The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1955. CHURCHILL

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27628, 7 April 1955, Page 10

The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1955. CHURCHILL

“ If I stay for the time being, bear- “ ing the burden at my age, it is not “ because of love for power or office. “ I have had an ample share of both. “If I stay it is because I have the “ feeling that I may . . . have an “ influence on what 1 care about “above all else—the building of a “ sure and lasting peace ”. Nearly 18 months ago, at a Conservative Party conference, Sir Winston Churchill gave, with characteristic simplicity and directness, his reason for remaining at the head of the Government long after he had earned the rest a grateful nation conceded to be his due. The man who served his country so well through two world wars, who perhaps changed thfe destiny of the world by leading and inspiring a nation to fight, single-handed, against a monstrous and seemingly irresistible military tyranny, is a man of peace. The assurance of

enduring peace was the “ last great “ prize ” he hoped to win for his country and for the world; and it is a measure of the greatness of the man that no-one has thought of th ! s as anything but the appropriate culmination of a life of remarkable achievement.

As he lays down the burden of office, no-one can say for sure that he has failed. There is little doubt that Sir Winston Churchill hoped and believed that this goal might be reached by the method clearly most in accord with his instincts and temperament—by personal discussions among the heads of the governments of the Great Powers. Churchill probably shares the common man’s distrust of diplomacy; he certainly believed that even if a general settlement of the outstanding qmtions dividing East and West co ..id not be achieved at such meetings they might be useful or even decisive in impressing the other side with his and his country’s and his allies’ sincerity in their desire for peace and in their determination to defend their security if necessary.

But Churchill was too much of a realist to count upon a settlement by any such formal means; and his last years of power have perforce been devoted to the perfection of the Atlantic alliance, the only alternative open to peoples who could not count upon a will for peace in other countries to match their own. Sir Winston Churchill leaves office with the foundations

of the Atlantic alliance securely laid; and that may well be the best

assurance of peace that is obtainable now in this imperfect world. Perhaps there will be only a wry satisfaction in this for the man who, nearly 55 years ago, made, his first notable speech in the House of Commons—condemning the rearmament policy of the government of the day. Events Justified Greatness It was not long after this, of course, before the young Churchill was taking up the ungrateful task —for years of peace—of restoring the muscle and the spirit of an obsolete navy, upon the readiness of which Britain’s survival was to depend in the First World War. It has been his destiny to lead and tally the nation in its perils over half a century. He has modestly disclaimed leadership, preferring to say that he merely expressed and focused the nation’s resolution in the dark days of 1940. Nevertheless, he will go down in history as one of the handful of men who have, as one writer has put it, “inter- “ vened to change the course of “history” His career has been concerned with great events. Though great issues and great moments have inspired him to greatness, he has never sunk to mediocrity in dealing with the ordinary, humdrum business of politics and

government. It should not be forgotten that he was in the early days of the century a leader of Liberal thought: one of those, indeed, who prepared his countrymen for a revolutionary new outlook upon social questions and a changing concept of the State. Nor should it be forgotten that his success as a politician, as a Minister, and as a statesman was built upon sheer hard work. Although he later learnt to extemporise and acquired remarkable skill in the cut and thrust of Parliamentary debate, he formed in his early Parliamentary days the habit of preparing his speeches with minute care. To this, no doubt, is attributable his mastery of both the written and the spoken word. To his passion for knowledge and his care for detail may be attributed his success as an administrator.