BIOGRAPHY TRAVESTIED
Si,—Now that I have returned from the United 'States 1. would' like to deal. with the Randolph Churchill Mystery or The Case of the Prime Minister's Pyjamas. If I were to take Mr. Churchill's characteristically offensive attack on me and my book, My' • Darling Clementine, seriously, 1 would have answered him elsewhere. I prefer to quote a Sentence of his, and submit some 'relevant evidence to your readers.
In your issue of May 17, Mr. Churchill said: 'I would not accuse Mr. Jack Fishman and Mr. R. W. Thompson of inaccuracies unless I Were in a position to detect and 'stigmatise their mistakes with exacti- tude.' Well, let us see how accurate that statement really is by starting with The Case of the Prime Minister's Pyjamas. He quotes from my book— p. 210—'. . . the.Colonel [Beebe] slept in the Prime Minister's pyjamas that night' (at Chequers during the war). And Mr. Churchill pronounces: 'To the best of the recollection of those more likely to know than Fishman, W.S.C. has never worn pyjamas. He certainly did not wear them at that time.'
One of your readers,. Mr. R. N. Carvalho, drew Mr. Randolph Churchill's attention to Sir E. Beddington-Behrens's Look Back—Look Forward in which, referring to a visit to Sir Winston, Sir E. Beddington-Behrens says he found him wearing pyjamas decorated with black dragons. 'Sir Edward was wrong and I was right,' declared Mr. Churchill in your next issue. It was a bed jacket, he added.
Let's try another reference—one that has a direct hearing on the pyjama anecdote published in' my book. On p. 317 of Global Mission (Harper and Brothers) by General H. H. Arnold, who was, at the time of incident, Commanding 'General of the US Army Air Forces, the General wrote.: 'Beebe was faced with the question of whether he should go home or whether he would stay at Chequers. Churchill solved it by saying, "You stay here and spend the night." Beebe answered. "But I didn't bring my pyjamas." So the Prime Minister, who is about six inches shorter than Beebe, suggested lending him his. They scarcely covered him, but Gene Beebe slept in the Prime Minister's pyjamas that night.' No doubt Mr. Churchill will cry— `General Arnold was wrong and I am right!' Mr. Randolph Churchill is, apparently, always right, and everyone else—no matter how eminent—wrong. But, on this occasion at Chequers, General Arnold was present. Mr. Randolph Churchill was not. We may . never get to the bottom of this, but just because Mr. Randolph Churchill says his father never wore pyjama trousers, does this mean he never owned a pair of pyjamas?
Let's try another of Mr. Churchill's 'corrections.' Referring to my description of his father's former bodyguard as Inspector Walter H. 'Tommy' Thompson, he says : 'He was the only Thompson of whom I've ever heard, who was not called: "Tommy." There seems to be confusion with Commander C. R. Thompson, RN (W.S.C.'s flag- lieutenant).' I have known inspector Thompson for many years. His autobiography was first published in the national newspaper of which I was a senior editorial executive., I called him. 'Tommy' then, and Still do. Mr. Churchill wouldn't accept that as an answer, but I wonder what he Would say if 'he listened to the hours of conversation I tape-recorded with Inspector Thompson and Mrs. Thompsdn, Who was one of Sir Winston's war-time secretaries? Listening to these tapes,. you can repeatedly hear Mrs. Thompson affectionately refer to her husband as 'Tommy.' I also 'possess letters written, to me by Inspector Thompson. He signs them 77- 'Tommy.' have shown two of these letters to the Editor of the Spectator. Possibly Mr. Randolph. Churchill wasn't 'on such friendly terms with Inspector Thompson and didn't call him 'Tommy,' but I can't help that.
Incidentally, the greater part of my book- was based on interviews tape-recorded with hundreds of people closely connected with the Churchill family —people like Mrs. 'Eleanor Roosevelt, Lord Ismay and General Sir Frederick -Pile, I have tapes to prove it. I drew on the recollections of people who know Sir Winston and Lady Churchill well. Many who assisted,' read typescript or galley proofs of the chapters that concerned them. -One of these was General Sir Frederick Pile, which 'brings me to another of Mr. Randolph Churchill's 'corrections.'
Referring to p. 200 of my book, he wrote: 'General Sir Frederick Pile is quoted as . saying : ". . . but one of the trouble spots was having to buy the old destroyers from the United States...." ' 'This deal,' Mr. Churchill blandly announced, 'was a straight exchange of base facilities for destroyers.' And with that statement, Mr. Churchill considered he had given me another black eye. Who was he having an • argument • with—me or General Sir Frederick Pile? The entire anecdote 'about the old destroyers is attributed to Sir .Frederick; appears in quotes: was dictated by him (I have the tape-record- ing), and was checked in galley proof by him. Sir Frederick particularly stressed that the Prime Minister was most unhappy about the destroyer deal and that, because of it, he was on bad terms at the time with President Roosevelt. Sir Frederick related a discussion of the deal at Chequers. Sir Frederick was present • at this luncheon 'discussibn with the Prime Minister. Mr. Randolph Churchill was not, but that-didn't stop his disputing it and listing it as one of my 'mistakes.'
I will cite 'one more example. Referring to the anecdote I included in my book about the Prime Minister's boots, he stated : 'No member of the family or anyone connected with the family can remember a servant called • Ives. Nor did W.S.C. wear boots at the time.' Before I present evidence on this part of Mr. Churchill's case against me, I would like to offer credentials of the witness : General Sir Leslie Hollis, KCB, KBE, who was assistant secretary of the War Cabinet and Chiefs of Staff Committee and attended no less than 6,000 meetings of this body. He was privy to all the great decisions of the War.
On p. 65 of the book War at the Top, by James Leasor, based on the experiences of General Sir Leslie Hollis, and published by Michael Joseph, is
the following : `Mr. Churchill's servant in "The Hole" was a Marine Ives, a redoubtable character,' writes General Hollis. 'He was very worried because the Prime Minister insisted on going upstairs and into St. James's Park at all hours of the night to watch the effects of air raids. Eventually, the risk of being hit by falling shrapnel was so great that we told him that on no account must he allow Mr. Churchill out after dark on such expeditions. These orders poor Ives did his best to carry out—by hiding Mr. Churchill's boots. Then one night, at the height of the blitz, Mr. Churchill rang for him. "Ives," he said, sitting on the edge of his bed in his bare feet, "Ives, my boots." Ives, mindful of his orders, gave him all sorts of excuses; the boots were not there, they were being cleaned, mended, anything. At last Churchill stood up, hand outstretched for his boots. Out of excuses, poor Ives had to produce them.. ..'
So much for no Ives and no boots, but no doubt, once more, the voice of indisputable Churchillian exactitude will tell us: 'General Sir Leslie Hollis is wrong and I am right!'
You can't be right all the time, Mr. Randolph Churchill. None of us can.
JACK FISHMAN London; N6
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