REVERED FIGURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21777, 28 July 1945, Page 5

REVERED FIGURE

MR. CHURCHILL WAR SERVICE PRAISED BRITISH PRESS EULOGY (Special Correspondent.) (U am.) LONDON. July 27. On the cold sober morrow of the general election, one thing is clear. It is that whatever criticism Mr. Churchill’s action evoked during the election campaign, he is still held in veneration and affection by the British people with deep gratitude for his great services as war leader. The Labour Daily Herald, as the chief newspaper spokesman of the victorious party, declares: “There is not the riigh est doubt that gratitude to Mr. Churchill as war leader, admiration of his genius and reverence for his courage is shared by every party and every social class.”

There must be millions who were deeply distressed at the thought that if they obeyed their judgment and conscience they would cast a vote against him. But they decided that there was no alternative —“to vote for C-mrohill was a vote for the evils of Toryism. To vote for Churchill was to oblige and assist the hard calculating men who, in hemming him were exploiting his renown;

To vote for Churchill was to perpetuate the exploitation of many by the few. To vote for Churchill was to vote for inefficiency and profitsnatching in industries which are vital to the nation’s well-being and to successful reconstruction of world economy; to vote for Churchill—since of his own free will he placed himself at the head of the Tories —was a vote for bad times which the British people are resolved shall never again oe experienced. "And so. despite their affection for Mr. Churchill, which will always remain - • . millions who never belonged to any party stood firm by their convictions that this time Labour must be returned to power.” Reversal of Leadership

The Times, in a leader, declared: “British history affords no example of a reversal of national leadership on the morrow of crowning victory. Foreign comment alone sufficiently measures the great stature of the figure, now suddenly withdrawn from representation of his country and from the councils of the world.” “Never in our history have the hopes and resolves of the people and their authority among nations been so summed up in a single commanding personality. In the sense that he has been during the war years the tem-poral-embodiment of his age of eternal England, Winston Churchill can have no successor—-just as the situation that called him to his trancendant eminence does not recur.

“No one, however, paradoxical it may seem to foreign observers, will dream of interpreting the crushing defeat inflicted upon his party as bringing in any way into question his place in history, in national pride or in the affection and gratitude of the people who have followed him through their deadliest peril to their most complete triumph. He will make a formidable, dominating figure on the front Opposition bench and his presence there will be an effective assurance to the public that he is still active in the service of the State.

“The Daily Telegraph states: “The coming years will pass judgment on the electoral decision that dispensed with Mr. Churchill’s services at a moment when that decision was at strange variance with the warm gratitude which every man and woman in the country felt towards him. Even as he passed from office, there is a clear recognition which will continue undimmed throughout history of his supreme achievement in that darkest hour which he made our finest. Faced with the most deadly danger that ever assailed our country, he became the greatest leader in war that our race has produced.” Salutary Conclusions

The Manchester Guardian also pays tributes to Mr. Churchill. Referring to the Governments’ defeat and what| brought it about, it says that the conclusions are salutary. “Uppermost is the lesson that the Britisn people will not be dominated by one rdan,” the paper says. “They admire Mr. Churchill as a great Englishman. They are grateful to the war leader but are resentful of the party politician. “It is now plain that Mr. Churchill’s broadcasts and his attempt to turn the election into a personal plebiscite did him immense harm. His tour was a great personal success; poltically, it meant nothing; rather it stirred up active resentment.” “The country will part with Mr. Churchill with many • regrets. After all, he is the greatest Prime Minister we have known since Gladstone and the greatest national leader since Pitt. But he has been the symbol of the ■attitude of mind against which the world has turned.”