SIDELIGHTS ON THE MIND AND METHODS OF MR CHURCHILL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 October 1948, Page 9

SIDELIGHTS ON THE MIND AND METHODS OF MR CHURCHILL

[N.Z.P.A. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT] LONDON, October 11.

Sir James Grigg, who' was private secretary to a succession of Chancellors of the Exchequer before he became Secretary for Wai’ in the’wartime coalition Government, gives sidelights on Mr Churchill’s methods of work in his book of reminiscences, “Prejudice and Judgment,” just published.

“Many of’ my recollections,” says Sir James Grigg, “are of heated and even violent arguments with Winston. On his side the heat nearly always disappeared the moment the argument was suspended. ■“On one occasion I recall being provoked into retorts. which went far beyond the latitude allowed to equals, let alone subordinates, but instead of my getting the sack, as I deserved, all that happened was a somewhat pained look over the top of his spectacles and the mildest of exhortations: ‘Don’t be, sp controversial.’ It was an extremely effective retort.”

Sir James Grigg, after describing Mr Churchill’s methods of work, .says that Mr Churchill did not always appreciate the efforts of his subordinates to make facts fit his drafts without destroying their form, and theme. On one occasion, when a certain official dated to rewrite the whole exordium of one of Mr Churchill’s speeches, and Sir James Grigg had the task of laying the alterations before Mr Churchill, he read it patiently for several minutes, and then dashed the manuscript suddenly on the ground, and roared: “Good God. Does the man think I am the Daily Telegraph?” Sir James Grigg expresses the opinion that the, war might have been over by Christmas, 1944, if Field-Marshal Montgomery had been given his head, and that the British troops would then have reached Berlin before the Russians. He strongly, defends the timing of the second front..