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The Glow-Worm Churchillians by-the-Bay E-Newsletter

Northern California

Volume 3, Issue 1 First Quarter 2011 “We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” * *(Violet Bonham Carter, Winston Churchill as I knew Him, page 16— WSC’s remark was made at a dinner given by Lady Mary Elcho.)

Winston Churchill confers with Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay

See our lead article by David Ramsay son of Sir Bertram Ramsay: Memories of World War II, Part III, page 3.

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Contents

� Memories of WW II by David Ramsay, page 3 � Lend-Lease Act 1941, page 26 � Review: The King’s Speech by

David Freeman, page 33 � Bookworm’s Corner by Jim

Lancaster, page 36 � A Friend of Israel by Martin

Gilbert, page 40 � Three Historic Churchill

speeches, page 44 � Churchill in the News, page 54

Interspersed with various Churchilliana

Churchillians by-the-Bay Board of Directors: Richard C Mastio, Chairman and Contributions Editor for The Glow-Worm, Jason C. Mueller, President, Gregory B. Smith, Secretary and Liaison with Churchill Centre, Michael Allen, Treasurer. Directors: Jack Koers, Carol Mueller, Editor of The Glow-Worm, Lloyd Nattkemper, Dr. Andrew Ness, Barbara Norkus, Katherine Stathis, and Anne Steele. Glow-Worm named by Susie Mastio

© Copyright, All Rights Reserved Glow-Worm and Churchillians by-the- Bay, Inc.

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Memories of World War II, Part III by David Ramsay

About the author David Ramsay: David Ramsay’s late father, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, had a distinguished career in World War II, being responsible for the Dunkirk evacuation in May-June 1940. He was the Allied Naval C-in-C for the successful Normandy Invasion in June 1944. David has a degree in history and economics from Trinity College, Cambridge and has long been interested in the history of both World Wars and in the career of Winston Churchill as well as in the history of railroads and ocean transport. He is President of The Churchillians of the Desert, the local affiliate of the Churchill Centre in the Coachella Valley. After he retired, he took up writing and his first book LUSITANIA SAGA AND MYTH, a history of the great but ill-fated liner, has been published in both the UK and the US. He has also written on the TITANIC for the BBC History Magazine, a history of the John Menzies bookstalls (a company for which he worked for many years) on British railway stations for the Archives of the National Railway Museum in York and historical articles for British Regimental Magazines. His second book, BLINKER HALL SPYMASTER THE MAN WHO BRUGHT AMERICA INTO WORLD WAR I, was published in the UK in July 2008 and in the US in March 2009. The book tells the dramatic story of Admiral Sir Reginald ‘Blinker’ Hall and the Naval Intelligence Division he led with outstanding success during World War I. His greatest achievement was the interception and subsequent revelation of the Zimmermann Telegram, the German effort to inveigle Mexico into invading America by promising them that they would regain the states of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico in any peace treaty. This disclosure led directly to American entry into the War in April 1917 at a critical time for Britain and her allies. He has also written an account of Admiral Hall’s earlier career in sea-going command before 1914, entitled BLINKER HALL AN OUTSTANDING SEA CAPTAIN, for the British magazine WARSHIP WORLD. He has lectured on a number of topics, including the careers of Winston Churchill and Blinker Hall, the history of the liner LUSITANIA and the

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naval aspects of the Normandy invasion and his late father’s contribution to its success. David and his wife Pamela have lived in Indian Wells California since 1990.

Part III begins:

BHR and Monty

(Bertram Ramsay and Bernard Montgomery)

As Vice-Admiral Dover, in the frontline of the country’s defence against German aggression, my father worked closely with his Army and RAF opposite numbers. Early in 1941 a new three-star General, Bernard Montgomery, was appointed to command the Army’s XII Corps, stationed in the counties of Kent and Sussex. BHR had a very high opinion of Montgomery, describing him in one letter to my mother as ‘by far the best of our generals.’ Almost alone of the top allied commanders, American and British, who served in North West Europe and in the Mediterranean, BHR got on well with Monty as he was universally known. Monty, who had commanded a division in the British Expeditionary Force, owed BHR one for rescuing him from Dunkirk. Both men were consummate professionals who believed in the vital importance of meticulous operational planning and detailed and effective

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training and a huge mutual regard grew up between them. .

The leaders in the photograph (clockwise from top l eft) are: Lieutenant-General

Omar Bradley, Commander, 1st US Army; Admiral Sir B ertram Ramsay, Naval

Commander-in-Chief; Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air

Commander-in-Chief; Lieutenant-General Walter Bedel l Smith, Chief of Staff;

General Sir Bernard Montgomery, Commander, 21st Arm y Group (all Allied land

forces); General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Comm ander; Air Chief Marshal

Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander. CH 12110 (Feb 1944)

Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London

Personally they were very different. Monty was a wiry man from Northern Ireland who could be bombastic, once telling troops that: ‘As God Almighty says and I must say that I agree with him …’ and who never met a camera he didn’t like, while BHR was understated and in the tradition of the Navy, ever the Silent Service, didn’t court publicity. While BHR was inherently a family man who was my cousins’ favorite uncle, Monty was frequently at war with his family, particularly after the tragic death of

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his wife shortly before World War II, and he was even estranged from his son for a number of years.

BHR used to call Monty the Iron General and in his letters to my mother he would tell her how, in the name of physical fitness, he had ordered his staff officers to go for regular runs. With his dry sense of humour, he would conjure up for her the image of sedentary middle aged Majors and Colonels dropping dead from unaccustomed physical exertion all over the highways and byways of Kent and Sussex.

The successful association between Admiral and General which began in South–East England in 1941 was to serve the country and the allied cause well when they went on to larger events in which they were to work harmoniously together as the top dogs of the Navy and the Army: the invasions of Sicily and Normandy.

War comes to Berwickshire

Berwickshire had escaped the First War unscathed but was not to do so in the Second as the county lay directly under the flight path taken by the Luftwaffe when raiding the shipyards and factories in and around Glasgow and Clydebank. The bombers used to cross the coast between St. Abbs Head and

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Berwick-on-Tweed and followed the course of the Tweed to its source in the same Peebleshire hillside as the Clyde and then down Clydesdale to their targets. As the RAF night fighter squadrons, once equipped with twin-engined Bristol Beaufighters, which proved an effective night-fighter, grew in strength and skill, the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought frequent duels all over the South of Scotland. The bombers would often jettison their loads to try to escape the fighters and as a result bombs dropped all over Berwickshire, some of them within a few miles of Bughtrig. As the county was sparsely populated, they usually caused little damage. The skies above Colonel Wilfrid Henry's Home Guard command at Greenlaw saw regular battles between the two air forces. Two land mines descended by parachute on Greenlaw and the Air Raid wardens, believing them to be paratroops and an invasion was in process, called out Wilfrid and his Home Guard. Instructions had been sent out throughout the land telling everyone what to do in case of an invasion. A story had gone the rounds suggesting the paratroops would be dropped disguised as nuns and people were solemnly advised to call the police if they ever encountered any nuns wearing hob-nailed boots!

The mines caused considerable damage in the little town, sadly killing a soldier who was home on leave,

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and destroying the Old Church, where the established Church of Scotland held its services. My governess, Rena Hogg, and her husband George lived in a small house close to the centre of the town and the explosion blew out her windows. My old friend, Jean Thompson, who had been one of her former pupils, remembers spending the next afternoon helping her to remove splinters of glass from her furniture.

Jean’s father Moffat, local laird and Elder of the Kirk, jocularly opined that the bombs would finally unite the town's two rival Presbyterian congregations, whose relations were marginally less hostile than those of the Hatfield and McCoy families. He was wrong. The Old Church coldly declined an offer of hospitality made by its rival whose Church had only suffered broken windows and, for the rest of the war, held its services in the manse as Presbyterian Ministers houses were known in Scotland.

Moffat Thomson lived at Lambden, about two and a half miles south of Greenlaw, where four bombs landed, two of them a field close by his entrance gates. Several more landed in neighboring farms. After one of these aerial battles, Wilfrid Henry and his wife Cicely had a narrow escape when a bomb

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dropped only 200 yards from their house, Rathburne, in the Lammermuir Hills, north of the county town of Duns and close to the village of Longformacus, destroying their tennis court and leaving a large crater. Cicely, one of the county’s characters, both eccentric and resourceful and a champion bridge player, rose to the challenge with typical aplomb. On the following Sunday, she welcomed all those who came to Rathburne to witness the Luftwaffe's handiwork, charging them two shillings, the equivalent of 40 cents, for the privilege for the benefit of war charities.

Cicely was also a skilled carpenter. One Sunday morning, not long after the war ended, she and Wilfrid went to church in Duns, arriving just as the service began. To our considerable amusement, my mother, my brother Charles and myself sitting in an adjacent pew, noticed that Cicely was carrying an old green suede or felt bag containing a hammer, a saw, a chisel and other carpenter's tools. Without batting the proverbial eyelid, for she really did not care a great deal for what other people thought about such matters, she deposited her tool bag on the ledge in front of her. Wilfrid, ever regimental, must have been ready to go to church in good time and got irritated at Cicely's characteristic unpunctuality. In

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her hurry to placate him, she must have grabbed the wrong bag.

I vividly remember going for a walk with my mother and our dogs. Suddenly we heard the sound of airplanes and we saw two fighters apparently above us engaged in a dog fight. She quickly hurried us and the dogs into a ditch. After a bit I stuck my head above the parapet to see what was going on and my mother pulled me down saying: ‘You fool. Do you want to get shot?’ The planes eventually disappeared and we climbed out, rather pleased that we had watched some action. In hindsight, I wonder if we had not been watching two RAF fighters, practicing for dog fights as virtually all the fighting between the two air forces took place at night and the Luftwaffe’s lead fighter, the Messerschmitt 109, had too short a range to fly to Scotland and back.

RAF Charterhall

The rapid expansion of the Air Force resulted in the construction of a large number of airfields all over Britain; many of them close near to the East Coasts of both England and Scotland. Late in 1941, contractors arrived to build an airfield at Charterhall, about two miles from Bughtrig on land requisitioned from our neighbour Colonel Algernon

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(Algy) Trotter, a veteran of the Boer War and World War I.

The Ramsay home Bughtrig with statue of Sir Bertram Ramsay in the garden

My mother had known the Trotter family since she had been a girl and Col. Algy’s eldest son Henry was my godfather. Charterhall had been a grass airstrip in World War I when it was named Eccles Tofts after a local farm. A second airfield was built at Winfield on the road from Leitholm to Berwick and a third at Milfield in Northumberland. My friends and I used to cycle up to a road which ran at right angles to the main runway, laid out East to West, in accordance with the prevailing winds to watch the construction . The airfields were to be the base of No. 54 Operational Training Unit whose task was to train aircrews for night fighters.

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The first personnel, among them WAAFs, the acronym for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, arrived in April 1942 and the first aircraft a month later. I can remember their arrival with the skies seemingly full of planes all day long. To us boys, this was intensely exciting but some of our elders viewed this development very differently. RAF Charterhall was to have a profound effect on local life. Jean Thomson remembers that as soon as she was old enough to get a driving license and pass the test, she went to work for the RAF as a driver, proud to be able to contribute to the war effort.

Flight-Lieutenant Paul Le Rougetel, an RAF officer, who had been posted to Charterhall, with his wife Hazel and their baby daughter Heather, whom in later life became the well–known nature photographer and TV presenter Heather Angel, were billeted with us for some time. Paul had flown

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Blenheims in the elite 600 City of London Squadron of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Heather tells the story of his remarkable bailout over the Channel after he had been the victim of what was euphemistically called ‘friendly fire’.

‘Paul was on a night mission somewhere over the Kent coast. The coastal anti-aircraft defences had forgotten or ignored his message that he would be in the area, and managed a rare hit on his starboard engine. The Blenheim definitely needed both engines to keep aloft. He did the right thing, insisting that his navigator/gunner get out first, although they were over the sea and the poor chap couldn't swim - but he jumped. Unfazed, Paul trimmed the controls to put the plane into a shallow descending arc before opening the escape hatch beneath him. The uprush of air foiled a clean exit, and he found himself jammed in the hatch for a few seconds, before managing to push himself free. The parachute did its stuff, and on the way down he had the presence of mind to jettison anything weighty and superfluous, such as boots. He was a long time in the water, and passed out, but by the greatest of good fortune was picked up by the Ramsgate lifeboat who spotted the luminous dial of his watch which Hazel (my Mother) had given him.’

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I remember that Paul Le Rougetel very kindly arranged for my brother Charles and me to be shown round the airfield when we climbed up into the cockpits of the Blenheims and Beaufighters, the night fighters which were based there. Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed our day out.

Moffat Thomson was greatly amused when an officer mistook him for a taxi driver. The airfield bordered my grandparents home Kames and they found it a sore trial. The Officers Mess and Kames were both on the Leitholm telephone exchange while the local taxi service, McDavid's Garage, was on the neighboring Greenlaw exchange. As ill-luck would have it, my grandparents’ number was Leitholm 202 and McDavid's was Greenlaw 202. The gallant officers of RAF Charterhall would ring 202 and ask for a taxi. My grandmother, renowned for her fiery personality, used to respond to this unwelcome intrusion by roaring down the telephone ‘I am not a taxi.’ Her fulminations and a succession of angry letters to the Station Commander had little effect and not surprisingly she developed a very poor opinion of the RAF's efficiency. She eventually relented when she realized the dangers which these pilots faced practically every day.

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An inaugural dance was held in the Officers Mess that July, attended among others by my mother’s friend and neighbour Hy Wilson, her daughter Judy and the Thomson family and from then on dances were held in the Mess about once a fortnight: virtually the only social life in Berwickshire during the war years. Jean Thomson recalls one party at which her brother David was playing his bagpipes, drowning the sound of a concert being held in the next room! The Wilson and Thomson families were among those who extended a lot of hospitality to the Air Force. Hy took some of the officers riding, discovering that they knew little more about horses than their predecessors had in the First War when she had been a nurse in one of the larger local houses which had been commandeered as a wartime hospital. The genial Moffat Thomson, who organized rough shoots around his house for the officers, found the experience decidedly dangerous! However his tennis court proved highly popular and some of his guests volunteered to milk his cows. Moffat was highly amused when one officer told him that his cow was only flying on one cylinder!

RAF Charterhall is remembered for its connection with Richard Hillary, a Spitfire pilot who had been badly burnt when he was shot down in the Battle of Britain and whose bestselling book The Last Enemy

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had made him a celebrity. Hillary had spent some time in a hospital in East Grinstead in Sussex which was run by Archibald McIndoe, a pioneer plastic surgeon, who achieved remarkable results with his patients, who called themselves The Guinea Pig Club, treating them for deep burns and serious facial disfiguration.

Hillary was very attractive to women and following the success of his book, he was sent on a tour of America where he had a torrid affair in New York with the actress Merle Oberon, seven year his senior and married to the film magnate, Alexander Korda, who was in England at the time.

The recognition which his book had earned him had reinforced Hilary’s already powerful character and he succeeded in persuading- some might say bullying- a sympathetic Air Marshal, against his better judgment, to bend the rules and allow him to

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fly again. He was posted to RAF Charterhall in November 1942 to train as a night-fighter pilot. His colleagues in the Officers Mess noticed that he was unable to manage a fork and knife: his hands were described as being like claws. He and his radio operator, Sergeant Wilfred Fison, were tragically killed when his Blenheim crashed on a local farm during a night-flying exercise on January 8 1943.

One of Hillary’s friends, Sergeant Andy Miller, who took part in the same exercise and who was also flying a Blenheim, recalled that there was freezing fog over Berwickshire that night and that he narrowly escaped crashing due to icing. He believed that Hillary’s plane had stalled as a result of icing. Although the demanding weather conditions were probably the direct cause of the crash, the ultimate blame has surely to rest with the training staff at RAF Charterhall in allowing Hillary to fly when they must have known of his serious disability.

The unacceptably high toll of aircrew at RAF Charterhall led to the airfield being cynically nicknamed RAF Slaughterhall and eventually to the replacement of the Station Commander and the entire training staff. When I was in Berwickshire last May my nephew and I visited the churchyard in the nearby village of Fogo where sixteen flight crew from RAF

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Charterhall are buried. Ten of these sixteen were from Commonwealth countries: a poignant reminder of the considerable contribution which these countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia and India, made to the allied cause.

I vividly recall that on one day between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 1944, Charles and I joined our friends, Jeremy and Martin Bates, who lived on the other side of Leitholm, on one of our regular expeditions when we cycled to a road which ran east of the airfield at an angle of 90 degrees to the runway where we enjoyed watching planes take off. We were, as always, under adult supervision: on that day it was Muriel Little a widow who was one of Cecily Henry’s sisters and a first cousin of Jeremy and Martin’s mother Jean. My mother had many attributes but cooking was not one of them and she had taken Muriel on as the family cook. Muriel fed us well and Charles and I were very fond of her.

On arrival Muriel instructed us to watch the action at a safe angle to the runway while she chatted to a friend of hers, a Mrs. Dobbie, who had cycled from her house near Fogo to meet her. There was a full flying programme that afternoon and we watched several planes take off. Then a Beaufighter singularly failed to reach take off speed and belly flopped

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through the grass boundary, demolished the fence which separated the airfield from the adjoining countryside, continuing across the road, and ending up in a neighboring field. If anyone had been on the stretch of road opposite the runway they would almost certainly have been killed.

A horrified Muriel, suddenly aware of the responsibility she bore to two families, rushed to where we were standing watching the crash and told us boys that this was far too dangerous a place for us, summarily instructing us that we were going home immediately. As we cycled back, we reflected that we had witnessed a small example of the risks which these brave pilots faced every day.

By 1946 the Air Ministry had no further need for RAF Charterhall. Before men and planes departed, the Officers Mess held the last of their memorable dances and the airfield was handed back to Henry Trotter, the new Laird, as his father, Col. Algy, had died shortly after the end of the war. The land reverted to farming. In the 1950s and 1960s Charterhall became a motor racing circuit but the venture was never financially successful and was eventually closed down. The main runway is still operational and is licensed by the Civil Aviation

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Authority for use by light aircraft. A couple of buildings survive and are used for farming,

In 2001 a memorial to Richard Hillary and the other aircrew who were killed at RAF Charterhall was unveiled by the Duke of Kent. The clergyman who gave the dedication was the son of Sergeant Wilfrid Fison, Hillary’s radio operator. The memorial stands at the entrance to the airfield on land donated by my old friend, Alexander Trotter the present Laird of Charterhall.

Memorial to Richard Hillary and his crew near Charterhall

The RAF was not the only part of the military to which Berwickshire played host. A Polish Armored Brigade was stationed in and around Duns. Charles remembers two of its officers coming to lunch with

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my mother at Bughtrig and treating him to a drive in their jeep. The Poles weren’t universally popular as they were widely considered to have an eye for the main chance. My mother, who often hit the nail on its head, once told me: ‘The trouble with the Poles is that they are very good at falling on other people’s feet.’ In particular they were resented for their success in finding girl friends when so many local men were away serving in the forces.

Moffat Thomson’s wife Cathy, loved by everyone who knew her, not least for her sparkling sense of humor, related how she once went to see a woman who lived in one of the cottages on the Lambden estate. She found the woman’s son aged three, whom, as she put it, had no identifiable father, playing with a toy outside the cottage. When she asked the boy where his mother was, he replied: ‘Upstairs with her Pole!’

The War in North Africa

After Italy had entered the war in June 1940, Mussolini had invaded Egypt from neighboring Libya which was then an Italian colony but his attack soon petered out. That December the British Army in the Middle East, including Australian and Indian troops, commanded by General Sir Archibald Wavell, a very capable Scottish soldier but who unfortunately never

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hit it off with Churchill, unceremoniously threw the much larger Italians army out of Egypt and back into Libya. By the middle of January 1941 Wavell’s Desert Army, effectively supported by the Mediterranean Fleet and the Middle East Air Force, had advanced over 200 miles into Libya, and had taken two heavily defended seaports. On February 7th Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, fell to the 6th Australian Division and the 7th Armoured Division, the famous Desert Rats, which had bypassed Benghazi, cut off the fleeing Italian Tenth Army, which they forced to surrender. In less than a month, the Desert Army had advanced a further 300 miles, had destroyed nine Italian divisions, capturing 135,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,300 guns, reaching Agheila, less than 500 miles from the capital city of Tripoli

The victory in the African Desert was a powerful boost to morale at home and, like many other families throughout Britain, we at Bughtrig keenly followed its fortunes. With the help of my mother and Rena Hogg and the Daily Express, complete with illustrations and cartoons, I was able to understand the progress of the campaign and admire the Army’s achievements. At about this time I began to keep a scrapbook, cutting out articles, maps and pictures from the Express and the illustrated magazines to

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which my mother subscribed. Seventy years later, almost to the month, Libya, in the turmoil of a vicious civil war, is once again in the news and names of towns and cities like Sollum, Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi and Brega, which I remember from so long ago, are once more making headlines.

Wavell’s success was short-lived. Early in February 1941 British intelligence was warning that a German armoured force was being sent to North Africa on Hitler’s orders to reinforce their faltering Italian allies. On February 12 General Erwin Rommel, who had earned a formidable reputation commanding a Panzer Division in the Battle of France (see My Memories Part II), who had been appointed by Hitler to lead the Afrikakorps, made up of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, arrived in Tripoli, The German tanks were far superior to the British and they were also equipped with what the historian John Keegan called the superlative 88mm anti-tank (and anti-aircraft) gun.

Churchill’s controversial decision to transfer troops from Libya to Greece prevented Wavell from carrying on to Tripoli and he lacked the strength to cope with the counter-offensive which Rommel launched on March 24, only forty days after his advance guard had disembarked at Tripoli. By April

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3rd he had retaken Benghazi and a week later he had besieged Tobruk, which its garrison valiantly and successfully defended, and had effectively pushed the Desert Army back to where they had started their advance, close to the border between Libya and Egypt.

Rommel

Rommel, known as The Desert Fox, proved to be a master of mobile warfare and for the next eighteen months he repeatedly ran rings round the British, particularly after their most able front-line General, Richard O’Connor, had been captured during the German advance. I will recount in Part IV of My Memories how BHR’s friend, Bernard Montgomery, finally won the Desert War and how BHR planned

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the invasion of North-West Africa. Between them they played a very large part in the eventual Allied Victory which expelled the Germans and Italians from Africa.

North Africa, November 1942 General Bernard L. Montgomery watches his tanks.

British Official. (OWI) Part IV continued next issue … The Casablanca Conference (codenamed SYMBOL) was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then a French protectorate, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II. Present were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. the French sent many representatives to file reports of the French . Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had also been invited but declined to attend in light of the ongoing conflict at Stalingrad. General Charles de Gaulle had initially refused to come but changed his mind when Churchill threatened to recognize Henri Giraud as head of the Free French Force.--Wikipedia Hollywood ‘never lets a crisis go to waste’: “In Early November 1942 Allied forces landed on the North Africa coast and captured Casablanca. Capitalizing on the headlines, Warner Bros. launched its own offensive to put (the film) Casablanca into theaters as soon as possible. The picture opened in New York on Thanksgiving Day, 1942. On January 23, 1943, one day before Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill wrapped up their “Casablanca Conference,” it went into general release.” --The Lost One a Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin, pg.205

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‘Give us the tools’… Broadcast 9 February 1941 After Wendell Willkie gave Winston Longfellow’s verse “Sail on, O Ship of State” which Franklin Roosevelt had written out in his own hand, Winston ended his broadcast with: What is the answer that I shall give, in your name, to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of a hundred and thirty millions? Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: “Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and, under Providence, all will be well. We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools), and we will finish the job. The Unrelenting Struggle page 63 in the Cassell Edition.

From the National Archives—The Lend Lease Act

Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States."

In July 1940, after Britain had sustained the loss of 11 destroyers to the German Navy over a 10-day period, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested help from President Roosevelt. Roosevelt responded by exchanging 50 destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. As a result, a major foreign policy debate erupted over whether the United States should aid Great Britain or maintain strict neutrality.

In the 1940 Presidential election campaign, Roosevelt promised to keep America out of the war. He stated, "I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again; your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars." Nevertheless, FDR wanted to support Britain and believed the United States should serve as a "great arsenal of democracy." Churchill

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pleaded, "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job." In January 1941, following up on his campaign pledge and the prime minister's appeal for arms, Roosevelt proposed to Congress a new military aid bill.

The plan proposed by FDR was to "lend-lease or otherwise dispose of arms" and other supplies needed by any country whose security was vital to the defense of the United States. In support of the bill, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the debate over lend-lease, "We are buying . . . not lending. We are buying our own security while we prepare. By our delay during the past six years, while Germany was preparing, we find ourselves unprepared and unarmed, facing a thoroughly prepared and armed potential enemy." Following two months of debate, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, meeting Great Britain’s deep need for supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral.

For more information and other related documents, see the Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan Documents Related to Churchill and FDR.

Transcript of the Lend Lease Act is available from the Department of the Navy’s Naval Historical Center.

� The following words of Sir Winston and their sources are courtesy of Jim Lancaster.

70th Anniversary of the Lend Lease Act—The Third Climateric of World War II-- in Churchill’s Own Words

Churchill from his broadcast address, on 22 June 1941, on the invasion of Russia:

I have taken occasion to speak to you to-night because we have reached one of the climacterics of the war. The first of these intense turning-points was a year ago when France fell prostrate under the German hammer, and when we had to face the

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storm alone. The second was when the Royal Air Force beat the Hun raiders out of the daylight air, and thus warded off the Nazi invasion of our island while we were still ill-armed and ill-prepared. The third turning-point was when the President and Congress of the United States passed the Lease-and-Lend enactment, devoting nearly 2,000 millions sterling of the wealth of the New World to help us to defend our liberties and their own. Those were the three climacterics. The fourth is now upon us.

WSC The Unrelenting Struggle (Little, Brown and Company, pp 169-170) and (Cassell, page 176)

Following is the full text of Winston’s short statement to the House of Commons on March 12, 1941—‘A new Magna Carta.’

THE Lease-Lend Bill became law yesterday [March 11, 1941], when it received the signature of the President. I am sure the House would wish me to express on their behalf, and on behalf of the nation, our deep and respectful appreciation of this monument of generous and far-seeing statesmanship.

The most powerful democracy has, in effect, declared in solemn Statute that they will devote their overwhelming industrial and financial strength to ensuring the defeat of Nazism in order that nations,

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great and small, may live in security, tolerance and freedom. By so doing, the Government and people of the United States have in fact written a new Magna Carta, which not only has regard to the rights and laws upon which a healthy and advancing civilization can alone be erected, but also proclaims by precept and example the duty of free men and free nations, wherever they may be, to share the responsibility and burden of enforcing them.

In the name of His Majesty’s Government and speaking, I am sure, for Parliament and for the whole country, and indeed, in the name of all freedom-loving peoples, I offer to the United States our gratitude for her inspiring act of faith.

(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company edition, page 60)

Winston’s address at the Pilgrims’ Society Luncheon on March 18 extracts:

Extract #1 (unabridged) We have our faults, and our social system has its faults, but we hope that, with God's help, we shall be able to prove for all time, or at any rate, for a long time, that a State or Common-wealth of Nations, founded on long-enjoyed freedom and steadily-evolved democracy,

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possesses amid the sharpest shocks the faculty of survival in a high and honourable and, indeed, in a glorious degree. At such a moment, and under such an ordeal, the words and the acts of the President and people of the United States come to us like a draught of life, and they tell us by an ocean-borne trumpet call that we are no longer alone.

(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company edition, page 62)

Extract #2 (unabridged): It is my rule, as you know, not to conceal the gravity of the danger from our people, and therefore I have a right to be believed when I also proclaim our confidence that we shall over-come them. But anyone can see how bitter is the need of Hitler and his gang to cut the sea roads between Great Britain and the United States, and, having divided these mighty Powers, to destroy them one by one. Therefore we must regard this Battle of the Atlantic as one of the most momentous ever fought in all the annals of war. Therefore, Mr. Winant, you come to us at a grand turning-point in the world's history. We rejoice to have you with us in these days of storm and trial, because we know we have a friend and a faithful comrade who will "report us and our cause aright." But no one who has met you can doubt that you

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hold, and embody in a strong and intense degree, the convictions and ideals which in the name of American democracy President Roosevelt has proclaimed.

In the last few months we have had a succession of eminent American citizens visiting these storm-beaten shores and finding them unconquered and unconquerable — Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Willkie, Colonel Donovan, and now today we have here Mr. Harriman and yourself. I have dwelt with all these men in mind and spirit, and there is one thing I have discerned in them all — they would be ready to give their lives, nay, be proud to give their lives, rather than that the good cause should be trampled down and the darkness of barbarism again engulf mankind. Mr. Ambassador, you share our purpose, you will share our dangers, you will share our anxieties, you shall share our secrets, and the day will come when the British Empire and the United States will share together the solemn but splendid duties which are the crown of victory.

(Unrelenting Struggle, Little, Brown & Company edition, page 63)

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From Churchill’s Eulogy on the death of President Roosevelt:

It was in February that the President sent to England the late Mr Wendell Willkie, who, although a political rival and an opposing candidate, felt as he did on many important points. Mr Willkie brought a letter from Mr Roosevelt, which the President had written in his own hand, and this letter contained the famous lines of Longfellow:...

Sail on, 0 ship of State!

Sail on, 0 Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears,

with all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

At about that same time he devised the extraordinary measure of assistance called Lend-Lease, which will stand forth as the most unselfish and unsordid financial act of any country in all history. The effect of this was greatly to increase British fighting power, and for all the purposes of the war effort to make us, as it were, a much more numerous community.

� To join Churchillians by-the-Bay send a check for the annual dues

of $50 to Churchillians by-the-Bay President Jason Mueller at 17115 Wilson Way, Royal Oaks Calif. 95076

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� The following article is by our fellow Churchillian and often guest speaker, David Freeman.

Perspective: How true is 'The King's Speech'?

Screenwriter David Seidler did some tweaking and telescoping to tell his tale, a history professor writes, but it was done to advance the story, plus explore the relationship between the stuttering royal and his commoner therapist.

February 13, 2011|By David Freeman, Special to the Los Angeles Times

If any best-picture contender was going to face questions about taking liberties with the facts this Oscar season, it seemed likely it would be "The Social Network." But now that screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have tactfully retreated a bit from their initially contentious stands, the accuracy debate has shifted to "The King's Speech."

"The King's Speech" is being sold as a feel-good tale of how a friendship between a royal and a commoner affected the course of history. But some commentators are complaining, among other things, that the film covers up Winston Churchill's support for Edward VIII, the playboy king who abdicated to marry an American divorcee, and that the movie fails to acknowledge that the once tongue-tied George VI supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis. (Writing last month at slate.com, Christopher Hitchens blasted the film as "a gross falsification of history.")

As a specialist in British history, I agree that screenwriter David Seidler certainly has tweaked the record a bit and telescoped events in "The King's Speech" — but for the same artistic reasons that have guided writers from Shakespeare to Alan Bennett, who wrote the screenplay for "The Madness of King George" (and the play on which the movie was based). While historians must stick to the facts,

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dramatists need to tell a good story in good time. It also helps if they can explore the human condition in the process.

Seidler's script opens with Colin Firth as Prince Albert (the future King George VI, but then the Duke of York and known to his family as "Bertie") facing the ordeal of making his first radio broadcast. To add to the strain, the duke must deliver the address in a stadium before a large crowd. However, his words come only haltingly, causing embarrassment for all present. Not shown but later referenced in the film is the fact that in the crowd was Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist recently transplanted from Australia.

All this took place in 1925, but Seidler brings the speech disaster forward 10 years to the eve of the abdication crisis, which resulted in the duke unexpectedly being transformed into a king when his brother Edward VIII stepped aside. The compression of events, although understandable, requires a slew of historical alterations to explain the back story.

The duke's stammer derived in part from the verbal abuse he received as a child from his father, King George V (Michael Gambon). To indicate this, Seidler concocts a scene showing the adult Bertie still being hectored by his father, and it is only after this that he agrees to see Logue.

Much of the early part of the film is taken up with Logue's struggle to win the duke's trust. The therapist succeeds partly by trickery and partly because of continued prompting by Bertie's wife, the Duchess of York (Helena Bonham Carter). After achieving a "breakthrough" with his patient and following Edward's abdication in 1936, Logue helps prepare the new king for the ordeal of the coronation ceremony. That hurdle cleared, the film culminates with the therapist coaching Bertie through another historic moment: his broadcast to the British Empire at the start of World War II with an approving Churchill (Timothy Spall) looking on.

In reality, the duke first sought treatment from Logue in 1926, and, contrary to the film, the two hit it off immediately. Logue wrote in a note later published in the king's official biography that Bertie left their first meeting brimming with confidence. After just two months of treatment, the duke's improvement was significant enough for him to begin making successful royal tours with all the public speaking that entailed. George V was so delighted that Bertie rapidly became his favored son and preferred heir.

In interviews, Seidler has been ambiguous about what sources he consulted in writing the script. The various biographies of George VI all tell of the king's relationship with Logue. This includes the official biography published in 1958. John Wheeler-Bennett, the royal biographer personally selected by the king's widow, was himself a former patient of Logue's and so wrote about the episode with great emotion.

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It remains unclear, though, to what extent sources not available to scholars or the public played a role in the final shape of the film. Seidler has said that Logue's son offered 30 years ago to show him his father's notebooks, provided the king's widow agreed. But when Seidler wrote Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, he was told that she found it too painful to remember the old anguish and begged that he wait until she had passed away.

Although the Queen Mother died in 2002, filmmakers said they were provided with Logue's diaries, notes and letters only shortly before filming began. Seidler has not specified how material from Logue's records was used, but he has said that research guided him to the conclusion that Logue utilized Freud's "talking cure" approach. Thus, by reading up on the king's life, Seidler used what he terms "informed imagination" to create the film's therapy scenes.

Seidler also drew on personal experience: He himself stammered as a child, and it was this that led him to an interest in George VI. From what he has said about his own successful treatment, Seidler indicates that he projected that experience into his fabrication about Logue having to work patiently to gain Bertie's trust. This liberty with the truth certainly gives the film more dramatic interest.

There are many other instances of artistic license in "The King's Speech." For example, Bertie chose his regal cognomen, George, out of respect for his father and not as the film has it because Churchill suggested that Albert sounded "too German." Another dramatic fantasy occurs when the Archbishop of Canterbury (Derek Jacobi) breathlessly revealed that Logue was not in fact a doctor. In reality, Logue's credentials were never misrepresented. Bertie always referred to him as "Mr. Logue" or simply "Logue." Logue's grandchildren recently came forward to say that their grandfather never used Christian names with the king at all — despite the movie making a strong point that the future king bristled at being called "Bertie" by Logue.

As for Hitchens' allegations, they are much ado about nothing. Churchill's support of Edward VIII owed more to his near-medieval reverence for the monarchy than it did to the individual occupying the throne. In supporting the appeasement policies of Chamberlain, George VI acted in harmony with the overwhelming majority of the British population across the political spectrum. As a combat veteran of World War I, the king was as anxious as his subjects to avoid a second conflict by any promising means. George VI was also at one with most Britons in remaining skeptical about Churchill as prime minister until the great man had proved himself.

Hitchens will get a second chance to scrutinize moviedom's portrayal of Edward VIII and George VI this year, when Madonna's film "W.E." — about Wallis Simpson and Edward — hits theaters. He's probably already stocking up on pencils. Freeman teaches history at California State Fullerton. Reprinted with permission of the author. calendar@latimes.com.

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Bookworm’s Corner by James R. Lancaster

The curious chronology of the glow-worm story

In Violet Bonham Carter’s book Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, published in 1965, Violet tells us that the legendary first meeting with Winston took place in the summer of 1906. Many years later, on 22 February 1942, she wrote to Winston a letter in which she referred to their first meeting:

I always remember you saying to me at a dinner at Mary Elcho’s – at which I first met you – “We are all worms – but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.” You never said a truer word – but oh! for more glow-worms!

This letter was printed in Champion Redoubtable, The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914-194, but this book was not published until 1998. So where do we have to go for the first published account of the 1906 meeting?

As it happens, the first published account of Violet Asquith’s meeting with Winston at Lady Elcho’s appeared as Violet’s tribute to Winston on his eightieth birthday [30 November 1954], published as Winston Churchill — As I Know Him, almost the same title she would later use for her book.

After receiving his copy of the book of tributes published by Cassell [Winston Spencer Churchill, Servant of Crown and Commonwealth, a tribute by various hands presented to him on his eightieth birthday, edited by Sir James Marchant,

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Cassell, 1954], Winston wrote a note of thanks to Violet, as she recounts in her diary entry for Friday 5 November 1954:

Worked. Was manicured (very badly!). Had a most moving letter from W. who had just got the Cassell book He writes of the various contributions: ‘There is one which means more to me than all the remainder & which indeed moves me deeply. It seems that after all these years you still believe me to be a glow-worm. That is a complement which I find entirely acceptable.’ It has made me very proud & happy.

The next published account was in French, in 1956. The author was Princess Marthe Bibesco (1886-1973), a Romanian who married Prince George III Bibesco at the age of 17 – on her wedding day she wrote: “I stepped onto the European stage through the grand door”. Fluent in French, and spending most of her life in France, she became an established and successful writer in her adopted country. She first met Winston Churchill in Paris in 1914 at a private dinner to which various members of the French Parliament had been invited to meet Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time.

Five years later Marthe was introduced to Violet Bonham Carter, eldest daughter of Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister 1908-1916. Violet's half-sister Elizabeth (1897-1945, the first child of her father’s second marriage) married, in London, May 1919, Marthe’s cousin Prince Antoine Bibesco.

In 1956 Marthe’s book about Churchill’s courage – Churchill ou le Courage was published in France. In the first chapter of this book she recounts a meeting in London (circa 1952) with Violet and some other friends where each was asked to describe the circumstances when they met Winston for the first time. Violet was the first to give her account. It is very similar to the account she later gave in the first two pages of her book Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, published in 1965, a few months after the death of Winston Churchill.

Marthe’s book was translated into English in 1957, published as Sir Winston Churchill, Master of Courage.

A short time ago in London, in a friend’s house, we were comparing notes about the great man and somebody suggested the following game: each one in turn was to say where, and under what circumstances, he had first met Winston Churchill. The first to be asked was Lady Violet Bonham Carter, Asquith’s eldest daughter. I asked her if their first meeting had taken place at Downing Street where she was then living with her father. She thought for a moment and said: “No, the first time I saw him was in London at a dinner party, the year I came out. I was sitting next to him. He did not open his mouth. He was hunched up with his head well down between his shoulders and seemed to be brooding about something. He intimidated me and I was

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piqued because he would not talk to me, so I said nothing; then I decided to start a conversation with the man on the other side of me, who was only too delighted. Because I was annoyed and wanted to annoy Winston, I kept up the conversation for a long time. But all the time I was talking to the man on my right I had the curious impression that something like a banked-up fire was smouldering or a cauldron boiling on my left. Just before the end of dinner, Winston Churchill turned toward me and said suddenly, in that chuckling voice of his which we all know, “How old are you?” I answered, “Nineteen”.

“’Ah” he cried, “and to think that I am thirty-eight [sic, thirty-one]! Already thirty-eight [sic, thirty-one]! My life is finished! Is it worth going on living when one has lost one’s youth?” And he launched out on a prodigious improvisation on the hackneyed theme of the shortness of life, how little time was vouchsafed to the miserable human race; but these commonplace platitudes were transformed by his eloquence; it was a dazzling display of oratory. And his young listener was completely dazzled. Like a spent fireworks rocket falls to the ground, he relapsed into silence. Then he raised his head and concluded:

“We are all nothing but worms, miserable worms!” Then, with a defiant air, but with a malicious gleam in his eye:

“Yes, nothing but worms, miserable worms, but I, you see, I intend to be … and shall be … a glow-worm!” Jim Lancaster The longer version of this article, with the extract in French from Princess Bibesco’s book published in 1956, plus all the source notes etc., can be obtained by sending a request to the author’s email address: jim@JRLancaster.com

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Lying-in-state Sir Winston Churchill

Died January 24, 1965

Silent mourners pace slowly by the catafalque in We stminster Hall

Lying-in-state describes the formal occasion in which a coffin is placed on view to allow the public to pay their respects to the deceased before the funeral ceremony.

Lying-in-state in the UK is given to the Sovereign, as Head of State, the current or past Queen Consort and sometimes former Prime Ministers.

Many notable occasions of lying-in-state have taken place in Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament, a few days before the funeral ceremony, including:

• 1898 - William Ewart Gladstone • 1910 - King Edward VII • 1936 - King George V • 1952 - King George VI • 1953 - Queen Mary • 1965 - Sir Winston Churchill • 2002 - Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

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� Following is an article by the honored biographer of Sir Winston and contributor to Glow-Worm.

Martin Gilbert: A friend of Israel National Post January 17, 2011 – 8:01 am

A poster for a documentary exploring Winston Churchill’s relationship with Zionism.

By Martin Gilbert

In his determination to see Bolshevism crushed in Russia, Winston Churchill studied the nature and organisation of the Bolshevik government in Moscow. He was familiar with the names and origins of all its leaders: Lenin was almost the only member of the Central Committee who was not of Jewish origin. Neither Churchill nor his colleagues, nor the Jews, knew that Lenin’s mother’s grandfather was a Jew.

In a speech in Sunderland on Jan 2, 1920, surveying the world scene, Churchill described Bolshevism as a “Jewish movement.” Churchill had nothing but contempt for what he described as “the foul baboonery of Bolshevism.” He had studied the Bolshevik terror against political opponents, democrats and constitutionalists, and he knew the significant part individual Jews had played in establishing and maintaining the Bolshevik regime.

For the several million Jews of Russia, caught up in the rapid and often ruthless spread of the Bolshevik revolution, three possibilities beckoned: to emigrate, either to Palestine or to the West; to seek to maintain Jewish social, religious and cultural institutions within Russia despite Bolshevik hostility; or to throw in their lot with the Bolsheviks. A minority chose the latter. It was with these facts in mind that, on 8 February 1920, a month after his Sunderland speech, Churchill wrote a long and closely argued article for a popular British Sunday newspaper, the Illustrated Sunday Herald, appealing to the Jews of Russia, and beyond, to choose between Zionism and Bolshevism. “Some people like Jews and some do not,” Churchill wrote, “but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.”

In a paragraph that the newspaper headed “Good and Bad Jews,” Churchill characterised the Jewish people in dramatic terms: “The conflict between good and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man,” he told his readers, “nowhere reaches such intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of

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mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified.” Elaborating on this theme, he expressed his profound regard for an aspect of Judaism that had impressed itself upon him through his familiarity with the Old Testament. “We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation,” he wrote, “a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilisation.”

Jewish creativity was not, however, necessarily the final word. “It may well be,” Churchill wrote, “that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible.” This was Bolshevism.

At the present “fateful period” of history, Churchill wrote, “there are three main lines of political conception among the Jews, two of which are helpful and hopeful in a very high degree to humanity, and the third absolutely destructive.” First there were the Jews who, “dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify themselves with that country, enter into its national life, and, while adhering faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest sense of the State which has received them.” Churchill noted that such a Jew living in England would say, “I am an Englishman practising the Jewish faith.” This, Churchill added, “is a worthy conception, and useful in the highest degree. We in Great Britain well know that during the great struggle the influence of what may be called the ‘National Jews’ in many lands was cast preponderatingly on the side of the Allies; and in our own Army Jewish soldiers have played a most distinguished part, some rising to the command of armies, others winning the Victoria Cross for valour.”

Churchill also pointed out that the “National Russian Jews,” in spite of the disabilities under which they had suffered, “have managed to play an honourable and useful part in the national life even of Russia. As bankers and industrialists, they have strenuously promoted the development of Russia’s economic resources, and they were foremost in the creation of those remarkable organisations, the Russian Co-operative Societies. In politics their support has been given, for the most part, to liberal and progressive movements, and they have been among the staunchest upholders of friendship with France and Great Britain.”

Turning to what he called “International Jews,” those Jews who supported Bolshevik rule inside Russia and Bolshevik revolution beyond its borders, Churchill told his readers: “In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of

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countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world.”

There was, Churchill continued — in the section of his article headed “Terrorist Jews” — “no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews,” but he went on to write that the part they played “is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders.”

Churchill noted that “the fact that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish places of worship are excepted by the Bolsheviks from their universal hostility has tended more and more to associate the Jewish race in Russia with the villainies which are now being perpetrated.” This, he wrote, was an injustice on millions of helpless people: Jews who were themselves suffering under the Bolshevik regime. It was therefore “specially important to foster and develop any strongly-marked Jewish movement which leads directly away from these fatal associations. And it is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the whole world at the present time.”

Headed “A Home for the Jews,” the next section of Churchill’s article was a public declaration in favour of Zionism” “Zionism offers the third sphere to the political conceptions of the Jewish race,” Churchill wrote. “In violent contrast to international communism, it presents to the Jew a national idea of a commanding character.”

It had fallen to the British Government, Churchill explained, as the result of the conquest of Palestine, “to have the opportunity and the responsibility of securing for the Jewish race all over the world a home and a centre of national life. The statesmanship and historic sense of Mr. [Arthur] Balfour were prompt to seize this opportunity. Declarations have been made which have irrevocably decided the policy of Great Britain.” The “fiery energies” of Dr. [Chaim] Weizmann — “the leader, for practical purposes, of the Zionist project, backed by many of the most prominent British Jews … are all directed to achieving the success of this inspiring movement.”

The small size of Palestine was another aspect of Zionism that Churchill had studied, but he saw the potential of the country for considerable growth. “Of course,” he wrote, “Palestine is far too small to accommodate more than a fraction of the Jewish race, nor do the majority of national Jews wish to go there. But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Jews, an event would have

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occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.”

Churchill noted that Zionism had already become a factor in the “political convulsions” of Russia, and was “a powerful competing influence in Bolshevik circles with the international communistic system.” Nothing could be more significant, he pointed out, than “the fury” with which the head of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky — who had been born Jewish but rejected Jewish national aspirations — “has attacked the Zionists generally” and Weizmann in particular. The “cruel penetration” of Trotsky’s mind “leaves him in no doubt that his schemes of a world-wide communistic State under Jewish domination are directly thwarted and hindered by this new ideal, which directs the energies and the hopes of Jews in every land towards a simpler, a truer, and a far more attainable goal.”

The lesson Churchill drew was emphatic: “The struggle which is now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik Jews is little less than a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people.” It was therefore particularly important “that the national Jews in every country who are loyal to the land of their adoption should come forward on every occasion, as many of them in England have already done, and take a prominent part in every measure for combating the Bolshevik conspiracy.” In this way they would be able “to vindicate the honour of the Jewish name” and to make it clear to all the world that the Bolshevik movement was not a Jewish movement, “but is repudiated vehemently by the great mass of the Jewish race.”

A “negative resistance” to Bolshevism was not enough, Churchill stressed. “Positive and practicable alternatives are needed in the moral as well as in the social sphere; and in building up with the utmost possible rapidity a Jewish national centre in Palestine which may become not only a refuge to the oppressed from the unhappy lands of Central Europe, but which will also be a symbol of Jewish unity and the temple of Jewish glory, a task is presented on which many blessings rest.”

Excerpted, with permission, from Churchill and The Jews by Martin Gilbert, ©2007 Martin Gilbert, published in Canada by McClelland & Stewart.

Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/01/17/martin-gilbert-a-friend-of-israel/#ixzz1BLYIEwNL

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Two of Churchill’s post-war speeches in 1946 at Fulton, Missouri and Zurich, Switzerland established his position as the world’s most honored elder statesman.

The Sinews of Peace, by Winston Churchill-- 65th

Anniversary

Nine months after Sir Winston Churchill failed to be

reelected as Britain's Prime Minister, he traveled by train

with President Harry Truman to make a speech at the request of Westminster College in the small Missouri town of

Fulton. On March 5, 1946, Churchill gave his now famous

"Iron Curtain" speech—following is an excerpt:

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist

international organisation intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytising

tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is

deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain - and I doubt not here also - towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere

through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting

friendships. We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German

aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas.

Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the

Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts

about the present position in Europe.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has

descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin,

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Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these

famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only

to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.

In Bern on the occasion of the address given by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946

Churchill speaks in Zurich Churchill advocates the creation of a United States of Europe based on Franco-German cooperation—From our special correspondent, 19 September 1946 Zurich, 19 September A few weeks ago, Mr. Churchill arrived in Switzerland accompanied by his wife and daughter, Mary. He is staying in the villa placed at his disposal in Bursinel, where he has remained out of sight, dividing his time between resting and his favourite occupation, painting. Before his departure, he

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nonetheless made a point of thanking the Swiss Government for its hospitality and, appearing in front of the Swiss people, he gave a lecture at the University of Zurich, addressing students world-wide. The substance of the speech confirmed the predictions of the journalists who had foreseen its political importance. A huge crowd awaited Mr Churchill, who, in splendid form, asked to be presented to the policemen who had ensured his safety. This was done. Shaking hands, Churchill gave each of them one of his famous cigars as a souvenir. In a specially chartered train, he then went to Bern, where the locals gave him such an enthusiastic welcome that Mr Churchill could not help but shed a few tears. After the welcome given by the President of the Confederation and the ensuing traditional banquet, Churchill, standing up in his car, was taken on a tour of the town, its inhabitants cheering him loudly. It seems that the Bernese, best known for being calm and unexcitable, abandoned these qualities for once. Today, he was in Zurich, the high point of his stay in Switzerland, and tomorrow he will leave the country in a specially chartered aircraft bound for England. At ten o’clock, Mr. Churchill left the Hotel Dolder to go to the reception held by the Cantonal Government. From nine o’clock onwards, all the roads of the town through which he was to pass, impressively decked out with flags, were crowded with people, and on several occasions the police had to call for reinforcements to keep order. A little after

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ten o’clock, Mr. Churchill went by in an open-topped car, standing up and waving to the crowds who threw him flowers. Once he had reached the Cantonal Government building, Mr. Churchill was welcomed by the President of the Government and, after having replied and thanked him, he climbed back in his car to go to the University and make his speech. The Great Hall was full when, to frenzied acclaim, Mr. Churchill made his entrance. After a welcoming speech made in German by the Dean of the University, Mr. Anderes, and after having accepted an honorary degree, Mr Churchill started speaking in English. Having thanked the Dean, he said that he wanted to speak about the tragedy of Europe. Recognising that Europe was the cradle of Christianity, culture, philosophy and science, Mr. Churchill asked the question: ‘What has happened to Europe?’ He answered by saying that, with the exception of a few small countries, there was hunger, poverty and devastation across most of the Continent. If Europe did not recover quickly, this devastation would eventually reach America. There was but one remedy, which was to create the European Community, and the only way to achieve this was through the United States of Europe. What had to follow was the re-education of hundreds of thousands of Europeans. Mr. Churchill went on to recall that certain steps had already been taken: he spoke of the former idea of European union, of the great Frenchman Aristide Briand, of the League of Nations, which was not flawed in its

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principles but was undermined by the desertion of certain countries. He declared that this disaster must not recur and that his friend, President Truman, had already shown an interest in the matter in the context of the United Nations. Speaking of Germany, he said that the crimes that country had committed could not be forgotten and that the guilty must be punished, that Germany must never again be in a position to wage an aggressive war. However, we had to look to the future. The spirit of vengeance must cease. The European Family must learn to forgive. The first step would be cooperation between France and Germany! It was the only way for France to regain its moral and cultural authority in Europe. There must be as much room for the small nations as for the large ones. Mr Churchill ended his speech with a warning: time may be short for the creation of the United States of Europe. Even though the war was over, the dangers were still present; the creation of the United States of Europe must start immediately. The atomic bomb, for example, was still in the hands of only one nation, which would use it only for peaceful purposes. Perhaps, however, in years to come, other nations would possess it and use it for other means. We must therefore strengthen the United Nations and recreate the European Family in its original form, with the first step being the formation of a Council of Europe, providing solid foundations for those who are able and willing. The other nations would probably join in due course. With France and Germany in partnership, Europe would ‘arise’. Rodolphe Singer

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AN ADDITIONAL HISTORIC SPEECH

Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United King dom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress

January 17, 1952

On this date, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House Chamber. The occasion marked the third time that Churchill spoke before Congress—more than any other foreign dignitary in congressional history. Churchill, who had coined the cold war term “Iron Curtain” to describe the Soviet Union’s grasp on Eastern Europe, implored Congress to support Western European re-armament in the face of Moscow’s continued threat to the continent. He believed the Anglo-American alliance was the keystone to the defense of democracies worldwide. “Bismarck once said that the supreme fact of the 19th century was that Britain and the United States spoke the same language,” Churchill told the assembled Representatives and Senators. “Let us make sure that the supreme fact of the 20th century is that they tread the same path.”

Winston Churchill earned the distinction of being the only foreign leader to address Congress three times. As British Prime Minister he addressed Congress in 1941, 1943 (pictured), and 1952.Courtesy of Library of Congress

Cite this Highlight Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, http://clerk.house.govhighlights.html?action=view&intID=82, (March 01, 2011).

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© Copyright Jason Mueller 2011

Glimmer the Glow-Worm, Churchillians by-the-Bay mascot, reports on our March 12th Event:

A delighted audience of Churchillians was treated to dynamic presentations by David Ramsay and Steve Harper on Dunkirk. Working as a team on their interrelated specialties resulted in an exciting event. We started at 10am with coffee and croissants and did not stop until after a delicious luncheon and a myriad of questions and conversations were completed later in the afternoon. Bidding for our silent auction of Churchill memorabilia raised $1100.00 dollars in support of our programs by very generous bidders. Following are some photos from the event:

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The Glow-Worm Gallery of Modern Art

Description English: Cartoon depicting Sir Winston Churchill in the cubist manner of Picasso. Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection.

Date circa 1920

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This cartoon ' Winston Churchill ' was made by urbanmonk. See this cartoon's details or visit urbanmonk's

profile page.You want to see more cartoons or upload your own cartoons? Visit the toonpool.com start page now!

CHURCHILL IN THE NEWS

Artwork by Teacher of Eisenhower and Churchill to be Exhibited at Dolly Johnson Show

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Abenstille am Wasser by Georg Arnold Grabone, 1960

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Artwork by a German artist, Georg Arnold Graboné, who gave lessons to both President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill will be on Display at the Dolly Johnson Art and Antiques Show March 11 and 12.

Born in Munich on September 11, 1896, Georg Arnold Graboné is known today for his palette knife painting style. Beginning as a self-taught artist, Graboné would later travel to Berlin where he refined his techniques under the well-known German impressionist Max Liebermann and would teach at an academy in Zurich.

In 1951 U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was stationed in Garmisch, Germany as the commander of occupied Europe. Sir Winston Churchill encouraged Eisenhower to take up painting as a hobby. Eisenhower followed Churchill’s advice and began to take lessons from Professor Arnold-Graboné. At that time Arnold-Graboné had his studio only a few miles from Eisenhower’s headquarters. For a period of time Eisenhower traveled twice weekly from Paris to Tutzing where he took his art lessons.

One of Arnold-Graboné’s paintings hung in the White House during Eisenhower’s term and later the former president hung one of the paintings, “Zugspitze” in his home in Gettysburg.

Through Eisenhower, Professor Arnold-Graboné eventually became acquainted with Sir Winston Churchill who was interested in the artist’s spatula technique and asked him for some tutelage. The two of them spent several weeks one summer in the early 1950s painting together on the Isle of Man.

Graboné died on October 2, 1982 near Starnberg in Bavaria. The Spartanburg Art Museum in Spartanburg, SC. showcased an exhibit of Graboné’s work in 2009.

The work will be displayed in the booth of Urban Art & Antiques of Grapevine, Texas. For more information see www. dollyjohnsonAntiqueAndArtShow.com

March 15, 2011, 2:45 pm

Dallas Museum Is Sued By KATE TAYLOR

Last year when the Dallas Museum of Art celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of its largest donations — a collection of some 1,400 works of art, including paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Pissarro — it probably didn’t anticipate that it would soon be forced to defend its ownership of the art. But that’s what has happened.

The collection, amassed by Emery Reves, a writer and publisher who was a close friend of Winston Churchill, was donated to the museum by Reves’s widow, Wendy Reves, who died in 2007. The Reveses lived in the South of France in a villa that had originally been built for Coco Chanel.

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In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas on March 11, the Dallas Observer reported, Arnold Leon Schroeder Jr., Mrs. Reves’s son from a previous marriage, has sued the museum claiming that its former director and two trustees conspired to circumvent French law by secreting the collection — which the suit values at $400 million — out of France, thus cheating him of his right under French law to half of his mother’s estate.

In a statement, the museum called the suit “without merit” and said that, while Mrs. Reves oversaw several charitable trusts and foundations created by her husband — which included the art collection — she did not actually own the assets they held, and thus they were not part of her estate.

The museum ultimately built a wing to house the collection. Mr. Schroeder is seeking the return of the collection and damages.

'My grandmother broke Churchill's windows'

A MAN whose suffragette grandmother went to prison for smashing Winston Churchill's windows is visiting the House of Parliament with documents relating to her fight for women's votes.

House of Commons archivists are interested in seeing the paperwork which includes a certificate signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, a letter from Christabel Pankhurst and Fanny's summons to appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court charged with breaking windows at 33 Ecclestone Square.

Fanny was involved in demonstrations after the events of Black Friday in November 1910. It was during these protests, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, that Fanny broke windows at the home of then home secretary, Winston Churchill. She was sentenced to two weeks in Holloway prison…

Queen Mother 'enjoyed ska, folk, Winston and Wogan' Monday, March 14 2011, 2:08am EDT By Kate Goodacre

© Rex Features

Details of the Queen Mother's private music library have been made public for the first time.

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According to The Mail On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth II's late mother owned records including ska music, traditional folk tunes, Trinidadian calypso bands and audio recordings of Winston Churchill's wartime speeches. William Shawcross, her official biographer, told the paper: "During one of her trips to the Caribbean in the '60s, she was introduced to ska music, which she became very fond of. "Noel Coward, who was a personal friend, had a house called Firefly in Jamaica and she greatly enjoyed her visits there. The Queen Mother adored him and found his songs to be wonderfully witty." A former equerry to the Queen Mother said that she "enjoyed listening to everything from Scottish reels to stage musicals". He further added that she was a devoted fan of BBC broadcaster Terry Wogan, listening to his Radio 2 breakfast show "every morning before she came downstairs".

The 1911 British Census By Steven Russell

Thursday, March 24, 2011

5:01 PM

DID you know Winston Churchill once employed a couple of housemaids from East Anglia? Nor did I, until I took a gallop through the census returns from 100 years ago. Winston, then 36, is described in 1911 as “one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State”. He’s living south of Victoria station, with wife Clementine, 26, to whom he’d been married less than three years. Also in Eccleston Square on Sunday, April 2 is their one-year-old daughter, Diana, while Clementine is heavily pregnant with Randolph, who will be born within two months.

The Home Secretary’s household includes a number of domestic staff, all of them single folk. There’s 43-year-old cook Elizabeth Jackson, who was born in

Lincolnshire, and nurse Ethel Higgs, 28 and from Margate. Nancy Baalham, a 24-year-old from Barking, is a lady’s maid, while Eva Knights – 30 and born at Aylsham,

north of Norwich – is a parloumaid.

There’s an under-parlourmaid and a kitchen maid – 21 and 17 – and housemaid Ada Robjent. She’s 25 years old and was born in Hatfield Peverel, the village between

Witham and Chelmsford.

The staff is completed by hall boy Albert Brown – a youthful 15 years old.

Until next issue: