WINSTON CHURCHILL'S DEFEAT

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 16

WINSTON CHURCHILL'S DEFEAT

"It will do him a lot of good," said everyone when the n,ews of Mr. Winston Churchill's defeat in North-west Manchester was announced last Friday night. And the comment was not an unkindly one. A young man of forceful character and great abilities is generally the better for a set-back now and then, whereas a career of unbroken and brilliant success is liable to turn his head. Failure may crush a weaker character; it steadies and braces a strong one. It readjusts the perspectives, calms ■ the exuberance, and strengthens the determination of the "young man in a hurry." It is this idea that underlies the general opinion that Winston Churchill's defeat will play a useful part in the development of his character.

• He took it well, though the result of the election must have been a heavy blow. With head erect, and pale, immobile face, looking neither to right nor left, he walked to the counting-room in the town hall to learn the .figures. Already the shadow of defeat, which had been haunting him and his friends for three days past, was settling over him. When he entered the room the counting was nearly over, and it was seen that Mr. Joynson-Hicks, the Unionist candidate, had won. Winston-Churchill was the first to congratulate him. "I must say you are a real brick to say what you have said," replied Mr. Hicks. Meanwhile the figures were being announced to the public, and the crowd in the town hall went wild with jubilation and excitement. Amid it all the pathetic figure of the President of the Board of Trade, leaning on his mother's arm, made its way slowly to the door. Winston Churchill had pulled himself together a little, and Mrs. Cornwallis West seemed to speak encouraging words to soothe the bitterness of this terrible defeat, sustained in the hour of his splendid promotion. "The scene," says an eye-witness, "was full of pathos, even tragedy. Haughtily indifferent to a cheer raised in his honour, Mr. Churchill assumed a devil-may-care smile as the police made a path for him through the mass of people who crowded round, but it was a sad, sorrowful look he wore as he passed down the stairway to a quiet exit followed by his entourage. It was a pity that the crowd inside struck up the song, "Good-bye, Winston." The scene was so dramatic, so pitiful in its tragic significance that the voice of triumph seemed to mar the effect."

It was a manly speech that the defeated candidate made to his downcast supporters at the Reform Club. later in the evening. '"I know the forces on our side," he said, "and I cannot but exhort you to be of good courage. Such a blow, heavy, bitter, and crushing though it is, must not crush you or alter your stern resolution. We have a clear conscience in this hour of our despondency. I at any rate have a clear conscience. I have done my best, and when I leave this city I leave , it devoid of hate. You have in Manchester a great school of political thought, and do not let an incident like this weaken your effort. Win or lose, sink or swim, in good days or bad days, have faith in the cause."

This defeat is the worst blow the Liberal Government has sustained since coming into office, and it speaks eloquently of the change in public opinion that has-come over the country in the last twelve months. A strong reaction .against the Liberals has undoubtedly set in. '