4 MAY 1991, Page 27

Papering over the cracks

Richard Lamb

CHURCHILL: A LIFE by Martin Gilbert Heinemann, £20, pp.1066 In 1962 Martin Gilbert invited Randolph Churchill to dine in Merton. Randolph was delighted to be in the College where his grandfather (Lord Randolph Churchill) had been an undergraduate. The evening was a success, with Randolph chaffing the dons about the college's finances and the start of a rewarding association. Randolph, With Martin's help, wrote two volumes of his father's biography, and Martin the remaining six.

The eight volumes give in chronological order great detail about Winston Churchill's life. Now Gilbert has distilled the four million words into a single book. This is more readable.

Churchill's early activities in India, Egypt and South Africa are well described. In articles and books Churchill publicised his own daring and resourcefulness in exciting situations; as a result, by the time he was elected Conservative MP for Oldham in 1901 he was a well-known national figure.

Gilbert attributes high motives to Churchill's switch from the Conservative to the Liberal benches, claiming it was due to the impression made upon him by Seebohm Rowntree's study of poverty in York coupled with his antagonism to the Tory policy on import tariffs which he believed would harm the poor by putting up the cost of living. This cannot be contra- dicted. In Asquith's Cabinet, Churchill played an important role in implementing the enlightened social legislation which improved the lot of the working classes.

When war came in 1914 Churchill, now at the Admiralty and the only member of the War Cabinet with experience of battle, became 'a ball of fire'. Rashly he took per- sonal command of the ill-fated defence of Antwerp, and when it fell he met a storm of criticism. This was nothing to his unpop- ularity after the Gallipoli failure in 1915. Churchill was made the scapegoat for what appeared a ghastly blunder; he had over- stated the case for knocking Turkey out of the war and joining up with the Russians to attack Germany from the east. Afterwards he always claimed this strategy could have ended the stalemate and blood-bath on the western front.

Dismissed, Churchill commanded a bat- talion in the trenches efficiently and coura- geously. General French wanted to give him a brigade, but Asquith objected. Lloyd George was better disposed, and, inspite of opposition from Bonar Law and Curzon, made him Minister of Munitions where he accomplished wonders.

Not even Gilbert can ascribe high motives to Churchill's switch back to the Conservatives. It was self-interest. Defeated at Leicester in 1923, Churchill pleaded hard with Asquith to head a Liberal Government with Tory support instead of putting the first Labour Government into power. When Asquith refused, Churchill abandoned his Free Trade principles and decided his political future lay with the Conservatives. He was soon rewarded by a safe seat and the Chancellorship of the Exchequer.

In his account of Churchill's five years at the Treasury Gilbert records the unfortu- nate return to the Gold Standard. However, he leaves out the important Thoiry agreement in 1926 between Briand and Stresseman. The Foreign Secretary, Austen Chamberlain, was enthusiastic, believing it would be the start of an era of Franco-German friendship and long-lasting peace in Europe. Churchill, although he made a settlement of war debts favourable to Mussolini, refused to be generous towards a democratic Germany over repa- rations, and the Thoiry accord withered on

the vine. This made the road to power easi- er for the Nazis.

Ten years out of office between 1929 and 1939 were difficult for Churchill. He dam- aged his reputation by hostility to indepen- dence for India, and by backing King Edward during the abdication crisis. However, with at first almost derisory sup- port, he spearheaded the opposition to Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland and annexation of Austria. He denounced the Munich agreement and when all Czechoslovakia had gone, campaigned for a military alliance with Russia. Thus, when war came in 1939, Churchill alone amongst leading politicians had clean hands over appeasement, and his inclusion in Chamberlain's War Cabinet was inevitable.

His five-year wartime premiership, the most important part of Churchill's career, occupies only 184 pages out of 1066. The value of Gilbert's biographies of this period is diminished because the source-notes relate mainly to Churchill's personal archive which will not be available to other historians for ten years, although all the official documents cited are also in the Public Record Office.

It is improbable that Churchill retained any papers which he did not want to be brought to light after the war. By excessive reliance on this archive Gilbert becomes too favourable to Churchill, and uncon- vincing. Although Churchill's fighting spirit saved Britain and Western civilisation when all seemed lost, as John Grigg wrote recently 'he made many grave mistakes during his wartime premiership'.

For example, Gilbert does not mention Churchill's blind spot over the difficulty of defending Singapore after Vichy France handed over their Indo-China bases to the Japanese; nor of the mistake in backing Tito instead of Mihailovic. Gilbert also ignores that Churchill caused heavy unnec- essary casualties by insisting, in spite of opposition from his military advisors, on fighting in the East Aegean after the Italian surrender, in an attempt to open the Dardanelles. Churchill wanted to vindicate his 1915 strategy.

A serious omission occurs over Potsdam in 1945. Both American and British Foreign Office experts advised that Japan would surrender without the need to use atom bombs if they were given an ultima- tum containing a guarantee that their Emperor should continue to rule. Churchill ignored their views and agreed with Truman that atom bombs should be dropped if Japan rejected an ultimatum which gave no hint that their Emperor would be allowed to remain. For this it is hard to forgive him. Clearly he did not retain the relevant documents in his archive and Gilbert cannot have found them in the Public Record Office.

Richard Lamb's book, Churchill as War Leader, Right or Wrong, is being published by Bloomsbury in September.