WINSTON CHURCHILL AS BRITAIN’S WAR LEADER

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24627, 25 July 1945, Page 6

WINSTON CHURCHILL AS BRITAIN’S WAR LEADER

ROAD TO VICTORY

[By GUY EDEN]

Sometime, somebody who knows all the facts, will write the story of the Battle of the Factories that raged all that desperate year, 1940, and in.1941, 1942, 1943, to ease up only slightly m 1944 and 1945. it is a Story as heroic ahd full of drama as any in the history of the world. . Churchill went about the country, visiting factories, making speeches,offering words of congratulation. He kept things going in the rhythm, and With the enthusiasm, so essential m those dark days. He kept a cheerful yet determined manner. None knew that, all the time, anxiety was gnawing at the hearts M the members of the War Cabinet. . Not until distance has given the proper perspective to ttie picture oi those times shall we be able to assess adequately thb value pf the services of Winston Churchill—and ol ; his Ministers —ih those troubled times. But nobody who khows the facts will dispute that the speeches and tpe public appearances he made were perhaps the most important of all the weapons we had. Wkr on Officialese This master of forceful, direct, often colloquial English had no time for the stilted language of officialdom, in the htidst df the stresses ahd anxieties of 1840 he Seht to all departments m Whitehall a memorandum ordering the use of plain, simple English in official documents.. Two stories of his campaign. against officialese delighted what are called “political circles.” One concerned a high Minister whose style was, to put it mildly, a little pompous. He sent Winston a memorandum which the Prime Minister read with growing impatience. Then, seizing a sheet of mittute-paper, he wrote on it in red ink, attached it to the memorandum, and sent it back to the author. Ahd the astonished Minister (so the story ran) read: “This is an example of bastard and stilted English, up with which I will not put! W.S.G.” . The other story concerned a Minister who seht the Prime Mittistet Wife notes of.,a speech he proposed to make. Winston waded tnroUgh them with patience and, pinning them together, looked up at a secretary With the dry comment: “This appears to contain every, cliche known to the English language, except ‘Please adjust yout dress before leaving.’” He also found time to circulate a memorandum to heads of departments sternly ordering that milk bottles were not to be left outside the doof of a room near his War Room in a Whitehall building! What had hap--penod was that the department’s Home Guard, Whose guardroom was -next door to the Premier’s room, had been in the habit of leaving their empty milk bottles in the corridor to be collected. . PJt Throws Rattles One hlght, called hurriedly to the War Rohm, and wearing ohiy pyjamas, a dressing-gown and slippers, Churchill kicked over a number of bottles, which rolled all over the corridor. Picking up several of them, he hurled them angrily against the viall, and soon afterward dictated his Ultimatum to the offenders. The spectacle of the head of the Government furiously—and not silently—pursuing the rolling bottles was, as one who was present told me, a “sight for sore eyes.” The years 1940 and 1941 Were years calling for long-sighted and dangerous decisions. We had so ‘pitifully little of anything to spare in Britain that it needed many Cabinet meetings and conferences of Ministers to

make the fateful decision whether to send reinforcements of men and materials to the Middle East, to ensure that we had a chance of standing up against the well-armed and wellsupplied Italians and their German “stiffening.” The military experts made their appreciations of the position and the chances of success and failure. ThO Cabinet talked it over, looked at the pros and cons. In the end it was left to the Minister of Defence himself to make the final decision. The North Africa Decision What a crushing burden that must have been! They say Churchill looked a haggard man as he came out of his room after making the fateful decision on that mass of soulless papers. But he gave calm and precise orders. The reinforcements asked for were to go. The fortes in North Africa were to have the cream of our men and supplies. They were to be convoyed on the vast journey round by the Cape, every toile of it a peril. “PSft*y Godi” said Churchill quietly, “it’s the ' right decision.” The decision was undoubtedly one of the major turning points of {ft war, for the arrival of those reinforcements, providentially in the hick of time, just turned the scale and enabled General Waved to act. Never was a daring decision so sbiftly , ; fruitful. It was as a result of Hitler’s Evasion of Russia that Churchill hed to make what was perhaps—almost certainly—the most difficult political- decision he was called on to make in ; the whole course of the war. He was at Chequers when the news of the German attack came. He was roused —it was 6.30 in the mornifig—ta Bfc told the news, and, sitting up ia bfdL?. he made up his mind to announcing the decision to range ESt*' tain’s strength and resources behind, Those Close to him went about all day shaking their heads doubtfully,' saying he had made a great she take, that the ‘‘country would not staftd f6r it” aria that We WOW ' adding another liability to our al- r ready dangerously lottg list. The Russian Alliance ■ It is not too much to say that, that ' 7 Sunday morning, Winston Churchill took bis political life in his hands. If his decision had gone wrong on top of the other stresses and troubles .?>: frotn which the notion was then . suffering, there would hhve been a .< political crisis of the fitSt magnitude. “I know I am fight!’’ Wap his reply to all suggestions, that be should wait and she now things WOnt before ■ committing himself. “I she® broad- * < cast to-night!” He did. “The fool—he’s finished himself!” an important politician told me, *, angrily, on the telephone, a few min- */, utes after the broadcast. "The House v. hj will tear him to pieces for thisf* wit the House, and the country* took die whole thing with remarkable eftmpl >S “I don’t bclievfe you are fira.gi|n v.f Russia’s Weakness/’ .WteteS' ‘VS friend, “antiL. even : jt . you . -imm .; 'if country fighting the Nazis anin 'llpe >t our support!'’ . -tfS 1$ It was decided to send and supplies from i>ur own Stead# stores. Churchill never tired, ofte- - ! $ minding the less courageous “la war, one has to take big risks to secumflfote big gains. I believe that this is sn j fto'jSe--, yestmeht in Victory, I believe , Russians will Squeeze the ydty.. out of the Nazis. And I believe' -thrtM ; -.;%' everything we send them will be Weas' : . ! || used. So send some more!” It Wat' a daring prophecy, a daring action, '] :.||| (To be Continued.) ’'||| —■ ' safe ■•Js