1957-03-02 — Page 7

Ta huge meeting in the Dorchester Hotel held to lunch the publication of Sir Arthur Bryant's The Turn of the

Tide,"

Viscount

Portal

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY,' MARCH 2, 1957.

THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER WRONG

warned us that some of its the dangers to guard against," pages might "give n' shock he writes, explaining this de-

to Churchill worshippers."

Such a statement 8, in- deed, restraint, run riol. This is a book that will certainly do more than shock Churchill fans; it will probably shake history.

cision. Ind discovered the perils of his impetuous nature.

I knew tirut it would take ht least six months for any successor, taking over from me, to become es familiar with him and his ways. During those six hip- might months anything peti,"

No disclaimers by either A blunder publisher, author, or war- time colleagues can disguise the fact that Lord Alu- brooke's diary, upon which this book is based, will seriously revise many con- ceptions as to how the war was won and by whom.

J

Alanbrooke's diary began in the first days of the war when.. 20:4

lieutenant- general in command of I Corps, he lef! for France. Each night, in the form of to his An evening chat wife he confided to paper his doubts, his hopes, his mis- givings. his frustrations, his triumphs,

brooke was ordered to prepare rolling it up again with Nor- to each other"), his admiration for Churchill's other qualities the plans.

Alinbrooke would of leadership was unbounded generals ke Mac- "He is quite the most wonder

way.

Öften Intercept naughten

of

the Canadian ful man I have ever met," bo

Alanbrooko's negative appre- elation was denounced by Chur- chill as a "masterly treatise on all the dimeulties.” Losing his Army, or Alexander on their wrote in 1041, "and it 4

the temper,

Prime

Minister way to n Churchill rendezvous source of, never-ending interest, sometimes growled, "I

to think and assure them that if they studying him and getting

Is the Field Marshal trying to prove that

The very

Alan- Best Bie

Churchill, by brooke spoke to telepon in 1940 from France, he received the impression that Chill thought he had "elek 1、*1,** -Without sufficient know. Textge of coniitione prevailing on that front at that time," he comments, he was endeavour- tu In to larce aconumander enery out Est wishes against some of my generals don't want Dral commander's better Judg ment."

it was the British professional soldier who

To ght the Gron."

Of the decision, to send troops The reason to Greece in 1940, Alanbrooke writes, " have always con- sidered that our participation in the operations in Greece was a dednite strategie blunder."

When, against the advice His appointment as Chief of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The Imperial General Staff in Churchill till insisted on carry- 1911, at his subsequent check- Ing

bssault nginst by-jewel in bationship with Chur- No war 2 0 10 1010, An

chill in the conduct of the war has turned these jottings into a unique

authoritative

01234

glimps into the some conifiets tacked the men who led

L

the Allies to victory.

Epic times

Only a fraction of the nearly. Amon words Algobrucke write has been used by Arthur Bryant in his masterly reeun- struction another volume is

to Cons of These pic The more inchserest, the

tint

e jarevish, the more

perrel

entrics, Bryant explains, have bean primed away for posterity to peruse.

to

Yet what einans la devastat- ing, ennaga. Eve it purtrays Chur- chill as a strategist of such mad impetu ny, such wayward reck- les te

such ineptitude, such overbeara stubbornness that if the war had been left in hands alone. se shadders contemplate what victory might have cost us in tears and blood.

Alumbroke considered it bis chertlerntext Husk to curb and restrain the more dangerous ex- of his leader. Rather than allow the war effort remain in Churchill's unfettered hands, Alanbrooke turned down the glittering prize of commund of the Eighth Army just before El Alamein.

CUSSE

"Whether 1 exercised Day control or not, I knew"by now

The Tum of the Tube By Sir Arthur Bruant, Collins, 30%.

(Continued From Page 0)

time for anything else," murmured.

CATE an

4+

won the war?

resisted

of

MILTON SHULMAN,

some wil! plun Churchill's they would have the ernstand de- Of Churchill's mands for an ault on Nor. Suport of the Chiefs of Staff.

this Lo way, Alanbrooke had

Why he wanted to go back Stands out fatal wat he

won king to Wy never found out.

124

with start

The re

Bul if Almbrook :5 The only reason he ever gave chill an impossible military was that Hitler had antirolled the thinker ("I have

Artist

teeth in me king him to d map of Europe

would Norway and

igortance of the varlevis frotits

theaghl

never Su-

et se

that ccersionally human beings make their MUTER on this earth--buman

uch ip-

MACMILLAN CABINET

SURPRISE

is reported that taster

has been appointed Minister

of Transport, following hit-complete solution of London's parking problem-

STOP PRESS.

100

ALBERT HALL

TELL THE WORLD"

BAND

CONTEST

RUSSIA V AMERICA

SaraÆbact

HIGH COST OF

B.BC.

HALL

ENCOURAGING THE CLASSICS

flock of sheep. Princts Margaret jumped out and danced a high

he landing, her pink tward skirt

twirling round her kners.

The Duke's musical sense bas never been a strong point, He once failed to recognise the Canadian National Anthem

at

Parker crept up to her with the camera but Margaret save

WUKOTRE OPET. standards,

DISMAY IN THE ESTABLISHMENT

"HULLO!... ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ?... IMMEDIATELY!..... NOW THE CORGIES HAVE FALLEN OUT AND THERE IS TALK OF DIVORCE!. YES... YES... OF COURSE,RESIGNATION AT ONCE!"

THE PASSING SCENE

of

county

a different At saiding it was

Mike Parker is a good yachtsman--he has trophies prove it--but he always seemed

עין ו}.

to

World Copyright dy arrangement with the Manchester Guardian

Parker What has he got to show Jor wooed his sister Mary.

abruptly turned him out of the, flat.

them?

raw decorallons. In the 1953 New Year Honours List he got

However right the critics are, the M.V.O. In 1955 he received there is no denying that Michael the freedom of the Womhipful

Parker has come a long way.

little The gloomy

Palace office he once had has now been changed for the mcst modera in the building. Instead of c view of the courtyard It faces. on to the lawns where the royni children play.

a dinner and went on talking. He quickly got a nudge from Parker and rose haallly 10 his feet.

There have been times, of

She shouted: "Oh, no, to get into a pickle when course, when even the atten-

don't." and scampered salled with the Duke. tive aide has not been

able you

round the car.

The Michael Parker Story

to help.

At Swansea, for instance, students wanted to welcome the Duke with a song. "What shall we sing?" they asked.

Anything you like."

Parker.

So they

Gald

sang with Weish fervour: Why was he born so beautiful?"

One he missed

DESPITE

single-minded service to his master he found time to become a cheerful companion of the rest of the Royal Family.

Nearly all those personal photographs which-like every other familyour royalty collect, have been taken by Mike Park-

Not all of them though. There is one ho missed.

In a quiet Scottish lane in the Western Isles list summer, the royal car was held up by

a

im.

Aut always the story of Michael Parker's life in tho Palace comes back to ona thing... his bond with the Duke,

'Bail out'

BON

of

he Company of Shipwrights.

He has had nine years hard working but gracious living of standard far removed from his middle-class beginnings. His lates show an extravagance he never had when he first walked

the Polace. His waist line shows the evidence,

де had RA.F. oficar for crew when he saw water in the botion of the boot. "Ball out,”

Parker the watchdog, Parker the good companion. Before any important function he yelled. it was always Parker who used to see that the Duke was left

alone for a little white. This he used to call "pomping up." And after the function it would

be Parker who would leave the the door apartment closing behind him announcing: "He's just de-pomping!”

He was just in time to pro- vent the oirman leaping the water.

into

Something was chways hop- pening to him. Even the tiller would come away in his hand.

It was one sunny morning in the Solent that the Duke grinned Sailing, pariy-going, under- and asked, "What trouble will water fishing,

the Mike get into today?" two men shared everything.

Although as far as cricicet is On this dreary February day concerned the Duke would say those words have a much deep ruefully when he was invited to er signiŝicance.

cricket

play:

ay: "You are only asking me Michael Parker Has run into because you want Mike Parker." trouble that will not be laughed For the Australian is above away over a drink. *His nine averago as a bateman

a years of royal life have ender.

JOHNNY HAZARD

I'VE GOT TO I'VE GOTTA PASH, COLLECT AN AIR-

·JOHNNY .... HAVE TO RACE TROPHY FILE THIS STORY AND HOT-JET IT BEFORE IT BECOMES BACK TO THE YESTERDAY'S NEWSI | COAST 60 I CAN WHERE YOU HEADEDT. PRESENT IT

»ATO KITTY HAWKES, THE SAL WHO MADE MY WINNING THE RACE POSSIBLEÍ BESIDES IT'LL HELP EASE MY STANDING HER

UP LAST NIGHT!

ond

WHEN THIS STORY

OF WHAT YOU WERE DOING LAST NIGHT HITS THE COAST YOU'LL HAVE TO FIGHT HER

OFF! S'LONG. JOHNNY! |

into

And he has found his

Parker was dazzlīd Influence of the Palace,

of four secre-

It has a staff taries. The roll-top desk of the kind at which every other reysi sorvant works has been thrown away. There are electric type- writers and Dictaphones. But there is still a touch of the critics, playroom about it. On the by the shelves are

models of aircraf they and ships.

in various ways-small ones, it is admitted-he used its power to help those he liked.

Ho is accused of working his friends into the royal orbit. It is even said that he monopolised the Duke,

Now a stranger

nine years.

ND, perhaps, disturbing

most !

one map on the wall which When they were in Australia shows all the journeys the Duke there were complaints that the and Michael Parker have mase Duke was far too much con side by side in these laughing

and fined to the Parker circles never had the charte of meeting those who badly wanted to talk to him.

And, above all, Parker offend ed conventional ideas of royal stuffiness.

They tell of the episode when a rather spurious, young

MEANWHILE ON THE COAST......

AW

YUPİ HE'S OKAYÉ AND

man

By Frank Robbins

WORD YET, HEADING BACK NOW REAL

| SCOTTY 7" } GONE ON THE GUY, GR, KITTY 7

DON'T KNOW WHETHER I SHOULD

È TRUST A GAL WITH HEART

PALPITATIONS TO TEST-FLY

PROJECT GLOBEI

And a map of journeys they were to have made together in the future.

NOW THE COURTIER FROM WILL. BE THE SUBURBS LEFT BEHIND.

...this situation® calls for a

San Miguel

beings who stand out head and shoulders above the others."

But such unalloyed enthusina begins to tarnish with the pass- ing of months and months, of

Terences and blckerings..

By early 1942 the entries have more-in-sorrow - than - anger - tone about them"God knows where we should bu without him, but God knows where we rhall, go with him." By the ind of that year his commente take on the querulous note of an anxious nunnio trying restrală a precocious youngster

"He never faces realities. Ho is quite incorrigible and I am quite exhausted,"

The decisions

to

But if the Prime Minister was Ibus

strait- being effectively jørketed in his conduel of the war, who then was making all the wise decisions that led (19 on To victory? 'There is no doubt about whom the diary thinks was right all tho None other than Lor Alan- brooke.

time

Whose pulley was it to con- quer North Africa, quash the eries for a Western Front LI 1942 and 1943, invade Skeily ond

then

Alanbrooke's. Italy? Whose prescience saw in men like Montgomery and Alexan- der the commanders who would win battles in the Beid?

brooke's

Alan-

Whose arguments so Americans

overwhelmed the

strategie

with their unaæailable logic that they abandoned their plans for winning the war and adopted ours? Alanbrooke's.

Churchill, however, could take consolation in the fact that be was not alone in faining to live up to Alanbrooke's standards of Some a great milury thinker,

distinguished saktiers suffered the same cold depreca- Ilon.

very

General Marshall, according to Alanbrooke, was a pleasant and easy

man to get on with, rather over-filed with his own importance, But should not put him down as a great man,”

Anxiety

Of Eisenhower he writes: "I had little conadence in his having the ability to handle the mithary situation confronting him, and he caused me great anxiety.

He learnt a lot during the war, but inciles, strategy

command were never his strong points."

Of General Stilwell: "Except for the fact that he was a stoul-

| hearted fighter suitable to lead a brigade of Chinese senlly- wags. 1 could see no qualities in him."

Montgomery and Alexuntier were his ideal commanders. He trusted and admired, above all others, his predecessor as CIGS, Sir John DL He was on- stantly defending generals! like. Wavell and Auchinlock against the Impatient criticisms of Churchill.

Whether or not it was Alan-' brooke's intention, this book seems to be trying to elbow the British professional soldier into

a greater share of the credit for winning the war. In the cess it was inevitable that there would be some chipping

of Churchill's military Hion and That the

away

reputa- Americans

would have to be jostled off the

centre

the

rather

of the stage. After all,

cast of sturs is getting

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