|
Winston
Churchill (1940-5, 1951-5)
Winston Churchill was born in 1874. He was educated
at Harrow and then the Royal Military College
at Sandhurst. Whilst in the Army he provided the
media with reports and commentary. After leaving
the Army he began to correspond for the paper
on the Boer War and was taken prisoner by the
Boers but made headline news when he escaped.
He initially joined the political arena as a Conservative
MP but after being introduced to social ideologies
he joined the Liberal party. Churchill continued
to progress until by 1910 he had become the Home
Secretary and by the outbreak of the war he had
joined the war council. He served under Lloyd
George but eventually with the divisions in the
Liberal Party, Churchill left and rejoined the
Conservatives and was appointed as the Chancellor
of the Exchequer under Baldwin.
Under Ramsay MacDonald however he was considered
to be far too radical and was not invited to join
the cabinet. Instead during the Second World he
was again involved with the army until Chamberlain
resigned and King George VI appointed Churchill
as Prime Minister. He formed a strong coalition
government but the war continued to go badly for
Britain. He was a brilliant and quite mesmeric
orator, inspiring all sectors of British society
during the hardship of war.
Although he was a popular politician, by the end
of the war he could not convince the electorate
that he was as committed to social reform as Clemet
Atlee and his Labour government were and as a
result he lost the general election. Churchill
continued to lead the opposition and when visiting
the US in 1946 he made his famous Iron Curtain
speech. He did return to power after the 1951
elections for s short spell but had to leave due
to ill health.
Winston Churchill, Illustrated Sunday
Herald – 8th February 1920:
“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 atheistic Jews ... 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 Jewish
leaders ... The same evil prominence was obtained
by Jews in (Hungary and Germany, especially Bavaria).
Although in all these countries there are many
non-Jews every whit as bad as the worst of the
Jewish revolutionaries, the part played by the
latter in proportion to their numbers in the population
is astonishing. 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”.
Winston Churchill on the resignation of
Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary:
“The resignation of the late Foreign Secretary
may well be a milestone in history. Great quarrels,
it has been well said, arise from small occasions
but seldom from small causes. The late Foreign
Secretary adhered to the old policy which we have
all forgotten for so long. The Prime Minister
and his colleagues have entered upon another and
a new policy.
The old policy was an effort to establish the
rule of law in Europe, and build up through the
League of Nations effective deterrents against
the aggressor. Is it the new policy to come to
terms with the totalitarian Powers in the hope
that by great and far-reaching acts of submission,
not merely in sentiment and pride, but in material
factors, peace may be preserved.
A firm stand by France and
Britain, under the authority of the League of
Nations, would have been followed by the immediate
evacuation of the Rhineland without the shedding
of a drop of blood; and the effects of that might
have enabled the more prudent elements of the
German Army to gain their proper position, and
would not have given to the political head of
Germany the enormous ascendancy which has enabled
him to move forward. Austria has now been laid
in thrall, and we do not know whether Czechoslovakia
will not suffer a similar attack”.
Churchill on the Soviet-Britain Alliance
– 1939:
“Ten or twelve days have already passed
since the Russian offer was made. The British
people, who have now, at the sacrifice of honoured,
ingrained custom, accepted the principle of compulsory
military service, have a right, in conjunction
with the French Republic, to call upon Poland
not to place obstacles in the way of a common
cause. Not only must the full co-operation of
Russia be accepted, but the three Baltic States,
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, must also be brought
into association. To these three countries of
warlike peoples, possessing together armies totalling
perhaps twenty divisions of virile troops, a friendly
Russia supplying munitions and other aid is essential.
There is no means of maintaining
an eastern front against Nazi aggression without
the active aid of Russia. Russian interests are
deeply concerned in preventing Herr Hitler's designs
on eastern Europe. It should still be possible
to range all the States and peoples from the Baltic
to the Black sea in one solid front against a
new outrage of invasion. Such a front, if established
in good heart, and with resolute and efficient
military arrangements, combined with the strength
of the Western Powers, may yet confront Hitler,
Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Goebbels and co.
with forces the German people would be reluctant
to challenge”.
Churchill on Operation Dynamo, The Second
World War – 1949:
“Ever since May 20, the gathering of shipping
and small craft had been proceeding under the
control of Admiral Ramsay, who commanded at Dover.
After the loss of Boulogne and Calais only the
remains of the port of Dunkirk and the open beaches
next to the Belgian Frontier were in our hands.
On the evening of the 26th an Admiralty signal
put Operation Dynamo into play, and the first
troops were brought home that night.
Early the next morning,
May 27, emergency measures were taken to find
additional small craft. The various boatyards,
from Teddington to Brightlingsea, were searched
by Admiralty officers, and yielded upwards of
forty serviceable motor-boats or launches, which
were assembled at Sheerness on the following day.
At the same time lifeboats from liners in the
London docks, tugs from the Thames, yachts, fishing-craft,
lighters, barges and pleasure-boats - anything
that could be the use along the beaches - were
called into service”.
Winston Churchill on the resignation of Anthony
Eden as Foreign Secretary:
“The resignation of the late Foreign Secretary
may well be a milestone in history. Great quarrels,
it has been well said, arise from small occasions
but seldom from small causes. The late Foreign
Secretary adhered to the old policy which we have
all forgotten for so long.
The Prime Minister and his colleagues have entered
upon another and a new policy. The old policy
was an effort to establish the rule of law in
Europe, and build up through the League of Nations
effective deterrents against the aggressor. Is
it the new policy to come to terms with the totalitarian
Powers in the hope that by great and far-reaching
acts of submission, not merely in sentiment and
pride, but in material factors, peace may be preserved.
A firm stand by France and
Britain, under the authority of the League of
Nations, would have been followed by the immediate
evacuation of the Rhineland without the shedding
of a drop of blood; and the effects of that might
have enabled the more prudent elements of the
German Army to gain their proper position, and
would not have given to the political head of
Germany the enormous ascendancy which has enabled
him to move forward. Austria has now been laid
in thrall, and we do not know whether Czechoslovakia
will not suffer a similar attack”.
Churchill on the Soviet-Britain Alliance
– 1939:
“Ten or twelve days have already passed
since the Russian offer was made. The British
people, who have now, at the sacrifice of honoured,
ingrained custom, accepted the principle of compulsory
military service, have a right, in conjunction
with the French Republic, to call upon Poland
not to place obstacles in the way of a common
cause. Not only must the full co-operation of
Russia be accepted, but the three Baltic States,
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, must also be brought
into association. To these three countries of
warlike peoples, possessing together armies totalling
perhaps twenty divisions of virile troops, a friendly
Russia supplying munitions and other aid is essential.
There is no means of maintaining
an eastern front against Nazi aggression without
the active aid of Russia. Russian interests are
deeply concerned in preventing Herr Hitler's designs
on eastern Europe. It should still be possible
to range all the States and peoples from the Baltic
to the Black sea in one solid front against a
new outrage of invasion. Such a front, if established
in good heart, and with resolute and efficient
military arrangements, combined with the strength
of the Western Powers, may yet confront Hitler,
Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Goebbels and co.
with forces the German people would be reluctant
to challenge”.
Churchill on Operation Dynamo, The Second
World War – 1949:
“Ever since May 20, the gathering of shipping
and small craft had been proceeding under the
control of Admiral Ramsay, who commanded at Dover.
After the loss of Boulogne and Calais only the
remains of the port of Dunkirk and the open beaches
next to the Belgian Frontier were in our hands.
On the evening of the 26th an Admiralty signal
put Operation Dynamo into play, and the first
troops were brought home that night.
Early the next morning,
May 27, emergency measures were taken to find
additional small craft. The various boatyards,
from Teddington to Brightlingsea, were searched
by Admiralty officers, and yielded upwards of
forty serviceable motor-boats or launches, which
were assembled at Sheerness on the following day.
At the same time lifeboats from liners in the
London docks, tugs from the Thames, yachts, fishing-craft,
lighters, barges and pleasure-boats - anything
that could be the use along the beaches - were
called into service”.
Churchill, Election Broadcast –
May 1945:
“I must tell you that a socialist policy
is abhorrent to British ideas on freedom. There
is to be one State, to which all are to be obedient
in every act of their lives. This State, once
in power, will prescribe for everyone: where they
are to work, what they are to work at, where they
may go and what they may say, what views they
are to hold, where their wives are to queue up
for the State ration, and what education their
children are to receive. A socialist state could
not afford to suffer opposition - no socialist
system can be established without a political
police. They (the Labour government) would have
to fall back on some form of Gestapo”.
"The empires of the
future are the empires of the mind"
"I am prepared to meet my maker. Whether
my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting
me is another matter"
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our
duties and so bear ourselves that if the British
Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand
years men will still say 'This was their finest
hour'"
Churchill on the RAF following victory
in the Battle of Britain:
"Never in the field of human conflict was
so much owed by so many to so few"
|
