"Churchill Totem Of Departed Glory"

Press, Volume C, Issue 29517, 19 May 1961, Page 18

"Churchill Totem Of Departed Glory"

iR-Z J*. A.-Reuter— Can ng fu) NEW YORK, May, 17. ; Sir Winston Churchill had been turned j into a totem, revered in Britain as a link with < departed glory, the British author Malcolm • Muggeridge declared today in an article in the ] American magazine, “Esquire.” i i

“For a man, as human and audacious as Churchill has been, to be turned into a totem, serving to protect illusions of grandeur, is a sad aid to a splendid career,” Mr Muggeridge said. The writer, a former editor of “Punch.” said: “Churchill's totem role is particularly required just now, when his country’s fortunes are visibly declining. He was the last Prime Minister able to produce authentic great power credentials at international gatherings." Few now cared to remember that Sir Winston Churchill had periods of exclusion from office, and of intense unpopularity, particularly among his political associates. Mr Muggeridge said. In the middle 1930's he had been a "dispirited and disgruntled figure." “At the time of King Edward VIII's abdication he was howled down in the House of Commons when he attempted to make a plea on the King's behalf. “Here, too, as the exiled Duke of Windsor found to his chagrin, Churchill in opposition was one thing, Churchill in office another. “The nomadic Duke and

I Duchess of Windsor received ; ; no more consideration from ; i their former champion when . he was in a position to do i i them favours than they did < ’ from Mr Attlee, who owed < them none.” < I I I