4(ba) The American Edition (1900)A4(bb) The Canadian Issue of the American Edition (1900)
Note: This issue is found in both cloth and card.A4(c) The South African Facsimile Edition (1982)
A5 IAN HAMILTON'S MARCHA5(a) The First Edition (1900)A5(b) The Second EditionA5(ca) The American EditionA5(cb) The Canadian Issue of the American Edition
Note: This issue is found in both cloth and card.
A6 MR. BRODRICK'S ARMYA6(a) The First EditionA6(b) The Second EditionA6(c) The First American Edition (Churchilliana Co, 1977)
A8 LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILLA8(a) The First Edition (1906)A8(ab) The American Edition (1906)A8(ac) The Times Book Club EditionA8(b) The One-Volume Edition (1907)A8(c) The Second One-Volume Edition (1952)A8(d) The Centenary Limited Edition (1974)
CCH 4.05
A9 FOR FREE TRADEA9(a) The First Edition (1906)A9(b) The First American Edition (Churchilliana Co, 1977)
A12 MY AFRICAN JOURNEYA12(aa) The First Edition (1908)
Note: Exists in pictorial cloth, plain buckram (see below) and inthe extremely rare card wraps (we know of only two copies sobound).
A12(ab) The American Issue of the British Edition (1908)Note: The first state carries a Hodder & Stoughton imprinton the title page; the second state carries a George Dorantitle page cancel; both states carry a Hodder & Stoughtonimprint on the spines.
A12(ac) The Canadian Issue of the British Edition (1909)Note: Published by William Briggs, Toronto.
A12(b) The Hodder & Stoughton Paper Edition (1919)A12(c) The Holland Press/Neville Spearman Edition (1962)A12(d) The Icon Books Paperback Edition (1964)A12(e) The Heron Books Edition (circa 1965)A12(f) The New English Library Paperback Edition (1972)
A15 LIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEMA15(a) The First Edition (1909)A15(b) The Second EditionA15(c) The American EditionA15(d) The Haskell House [American] Edition (1970)
A16 THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTSA16(aa) The First Edition, First State (1910)A16(ab) The First Edition, Second State
Note: A16(aa) is found in cloth and paper wraps and, in wrapsonly, in two states: the first state, with the Index; the secondstate, with a second Appendix in lieu of the Index. Wrapseditions are found with the Hodder & Stoughton imprint as wellas those of the Yorkshire Post, the Sheffield Independent, theLiverpool paper and possibly others as well. Scarcity has pre-vented sufficient examination to determine whether these aregenerally first or second states.
A16(ba) The Second Edition (Jonathan Cape, 1970)A16(bb) The American Issue of above (Taplinger, 1971)
A31 THE WORLD CRISISA31(a) The First Edition (1923-31)
Note: Woods groups both American and British Editions underthis category.
A31(aa) The First [American] Edition (Scribner)Volume 1/1911-1914: at least two impressionsVolume 11/1915: at least two impressionsVolume in/1916-1918 (two parts): one impression found
Note: Confusingly labeled "Volume I" and "Volume II"Volume IV/THE AFTERMATH: one impression foundVolume V/THE UNKNOWN WAR: three impressions,1931/31/32
Note: Placement of the American Edition first is conjectural,and the editor's responsibility. The preponderant evidence un-earthed by Mr. Cohen indicates that Vol. I was published firstin America; Mr. Cohen wishes to note, however, that theThornton Butterworth records on this subject have yet to beexamined. RML
A31(ab) The British Edition (Thornton Butterworth)Volume 1/1911-1914
Three editions with 1,2,5 impressions respectively.Volume n/1915
Two editions with 3 impressions each.Volume m/1916-1918 (two parts)
One edition, five impressions.Volume IV/THE AFTERMATH
One edition, three impressions.Volume V/THE EASTERN FRONT
One edition, one impression.
A31(ac) The Canadian Issue (Macmillan) from US platesA31(ad) The Australian Issue (Australasian) from UK plates
Note: Volumes I and II only. Thornton Butterworth furnishedthe British volumes for the balance of these Australian sets.
A31(b) The One-Volume Abridged Edition (1931)Note: Woods mentions but does not distinguish between the "*American and British edition. Again, research indicates theAmerican came first.
A31(ba) The American Abridged Edition (Scribner, 1931)A31(ba.l) — (ba.2): at least two impressions, 1931/49/?
A31(bb) The British Abridged EditionA31(bb.l) — (bb.3): three impressions, 1931/32/37
A31(bc) The Canadian Abridged Issue (Macmillan), US platesA31(bd) The Second British Edition (Macmillan, 1941)
a31(bd.l) — (bd.4): four impressions, 1941/42/43/44
A31(c) The Sandhurst Edition (1933)A31(da) THE GREAT WAR (in 26 parts, 1934)
Note: Woods mentions the work (p. 51) but does not indicate itis the first illustrated edition, with text taken from Volumes I-III.
A31(db) THE GREAT WAR (3 Volumes, Newnes, 1934)Note: Issued in half red morocco, royal blue cloth, tooled redcloth and plain cloth bindings, the spines bearing both Romanand Arabic numerals, sometimes mixed within the same set.
A31(dc) THE GREAT WAR (4 Volumes, Home Library, 1934)A31(e) THE UNKNOWN WAR (Keystone Library, 1937)A31(f) The Two-Volume Abridged Edition (Odhams, 1939)
Note: Issued in three leatherette bindings: plain blue, plainred with marbled endpapers, deluxe red with marbled end-papers, gilt cover signature, multiple gilt spine rules, redstained top page edges.
A31(g) THE AFTERMATH (Macmillan, 1941)A31(g.l) — (g.2): at least two impressions, 1941/44
A31(h) THE UNKNOWN WAR (Macmillan, 1941)A31(i) THE UNKNOWN WAR (Hodder & Stoughton, 1941)A31(j) The Four-Volume Abridged Edition (Odhams, 1950)A3 l(k) The First American Illustrated Edition (1963-64)
Note: Complete original text in volumes numbered 1 through 6,published by Scribner.
A31(1) The Four Square Paperback Abridged Edition (1960)A31(m) The Six-Volume Centenary Limited Edition (1974)
A37 MY EARLY LIFE/A ROVING COMMISSIONA37(a) The First Edition (1930)A37(aa) The First State (11 titles on title page verso)A37(ab) The Second State (12 titles on title page verso)
A37(ab.l) — (ab.6): impressions 1930, one 1940Note: A copy of A37(a) has been discovered with a dust-wrapper imprinted "George Newnes, " Toronto, and a price of$4.50 instead of 21/. However, the book itself is a conventionalBritish First.
A37(ac> The Keystone Library IssueA37(ab.l) - (ab.3): three impressions, 1934/37/40
A37(b) The American Edition, A ROVING COMMISSIONA37(b.l) - (b.3): 1930/30/31 impressions minimum
A37(c) The Second American Edition (1939)A37(c.l) — (c.3): three impressions, 1939/40/41
Note: Contains an Introduction by Dorothy Thompson. Versocodes are AA, BB and blank, respectively.
A37(d) The Second British Edition (Macmillan, 1941)A37(d.l) - (d.4): four impressions, 1941/42/43/44
A37(e) The Third American Edition (1941) ou
A37(e.l) - (e.6): 1941/42/44/45/49/51 minimum S h .A37(f) The British Reprint Society Edition (1944)A37(g) The Odhams Edition (1947)
A37(g.l) - (g.7): 1947/48/49/57/58/65/66 minimumA37(h) The Canadian Reprint Society Edition (1948)
Note: Possibly an Issue of A37(f)
don,
CCH 4.06
A37(i) The Fourth American Edition (1958)A37(i.l) - (i.6): 1958/60/63/65/66/68 minimum
Note: First American use of MY EARLY LIFE as the_ main title.We have examined 1958 and 1968 impressions hardbound andthe rest paperback; there may be many more.
—' A37(j) The Odhams School Edition (1958)> r J A37(j.l) — (j-13): thirteen impressions minimum
A37(k) The Fontana Paperback Edition (I960)A37(k.l) — (k. 17): seventeen impressions to date
A31(1) The Manor Books Edition (1972)A37(m) The Centenary Limited Edition (1974)A37(n) The Scribners Hudson River Edition (1977)
A37(n.l) — (n.2): two impressions, 1977, 1980
A38 INDIAA38.1 — A38.2: two impressions, both 1931
Note: Clothbound in two binding variations (spine titles read-ing across and down) and two impressions. Card wrapped intwo impressions, the first invariably in orange and the secondmost commonly in green, although copies of the second im-pression are known in orange also.
A39 THOUGHTS AND ADVENTURES—AMID THESE STORMS
A39(a) The First Edition (1932)A39(a. 1) — (a.4): at least two impressions of the regular edition,at least two of the Keystone Library issue
A39(b) The American Edition, AMID THESE STORMSNote: Apparently only one impression, since none of hundredsof copies examined has ever been found with the title page code"A," which after 1930 indicated Scribners first editions. Alllack the "A" code.
A39(c) The Macmillan Edition (1941)A39(c.l) — (c.2): 1941/42 impressions minimum
A39(d) The Odhams Edition (1947)A39(d.l) — (d.3): 1947/48/49 impressions minimum
A39(e) The Books For Libraries (1972)
A40 MARLBOROUGHA40(a) The First Edition
Note: Woods does not distinguish between the limited, tradeBritish Vol. III. Volume VI published in blue/gold jacketequivalent to British Vol. IV. In 1938, the entire set wasjacketed in blue and gold and sold boxed.
A40(aa) The First Edition (1933-38)Note: Includes 155 signed and numbered copies in orangemorocco. At least two binding formats are known for VolumesI and IV.
A40(ab) The Canadian Issue of the First EditionNote: Under the Ryerson imprint for Volumes I-III and a uni-formly bound Harrap imprint for Volume TV.
A40(ac) The Harrap "Limited Presentation Edition" (1938)Note: Despite above blurbs on the jackets this was not a pre-sentation edition and limited only by demand. It consists of therevised Volumes I and II and first impressions of Volumes IIIand IV, bound in uniform plum cloth with silver lettering andstars to indicate the volume sequence.
A40(b) The American Edition (6 volumes, 1933-38)Note: Volumes I/II and III/IV published in green lettered plainwhite jackets in slipcases and equivalent to British Vols. I andII. Volume V published in white/red/black jacket equivalent toBritish Vol. III. Volume VI published in blue/gold jacketequivalent to British Vol. IV. In 1938, the entire set wasjacketed in blue and gold and sold boxed.
*as>\40(ba) The Second American Edition (6 vols., 1950)°A40(c) BLENHEIM (1941)
A40(d) The Two-Volume Revised Edition (Harrap, 1947)A40(d.l) — (d.5): 1947/49/55/58/63 impsns. minimum
A40(e) The Second Two-Volume Edition (Harrap, 1966)Note: first text set by photo-lithography.
A40(f) The Four-Volume Sphere Paperback Edition (1967)A40(f. 1) — (f.2): at least two impressions
A40(g) The Four-Volume Scribner Paperback Edition (1968?)A40(g.l) — (g.2): at least two impressions
A40(h) The Scribner Abridged Edition (1968)A40(h.l) — (h.5): at least five impressions
A40(i) The Centenary Limited Four-Volume Edition (1974)
A43 GREAT CONTEMPORARIESA43(a) The First Edition (1937)
A43(a.l) — (a.5): at least five impressionsA43(ab) The American Edition (1937)
A43(ab.l) — (ab.3): at least three impressionsNote: Not mentioned by Woods.
A43(b) The Second (Revised & Extended) Edition (1938)Note: There are two binding formats.
A43(c) The Reader's Union Edition (1939)A43(d) The Keystone Library Edition or Issue (1940)A43(e) The Reprint Society Edition (1941)A43(f) The World Books Edition (1941)A43(g) The Macmillan Edition (1943)A43(h) The Odhams Edition (1947)
A43(h.l) — (h.4): 1947/48/49/58 impsns. minimumNote: Woods' date "1958" for the first Odhams edition isincorrect.
A43(i) The Fontana Paperback Edition (1959)A43(i.l) — (i.5): at least five impsns. through 1972
A43(j) The Books for Libraries Edition (1971)A43(k) The University of Chicago Edition (1973)
Note: exists in cloth and paper wraps.
A44 ARMS AND THE COVENANT—WHILE ENGLAND SLEPTA44(a) The First Edition (1938)
Note: general issue blue jacket followed a variant red-on-yellow jacket which was quickly superceded.
A44(b) The American Edition, WHILE ENGLAND SLEPTA44(b.l) — (b.3): three impressions
Note: Woods' mention of an Odhams Edition is unfounded.A44(c) The Books for Libraries Edition (1971)
A45 STEP BY STEPA45(a) The First Edition
A45(a.l) — (a.4): at least four impressionsA45(b) The American EditionA45(c) The Macmillan EditionA45(d) The Odhams Edition
A45(d.l) — (d.3): 1947/48/49 impressions.minimumA45(e) The Books for Libraries Edition (1971)
A66 INTO BATTLE - BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARSA66(a) The First Edition (1941)
Note: There are 12 impressions, called ' 'editions'' by the pub-lisher. Woods' dates for these are incorrect.
A66(b) The American Edition, BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARSA66(b.l) — (b.3): at least three impressions
A66(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA66(c.l) — (c.2): at least two printings
A66(d) The Australian Issue of the British EditionA66(e) The Odhams Edition, CHURCHILL IN HIS OWN WORDSA66(f) The American Issue of Above (Capricorn, 1966)
A89 THE UNRELENTING STRUGGLEA89(a) The First Edition
A89(a.l) — (a.4): four impressionsA89(b) The American Edition
A89(b.l) — (b.2): two impressionsA89(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA89(d) The Australian Issue of the British EditionA89(e) The Books for Libraries Edition (1971)
CCH 4.07
A94 THE END OF THE BEGINNINGA94(a) The First Edition
A94(a.l) — (a.4): three impressionsA94(b) The American EditionA94(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA94(d) The Australian Issue of the British EditionA94(e) The Books for Libraries Edition (1971)
A101 ONWARDS TO VICTORYA101(a) The First Edition (1944)
AlOl(a.l) — (a.3): three impressions, 1944/45/46A101(b) The American EditionA101(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA101(d) The Australian Issue of the British Edition
A107 THE DAWN OF LIBERATIONA107(a) The First Edition (1945)
A107(a.l) — (a.2): two impressions, 1945/47A107(b) The American EditionA107(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA107(d) The Australian Issue of the British Edition
A112 VICTORYA112(a) The First Edition (1946)A112(b) The American EditionA112(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA112(d) The Australian Issue of the British Edition
A113 WAR SPEECHES 1940-1945
A114 SECRET SESSION SPEECHESA114(a) The First [American] Edition (1946)A114(b) The British EditionA114(c) The Canadian Issue of the American EditionA114(d) The Australian Issue of the British Edition
A123 THE SECOND WORLD WARA123(a) The First [American] Edition (1948-53)A123(ab) The Book of the Month Club EditionA123(ac) The Canadian Issue of the American Edition
Note: Published by Thomas Allen, Toronto in dark red cloth toHoughton-Mifflin design with H-M plates.
A123(b) The British EditionNote: Many later editions and impressions, too complicated tobe covered here, for both A123(a) and A123(b). See WoodsAppendix I for some details.
A123(bb) The Australian Issue of the British EditionA123(c) The British Abridged One-Volume Edition (1959)A123(cb) The American Abridged One-Volume EditionA123(d) The Chartwell [First Illustrated] Edition (1954)A123(e) The Reprint Society Edition (1954-56)A123(f) The Time-Life Boxed 2-Vol Illus. Edition (1959)A123(g) The Penguin Paperback Edition (1960)
Note: Limited to Volume I only.A123(h) The Golden Press Abridged Edition (1960)A123(i) The Blenheim Abridged Edition (1961)
A123(i.l) — (i.2): two impressions, both 1961A123(j) The Cassell School Edition (1961)A123(k) The Bantam Paperback (6 Vol.) Edition (1962)
Note: Numerous impressions to date.A123(l) The Cassell Paperback (12 Vol. Illus.) Edition (1964)A123(m) The Heron-Cassell (12 Vol. Illus.) Edition (1967)A123(n) The Centenary Limited (6 Vol.) Edition (1974)A 123(o) The Bonanza Books Abridged Edition (1978)
A123(o.l) — (o.3): three impressions to dateA123(p) THEIR FINEST HOUR Franklin Library Edition (1978)A123(q) The American Chartwell Edition (1983)
Note: Consists of a limited trade edition and a large Book-of-the-Month Club edition, indistinguishable save for the BOMCdebossment on the back board.
A123(r) The British Paperback (6 Vol.) EditionNote: numerous impressions to date.
A124 THE SINEWS OF PEACEA124(a) The First Edition (1948)A124(b) The American Edition
A125 PAINTING AS A PASTIME —A 125(a) The First Edition (1948) -iV
A125(a.l) - (a.7): 1948/49/49/62/65/65/66 minimumA125(b) The American Edition (1950)A125(c) The Cornerstone Library Edition (1965)
A125(c.l) — (c.2): two impressions, 1965/66Note: found in boards (1965 only) and in paperback (1965 and1966 impressions).
A125(e) The Penguin Paperback EditionA125(e.l) — (e.3): at least three impressions
A128 EUROPE UNITEA128(a) The First Edition (1950)A128(b) The American Edition
A130 IN THE BALANCEA130(a) The First Edition (1951)A130(b) The American Edition
A136 THE WAR SPEECHESA136(a) The First Edition (1952)A136(b) The American EditionA136(c) The Transworld Paperback 1 Vol. Edition (1957)
A136(c.l) — (c.4): four impsns. known through 1963A136(d) The Second Edition (1965)
Note: Conjectural. Based only on our discovery of a proof copyof Volume II so dated on verso.
A136(e) The Purnell-Cassell Edition (c.1969)
A137 STEMMING THE TIDEA137(aa) The First Edition (1953)A137(ab) Remainder Issue (1961)
Note: Used original edition's sheets, but bound in cheaper clo?on<with all-black dustwrapper advertising contemporary Churchill"works.
A137(b) The American Edition
A138 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLESA138(a) The First Edition (1956-58)A138(ab) The American EditionA138(ab) The Book-of-the-Month Club EditionA138(ad) The Canadian Issue of the American Edition
Note: Published in a limited presentation form and with at leasttwo trade impressions, the first in blue boards, a later impres-sion in red boards.
A138(b) THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR First Edition (1961)A139(bb) The American Edition of THE AM. CIVIL WARA138(c) THE ISLAND RACE First Edition (1964)
A138(c.l) — (c.4): at least four impressionsA138(cb) The American Edition of THE ISLAND RACE
A138(cb.l) — (cb.2): 1964/65 impressions minimumA138(d) The Chartwell [1st Illus.] Edition of HESPA138(e) The Cassell Paperback 4 Vol. Edition
Note: A later printing of this Edition was published in newwraps under the title CHURCHILL'S PEOPLE in September1974.
A138(f) The Bantam Paperback 4 Vol. EditionA138(g) The American Abridged 1 Vol. Edition (1965)
A138(g.l) — (g.3): at least three impressionsA138(h) The Canadian Abridged 1 Vol. EditionA138(i) The Blenheim 12 Vol. Edition (1965)
Note: Exists in plain boards with illustrated dust jackets andlaminated boards bearing the same illustrations.
A1380) The Pocketbook Paperback Abridged Edition (1966)A138(k) THE ISLAND RACE Corgi Edition (1968)A138(la) HEROES OF HISTORY First Edition (1968)A138(lb) The American Issue of HEROES OF HISTORYA138(lc) The Canadian Issue of HEROES OF HISTORY
Sir
CCH 4.08
Britain 1987T Airlie & Sir Fitzroy Macleanand Canadian Members
on the greatness of Churchill as easily as heduplicates him on film (once at Chartwell, amember of the family caught her breath at hisappearance in full make-up, and had to sitdown). Mr. Hardy was presented with theNinth ICS Blenheim Award for his work inpreserving the Heroic Memory.
i Leaving London, we arrived at Harrow onthe 5th for a royal lunch in a bright marquee,a visit to Harrow School and the UK annualmeeting; and at Blenheim the 6th, for a tourof the palace and another lunch with Britishcolleagues. Then . . . on to Scotland.
Churchill's Scottish ties were examinedwith tours of Edinburgh and his old consti-tuency of Dundee (a city not used to tourcoaches — especially those that stop atderelict assembly halls where 1908 Chur-chillian rhetoric is read); and the Old Courseat St. Andrews, where WSC once dug divots.(Barney Lawrence and Ed Rothman madesymbolic drives at the 17th tee.)
The 10th found us at Kirriemuir, Angus,the guests of Lord and Lady Airlie, he theLord Chamberlain of Great Britain, she thevivacious former Virginia Fortune Ryan, whowarmly welcomed us to their home (Cor-tachy) and the ancestral home of ClementineChurchill (Airlie), culminating with a sump-tuous luncheon. We are so grateful to theAirlies, and to Lady Soames for suggestingwe pay this visit.
Crossing Scotland east to west broughtus to seaside Oban. Here we ferried over toMull, a lovely Hebridean Isle, lunched atromantic Tobermory Bay, and were wel-,corned at Churchill-haunt Torosay Castle bya lovely lady named Mrs. Guthrie-James,sister of Pamela Harriman. By now everyonehad stopped asking, "Can you top this?" Itwas well they did, since the 12th brought usvia Inverary Castle and its WW2 CombinedOperations Museum to Loch Fyne, Strachur,the Creggans Inn, and a gentle giant ofhistory and letters, WSC's wartime represen-tative to Tito, Sir Fitzroy MacLean.
After a reception at Strachur House, SirFitzroy led us to the Inn for a phenomenalfeast of local salmon and venison, his favoritelocal malt, MacPhunn (equal stature), and awarm and humorous speech about SirWinston Churchill.
We finished on Loch Lomond: a boatcruise with bagpipes, drams, afternoon teas;and one last black tie evening, at the LomondCastle Hotel. By then your hosts were willingto admit that they had shot their quiver. Itwas, yes, an Unrelenting Struggle; but 18months of planning, the help of so manypeople we cannot possibly list, and the par-ticipation of 38 good friends, allowed us to go
, Onwards to Victory.aPhs: page 31.
Barbara Langworth, ChristianPol-Roger, Ann &. Garry Clark.
Opinion:Churchill and the Erosion of British Power
A Subject of Considerable Debate
Part Two of a Two-Part Article
BY PROFESSOR RAYMOND A. CALLAHAN, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWAREAS DELIVERED TO THE CHURCHILL SYMPOSIUM, CHURCHILL MEMORIAL, FULTON, MISSOURI 1986
Whether the future of Britain would be molded byBritish hands and ideas seemed to be precisely the issueat stake when at about 6 PM on 10 May 1940, Churchillreceived the King's commission to form a government.This moment, and the results that flowed from it, are atthe heart of both the Churchill legend and any serioushistorical assessment of him. There can be no doubt thatthe economic history of 20th century Britain would havebeen substantially the same without him. Nor was thepace of social change either much accelerated or retardedby his pre-1940 career. Recent scholarship has tended torefute the argument that his rearguard action againstBaldwin's India Bill made much difference in the lastchapter of British rule on the subcontinent.
Nor can Churchill have been said to have made anyfundamental difference to the evolution of British Con-servatism during his 15 years (1940-55) as party leader.(This is less surprising, perhaps, when one realizes that inmany ways he was not much of a Conservative himself.)But if Mario Constansino's car had been traveling a bitfaster on New York's Fifth Avenue that December nightin 1931 — or if Churchill had been less tough — a greatdeal of history, and not all of it British, might have beenvery different.
I say "might" because of course here we are on delicateground. Historians deal customarily — and comfortably— with what has been. Here we move into the area ofwhat could have been. Because 1940 and its conse-quences are crucial in any assessment of Churchill, it is avoyage of exploration that is nonetheless necessary. Firstone must ask whether the British had any realistic optionin 1940 other than the one they actually chose. If theydid, it remains to consider whether, under Churchill'sleadership, they made the right choice — and with whatconsequences to themselves and others.
In Their Finest Hour, Churchill treated the whole ques-tion of whether or not Britain should fight on whenFrance fell as essentially unreal, painting a vivid word-picture of himself telling a group of ministers on 28 May,"Of course whatever happens at Dunkirk, we shall fighton," and being swept off his feet by the unanimity ofresolve they all displayed. It was not quite that simple.French generals and politicians, desperate to blamesomeone — anyone — for the failures of French leader-ship and institutions, were not alone in arguing that the
Mr. Churchill arriving at Number Ten for a conference with PrimeMinister Chamberlain, 8 May 1940; the crisis which would see Franceinvaded and WSC in power was 48 hours away. NEWFIELD COLLECTION
British would use their remaining assets to drive a goodbargain for themselves with Europe's new masters. Muchneutral (and that included American) opinion expected,or feared, the same result. And this was not simplybecause they failed to grasp how resolute the British,
18
sloughing off the legacy of the appeasement years, hadnow become — although that, of course, is the explana-tion that Churchill not only favored and gave, but (atleast in part) believed. It was overwhelmingly becausethere seemed sound reasons for the British to behave theway they did.
The first law of the nation-state's behavior is to prolongits own existence. Britain in 1939 was ruled by an elitethat understood perfectly well the degree to which an all-out war against Hitler, even if successful — and successseemed quite problematic — would certainly put at riskand very likely destroy much that constituted the Britainthey knew and served. Total war meant financial exhaus-tion and consequent dependence on the United States.5
It would certainly bring in its train social change at leastcomparable to that of 1914-18 and, in all probability,much more sweeping.6 It would accelerate the disintegra-tion of the Empire-Commonwealth which, in their eyes,made Britain a power of the first rank.7
Against all this could, of course, be set the odiousnessof Hitler's regime. But Britain had made peace, tem-porarily, with ideologically repugnant, dominant con-tinental powers, before — Spain and France in the 16thand 17th centuries, Napoleon in the early 19th. Whilethe evil that was at the core of the Third Reich put.it on adifferent plane from the regimes of Phillip II, Louis XIV,or the Corsican Ogre at their worst, and while some,including Churchill, understood this, many did not.Among those many were, almost certainly, Chamberlainand. Halifax.
With so much at stake, it would have been surprising ifthere had been no voices raised for negotiations withHitler. That such voices were raised in May and June isclear from the records. Churchill claimed in his memoirsthat the British public would not have tolerated anyparley with Hitler. Perhaps. But the fact remains thatelite leadership and deference were still powerful forces inBritish political life — and the Conservatives stilldominated Parliament. If Churchill had not becomeprime minister, or had been unseated as a consequence ofthe fall of France, the alternative was not likely to havebeen another of the "anti-appeasers" (most of them, apartfrom Churchill, figures of the second rank at this time)but one of the Conservative hierarchy. Told they had toend the war, the British electorate might have decidedthat Dunkirk proved they had not lost, but had been letdown by their allies, and accepted a negotiated peace astheir ancestors had accepted the Treaties of Utrecht orAmiens, neither unanimously nor happily, but solutionsfor the time being.8
Obviously this scenario could be elaborated upon untilit took on the dimensions of science fiction. Perhaps for-tunately, there is not time for that here. The point, Ibelieve, is firmly grounded. There was a "policy option"for Britain in 1940: to accept, from a bargaining positionstill reasonably strong, German hegemony in Europe -for the time being. This option was rejected primarilybecause Churchill was there to lead and focus sentimentfor fighting on. It is a tribute to his toughness and deter-mination as a politician, and his guile as a memoirist,
that he imposed for a generation his version of events —that things happened as they had to.
Why did he take the position he did — victory at allcost? The question-begging answer is, that was the sort ofperson he was: a pugnacious opponent of any derogationof Britain's power. More to the point, he sensed, at anearly date, that Hitler was not Napoleon or the Kaiser,but something far more sinister — and that to connive athis mastery of Europe would be to soil before history allthat Britain stood for. (And here we must remind our-selves that however simplistic A History of the EnglishSpeaking Peoples may seem to the professional historian,Churchill believed in what he wrote there with an almostreligious fervor.) Finally, whether Hitler's terms wouldin fact leave the essentials of Britain's power intact — asAmiens had — was, in Churchill's mind, more thanquestionable.9
And so, as we know, the British fought on. Exactlywhat was the price of that decision? In the first place, theforebodings of all those who, in the 1930s — and, indeed,in May 1940 — had feared the consequences of anothertotal war were amply realized. An economy alreadylaboring was driven to collapse: An Empire alreadyweakened began to unravel: A society in transition hadthat process dramatically accelerated. In short, a worldpower, albeit a declining one in 1939, became by 1945something less — perhaps Correlli Barnett's strikingphrase "a warrior satellite of the United States" comesclosest to what that something was.
Now, it was no part of Churchill's purpose, as he him-self so dramatically said in November 1942, to presideover the end of British power. But to accomplish the goalhe set himself and the British nation on 13 May 1940 —victory at all cost — Britain needed the aid and ulti-mately the participation of the United States in the war.(Russian participation was important as well, but Chur-chill could do little to bring this about; fortunately Hitlertook care of the matter for him.)
Churchill's campaign for American support in 1940-41was waged with a tenacity — and a skill — which beliesthe charge that he lacked subtlety. Now what is clear inretrospect — and what was far from opaque even at thetime — is that a partnership with the United States wasno more likely to leave Britain a world power than accep-tance of a German-dominated Europe. (Whether this wasa conscious American aim is a question I leave to otheranalysts).
British policy-makers faced a problem in 1940 to whichthere simply was no solution that would leave Britishpower intact. Churchill thought he saw a way out: a part-nership with the United States so intimate that it wouldtranscend the mere alliance of nation-states and becomesomething quiet different, perhaps an Anglo-Americancondominium over at least part of the postwar world.10
Meanwhile Churchill intended to fight to retain orregain every inch of imperial territory. To hold her ownin a partnership with the United States, Britain needs themakeweight provided by empire. (To the end, Churchillremained remarkably faithful to many of the ideas aboutthe utility of empire that were widespread in his youth.)
19
Of course, it did not work out this way, but given hispremises, Churchill made a remarkably persistent effortto force events toward the conclusion he wanted.
If he was mistaken about Britain's ability to wage totalwar and emerge with its power reaffirmed, he was ab-solutely correct in his perception that a Britain whichrefused to surrender had also the possibility of gatheringabout itself the coalition needed to defeat Hitler. Chur-chill saw clearly that to bring such a coalition into ex-istence, Britain had not just to survive, but to be seen tobe fighting back. Through all the arguments over strategyin 1940-41, and amid all the disappointments that theBritish army's inferior operational skills caused, Chur-chill clung to the simple maxim: In war armies must fight.If they do not, it is hard to win allies or to keep the levelof national effort up to the pitch that prolonged total warrequires.
It is in this context that Churchill's insistence on an ag-gressive policy in the Middle East in 1940-41 must beseen. Germany's conquests and the Nazi-Soviet pact hadvirtually negated the blockade, and only the enthusiastsfor strategic bombing believed that Bomber Command'sgallant pinpricks were doing any real damage to theReich. Only in Southeast Europe and the Mediterraneancould British arms hope to accomplish anything. More-over, Britain had to hang on in the Middle East foreconomic, imperial and psychological reasons. "Ultra,"perhaps the best-kept intelligence secret of modern times,gave the British at least reasonable expectation that theycould penetrate their opponents' designs.
The problem was that, however much Churchill'sgrand strategy needed victories, the British army couldnot produce them, at least against Germans. This wasnot a matter of being outnumbered nor of poor equip-ment, but primarily of inferior tactics and training and,all too often, inept command. Churchill, incidentally,said this rather bluntly in his memoirs (the generalsblamed politically-inspired strategy in theirs — militaryhistorians have, by and large, come to agree with Chur-chill).
Throughout 1941 Churchill hectored and hounded hisgenerals in the interests of action by an army aboutwhose combat skills he had begun to have grave doubts.In the autumn he summed up his thinking in one of hisfamous minutes: " . . . he is an unwise man who thinksthere is any certain method of winning this war, or indeedany other war, between equals in strength. The only planis to perservere."11
In the end, Churchill's tenacity was rewarded.12 Aidedby Hitler's mistakes, the British and their leader saw thewinning combination taking shape. Hitler plunged intoRussia — and then declared war on the United States.From that moment, as Churchill realized immediately,the fate of the Third Reich was sealed. The British didnot of course win the war alone — it is a grim tribute tothe martial and organizational skills of the Germans thatnone of the victorious coalition can make that claim.13
There is, however, another claim Britons can makewith, I think, fair confidence that history will sustainthem. Britain created, in 1940-41, the conditions without
which it is hard to imagine the Grand Alliance ever com-ing into existence. No one did more to energize and toguide Britain's war effort towards this great consumma-tion than Winston Churchill.
The heart of the story, then, lies not just in the waryears, but in the crucial 18 months between the Franco-German armistice and Pearl Harbor. After that, Chur-chill's roll in the management of the war inevitably suf-fered as American resources and the massive Russian ef-fort overshadowed a Britain whose war effort began after1942 inexorably to decline.14 There is, of course, theargument that, while this was true of coalition strategy,which was shaped from mid-1943 on largely by the viewsof Roosevelt and his generals, there was another areawhere Churchill strove mightily, although in the endlargely in vain, to shape alliance policy. This, of course, isthat whole issue of relations between Russia and theWest. Much has been made, and continues to be made,of the prime minister's alleged prescience in anticipatingthe postwar confrontation and of his efforts to shapeAnglo-American strategy in 1944-45 with this in mind.About this only a few things need be said. The degree offlexibility in coalition strategy in the war's last year wassmall, and Churchill's leverage slipping.
More to the point, despite his growing fears, there is noevidence that Churchill became thoroughly pessimisticabout future relations with Russia until perhaps thespring of 1945. His persistent efforts to sustain the Italiancampaign owed as much to his concern for the prestige ofBritish arms in the only "British" theatre in Europe —and his Greek concerns as much to determination topreserve an area of traditional British influence — as toany prevision of the Cold War.
Churchill, of course, was concerned with the shape ofpostwar Europe — no British leader conscious of Britian'slooming postwar weakness and her long-term interest inthe European balance of power could have failed to be.But he was also interested in restoring and sustainingBritain's world position. That meant concerning himselfwith a multitude of other issues as well in 1944-45.It is important to remember that most of Churchill'senormously influential memoirs were written at theheight (or depth) of the Cold War by a party leader whohoped again to be prime minister. He wrote to put hiscase before history and to remind his American allies —who were already proving forgetful — of how muchBritish effort and guidance had given to the wartimealliance. He was certainly not above suggesting thatBritish guidance might have produced an even more satis-factory result if it had been followed.15 But what Chur-chill wrote in retrospect had, we ought to remember, aclarity not always present to those tired few, himself in-cluded, who guided the Grand Alliance in 1945.
* * *
How finally to sum up Churchill in such historicalperspective as we have managed to attain? In some wayshe was a man out of touch with his times — unversed ineconomic problems, unaware of the degree to which the
20
"Britain created, in 1940-41, the conditions without whichit is hard to imagine the Grand Alliance ever coming into existence.
No one did more to encourage and to guide Britain's war efforttoward this great consummation than Winston Churchill.''
Planning strategy, 27 May 1943: Churchill and Roosevelt pose with war staffs at the White House. Standing behind WSC and FDR (leftto right) are Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Lt. Gen. Sir Hastings Ismay, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, Admiral
of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, Admiral William D. Leahy, Gen. George C. Marshall, Admiral Ernest J. King, Lt. Gen. J.T. McNarney.
imperial idea was losing its grip on the British imagina-tion. His Tory paternalism, powerful imagination, andbasic decency made him receptive to many reforms, if notto the concept of a radically altered society. But on thegreat question of his life, he was right: Germany, underHitler, was a menace, not only to British power, but toEuropean civilization, and it was necessary to fight toprevent that Germany's triumph. The decision to fight,of course, brought other problems in its train, but they,he thought (or hoped), could be dealt with (or post-poned). Meanwhile, there was a necessary war to win.Until the unlikely day arrives when historical revisionismreaches the point at which it no longer seems that Hitlerhad to be fought, Churchill's role in making Britain thefulcrum on which the war against the Third Reich turnedmust be acknowledged as his great claim to the recogni-tion and honor of posterity. LJ
FOOTNOTES
'Chamberlain, of course, understood this very well. If anymembers of his War Cabinet did not, a February 1940 paper byLord Stamp, an advisor to the Treasury, should have openedtheir eyes. In it, Stamp pointed out that at the rate Britain wasspending money, its foreign exchange reserves would soon beexhausted. What then?
6The sense of the war as the end of a world pervades HaroldNicolson's diaries and the letters exchanged between him andhis wife, Vita Sackville-West. This is only the most polished ex-pression of a sentiment widespread in establishment diariesand memoirs of the period.
7Of course, it is possible to argue that by the 1930s the Em-pire, far from being a source of strength, was exactly the op-posite. Correlli Barnett has developed this idea very powerfullyin The Collapse of British Power (London, 1972). But the keypoint here is the attitude of contemporaries.
21
—-•—num i i miwjjiiiiMijwiiifi
Callahan, continued
8 A great deal has been written about French anger at theBritish during the 1940 campaign. It is important in this con-text to stress that the British had as many causes for complaint,some of them better founded. The diaries of Ironside, Spears,and Brooke are full of them. If the British had decided tonegotiate a peace, many of them could have done so with theconviction — which would not have been without foundation— that they had done all they could, and that defeat was thefault of the French.
9It is interesting, indeed startling, to read in the War Cabinetminutes for late May the speculations of Halifax and Chamber-lain about the sort of peace they might be able to make withthe Axis. Halifax thought that Hitler would understand that aEuropean equilibrium was in Germany's interest, whileChamberlain, at one point, seemed to contemplate negotiatingaway Malta.
10It is worth noting that in the speech which linksChurchill's name forever with Westminster College, he spentas much time talking about Anglo-American relations as hedid discussing the advance of Russian power.
"Churchill to Chief of Air Staff, 7 October 1941. Cited inThe Grand Alliance (Boston, 1950), pp. 508-509. In many ways,of course, Britain and Germany were not equals in strength,which was the core of the strategic dilemma with which Chur-chill had to cope in 1940-41. Churchill's remarks on the opera-tional failings of the British Army are in The Hinge of Fate(Boston 1950), pp. 34-35. Montgomery's success was based onhis determination to fight only the sort of battle that theBritish army could fight. To discuss this issue is to bring up thewhole matter of Churchill's relations with the professionalmilitary. In the context of this paper, all that needs to be said isthat during the crucial years 1940-41, Churchill was right onthe large issues, however wrong he may have been on details.Britain needed allies and was not likely to find them by doingnothing. Churchill's principal strategic advisor in this periodwas Sir John Dill — a pessimist whom Churchill ultimately ig-nored. The last decade's revelations about "Ultra" have in factmade Churchill's relations with the generals look more, notless, defensible.
12It might not have been, had Hitler chosen the strategic op-tion for 1941 urged upon him by Admiral Raeder — a full-scaleonslaught on Britain's precarious position in the Middle East.If successful — and it nearly was, even with a minimal commit-ment of German resources — it would have so disrupted theimperial war effort that Britain might have been driven out ofthe war.
13Of course, as Churchill acknowledged even at the height ofthe Cold War, the Red Army tore the heart out of the Germanwar machine, but whether the Russians would have been ableto do it quite so successfully without Anglo-American aid andthe diversion of German resources by the other coalitionmembers is questionable. It is no denigration of Russian suffer-ings and triumphs to point out that they, like their coalitionpartners, needed all the help they could get to win.
14I would, however, argue that Churchill made one moregreat contribution to the ultimate success of the coalition whenhe prevented Anglo-American lives, resources and emotionalenergy from being squandered in a premature assault on north-western Europe in 1942.
15He also certainly provided American polemicists with aquarry from which ammunition is still being hewn for use incontemporary controversy. On this, see Theodore Draper's"Neoconservative History," New York Review of Books, January16, 1986.
ABOVE: "The news from France is very bad." The Prime Minister withLord Gort, British Expeditionary Forces commander, at Paris, 22 May1940. BELOW: The news from France will shortly be very good. WSCwith Gen. Eisenhower and staffs at Christmas luncheon, 1943.
22
100-75-50-25 YEARS AGOEDITED BY JOHN G. PLUMPTON
AUTUMN 1887 - AGE 13The Headmaster of Harrow, the Rev. J.E.C.
Welldon, promised to find a room for the boy"somewhere." Although six generations ofMarlboroughs had attended Eton, it wasdecided that Harrow-on-the-Hill would be ahealthier environment for Winston after hisrecent bout of pneumonia. Winchester hadalso been considered but Winston was happythat Harrow had been selected because he an-ticipated that the entrance examinationwould be less demanding. He was also pleasedthat he would be near the top of his Historyclass and his "Conduct Marks" were the besthe had ever had.
Winston hoped that his parents wouldcome down for his birthday, but Lord andLady Randolph were busy preparing for aseven-week visit to Russia. This journeycaused some anxiety in both Court andCabinet circles. The Queen informed LordSalisbury, "Think it of great importance thatthe Foreign Government and the countryshould know that Lord Randolph is goingsimply on a private journey in no waycharged with any message or mission from theGovernment." The Prime Minister assuredHer Majesty that the "Charge d'Affaires atSt. Petersburg has been instructed to let it beknown that Lord R. Churchill does not repre-sent opinions of either the Government orthe country."
Young Winston had his own concernsabout his parents' journey. Noting that hemust now spend the holiday without them,he wrote that he would make the "Best of abad job."
AUTUMN 1912 - AGE 38Disputes with high personages marked this
season for the First Lord of the Admiralty.One was with the Admiralty's senior com-
mander, Sir Francis Bridgeman, whom WSCurged to retire on the grounds of ill-healthbecause the "burden may be more than youcould sustain." Bridgeman did not wish to goquietly but acquiesced when told that Chur-chill's conclusion "must necessarily be final."The Bridgeman resignation became a majorpolitical problem for Churchill in the Houseand the Press. Five Sea Lords had been retiredby Churchill who was accused of wanting torun the show himself. He appointed PrinceLouis of Battenberg as the new First Sea Lordand Sir John Jellicoe as Second Sea Lord.
The greatest personage with whom Chur-chill disputed was King George V over thenaming of the Royal Navy's capital ships.When Churchill proposed the names of KingRichard I, King Henry V, Queen Elizabeth andOliver Cromwell, the Sovereign took seriousissue with the last name. Neither side seemedinclined to relent until Prince Louis of Bat-
tenberg advised the First Lord that Kingshistorically had the last word in namingships. Oliver Cromwell became Valiant.
His cousin, "Sunny," Ninth Duke ofMarlborough, wrote from France that he hadpurchased Winston a Christmas present, abathrobe, because "I have been shocked atthe manner in which you display your personwhen travelling to and from the bathroom,and I am making an effort to find you an ap-propriate leaf."
AUTUMN 1937 - AGE 63While rejecting the charge that he was an
enemy of Germany, except in wartime, Chur-chill expressed the view that he liked neitherthe new institutions nor the racial andreligious intolerance of the Nazis, but he waswilling to co-exist. What he most feared was arearmed Germany "which almost single-handed fought nearly all the world and nearlybeat them."
He looked to the United States foreconomic as well as political and militaryleadership of the Free World. He worriedabout the zealous New Dealers who, by wag-ing a ruthless war on private enterprise, wereactually leading the world back into a depres-sion.
Sir Maurice Hankey, a sometime con-fidante, expressed grave concern that Chur-chill had so many informants within themilitary, government and civil service. "Itshocks me not a little that high Officers indisciplined Forces should be in direct com-munication with a leading Statesman whonotoriously patriotic beyond criticism, isnevertheless in popular estimation regardedas a critic of the Departments under whomthese officers serve."
An international conference, naturallyboycotted by Germany and Italy, was held inSwitzerland to discuss Italian interference inMediterranean shipping lanes. While Chur-chill cautioned against assuming the role ofpoliceman for all ships, he also believed that ashow of strength would influence Italy. "Thedanger from which we suffer is that Mussolinithinks all can be carried off by bluff and bully-ing, and that in the end we shall only bletherand withdraw."
Great Contemporaries was published andwork progressed rapidly on volume four ofMarlborough.
AUTUMN 1962 - AGE 88A prolonged recovery period from his fall
during the summer "marked another definitestage in his slow decline."
Because his mobility was impaired, altera-tions were made to the Hyde Park Gateresidence. His office at No. 27 was converted
23
into a bedroom, with bay windows lookingout over the garden. An elevator was installedin No. 28 to permit access from the bedroomto the dining-room and the garden.
The events of the summer and autumn ex-erted considerable strain on Lady Churchilland friends rallied to her side. Violet BonhamCarter wrote: "It is though you alone couldreach him with comfort and amusement.Your 'private line' with him has remainedintact. Most people can be brave in shortspasms — but the steadfast endurance ofthe 'long haul' is attained by few. You havehad so many years of — sometimes intermit-tent, sometimes continuous — anxiety andstrain with never a let-up — and now W.needs you and claims more from you thanever before . . . "
Lady Violet organized a group of friends todine and play bezique with Sir Winston whileClementine had some time to herself or withher friends.
In October Sir Winston celebrated the com-pletion of 60 years in politics, uninterruptedexcept for two yeras in the 1920s. PrimeMinister Harold Macmillan and Lord Mount-batten came to lunch.
Although Churchill's deafness and declinecontributed to an increasing number of silentmeals at home, he did rally himself to dinewith the Other Club in November. He isreported to have given an excellent off-the-cuff speech and did not leave until midnight.
Sir Winston, ably supported by Det. Sgt.Eddie Murray, pays his last visit to Harrowfor "Songs," 1962. At the left is the head-master, Dr. R.L. James. The gentleman atright is not identified.
PHOTO KINDLY PROVIDED BY EDMUND MURRAY
tA&
Marvin Rintala, "Renamed Roses:Lloyd George, Churchill and theHouse of Lords," Biography 8(3),Summer 1985: 248-260.
Among the aspects of power inBritish society revealed by thepolitical struggle over the Budget of1909 were the personal and politicalidentities of David Lloyd George andWinston Churchill — the only twomembers of the Cabinet totally com-mitted to Lloyd George's Budget.
The Gladstonian tradition of 're-trenchment' was still strong in theLiberal Party in 1909. Liberalism hadan individualistic rather than socialemphasis, and Liberalism meantfreedom from governmental control;but to Lloyd George and Churchill,governing least was not what theywere in politics to do. They intendedto change Britain.
When the House of Lords, withoutmodern precedent, rejected theBudget, Lloyd George and Churchillset out to destroy the power of theLords and of the landed aristocracywhich controlled it.
The hostility between Lloyd Georgeand the Peers was mutual. Churchill,a scion of the great House of Marl-borough, may have winced when hisfriend referred to the eldest sons ofPeers as "the first of the litter."
Throughout his life, Churchillprided himself on his commonerstatus. Born Winston LeonardSpencer-Churchill, as a young man,he settled gradually upon WinstonSpencer Churchill, a dignified anddistinctive commoner's name. In1945, he declined the offer of GeorgeVI to make him Duke of Dover, andalso refused to become a Knight of theGarter. Later, he decided againstbecoming Duke of London, but finallyaccepted the offer of a knighthoodfrom Elizabeth II.
Winston Churchill was the only per-son outside the Lloyd George familyever to address the adult Lloyd Georgeas "David." Lloyd George was bornthe son of William George andElizabeth George. He was baptized"David Lloyd-George." Although heliked to call himself "one of thechildren of the people," who hadbecome "a man of the people," he wasnot exactly a British Lincoln. Hissocial origins were lower middle classand he lived in the most comfortablehome in his Welsh village.
Lenin described Lloyd George as
"that big, not petty, bourgeois," buthe was never, as Lenin thought, theleader of the British bourgeoise. Hewas from, but not of, the British mid-dle class. His political values weredecidedly those of the radical re-former.
As the victorious Prime Minister atthe end of the Great War, LloydGeorge accepted, as Churchill wouldat the end of his war, the Order ofMerit: the highest honour in the gift ofthe Crown which does not confer anytitle upon the recipient. But, likeChurchill, he refused the offer of aknighthood.
In 1944, ill with cancer, he feltunable to run for reelection butwanted a platform to speak out on theforthcoming peace settlement. So thePrime Minister, Winston Churchill,offered a peerage: "Earl Lloyd-Georgeof Dwyfor."
On 28 March 1955, Sir WinstonChurchill rose to speak one last timein the House of Commons as PrimeMinister. It was to move approval of astatue of the late Member for Caernar-von Boroughs. Today, statues ofDavid Lloyd George and WinstonChurchill flank the Churchill Arch,leading into the Chamber of the Houseof Commons. There is no memorial totheir lives in the House of Lords, ex-cept for the idle chatter of thepowerless.
Peter Fraser, "Cabinet Secrecyand War Memoirs," History70(230), October 1985: 397-401.
As Ministerial memoirs proliferate,the handling of the secrets of Cabinethas become a growing issue with apresent pragmatic solution comprisedof an absolute ban balanced by sometime limit.
Before 1914, the Cabinet operatedon a basis of personal confidentiality.Discussions were often tentative andinconclusive with no record beingkept of decisions apart from thesomewhat evasive summary whichthe prime minister sent to thesovereign.
When Winston Churchill left thegovernment in 1915, he took awaycopies of the Admiralty minutes,memoranda and telegrams and addedfurther documents later. The publica-tion of the final report of the Dar-danelles Commission in late 1919 was
24
his cue to seriously commence hismemoirs. He had his confidentialdocuments printed "with all properregard to secrecy" by Sir FrederickMacmillan, and commenced his con-necting commentary.
On 30 January 1922, the Cabinetfavourably responded to Churchill'splea that ministers be allowed to "vin-dicate their actions" against mis-representation "by publishing thenecessary documents."
When the first part of Churchill'swar memoir, The World Crisis, beganto be serialized in The Times inFebruary 1923, the ConservativePrime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law,had to face a fusillade of parlia-mentary questions probing the meansby which Cabinet disclosures could becontrolled. But Churchill's magnifi-cent narratives, acclaimed on allsides, had far too wide an appeal forany quibbles about his use of officialdocuments to carry weight. Getting atthe real truth about the War wasdeemed to be more important.
Later, Prime Minister StanleyBaldwin was pressed hard by somesections of the press and Members ofParliament to curb the journalistic ac-tivities of Lloyd George, Churchill andLord Birkenhead. His ruling of 3March 1927 banned ministers in officefrom writing in the press but not fromwriting for magazines on literary,historical or scientific questions.Churchill's serialized extracts fromThe World Crisis attacking AdmiralFisher were not included in the ban.
The government attempted toobtain all government papers datedafter 1919. Out of 87 ex-ministers,only ten declined to hand in theircopies. Winston Churchill was amongthe non-responders.
On 23 May 1945, Churchill remindedhis outgoing ministers to return theirdocuments but allowed them to takeaway those they had written them-selves or signed. His own SecondWorld War was a repeat performanceof his 1920s practice. In some re-spects, Churchill's example has hadretrograde results because it merelypostponed any serious discussion ofthe principles that should govern of-ficial secrecy and cabinet confiden-tiality.
Secrecy is the legacy of war, but thegreatest war leaders, Churchill in-cluded, have not had much use for itin peacetime. •
Edited by John G. Plumpton,130 Collingsbrook Blvd., Agincourt, Ontario, Canada Ml W 1M7
THE WORLD CRISIS1911-1914
The New Statesman, London (Vol. XXI,No. 522) 14 April 1923.
Mr. Churchill's book is incomparablythe best "war book" that has yet appeared.Mr. Churchill had first-hand information ofsupreme interest and importance, and he canwrite. He held what was in many respects thefinest post in the world, as supreme con-troller of that supreme naval instrument, theBritish Grand Fleet. His mind, of course, isthe mind of a War Minister, not of a PeaceMinister. His comments on political issues aresometimes almost childish in their naivete,just as were his extremely dangerous and ex-pensive views on the necessity of interveningmilitarily against the Bolsheviks. But whenthe War came he was in his element, and heproved his peculiar capacity convincinglyenough to those who were in close contactwith him. He interfered too often — from thestrictly professional point of view — intechnical naval decisions, but he did notinterfere wrongly, and when he left theAdmiralty, those of his subordinates whomourned his departure, and continued tomourn it, were, we believe, in the very sub-stantial majority.
Mr. Churchill, apart from his capacity forwork and his penchant for war, has an oddknack of inviting detraction. Of all the moreprominent British statesmen of the presentgeneration he is the most unpopular, but it isdifficult to assign any specific reason for hisunpopularity. Public opinion has magnifiedhis supposed blunders until they have as-sumed dimensions that would be enough todestroy for ever any politician less pugnaciousor less resilient.
History will vindicate the reputation of Mr.Churchill, who was one of the very few menin England who really had the "War mind."But for the moment we are concerned pri-marily with the merits of his book as a book;and certainly they are very high. One feels inreading his book that if the facts told againsthim they would be recorded all the same, andthat his bias is not a calculated bias. It isoffered frankly as his own account of theearly stages of the War as he saw them but,after all, Mr. Churchill was First Lord of theAdmiralty at a crisis of unprecedented navaldanger, and even his thoughts, adequatelyrecorded, are the proper and indispensablematerial of history. He has written a bookwhich is markedly egotistical but which ishonest and which certainly will long survivehim.
The British and American First Editions of Volume I (1911-1914)
The Times Literary Supplement, London (No.1,108), 12 April 1923.
Mr. Churchill's book is of three-fold in-terest: its vivid and skillfully constructed nar-rative, the reasoning he employs to defend hispolitical, strategical and administrative work,and, lastly, in his portrait of himself. To thehistorian of the future, this complete expres-sion of himself will be of great value. Chur-chill considers it his right and duty to tell howhe tried to perform his duties of high office.It is his right; of his duty we are less sure, forhe does not say whether he owes the dutyto the public or himself.
In 1909 Mr. Churchill was an opponentof the Admiralty program of construction,but Agadir in 1911 furnished a completeawakening.
Mr. Churchill brought new ideas and newmethods to the Admiralty. He began the or-ganization of a Naval staff. Constructionappealed greatly to Mr. Churchill and heallied himself to the school that called forlarger ships and larger guns.
Mr. Churchill takes exception to theCabinet's indignation at the expense. "In themidst of this," he remarks, "lay the existenceof our naval power." But did it? Thoughtfulmen may ponder whether cruisers or de-stroyers might have enabled an offensive tobe adopted at Jutland.
In the preparation of plans for war we seethe intention to cut off German commercefrom the world by closing the exits from theNorth Sea. We see no sign that German com-merce would be stopped from coming throughneutral harbours. It is strange to see the FirstLord informing the staff on trade rather than
25
the staff, if it had any corporate existence,informing the First Lord.
Mr. Churchill believes in the theory ofhunting the enemy down in war whileAdmiral Mahan had compared that to look-ing for a needle in a bundle of hay.
War was declared on August 4; and we findthat on August 5 a council of war met toarrive at a decision on the question, Howshould we wage the war that had just begun?It seems almost incredible that such a decisionshould have to wait until the day after thedeclaration of war. To what end, then, had allthe study of the staff been directed, if nottowards how to wage this expected war, inthese expected conditions?
Once war began, Mr. Churchill becamesomething of an "Admiralissimo." "I de-cided immediately to strike or search theocean." Miscarriages arose from faults in staffwork or errors of commanders.
The military campaign interested Mr.Churchill deeply and led him into theAntwerp expedition. A very large questionarises out of the whole incident — the de-gree to which it was the function of theAdmiralty to raise a Naval Division, or of theFirst Lord to take part in the militarycampaign.
Whether we agree or disagree with Mr.Churchill's views, we have no doubt of thevalue and importance of his book. What isthe main impression it leaves upon ourminds? We retain a picture of a strong,courageous personality, possessed of militaryinstincts and a vivid imagination. But lessconspicuous are the complementary qualitiesof sound knowledge and a capacity for form-ing a balanced judgment.
Churchill in StampsBY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
PAGES 79-84: WINSTON IS BACKOur philatelic biography now moves on to the period of Chur-
chill's "rehabilitation"' with the Llo>d George Cio\eminent andthe Bonar Law Tories' reluctant acceptance ot \\ SC as Ministerof Munitions. Ironically. he then became Minister of War — justas the war ended — and simultaneously directed the Air Ministry.Again, this period is documented by no Churchill com-memorative*, and we rel> as before on "Churchill-Related"(CR) issues.
Numbers are Scott (#) and Gibbon> tsg). A sl.ishm.irk (#1 8)means a set from which any stamp may be used.
79. Versailles is depicted on France *6S6 87 (sgll58 59) and#795 (sg1.1). Clemenceau (France #371.sg687) and Wilson (USA#1040. sglO38j are easily found on stumps but Lloyd George ap-pears only on Bardsey {Wales) labeU. I'SA ffS.^"7 isg546) notesWWI victory with stamps of Britain. France. USA. Italy andBelgium.
80. New states born at Versailles include Lithuania #77 8.(sg74'75) breaking her chains. Latvia #59 62 isg 31. 33 5) call-ing her Parliament to assemble. Estonia ff34 7 marking herseafaring history, and the Free Cit> of Danzig #81 95 (sg44 551at lower right. But a German label, lower left, is bordered blackin mourning: "Daiuig ist Deutseh!" became a battle-cry.
81. Representing countries [hat would ultimatel} survi\e areThomas Masaryk. Czechoslovakia *212 (sg335 38} and USA#1147/48 (sglH617); Finland #83107 (sg!87 230); and KingAlexander. Yugoslavia #102 15 (sg305-19). The Baltic port ofMcmcl, wrested from Germany, used overprinted French stampsduring Allied administration. In 1923 it was turned over toLithuania.
82. Heads of state and wartime leaders ot the immediate postwarperiod are gathered here, but the Churchill stamps are necessarilyportraits of WSC from 20 years on, since on Churchill coni-memorativesi with circa 1919 portraits exist. This cruci.il periodmust be recorded with CR stamps. CRs include the chief surviv-ing monarch*, of World War I. King George and Queen Mary.though George V was still Prince of Wales when this stamp.Canada #96 (sgl88) was issued in 1908. Isolationist PresidentHarding succeeded WiNon (USA «i84, sg685) while Rich(France #B98. sg663) warned that Versailles was merely "anarmistic for 20 years." Ironically, this is one of the last stampsissued by France in 1940 before surrendering to Germany.
83. As Churchill went to the War Otficc the Bolsheviks barelycontrolled Moscow and surrounding areas. The C/arist eagle(Latvian label) had now become a slain dragon (Russia #187,sgl99a). The imperforates are provisional stamps issued byDenikcn's White Russians, and are not catalogued.
84. The importance of Air is marked Italy'« 1968 WWI Victoryissue. In 1919 Churchill as Air Minister participated in honoringthe first non-stop trans-Atlantic flyers Alcock and Brown, com-memorated by Newfoundland #156 (Sg175), Canada #494(Sg636) and GB #588 (sg"91) — and the first UK-Australia non-stop run, shown on GB #588 (sg795). in November-December.
A continuing svries
80
ASCENDANCY
THE MISTAKES OF VERSAILLES
The all-powerful Allies gathered to conclude the Peace of Ver-sailles in 1919. While Its territorial provisions left Germanyintact, its economic clauses were in Churchill's words "silly,malignant and futile." Huge reparations were demanded from theGermans; they were never fully paid, but their burden spreadeconomic chaos throughout Germany in the early Twenties.
The victors:a venge fulClemenceau ofFrance; anidealistic butnaive Wilsonof the USA, ashrewd LloydGeorge ofGreat Britain.
GloriousVersailles,a monument toFrench triumph,personified themood of GeorgesClemenceau andwartorn France.
ASCENDANCY
REDRAWING THE MAP (I)
The wreck of Russia, whose government lay in shambles after theBolshevik takeover, enabled the long-dominated Baltic peoplesto proclaim their independence. The great powers recognized theBaltic States, hoping they would constitute a "cordon sanitaire"around the Bolshevik menace.
Churchillwas notconvinced,and he wasultimatelyproven right,about theviability ofLatvia,Lithuaniaand Estonia,though headmired thecourage oftheir peoplesin strivingfor freedom.
Versaillesalso createdan indepen-dent Poland,with an out-let to thesea, and. madethe port ofDanzig aFree State.Both thesedevelopmentswould festerin Germany.
to4 - W
IrfiiiFrtM
81
ASCENDANCY
REDRAWING THE MAP ( I I )
ASCENDANCY
THE WAR OFFICE
Three nat ions which were destined to survive t h a t came out ofthe Versa i l l e s Treaty were Czechoslovakia {carved out of the oldAustro-Hungarian Empire), Finland (one Ba l t i c State which wouldf ight repeatedly to r e t a in i t s independence) and Yugoslavia (anamalgam of the former independent s t a t e s of Serbia and Montenegroplus former provinces of Croat ia , Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina,Slovenia and Voyvodina.
Thcnas Masarykproclaimed theRepublic ofCzechoslovakiaon 30 October1918, jointlywith EduardBenes. Finland sdeclared herindependencein 1919.
King Alexanderwas the firstYugoslavmonarch.
Meroel, aBaltic port,was takenfrom Germany,administeredby the Alliesand assignedto Lithuaniain 1923.
83
In January 1919 Churchill was appointed simultaneously to theWar and Air Offices. Many of his enemies were thunderstruck—hedidn't deserve any Cabinet post, and now Lloyd George had givenhim two! War Offices were quiet generally in 1919, but not WSC'sHe championed the cause of the anti-Bolsheviks in Russia, whowere receiving British and American aid—but not, he said, much.
The Czaristeagle had bynow been re-placed bythe hammerand sickle.Early Sovietstamp showsthe Czaristsas a slaindragon.
Provisionalstamps is-sued, butprobably notused, inareas con-trolled byanti-SovietGeneralDenlken.WSC pushedfor moreaid toDeniken,but Lloyd
_ George felt" the Generalwas littlebetter than
the Bolsheviks,
ASCENDANCY ASCENDANCY
FUTURE FORBODINGS THE AIR MINISTRY
82
Churchill felt, as he later wrote, that independence movementswere not the best avenue to peace in Europe. "What was needed,"he said, "was unity and larger groupings.' But a fragmentaryurge was upon the victorious leaders. Everywhere they sponsoredand aligned themselves with national aspirations.
All theancientmonarchieswhich, forgood or ill,had kept thefabric ofcivilizationintact for100 yearsbefore thewar, wereshattered—all butBritain's.
PresidentWilson'ssuccessor waithe isola-tionistHarding.
Marshal Fochsaid, "Thisis not peaceIt is anarmisticefor 20years..."
84
Churchill was Secretary of State for Air from January 19-19 toApril 1921, dualling this job with the War Office—somethingof which his enemies—and Clementine—strongly disapproved.But he Isolated Air from War, and strove to build up a strong,flexible air defense as well as to encourage civil aviation.
Winston wasconvincedthat a sepa-rate DefenseDepartmentwould beneeded soon,in which Airwould play afar greater .role than atpresent.
Among hismore happyduties asAir Ministerwas theawarding ofhonors topilotsAlcock andBrown, whomade thefirst non-stop Trans-Atlanticflight onIk and 15June 1919.He called it"a most won-derful andvaliantachievement"which might"unite theEnglish-speaking
Non-stop fromEngland to
LET'S GET BEHIND THISI would be pleased to introduce a Bill
commemorating the 25th Anniversary ofSir Winston Churchill 's honoraryAmerican citizenship, and wanted to sharesome thoughts on what this would involve.
This type of legislation generally directsthe President to proclaim a certain day,week or month for the purposes of com-memorating the matter at hand. We needyour advice as to when such an observanceshould take place, and for what duration.Another aspect is the "where as" clauses,which serve as findings of Congress andadd to the significance of the resolution.Such findings would include statementsrelative to Sir Winston's outstanding con-tributions to freedom, his role in history,etc.
Bills of this nature are referred to theCommittee on Post Office and Civil Ser-vice, which has a rule that they will notconsider such a Bill until it has a minimumof 218 cosponsors. Once the Bill is in-troduced we would have our work cut outfor us in getting 218 Members signed on.Grassroots efforts on the part of the Inter-national Churchill Society would becrucial to the success of this Bill, asMembers of Congress, generally, will onlysign on as cosponsors if they have beencontacted by their constituents.
Another aspect of the strategy would beto have a counterpart introduced in theSenate. I am sure that we would have noproblem in obtaining a sponsor once theHouse version is established.
- REP. JUDD GREGG (NH)HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. WASHINGTON
We naturally replied that ICS wouldpull out all the stops — and we are capableof pulling a great many — toward the pro-clamation of "Winston Churchill Week"during the week encompassing 30November 1988. Will any member whocan assist in this Congressional processplease contact the Editor?
AND WE SHOULD KNOWThe photo caption on page 10, Summer
issue (56) is incorrect. Churchill is wearingthe undress or Windsor uniform of a PrivyCouncillor, together with the King GeorgeV Coronation Medal 1911 (out of its properplace — it should appear after his cam-paign medals), India General ServiceMedal 1895, Sudan Medal 1896-97,Queen's South Africa Medal with six bars,Spanish Order of Military Merit and theKhedive's Sudan Medal 1896 with bar.
It was customary until World War II formembers of the Privy Council to appear inuniform on State and semi-State occa-sions.
- H.A.D. OLIVER. QC. VANCOUVER. BC
And the editor of all people should haveknown, since I picked out a similar photoof WSC and Morley for ICS Cover 19,marking the anniversary of WSC's PrivyCouncillorship, in 1982.
QUOTATION CORRECTIONThe Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
ascribes "soft under-belly" not to a talkwith Stalin but to WSC's speech in Parlia-ment, 11 November 1942. But neither TheEnd of the Beginning nor Volume I of theWar Speeches record the word "soft."
- GERALD MC CUE. LEXINGTON, MASS.. USA
"SEVEN STAIRS" AND WSCOur home was well known to Sir
Winston though never in the public eye.He used the house during the war and wasvisited by Monty, who stayed in Ramsgate.At that time he slept in the butler's room,as it was considered safer by the backstairs. WSC last used the house during theConservative Conference at Margate in the1950s.
— MRS. B.B.S. BRENNER"SEVEN STAIRS," BROADSTAIRS. KENT, UK
CHURCHILL'S BRITAIN 1987I thank you most sincerely for express-
ing your hope that I return to the House ofCommons. I am looking forward to receiv-ing "The Dream."
I am trying very hard to find a Member ofthe House who will take over the SirWinston Churchill National Day Bill, andhopefully have it on the statute book.
As mentioned in my speech at theReform Club, I have been and have doneall sorts of things in my life, but never wasMaster of Ceremonies. However, I hope Idid not let anyone down, and sincerelyhope that the International ChurchillSociety will go from strength to strength.
- STEFAN TERLEZKI. CARDIFF. WALES
We want to thank you for including us atthe last minute in the tour — loved everymoment. We were particularly pleased tobe with such a pleasant group. They wereso easy to get along with!
- DOROTHY BOYDEN ANDMARIE & LORIN SMITH. CHICAGO, USA
I must tell you how delighted I am withmy first issue of Finest Hour. This is ob-viously a journal par excellence. Do youhave back issues available?
Can you give me the mailing address ofLady Soames? I would like to write her.
- JUNE E. TIMM. MC MINVILLE. ORE. USA
Back issues are available for US$3 fromICS Stores, 25 Easton Lane, ChagrinFalls, OH 44022. In Canada, Australiaand UK, they may be ordererd fromBranch offices at C$4, A$5 and £2ppd. ICS Stores, operated by Sue Truax,issues lists of available items in everyother issue; this one should contain it.
The editor will gladly forward any let-ters from members to Lady Soames orother ICS Honorary Members.
28
Q. Can you give us the source ofChurchill's remark, "We shape ourhouses, and afterwards our houses shapeus"?
A. Speech to Parliament, 28 October 1943,on the rebuilding of the House of Com-mons after earlier bomb damage.
Q. Our foreign desk is doing a story abouta Minister of Trade admitting he liedabout a helicopter manufacturer, and weseem to recall Churchill, having misledthe House, admitting it. Can youreference this? -NY TIMES
A. ICS and the Fulton Memorial regularlybounce this type of media question backand forth. This time Fulton tapped Friendof the Memorial and ICS member JohnDavid Marshall, who quoted from page 102of the original edition of IrrepressibleChurchill, by Kay Halle:
"Asked for embarrassing statistics in theHouse, WSC, then Chancellor of the Ex-chequer, gave assurances he would havefigures the following day. True to his wordhe poured forth a dazzling array to theHouse. His amazed staff confessed it wouldhave taken them six months to producethem. "And," said WSC, "it will take theOpposition six months to prove I am inerror!"
0. I have a so-called first edition of RobertSherwood's Roosevelt and Hopkins whichI am told is not a first after all. Can youtell me how the publishers, Harper &Bros, identified firsts? Mine has a versocode of "A-Y."
A. Not all Harper firsts contain the versostatement "first edition," but the com-plicated Harper code indicates yours is nota first. The two-letters stand for month (A-I= Jan-Sep, K-M = Oct-Dec) and year(w = 1947, X = 1948, Y=1949, etc.). SinceRoosevelt and Hopkins was published in1948, a first would have to contain a codeending in "-X" not "-Y." The earliest edi-tion I have seen is coded "M-X" meaningDecember 1948, but I am not sure this is afirst either.
Q. I have been quoted prices for two rareAlderney and Sark Churchill locals withinverted overprints (see ICS Churchill
Handbook pp. 1.21 and 1.32) from bothRushstamps (GB) and Petite Gallery(Canada) but Rushstamps say they ac-quired the only sheet of 50 stampsknown. Why then do they both have thestamps?
A. The inverts surfaced five years ago inGuernsey, and were sold exclusively by aSt. Peter Port dealer who has since, nodoubt, sold off some of them. The dealersyou mention are both reputable, so wemay assume the sheet has been broken up.
RECORD GROWTH IN '87Congratulations all round! ICS has en-
joyed its greatest growth on record, a huge50% gain over this time last year, and isstill evenly divided between the USA andCommonwealth. If we borrowed the prac-tice of counting couples as one membereach, we could boast of 2000 membersalready.
Canada retains the title as best-represented in ICS, with membership farexceeding her percentage of the popula-tion. But the most spectacular gain wasregistered by Australia — over 300% upthrough the hard efforts of Peter Jenkinsand Bill Galvin.
Contrary to our expectations, the$16,000 USA direct mail campaign hascontinued to pay off — not through furthermass mailings but through our use of the
materials, some of which were reprinted.While this still represents a net loss, thecost is far smaller than it was once, andcontinues to diminish.
This does not mean we will contemplateanother pricey direct mail campaign — butwe are benefitting from lessons learned.
Members will be sent application formsfor distribution to friends shortly. Help ICSreach 2000 strong in 1988.
MEMBERSHIP 22 OCTOBER 1987
CountryAustraliaCanadaU.K.U.S.A.Others
Now37
356140685
25
Pet.3%
29%11%55%
2%
YrAgo12
244113435
15
Change+ 25
+ 112+ 27
+ 250+ 10
Total 1243 100% 819 +424
AUSTRALIANSW: Balmain/Roz Fidge; Homebush/R.
McCluskie; Wollstonecroft/Jack AddisonVIC: Blackburn S/Churchill Fellows
Assn.; S. Yarra/John Elliott
CANADAALB: Calgary/Peter C. Bawden, G.
Ewart Brown, Fred Mannix, Justice H.S.Patterson, W.H. Tye
BC: Vancouver/Public LibraryNB: Riverview/Louis QuigleyONT: Don Mills/Judith Mattingley; Ne-
pean/Rolf Meier; Peterborough/Scott H.Hicks; Toronto/Marlene Allen
PEI: Kensington/Archibald Johnstone
UNITED KINGDOMCUMBRIA: Barrow/S.N. SabharwalESSEX: Loughton/Graham Forbes;
Southend/Jane GoslingHANTS: Bassingstoke/George SteibKENT: Beckenham/M.J. Kay; Broad-
stairs/Mrs. B.B.S. Brenner; Bromley/Mr&Mrs E. Joyce; Dartford/G.E. Skinner;Gravesend/Alan Ridgers; Welling/LcdrF.W.J. Strong RNR; Westgate/ChristopherDowns; W. Wickham/ Joseph Walker
LONDON: Mr&Mrs H.L. Bell, C.C.Brown Cdr. Winston G. Churchill, Bar-bara Cooper, C.R. Perioli, James Thomas
SURREY: Cobham/Jamie de Sola;Kenley/Mr&Mrs J. Reed; WorcstrPk/Mr&Mrs Martin
SUSSEX: Bexhill/Prof. P.S. Gardner; E.Grinstead/David Merritt
WARKS: Nuneaton/Peter Mclver
UNITED STATESAL: Birmingham/Ben G. McDaniel, W.
Eugene Rutledge; Fairhope/Craig DahleAZ: Chandler/Zoyd R. Luce; Tucson/
Henry MandelbaumCA: Carmel Valley/Lois Harlow;
Hillsborough/Hubert I. Ziman; HuntingtonBch/Robert Castrey; Newbury Pk/ThomasMcClintock; Pleasant Hill/John Marana;Sacramento/Robert Bell, William E.Saracino _. ,
CT: Fairfield/Harvey W. Greisman; OldSaybrook/Wm. R. Davis; Stratford/JackHughes
CO: Aurora/Kenneth S. Coors;Parker/Robert W. Hatch II
DC: Washington/Steven J. Lambakis,
Christopher Nyce, Charles W. Snyder,Arthur Sullivan
FL: Clearwater/M.M. Pique; Lees-burg/Margaret L. Lewis; Orlando/ WilliamP. Johnson; Miami Bch/Maureen Blum;Sarasota/John F. Hawkridge
GA: Atlanta/Thomas HughesIL: Chicago/Jane Crowley, Fred J.
Harris, Anthony M. Ryerson, Garrison A.Southard, Mrs. Gardner H. Stern; Deer-field/George Mitchell; Galesburg/James W.Hill; Naperville/Jeff M. Boggan
KY: Louisville/James M. CaldwellKS: Wichita/Tim RivesLA: Shreveport/J.L. FrostMA: Boston/Lewis P. Cabot, Joshua J.
Vernaglia; Cambridge/Mark W. Bennett;Concord/G. Eric Jackson; Norwell/RichardA. Leahy; Sharon/Donald H. Carvin
ME: Camden/William B. CannellMD: Salisbury/Althea H. WhitneyMI: Detroit/Gary J. BonineMN: Kasson/Matthew Tordoff; Minne-
tonka/Dennis E. Burke; Rochester/LloydWells
MO: Farmington/Opal Wright; KC/Theodore C. Beckett
MS: Vicksburg/Bobby D. RobinsonNC: Charlotte/Eric Karnes; Concord/Roy
B. NewsomNJ: N. Brunswick/Dr. Voorhees E. Dunn
Jr; Short Hills/Dominic F. AmorosaNM: Alamagordo/Courtney Crenshaw,
Kevin D. Smith; Albuquerque/Dr. StephenGregg
NY: Buffalo/Richard Tobe; FreshMeadows/Peter Wynne; Hamburg/BarbaraBrandes; Mt. Kisco/Charles L. Carrick;NYC/Angela M. Painter
OH: Cleveland/Mr&Mrs P. Knaack;Columbus/Norman M. Spain
OR: Portland/Ladis K.D. KristofPA: Bloomsburg/Dr. Curtis W. Vickers;
Natrona Hts/Norman R. Wash; Phila-delphia/Bernard Wojciechowski; Pitts-burgh/Peter Flocos
SC: Ft. Jackson/Dr. Dave Lounsbury;Greenville/David W. Plowden
TN: Manchester/Walter D. Colwell;Tullahoma/Roy B. Broster Jr.
TX: Austin/D.R. Bustion; Dallas/MichaelW. Huddleston; Ft. Worth/Stephen P.Christie; McAllen/Mrs. Ray Moore; Mo.City/Dr. Gerald M. Reed; San Angelo/William A. Buche DDS
UT: Salt Lake City/Robt. S. Campbell Jr.
29
VA: Arlington/Joseph A. Esposito; Lex-ington/Adam T.R. Pantaze
WA: Seattle/Dzidra Razevska-UpansWI: Wis.Rapids/Henry W. Bennett
WORLDWIDEGERMANY: Berlin/Michael SegalSINGAPORE: Leonard SebastianSO. AFRICA: Rondebosch/john Coull
FREE TO MEMBERS
ChurcKili's London:
Spinning Top of Mi
Of li*wu*i Ram and
ICS published in September MartinGilbert's outstanding address, "Chur-chill's London." If you did not receive acopy (28pp, blue cover) in the generalmailing, simply write the editor.
COLLECTEDWORKS OF
SIR WINSTONCHURCHILL
Available again: a small remainderfrom this 1974 Centenary Editionlimited to 1850 copies. All WSC'sbook-length works, 5 million words,41/z ft long, 90 lbs. Luxurious redmorocco, gilt page edges & em-bossments, each volume in match-ing slipcase. Complete details fromChurchillbooks, Burrage Road, Con-toocook. New Hampshire 03229
Woods Corner BY THE EDITOR
A continuing forum on corrections and additions to the WoodsBibliography of the works of Sir Winston Churchill. Readers are invited tosend their observations to the editor for publication here.
A31(a): Scribners' The Unknown War had at least three impres-sions, two in 1931, one in 1932. The latter is dated "1932" on titlepage, with no special codes on verso; bound in reddish-brown smoothcloth with same gilt type as usual on spine and cover, but in addition,a blind rule around the edges of the top board.
A40(b): Scribners republished the six-volume Marlborough during1950. The books have the usual green binding, a shade darker, but areonly about 2/3rds as thick owing to thinner paper, and have no versocodes. The date on all title pages is "1950." We have not seen Volumes4-6 as yet.
A44/A45(DA): A single volume in half blue morocco was pub-lished containing the Danish Mens England Sov and Skridt For Skridtbound together. Since each has its own pagination they must havebeen issued separately, yet this almost seems like a publisher's variantor perhaps a deluxe edition.
A1O7: A second impression of The Dawn of Liberation exists bearingthe verso note, "Second Edition . . . June 1947." There is no mentionof a second impression in November 1945, as stated by Woods.
"C80/1": A Cabinet Minister as Art Critic /Winston Churchill on theArt of the Laverys, was published in Arts & Decoration, NY, December1921, Volume 16, page 169. This would appear to be the "C" counter-part to B8/1, whether complete or not I don't know. Although pre-ceded by a paragraph of introduction and itself set off in quotes, it is abetter contribution than many "B" items already listed.
C482: Canadian appearance, The Second World War serialization:The Standard, Montreal, carried a six part serialization of THEGATHERING STORM, as follows:
Part I, 24Apr48, pages 1-8, 10, 12-14, 16-17, 19-21, 23, 25-30.Part U, lMay48, pages 1-10, 12, 14, 16-17, 19-21, 23-25, 27-29, 31.Part IE, 8May48, pages 1-10, 12-14, 16-17, 19-20, 23-25, 26-29, 31.Part IV, 15May48, pages 1-8, 10, 12-15, 18-20, 23, 25-29, 31.Part V, 22May48 but I had only the cover to look at.Part VI, 29May48, pages 1-6, 8-10, 12-1.4, 16-18, 20-21, 23, 25, 27-31.Part VI mentions at the end that the next volume would be
serialized, but these are the only issues examined.
"D(a)10/l" : Peace Aims/British Offical Statements/A ChronologicalRecord, from September 2, 1939, to September 24, 1941, published byBritish Library of Information, apparently in late 1941 (printed byRumford Press, Concord, NH), is not mentioned by Woods. Containsthese WSC reprinted speech excerpts, some of which (*) may be firstappearances:
plO, Commons, 13May40, excerpt (You ask what is our aim?)plO, Commons, 18June40, excerpt (All will be restored)*pl2, Commons, 5Sept40, excerpt (re Rumania)*pl2-13, Broadcast to Czechs, 30Sep40, excerptpl4, Mansion House, 9Nov40, excerpt (enslaved nations)*pl4-15, Commons, 21Nov40, excerpt (war aims)*pl8 Commons, 22Jan41, excerpt (postwar problems)*pl8-19, Commons, HFeb41 (answer to question)*p24-25, Altantic Charter text, 14Aug41*p25, Broadcast, 24Aug41, excerpt (Argentia meeting)*p26-27, Commons, 9Sep41 (peace and war aims)"D(a)19/2":' Winston S. Churchill/Ord Paa Vejen, edited by Arne
Stevens, Copenhagen: Hasselbalchs 1954. Number 137 in "Hassel-balchs Kultur-Bibliotek." Another of the "Wit and Wisdom" books(indeed this is I think the title) but not a reprint of one of the Englishworks. Intro plus 7 chapters: Churchill on himself, on others, onpolitics and parties, on "Udenrigspolitik og fremmede lande," on war,Churchill's Humor and Churchill's Philosophy. 68pp hardbound indecorative paper covered boards.
D(b)102: The Unknown Prime Minister [Bonar Law]:p51 (not 81 per Woods), ltr to BL on Law's Canada trip, 1906p55 ltr to BL on Liquor debate (excerpt), 1908pi85 speech re Ulster (excerpt but crucial), 14 Mar 1914p381 ltr to BL re Beaverbrook (excerpt) 8 Sep 1918"D(b)115/4": [temporary Woods no.] LORD DERBY/'KING
OF LANCASHIRE71865-1948 by Randolph S. Churchill, London,Heinemann, 1959 contains two letters to Derby from WSC . . .
p369, 11 Apr 20 re Spears mission to French Armyp482, 29 Nov 22 re Derby/Birkenhead reconciliationD(c)l 18: The American Edition of I Can Hear It Now is Columbia
Masterworks, my copy bearing the number KOL7000 "formerlyKOL5066." No date but since it was produced by Murrow andFriendly, I believe it is the true first.
20/21 August 1988/New EnglandInternational Churchill Society Annual
General Meeting, White Mountain Hotel,Bretton Woods, NH, USA.
Autumn 1989/AustraliaInternational Churchill Society Annual
General Meeting, Sydney.
>•<..
23 August 1987Our third New England luncheon offered ;
"cold Champagne, hot baths, new peas iand old brandy" to 35 guests, the largest ?•.gathering yet. The "Hoe Farm Menu" was [heartily enjoyed by all. Right: Some ofthe hungry. fa
AT THE FUNERAL PROCESSIONOF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
Who was this knight whom we salute with prideWiping our tears —
As he sets out upon his last long ride?He was the chosen voice, the lion's roar,
Roll'd down the years,That roused our Nation in the grip of war,Inspired and strengthened by that unseen Power,
Bless 'd by his God.He was the emblem of our "finest hour".He was the sword that smote upon the rock
(Like Aaron's rod)Of numb'd bewilderment and reeling shock.As with unerring strokes he cleft the stone,
Surg'd forth the floodOf England's greatness as she stood alone."Blood, sweat and tears" he warned us to foresee
Tears, sweat, and bloodWe shared, before the final victory.Alike to humble home and lonely post,
Scorning retreat,
His trumpet call went out from coast to coast.Now, to that greatest 'venture of them all,
Mission complete,He rides obedient to God's clarion call.
- BARBARA BURTON
Ed. Note: Mrs. G.W.S. Burton, who composed this poeticeulogy to Sir Winston, wrote it just before his StateFuneral. This is the second time it has been published, thefirst being in Finest Hour #32.
"THEIR FINEST HOUR: CHURCHILL AT NUMBER TEN, JUNE 1940"BY ANDREW TURNER FOR THE HISTORY IN PORCELAIN CO.SOLD TO BENEFIT WOUNDED VETERANS OF WORLD WAR II
10 OF THE LIMITED EDITION OF 375 EXAMPLESLEFT FROM 24 ASSIGNED TO ICS MEMBERS
AT A SAVINGS OF £ 50 (US $88)THROUGH 31 DECEMBER 1987
A classic porcelain shows WSC in his best-known stance at TenDowning Street, holding Homburg and cane, his gold Albert hangingfrom his waistcoat. Turner's meticulous art correctly represents eventhe damaged bootscraper (kicked by a horse in 1926). Each 11V2-inch-high figure requires 245 hours to hand-paint and finish by a team offormer Royal Worcester artisans.
In a world of inaccurate and sometimes even degrading images of SirWinston, Turner's work is certified authentic by The Lady Soames,The Lord Home, Sir John Colville and a member of the household staffLily Friend. Certificates of accuracy, signed by these authenticatorsare sent to each purchaser.
The work is produced to raise funds for the "Guinea Pigs" - severelyburnt British, American and Commonwealth aircrews from the1939-45 war; and for aging members of the Armed Forces "who tend tobe forgotten in the publicity that abounds to assist Third World coun-tries." In view of ICS' charitable status, 10 remaining examples arereserved for members through 31 December at £50 ($88 US) below thepublic price. A 50% deposit reserves yours. (Balance payable before 30January, after which allow 8 weeks delivery.) Cheques payable ICSmay be sent to branch offices.
The Work (reg. £535 = $936)Shipping (insured airpost*)Polished hardwood plinthe (ppd.)
UK USA Canada Australia£485 $848 $1130 $1150
£18 $40 $52 $55£22 $39 $50 $52
•UK shipment by hand messenger; free with lOmi of Sevenoaks
More photographs from Churchill's Britain continued from page 17
ABOVE: Barbara Langworth, Pol Roger's Bill Gunn, Dr. James Scales, ReformClub sponsoring member. BELOW: Airlie Castle, Lady C's ancestral home.
ABOVE: R.H. with Stefan Terlezki, former MP, our master of ceremonies.BELOW: The Canadian-American delegation at Loch Fyne Hotel, Argyll.
HI
I M M O R T A L W O R D S
"Every Man to His Post"
This effort of the Germansto try to secure daylight mastery of the air over England
is, of course, the crux of the whole war.So far it has failed conspicuously . . .
Nevertheless, all their preparations for invasion on a great scaleare steadily going forward . . .
Therefore, we must regard the next week or soas a very important period in our history.
It ranks with the days when the Spanish Armadawas approaching the Channel,
and Drake was finishing his game of bowls;or when Nelson stood between us
and Napoleon's Grand Army at Boulogne.We have read all about this in the history books;
but what is happening now is on a far greater scaleand of far more consequence
to the life and future of the worldand its civilisation
than these brave old days of the past.These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London
are, of course, a part of Hitler's invasion plans.He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians,
and women and children,that he will terrorize and cow the people
of this mighty imperial city,and make them a burden and an anxiety to the Government. . .
Little does he know the spirit of the British nation,or the tough fibre of the Londoners,
whose forebears played a leading partin the establishment of Parliamentary institutions,
and who have been bred to value freedomfar above their lives.
This wicked man,the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred,
this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame,has now resolved to try to break our famous Island race
by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.What he has done is kindle a spark in British hearts,
here and all over the world,which will glow long after all traces
of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed .and until the Old World — and the New —
can join hands to rebuildthe temples of man's freedom and man's honour,
upon foundations which will not soonor easily be overthrown.
- BROADCAST, LONDON, 11 SEPTEMBER 1940
