1951-01-10 — Page 7

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1951.

The Churchill Story: 17th instalment PREMIER AT LAST

WINSTON is back. From

the Admiralty's radio masts to the lone, sea-tossed masts of a thousand ships this signal cheered the Fleet as they set off to war.

To the Navy, which had never forgotten Churchill's eff cient direction of them 28 years previously, this signal had about it something of the thrill and comfort another famous signal was to provide five months later the cry of the Cossack's crew as they boarded the German prison ship Alt- mark in a Norwegian fjord: "The Navy's here."

The Same Room

AFTER

ten

of a profound sense of relief.

were walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a prepara- He now lived with Mrs tion for this hour and for this Churchill in a flat on top

By Colin Frame I felt as if I

of trial..."

the Admiralty. One evening So Winston Churchill took up when Mr and Mrs Chamberlain a power unprecedented since the came to dinner an officer an-days of Cromwell and wielded nounced with the soup the it for five years and three months sinking of a U-Boat, another until victory, complete and un- with the sweet and a third surpassed, was won. just before the ladies retired.

Worked In Bed

on

"Did you arrange this purpose?" asked Mrs Cham-OR the first few weeks he berlain as she left. But it continued to live at the Ad- was just the Churchill luck. miratly. From there he in- augurated his system of a five-

Those months although they man War Cabinet outside which formed what some called the were the three Service Minis- Phoney War (Churchill's de- ters-one Labour, one Liberal. scription is The Twilight War) one Conservative and parallel were not easy. The British with it the Chiefs-of-Staff Com- years without

Navy suffered greater casual-mittee, over which he presided, office Churchill did not waste a minute. He took over Allied casualties by land,

ties then than all the other too; it was a simple system which the Admiralty:

sea stood throughout the test of war. on September

and air..,

At the Admiralty he insti- 3; it was not until the 5th that he kissed hands and the King

tuted his method of beginning the day's work in bed. confirmed his appointment.

Service chiefs came He returned to the

to him very

of the German battleship Graf when he woke at about eight, same room he had left so sor-

Spee and her rowfully a quarter of a cenU-boat sinkings, defeat of

commander, and "Churchill; in

a dressing the gown, took decisions, dictated tury before.

magnetic mine and rescue of memos and reviewed the day's

Altmark.

news the River Plate

But he had occasional good Battle which ended with the suicide

It seemed his personal his 300 British prisoners from the plans propped against pillows. tory had repeated itself. He sat in his old chair. Behind him was the chart of the North

had himself fixed to the wall in 1911.

N

France Falls

Battle Call Sea in a wooden map case he one realised it at the By five in the afternoon every- thing decided then had been but time,

during those detailed and crystallised, and months Churchill established orders were on their way all But instead of the garru- | between himself and the or over the world, lous Fisher his First Sea | dinary Briton

a significant In the evenings Churchill Lord was the gentler but no radio relationship.

often wrote to Roosevelt. The less efficient Admiral Sir Other s Cabinet Ministers answer was usually back to Dudley Pound.

might use the microphone as a greet him on waking. He signed Instead of a round-the-clock medium of gentle explanation himself "Former Naval Person" routine worked by early-rising and apology Churchill from now. ⠀ Fisher and late-going-to-bed the start used it as a trumpet Five

days after this system Churchill, Admiral Pound which sang to battle.

had been introduced Churchill adopted with some enthusiasm Throughout the dreary dol-was awakened rather earlier. It Churchill's afternoon-nap habit drums of winter when Britain was 7.30. The bedside phone With this break, they worked expected the worst and felt was urgently shrill. together from about nine to vaguely cheated because noth- two the next morning.

ing had happened it

was Churchill who continued to warn and whose voice was as bracing as the seas. on either side to hold high

On April 4, 1940, Cham-France to try to stiffen resis- office in both world wars, slid

berlain announced of Hitler: tance. But on his first visit he into his naval tasks again with

"He missed the bus."

could see through the windows all the unmuffled ease of a great

Within a week Hitler had of the conference-100m vener- ship sliding down the runway caught another one to Norway able officials making bonfires to meet with confidence the and a gallant country

from barrow-loads of Govern- testing challenge of the sea. strangled in a night. A month ment papers.

Nor was his inventive later he invaded Belgium and genius, steered by Professor Holland. The great clash of Lindemann, rusty. He instigated arms occurred. And Chamber-THIS is no war history but the plans for forcing the Baltic, lain failed in his attempt to story of one man-although, for dropping football-sized form a National Government. indeed, the two things are often mines which would float down Prime Minister the same; but it must be told the Rhine and for Cultivator No. 6, a secret trench-cutting machine:

Inventive Genius CHURCHILL, the only

man

"Naval Person" DURING his seven months at

shows

the Admiralty he twice sailed to Scapa Flow, and the list of his memoranda that he interested himself in an amazing variety of matters, from ships to sealing wax, from backroom experiments to backgammon for sailors in the

messroom.

He began his fruitful corres- pondence with President Roose- velt-each wrote nearly 1,000 letters to the other throughout the war-and with all a boy's love for a secret nomi-de-plume he signed the letters "Naval Person."

WARSAW PEACE CONFERENCE RESTAURANT

HE

was

-114-

EQĖTORE PRESS SERVIČE INC -NUEVA YORK

"But if Atlantic City says no, where are you??

FOR THE BUSINESSMAN

PROTEST

Spending More

For Less OVER TAX

ON COTTON

Manchester, Jan. 9. A strongly worded protest against Egypt raising her export tax on cotton has gone from the International Federation of Master Cotton Spinners to the Egyptian Finance Minister, com- mercial sources here said today.

They said that Manchester manufacturers' associations had also protested.

The tax increase to £3 ster-

ling for 220 lbs. of cotton was announced in Cairo two days

Reynaud, Prime Minister of ago. France, spoke brokenly across the Channel. "We have been defeated," he said, Four times Churchill flew to

Dunkirk

how when in answer to his ques- would have preferred tion the French told him they Lord Halifax to become had no strategic reserve, Chur-] Prime Minister, but Lord Hali-chill saw that the end had indeed fax felt his position as peer come. made it impossible.

"It

looked at him and quizzically for a minutes.

of the biggest was one It seems odd now that there surprises of my life," he wrote should have been any tion at all. On the evening of of surprises. Peculiarly bitter to hesita- later, and his life had been full

May 10 Churchill was invited him, of all people, was the to Buckingham Palace.

thought that Germany had won The King bade him

sit through his own brain-child, the down and then-as Churchill tank, and that-incredible as it records in The

Gathering seems now--Britain had not one. Storm" (Cassell and Co) armoured division in all France. searchingly France fell, the miracle of few Dunkirk cheered the darkening scene, and forty days after he "I suppose you don't know found he was leading a lone Bri- had assumed power Churchill why I have sent for you?" he tain. said.

"Blood, toil, tears and sweat" "Sir, I simply couldn't, ima--the strangest, shortest and yet gine why," replied Churchill most popular programme any with a slow smile.

Prime Minister has put before "I want to ask you to form the House had become starkly a Government."

than its apparent even sooner "Sir, I will most certainly do author imagined.

In those last days he made two The long political climb to immortal speeches "We shall the pinnacles of power was light in the fields and in the over; the promise of those ear-streets, we shall fight in the hills; ly Parliamentary days fulfilled; we shall never surrender" and the forecasts of many prophets again the one ending with the over half-a-century had come words "Their Finest Hour" true; the policy that a man which he made the title of his must follow his star into what- second book on the war. ever impetuous paths it may It is a just tribute, for those lead was vindicated.

were the days when Britons Labour and Liberals agreed to walked about with a strange serve under him. That night he twinkle in their eyes. had practically formed his Gov- ernment.

46

For This Hour”

BU

"In The Final” ENGLISHMEN who faced the M Armada and awaited beside. blazing beacons for Napoleon UT what a time to come to had felt again ancestral stirrings power! Swopping, horses in in their plood and turned With mid-stream was hardly in it. The tingling nerves and steady hands horses were all winded, the to defend their island heritage.. waters closing over their heads, They spoke in sporting idio the riverbanks caving, the night gloomy and cheerless.

Well we're in the final any- way they were saying to each Was Churchill down-hearted? other. And we're playing at "I cannot conceal from the home,” said reader of this 'truthful Recour

he wrote

athering

They appeared pretty proud of lacir captain-bon? 10

(MORE TOMORROW)

The protest contended that the move would heavy losses to spinners holding cause immediate

unshipped cotton: -

It would also cause immense long-term damage to producers and spinners of Egyptian cotton by giving impetus to the manu- facture and sale of alternative fibres.

The Federation urgently re- quested a reconsideration of the tax, it was learned-Reuter. ⠀

Rubber In

London

London, Jan. 9. Britons spent more money in the third quar- ter of 1950 than ever be fore in history-but they did not get record quanti ties for their

record spending

The British Govern- ment's monthly digest of statistics **' disclosed this today. Spending went up to £2,267 million The previous record was £2- 248 million in the last quarter of 1949.

Reckoned in terms of: 1948 prices, the Latter figure was worth £39 million less than the ear- Her record, the digest sald. -Reuter.

CHICAGO GRAINS

Chicago, Jan. Prices in the grain fut closed here today as follows Wheat price per bushel. K Spot

12.45%

December

2.484-%

March. (1951)

2.47-4

May

2

2.414-

July

London, Jan, 9.

2.424-5

Corn

Prices in the rubber futures market here closed today as follows:-

Spot

1.8134

December

1.79%

March - (1951)

1.7936-35

May...

1.7914-8

No. 1 rubber, (in cents

July

1.77340

per lb.)

February.

50- 58-4 58-58-24

Rye

December

1.793%-1.80

56-56-14

May (1951)

1.8314

Oats

53-53-4 50-80- -United Press.

March (1951)

9734-46

$13.05.-United Press,

March April/June July/September October/December

STANDARD

BRIDGE

By M. Harrison-Gray

Dealer South North-South game.

A 10 7 5

*BOOM

ORAR

New York flour-per 200 lb, sack,

LONDON TIN

The

MARKET

tin London, Jan. 9.

market opened steady with strong demand for cash tin which absorbed. 120 tons

at prices from 3,185 sterling to 1,175. - Turnover

was 125 tons.

N. 8:3

A 6.5.2

Q74

KQ 6 5 2

10 7

Prices close today at the end of the official morning session

Spot tin, buyer

1,175

1,180

Three-months tin, buyer

1,185

Three-months tim, seller Settlement

1,170

1,175

AJ

#KJ:9 8 64

310 6-3 2

The natural limit raise gained points on this deal from thatch play. In Room 1 South's One Heart was raised to Three, East was silenced and South went on to Four Hearts gambling bid, in view of his light opening

West led 10, East's A Q falling to South had to hope, for a favourable le of the cards, he ruffed two Dia- monds, drew trumps, and used as a card of exit.. Whatever East led, his side could only win two tricks in Clubs.

In Room 2. North was not strong enough for a forcing 10-game Three Hearts and had to bid Two Diamonds. The result was that · East- West bid up to Four Spades doubled and were

only defeated by / the-londo South's singlston, their team thus gainaci si points on the dealer

as follows:

Spot tin, seller

-United Pres

Silver Bullion

<; 8#**

London, Jan 3. Following the overnight jump in New York price of refined shiver bullion, the market here marked up sterling price of 8-1/2 d to 78-1/2 d. per ounce on Tuesday, both spot and for- ward United Press.

Metal Market Prices

Prices

New York Jan.