CHURCHILL’S HEALTH

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 9

CHURCHILL’S HEALTH

“Stroke Reports Baseless”

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 10 pjn.) LONDON, Sept. 17. Sources close to Sir Winston Churchill prefer to ignore reports that the Prime Minister recently suffered a paralytic stroke. Such reports are known to be without any basis, and are rumours which arose after the Prime Minister had been ordered to take a rest by his doctors. who diagnosed excessive fatigue. Sources close to No. 10 Downing Street say Sir Winston Churchill himself prefers to remain silent about his health.

His recent activities had given the lie to reports of “strokes," high sources said.

Sir Winston Churchill is known to be handling state affairs with his accustomed energy. Even during the first weeks of his “rest” he was in close touch with urgent Government business and continued to deal with state papers while at Chequers, his official country residence, and at Chartwell, Kent, his own country home.

He has shown no ill-effects after recent Cabinet meetings at which he presided. He will leave for a holiday in the south of France tomorrow, without his personal physician (Lord Moran!.

Indeed, Sir Winston Churchill, far from having suffered a stroke, is planning to make his first big public speech since his illness at the Conservative Party’s annual conference next month.

ANZUS PACT

Press Criticism In Britain

LONDON, September 16. “The Times,” in a leading article dealing with the Anzus Pact, states: “This country has, or ought to have no quarrel with the United States, Australia, and New Zealand having joined together in a small security pact, originally designed to counter a long-term threat from rearmed vigorous Japan.” The newspaper says that the real objection to the Anzus Pact is not that it offends London’s dignity, but that by its existence it may block the introduction of any wider collective security arrangement in the Far East, designed to meet urgent problems of today and tomorrow, rather than hypothetical situations in the remote future.

“Communist China, not Japan, now dominates, and will continue to dominate, the Far East’s horizons. By no stretch of the imagination can the Anzus Pact be considered a proper organ, political or military, to deal with this threat,” says “The Times.”