THE MAN BEHIND CHURCHILL

Evening Star, Issue 23818, 24 February 1941, Page 8

THE MAN BEHIND CHURCHILL

“ ON HIS BEHAVIOUR HUNG THE HOPE OF THE FUTURE" Man-of-the-year Churchll does not stand alone. Neither does runner-up Hitler. 'Beside and behind Hitler stand the German armed forces, the superbly destructive machine fashioned by Goerins. Brauchitsch, Raeder, and hundreds of"others. Beside and behind Churchill stands a very small man multiplied a millionfold. He is just an Englishman. He was born in the country, or in one of the big cities of the Midlands, or in a grey house in a London suburb. The hands that reared him were hard. His food was tepid or cold, butter and bread, jam and strong black tea, mutton and what was left over of the Sunday joint. His boyhood was tough. At school he was caned. He grew to know history in a simple way; he grew to love his King ns he loved the mist in the park on a summer’s morning, the hedges, the downs, and the beaches. But he never spoke of these things. When the war came he did not like it. For a moment he knew fear, then he tit his pipe and poured himself a whisky. When the black-out came he groused. Churchill took over; the right man for the job. Then came Dunkirk; a bloody shame. Then the stuff fell; St. Paul’s, the club, women and children. London afire. He got mad. but lie did not show it. There was too much to do: business to carry on. children to be sent to the country, people to be dug out of shelters, sleep to be got somehow. A bloody nuisance. On his behaviour hung the shape of the future. His civilised toughness, his

balanced courage, and bis simple pride altered the course of history in 1940. Without him there could have been no Churchill. To the small man of Britain in 1940 Winston Churchill spoke words that may live as 'long as Shakespeare’s:— “ Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so boar ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire last for a thousand years, men will say: * This was their finest hour.’. M—From ‘Time,’ New York, 6/1/41.