1950-12-21 — Page 7

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, THURSDAY, DECEMBER

The Churchill Story: 8th Instalment

HE DEFIED HIS

ON

PARTY

Winston Churchill would have

May 31, 1904, little more than three years after his entry to Parlia-, another member and Churchill's called to that office. ment as the blue-eyed boy close friend.

By Colin Frame been Frime Minister in 1922,

eighteen years before he was

Instead, Churchill was ignor- But these fireworks-manu-ed. Worse, he was deliberately

of the Conservative Party, factured at his new flat in insulted--and was in turn in- Winston Churchill crossed Mount-street, Mayfair, fur-sulting.. the floor of the House and took his seat as a Liberal.

Those three years had been a time of battle and attack, waged by him with increasing confidence that he was right and with Increasingly coura- geous impudence, too.

Like his father before him he found himself unable to toe

the party line. He felt that

loyalty to his Own ideas far outweighed any other loyalty the House demanded.

nished with his father's writing One day Balfour "walked out table (which he still has at of the House as he rose to Chartwell) and decorated with speak. Most of his party, 250 cartoons of his father and of them, walked out, too. prints of old cavalry battles Balfour did the same on were damp squibs in compari- other occasions. "The right son with a Churchillian rocket honourable gentleman need not which soared into the political run away-I am not going to sky two years later.

attack him today," flashed Churchill.

He disliked the way the ground. Conservatives prosecuted South African war. He liked their extravagance.

Most of all he disliked their shilly-shallying between the two policies of Free Trade and Imperial Preference.

Tories Split.

JOS

OSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, . His speeches were often in- apostle of Imperial Pre- terrupted, and those of his ference, touched it off by a friends. "I am unable to hear speech in Birmingham, his home what my honourable friend is saying," he declared on a point the From that moment the Con-of order, because of the vulgar dis-servative Party, many of whom clamour maintained by the

were Free Traders, was irre- Conservative Party." vocably split.

"Queens never abdicate" was Between the two factions another of his sneers at Balfour Mr Balfour sat uncomfortably and his non-committal policy. on the fence and tried to keep Churchill finally burried his War Prophet

the peace, while the Liberals | Conservative boats in this his cheered from the sidelines.

first Parliament by writing to WITH dramatic, almost fool-

This disarming neutrality, the Liberal candidate at a by- hardy courage Churchill

infuriated young Churchill. He election to wish him well. · made his third, speech as a could understand Imperial Almost at the same time he Conservative-an attack on Ser-Preference arguments. He was ended a speech at Halifax vice expenditure the very vehemently for Free Trade with "Thank God we have a matter over which his father himself. What he could not Liberal Party." had resigned, never to regain stomach was his Leader's non-

committal tact.

WIT

power,

signation.

Minister.

Against his proposal to or- ganise

six new army corps Churchill put down an amend ment.

Bitterly he spoke of "the costly, trumpery and dangerous military play things

"Winnie" rampaging the country after "Joe" became the joke of the summer.

AT

Disowned

AT Oldham the Conservative Association disowned him.

another two

and

EDITORS PRESS SERVICE" INC.-

21, 1950,

KIBANTURDAY EVIDING PORT,

TYRREM

"Mind if I smoke?”

1890

FOR THE BUSINESSMAN

Union Officials

Demand US Price & Rent Controls

Washington, Dec. 20..

These officials said compensatory wage in- creases must be permitted as long as food prices and rents are subject to sharp and drastic increases, because these two items together repre sent 53 percent of the average family's living costs.

This attack had its piquant "Winnie” and “Joe” points. It had almost the ele- ments of a family vendetta.

ITE began a Free Trade cam- At the time Lord Randolph paign which was as cheeky

Churchill replied that they Top union officials told President Truman to- resigned, Mr. St John Brodrick as it was untiringly pressed (afterwards Lord Midleton) home.

were in fact merely disowning day that food prices and rents must be controlled was Under-Secretary of State Wherever Joe Chamberlain their own avowed principles.

to proclaim He sat on-for for War, one of the men whose stood in Britain

effectively before any move is made to stabilise refusal to cut expenditure had his new policy of Tariff Re-years as their member,

wages. caused Lord Randolph's re-form, Winston Churchill, usually since Oldham was in any case accompanied by Lord Hugh primarily Liberal it is likely Now Mr Brodrick was War Cecil, booked a hall and spoke he enjoyed the confidence of

against it. :

most of the voters.

To Liberals in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, Churchill made his last public years as an If the Birmingham challenge speech for many went unanswered he felt there official Conservative. It was to would arise a new type of Tory be 20 years before he again જ્ઞ Conservative and acknowledged on which Party "rigid, materialist,

Furthermore, they said,, wage; tion of 1950, so that food prices the Secretary of State for War secular. whose opinions will label.:

stabilisation must not become and rents may be controlled has set his heart."

turn on tariffs and who will This speech, so graceful in wage freezing.

effectively. The union officials! Prophetically he declared cause the Lobbies to be crowd-style, so packed with epigram The union chiefs, headed by said the Act, which authorises that "A European war caned with the touts of protected and wit, was a noble forebear CIO President Philip Murray price controls, does not provide only end in the ruin of the industries."

of his great speeches 40 years and AFL President William rent controls which are han- vanquished and the scarcely He even went to battle in later. He said:

Greene, in a statemest issueddled in separate legislation, less fatal commercial disloca- the enemy's stronghold, Bir- "We want a Government after a 40-minute conference and permits food price fn- tion and exhaustion of the mingham.

that will think a little more with President Truman, also: creases. They said the present

at the bottom (1) Called for an A hostile crowd in

indepen- prohibitions upon conquerors."

near-about the toiler. (This was in 1901-no

and awaited him. of the mine a little less dent wage stabilisation board food prices and rents mean prophecy for lynching mood a man of 26.)

They were in the same sort of about the fluctuations of the whose decisions would not be effective barrier to any sys- Heroically he tore to shreds mood as that which had driven share market in London.

subject. to review by the tem of price or wage controls, the

"We Conservative

want

these arguments Lloyd George as a pro-Boer 10

Government Economic Stabilisation Agency; and an elimination of a

(2) demanded that Govern- prohibitions is à preliminary to in favour of bigger military leave his meeting disguised as which, instead of looking main- expenditure.

a policeman.

ly abroad will look mainly, Ifment policy recognise existing any workable stabilisation But Churchill in

collective Loyally, at any rate to his

a tense not I think entirely, at home.

bargaining agree-tion. described

cost ments which contain father, he cried,

of "Wise words scene

by his bio-

"We want a Government living escalator clauses, or face

The officials did not reveal Mr stand the best of time and Igrapher Hugh Martin drove am glad that the House has merrily up in an open landau. and a policy which will think the threat of industrial unfit-Truman's reaction to their pro- posals, but said they were allowed me after an interval He smiled, nodded and waved the condition of a slum in an`

issuing their statement with the of fifteen years to lift again cheerily. He refused a police English city is not less worthy

President's permission. the tattered flag of retrench-suggestion that he should slip of the attention

met with The union chiefs ment and economy-the tatter-in by a side door.

Mr Truman as the Wage Stabilisation Board opened a hearing with union and manage- ment representatives of the au- tomobile industry to work at. problems stemming from the price rollback ordered for that.. industry-United Press,

stricken field.”.

Mutiny

THIS speech,

Open-Air Meeting

a

ness;

EFFECTIVE BARRIER of statesmen

13) urged prompt ment of the Defence

the

have laid Churchill low at the HOWEVER, his campaign did aggression to cover it up

outset of his political career.

and of Parliament than ed flag I found lying on a The ugly murmur of the jungle of Somaliland."

He snarled at the new Pro- crowd changed to laughs and

"We tectionists.

know cheers. They had to admire.

per- his pluck. He got a good hear-fectly well what to expect-a SO abruptly ing.

party of vested interests band- antagonistic to the leaders

ed together in formidable of his own party, might easily

federation; corruption at home,

him

no good among the abroad; the trickery of tariff

He took, he says,

one of machine; sentiment by weeks stituency. He preparing it. He learnt it by the clubs there locked against bucketful, patriotism by the held a meeting imperial pint; the open hand heart. And he sent a copy of him. So he it off to his

the old paper "The outside it in pouring rain. at the public exchequer,

he de- At this Morning Post," before

point. Mr Balfour open door at the public house; livered it.

missed making a gesture which cheap labour for the million- Liberals, of course cheered might have changed the Chur-aire." him to the echo. "Peace, Re-chill story out of all recogni-

Then came the peroration. trenchment and Reform" wastión. He might, as he re-which, after all these years, a Gladstone slogan and they shuffled his Government, have rings like a clarion: never thought to hear it on the made Churchill a Minister.

It was deliberate mutiny. Conservatives in his own con-juggles, the tyranny of a party

six

lips of a Conservative.

Most Conservatives furious. Some of them

found

Two people who certainly

so were were thought

F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) sug-

A Liberal

"OUR

gested he should cross the Chamberlain.

floor at once.

the

to-

and JoeUR movements are

wards a better, fairer, A young thoroughbred in organisation of society; and In the long run Churchill the hands of a thick-witted our faith is strong and high was the victor. His father was and clumsy rider," was Birken- that the time will surely come avenged. The proposal to in-head's comment on Churchill and will come the sooner for crease the Army was eventu- at this stage, and Chamberlain our efforts when the dull

Margot Mr Brodrick told ally dropped

as

Asquith that grey

clouds under which

went to the India Office which "Winston is the cleverest of all millions of our fellow men are could hardly be regarded

the young men and the mistake monotonously toiling "will Arthur made promotion.

was to let him break and melt and vanish Meanwhile, "I drifted steadily go.",

for ever in the sunshine of a new and nobler age.”

to the left wrote. Churchill in "My Early Life.”

caught

If Arthur Balfour had offer ed. Churchill office it might How many times have Bri- He became, just as his father have appealed so much to the tons thrilled since to such re- had done in his early days, a young, zealous and ambitious sounding words and member of a Conservative politician that some compro- through them a glimpse ginger group.

mise on Tariff Reform could New Jerusalem? He was their most powerful have been reached within his spokesman, chipping, as often

at the Prime Minister, Mr Bal- four, as at the Opposition.

called the Hugh-

party.

Lord High A

A fortnight later da

tha

entered the House, Bazed steadily for Burned His Boats a few seconds at his old tol- CCEPTANCE › would almost leagues and sat with the Li-

certainly have meant that berals for the first time

STANDARD

****

amend- Produc-

BRIDGE

· By M. Harrison-Gray

Dealer South Game all

N.

10:3

K Q J

10 8 7 5

control

of are an

RENT CONTROLS

Washington, Dec. 20.

Truman

President

4Q882

signed

W.

E.

rent

K954

18762

next.

1984.2.

A 10:653

AK6 43

3.2 6

QJ94

A KJ 1075 This hand produced, a swing in a match that might have been even greater. In both rooms South opened One Club and North bid Two Clubs. The first South Jumped to Five Clubs too ambitions, al thougi & game bid would be Justified if his suit was "à major

West led ̈K, on which East played: ♦ 3. Best defence holds South to eight: tricks but West failed to notice that ♦ 2 was missing He from the first trick. switched to 4 and South escaped with one down:

In Room 2 South bid Two Diamonds over North's Two Clubs obtaining a response of Two Hearts that erisbled: him to bid a cast-iron Three No-Trumps North's second call was safe enough,, with a biddable Heart suit he 3 would have bid Cine Heart

over One Club.

ac-

today

legislation extending controls to March 31

was

The 90-day extension voted by Congress at his re-

the quest to give

incoming Congress, time to review the national housing picture in the light of changed conditions created by the defence emer- gency.

Without the stop-gap exten- sion rent controls would have ended on Dec. 31 except · In communities taking special ac- tion to retain them until June 30.-Reuter.

Wheat Forecast

Washington, Dec, 20. The Department of Agricul- ture estimated the 1950-1951 winter wheat crop at 890,096,000 bushels. That is 148,430,000 bushels more than the relatively short crop of 750,886,000 in 1949-1950. The estimate, based

planted. on acreage

current crop en

her condition

forecast for bed this winter asted next year.

the

the

and to be kon