THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1950.
The Churchill Story: 10th Instalment
SIDNEY STREET SIEGE
T the Chancellor of the By Colin Frame
Exchequer introduced a
Budget with income tax Martin who was there and who
almost as a declaration of war
against France, which had just
made Morocco her protec-
torate, keeping Germany out
of the Mediterranean.
graded from nine-pence to described the scene in his Still A Sceptic super-tax the a
1s 2d in
"I
small Churchill biography "Battle."
wit was decided to rush the 661
house. Churchill, it was later stated, had no part in this decision. He merely suggested that metal sheets should be found to protect the attackers.
on incomes. over £3,000 a year and ten per- cent death duties, the cheer's would hardly be louder than the roar of disapproval which greeted these pro- posals in 1909,
Lloyd George who intro- duced them, and Winston Churchill who was his chief backer, expected the outcry. Some of Churchill's tactical genius, according to bio- grapher Ephesian, was at work in the Liberal Cabinet. They wanted a good cause to go before the voters. The Lloyd George-Churchill plan was to put up a Budget which the House of Lords was bound to turn down,
"People Or Lords" THEN
HEN they could go to the country with the popular cry. "The people Lords?"
or
Some people have read into this first glimpse of that Churchill baby, the tank.
Fire Brigade
UT it is far more likely that Churchill at that time was looking back into history- and not forward. After all, ancient military shields were sense.
Before the shields could
be found the besieged house caught fire. And up dashed the London Fire Brigade for what was almost a comedy turn.
These gallant men knew nothing about the whys and wherefores of
a desperate situation. All they knew was that a house was on fire and it their job to put it out. the
This, they indicated, they intended to it do
despite blast and bullet, police or Peter the Painter.
So it happened. And so was that Churchill, grandson of a duke, played his part in ending the power of the Lords ever again effectively to defeat with Budget proposals...
He and Lloyd George were on the closest terms then. When the Chancellor of the Exchequer, worn and over- worked, needed comfort and support, Churchill was at: his side.
On one occasion after Lloyd George had broken down in the House Churchill took him aside and fed him on the fa- vourite Lloyd George diet of bread-and-milk.
Churchill, who had slowly realised that his love of action had led him into a strange and difficult path for one of His
WAS still a sceptic about. the danger of the European situation, and not convinced by the Admiralty case," he admitted, explaining his 1909 attitude to more Dreadnoughts when he pressed for economy.
He had been twice the Kaiser's guest. Standing beside him he had watched, unrivalled German troops on manoeuvres. But he was still not convinced.. His host's gesture in sending a gunboat, closely followed by a speech by Loyd George (in the Boer war notoriously pacifist but who now made clear that he would not shirk did more than clarify the issue wanted it) war if Germany
to the world.
It set the young war horse, Churchill, prancing to the
nostrils guns,
agape for the smell of powder.
This was something he knew a lot about, " Eleven years might have passed since Spion thirteen since Omdur- Kop, man, but he was still a fighting
scion man,
of Marlborough and knowledgeable about the movements of men and guns.
Memoranda
Majesty's chief Ministers, then gave the full weight of his authority to an order: the pigeon, but Fire Brigade were to stand by but not enter the house.
AS Home Secretary
A police inspector strode down the street. The Home Secretary followed him. A sergeant followed both, carrying a shot gun at the ready.
There was no more defiant shooting. So the Fire Brigade were allowed to set to work. Friendship of
found a man who They
two charred has always loved the best bodies. in food and drink could hardly have been more sternly tested.
Philip Guedalla reports one delightful Front Bench ̈con- versation between them:
Baby Diana Churchill just been born.
"
had
"I suppose she's a pretty child, whispered Lloyd George...
"The prettiest you ever saw" said Churchill.
"Like her mother, I sup- pose, said Lloyd George.
"Oh no," replied Churchill very solemnly, "she's exactly like me."
This phase of Churchill's career might be remembered for his legislation to improve "the docks which have already been called obsolescent, will haye
(if the to be allowed legislation is not passed) to obsolesce into obsoleteness."
service matters were hardly his
this did not deter him from sending the Com- mittee of Imperial Defence
one of those memoranda signed
WSC which were to become famous in two wars, chits from history's loose-leaf note- 'bookt
SEE CATURRAV KARNING OR«S,
EDITORS PREND GERVICE, ING.-NUEVA YORK, 1851
GOLDSTEIN
"You're too modest, Herbert. Thirty-five dollars a week is a wonderful salary, considering your ability,”
FOR THE BUSINESSMAN
Commonwealth Is World's Largest Trading Area
London, Dec. 27.
An official summary of world trade showed the Commonwealth to be the world's largest trad- ing area, with a marked increase in proportion of world exports over pre-war levels.
opening IRAN
IRAN TRIES
written exactly TO
This memorandum, an appreciation of the stages of a war in which Ger- many · and Austria would attack Britain, France and Unconventional Russia, was
three years before the 1914-18 unconventional action
war broke out, Churchill open" to
His Forecast attack more by his political enemies than by the gangsters.TN it he forecast, giving num- Some withering fire was bers of men and reasons, brought to bear on him in the that on the 20th House and in the country.
VEL Laid
But it was so typical of the man and his character that his action just had to be accepted. It was not to be the last time he would leave a desk to enjoy an action. When as recorded by bio- grapher Gueralla another Parliamentarian who had been abroad burst, into his room at the Home Office and
At The Siege fun."
H too, tooduced legislation, of Bt over in the chancelleries hour day and helped with Kiel and Hamburg, Lloyd George's proposal for windy, old age pensions.
But he is much better re- membered as the Home Secretary who could not keep out of the firing line and went to the siege of Sidney Street.
He was in his bath when he beard that two of Peter the Painter's gang of inter-
anarchists national.
had taken armed refuge at 100,
many Kaiser's easy
ON
/
ཛཱ
TO RAISE
OIL
PRICE
London, Dec. 27. Iran, Russia's southern neigh- hour and one of the main keys to the Middle East, confronted Western diplomats on Wednes- day with yet another puzzle in the overall East-West struggle.
A
Danish Plan
To Stop
Official percentages of exports and imports of world trade for the years 1938 and 1949 showed:
World Exports:
1938 1949
23 29
Commonwealth United States Europe World Imports:
14 21
37
28
1938
1949
·33
92
9
12.
38
34
Commonwealth United States Europe
-United Press.
Japanese
Wool
Output
Planning
manufacturers
Wool Secretariat,
To carry out this plan, the Indian
estimates Association Japan's raw wool requirements' for the coming year at 296,000 bales, against. 230,000 bales for the current year.
day of mobilisation France's armies would have been driven back from the Meuse and would be retreating. on Paris; that by the 40th day Germany would be fully extended and ripe for Faced with both Russian pres- the counter-stroke.
sure and Western oil offers, Iran "Ridiculous and fantastic," is apparently raising her price sneered the War Office.
in a brisk bidding. The latest But history proved him only move has been to reject as in- a matter of hours out. By the sufficient a British offer of £35,- supplementary in- 21st day the French were in000,000 for dignantly asked, "What the full retreat; the battle of the agreement with the Anglo- hell have you been doing now. Marne which stopped Germany Iranian Oil Company.
Japan's wool the Winston?"
unrepentant dead in her tracks happened on Western diplomats noted that have drafted a plan to produce Home Secretary looked up the 41st day,
this action followed intensive some 62m. lbs of goods between with a grin and said "Now
of this October, 1950, and September, As Home Secretary the field wooing by the Soviets don't be cross. It was
such of his usefulness in a possible vital strategic area, and inten- 1951, according to a statement sifled Russian efforts for co-by the Woollen Spinning and war was obviously limited.
of India, First Lord
operation with Iran in economic Weaving Association
the International as well as political fields.- reported by autumn of United Press. across the NE day in the dusty heaths of Ger- 1911 the Prime Minister, I where marched the Mr Asquith, had just finished grey hordes an un-ja round of golf with him in Then, in the gentle spirit brooded, bent on Scotland. hatching such chicks as would Asquith manner, he asked if roost in many a strange barn, he would become First Lord of and crow on the dunghill they the Admiralty.
made of Europe and "Indeed. I would," said had
nations Churchill. spread over. civilised
dark a nd menacing He was 36. The old soldier the
German eagle's had become a sailor. The hour shadow of a
was to have its man.
so This conversation, fate- This evil spirit in this year
future of Britain, This gang had already kill of the Sidney-street Siege was ful for the
of tabled in the Danish Lower imports of raw wool will result out and it to reach three policemen, and ed
drag took place by the Firth
House providing for (1)in about a 10 per cent, reduc- did not take much argument Churchill again from his desk Forth..
State loans tion of production costs through to convince him that his place to send him, chilled by its Seven years later these Authority to float
(2) Compulsory an increased rate of operation. huddled in fur-collared | embrace, into battles in com- cold grey waters were to stir for Kr.150m,
Kr.170m. Of the 62m. lbs planned, the parison with which the fun of beneath a weight and top hat, in the en-
of proud savings to bring in
estimates Association humbly to a warehouse where Sidney-street was but a whiff ships
making their (3) A. Supplementary tax to be Indian
wh that 12.5m. lbs will be for ex- surrender-the he could see all that was going of grapeshot.
on individuals German High imposed Who
to supports, 4,194,000 lbs for indus- is to say that this Seas Fleet which in four years have only themselves
trial materials and 45,306,000 boyish zest for danger of never dared to stand and fight port, and (4) A super incon
lbs for domestic consumption. which his behaviour in Sidney- the Navy Churchill prepared tax to be based on a compari- incomes street was just another. exam for his country.
son between average quotations ple was not an asset as great Some of the
in 1947 and 1948 and income in as his administrative ability used in this and subsequent 1950. when events marched, twice. chapters of "The Churchill
Story" his in his career towards a thun-
have been taken the man form Nor was derous climax-and
authorita the most tive sourceMr Churchill's
World Crisis The
with the which he dealt 1914-18 war and the events. which preceded it.
"The World Crisis,” like
Early **My
Life," from which extracts have been quoted in previous chap. by the ters, is published well-known firm of Qdhams
wings.
Sidney-street, Stepney,
was, coat trance
on.
Curiosity
in Cuba, in the North-West Frontier, the Sudan and in South in Africa had not cured his in- satiable curiosity to match destiny with death.
WHINING bullets
it cured 30 years later in Lon- matched himself to the hour don air raids Rhine.
or upon
the
Nor, it can well be believed, is it yet cured.
and proved equal to it.
Until in 1911 the Kaiser sent
a gunboat to North Africa and, in Churchill's words, the alarm A file of Scots Guardsmen bells throughout Europe began to quiver," there were called out to reinforce immediately the police, who had shotguns. is little indication that he, any
No 100. Sidney-street was
more than his
Cabinet col- pictured war with Germany. This German gunboat was according to Hugh threat which WAS TERRI
peppered, and the two gang- leagues,
sters fired back down the street Britain at Frosty
and wounded an Inspector.
MORE TOMORROW
Inflation
Four
.
financial
Bills
It is understood that Japanese spinners and weavers drew up. the plan at the request of the Industrial Rationalisation Coun
its ap- must give cil, which proval, The manufacturers' increased believes the were group
A series of indirect taxes to provide Kr.300m. yearly was rushed through Parliament,
The Danish Finance Minister also hoped to cut Government expenditure by Kr.100m, during 1951.
Together these measures are designed to fight inflation and reduce Denmark's foreign cur- rency deficit (estimated at Kr.680m, not covered by ERP this year and Kr.800m. next year) by reducing consumption by some, Kr.600m, yearly
Trade Experts' Conference
London, Dec. 327. Commercial Counsellors and advisers, from Indian Embassies in Western Europe met in Lon- don today.
Under the instructions of the Ministry of Commerce in New Dahl, they are holding a three- a conterence to discuss ious problems affecting In- an trade in their respective
other subiecis
Reu
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