OCCASIONAL BIOGRAPHIES : XVIII. MR. CHURCHILL
So heredity tells—or history repeats itself. And heredity in this case goes a long way back. John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, whose portrait his-versatile descendant is painting on a spacious canvas, was not primarily conspicuous for the permanence of his adhesions. And in the first couple of decades of this century the floor of the House of Commons was worn into a pattern by the constant passage of the latest Churchill across it instead of up it. That Churchill, elected as a Conservative in 1900, sat as Liberal from 1906 to 1922, quitting Mr. Asquith for Mr. Lloyd George in the 1916 crisis. When Mr. Baldwin took office in 1924 it was found that Mr. Churchill had caught the train as a Conservative once more, and ensconced himself com- fortably (yet was he so comfortable ?) as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1929 the Baldwin Government fell, and its Chancellor has been in the wilderness ever since. It must have taken some resolution on the part of successive Prime Ministers to keep him there, for one of the many reasons for including him in any Cabinet is that the most formidable critic the House has known for a generation is thereby muzzled.
Winston Churchill has filled in his time about half the executive offices. He has held four out of the six Seeretaryships of State—for Home Affairs, War, Air, Colonies. He has been First Lord of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the Board of Trade and Chancellor of the Duchy. He is essentially aman of action, whether as administrator or fighter ; he is a great speaker, and when he chooses a great writer. His life of his father was the first proof of that, his book, The World Crisis, the second. Not all the credit for having the fleet at its war-stations in 1914 before the German ships could move was his—half of it belongs to the First Sea Lord, Prince Louis of Battenberg—but the despatch of the battle-squadrons into the fog of war was a typical Churehillian touch, and no one but Churchill could have written the unforgettable description of zero hour at the Admiralty on the night of August 4th.
Today, at 62, Mr. Churchill is setting onlookers wonder- ing again. He has been out of office for seven years, in five of which his own party has been in power. Throughout he has been their most dangerous critic, except when, as in the case of the India Bill, he has defeated himself by his own extravagance. Now comes a new crusade—for the defence of democracy against the menace of the dictatorships. Is it a crusade with a double object--Ao achieve its avowed purpose and at the same time carry its author back to office ? Those who will can say so ; there is no method known yet of reading men's minds. But the genuineness of Mr. Churchill's belief in the need for a swift demon- stration by this country that aggression from any quarter will be made disastrous to the aggressor is beyond doubt or question.- He has preached that gospel tirelessly in the House of Commons, and in carrying it now to the public platform he is obviously more concerned that the country should be roused than that he himself should be enlisted to administer the policy he sponsors— though that is not to say that he would refuse appropriate office if it were offered.
But what would appropriate office be ? He has been Secretary for War and Air and First Lord, and Minister of Munitions as well. On the face of it, if anyone is cut out for the post Sir Thomas Inskip holds it is Mr. Churchill. But truth is not always written on the face of things. Delicacy is needed in that office as well as drive. The three services have their own Ministers, their own heads of departments, and their own Commanders-in-Chief. To conciliate the independence and experience which those varied personalities represent may be more effective than to put dynamite behind them. The same may be true of the Cabinet. Is the Member for Epping, assuming his diagnosis of the international sanction accurate, of more value as mere Member for Epping or as Minister of the Crown ? As a Minister he must speak with Minis- terial restraint, and restraint sits ill on those impetuous lips. As a popular leader he can preach preparedness and the defence of peace and freedom with liberty to lay hands on any instrument calculated to serve his purpose best. There is, of course, one post as yet beyond his grasp. If he held it, he might apply stimulus where stimulus is needed much more effectively than Mr.
Baldwin—and at the same time upset a great many apple-darts which the present Prime Minister keeps firmly planted on their wheels. As spear-head of a great popular movement for the defence at home and abroad of all that democracy cares for he may achieve what he never could if checked by the trammels that accompany the authority of office.
And he is capable of contenting himself with that great role. For on whichever side of the House he may sit he has always had the essential stuff of democracy in him. He cares about the people ; he was responsible a quarter of a century ago for the Trades Boards and the Labour Exchanges. And he would be false to all his ancestry if he did not care intensely about the British people. That democracy in this country is looking for a leader and a voice is manifest. Has it found them ?
If so, how will the leader use his opportunity ? There are obvious dangers to avoid. A Churchill who showed himself as Teutophobe as he once was Russophobe would be doing peace no better service than Herr Hitler himself. There must be no Delenda est Germania, no playing into the hands of the forces in Europe that are working to divide the Continent into blocs. To do Mr. Churchill justice, he is fully conscious of that danger. He has insisted in language at once conciliatory and vigorous that no nation is asking anything for itself that is not available on equal terms to a peaceful Germany. Subject to an ample freedom to criticise he has always supported the League of Nations. Conscious of the neces- sity to defend the ideals enshrined in the Covenant and the Kellogg Pact, he urges that public law in the world must be buttressed by the joint strength of the nations that accept it. Germany can be of that number or not as she chooses. Without her or with her—but at greater cost in the one case than the other—the world must and can enjoy security. Mr. Churchill's native belligerence-L- for there is more than a streak of that in his make-up— could find no better outlet than in leadership of a crusade for what he calls " well-guarded peace "—wherever it may take him.
P. Q. R.
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