The Irish standard., 1908-05-16
Like His Father the Late Lord Randolph
Churchill He abandoned the
Unionist Party.
Was An Able War Correspondent During
Struggle With Beers and Sympath-
ized With Them.

That WIS by no means the first time
that Mr. Winston Churchill had got
int" ti:,' t Place and out of it. AS q
lad h" had passed from Eton into
Sandbur,t. ard thence into the army,
where lr was Il lieutenant in the
Fourth 1,'ss;,rs Before he had come
"f ag" he had seen fighting with the
Spanish forces in t'ul !. and had bees
awarded first class of the Spanish
order "f Military Merit. He next took
part in 'Iitish campaigns on the In
dian from icrs, receiving medal and
clasps. AID attcrWard writing an ac-
count of his experiences in the STORY
of the Nalakand Field Force" Dur
ng Kitchener" campaign in the Sudan
young Churchill received permission
To comb ut service with the Twenty.
first Iancers with the post of war
rorr"spnrdnnt for n London paper. At
the battle of Omdurman he rode un-
scathed through tn. famous charge
Of his regiment. In the account he
wrote afterward of that exploit he
gave a remarkable record of his per-
s"nal Impressions.
In his account of this expedition. un-
der the title IF "'rhe River War" Mr..
Churchill! showed his independence by
sharply "itiriling some of Lord Kitch-
rner's ar''ons. noticea!y his descrip.
ton of t.,o mahdi'S tomb. After such
a beginning 1t was scarcely likely that
he would be willing To stay at home
When the Transvaal war broke out.
He went to :hc front at tho earliest
"pp"rtun'is us correspondent for his
paper, the Morning Post. He was un-
lucky c,r'Lsh to he in an armored
train witch was amb,,shed Hence his
confinement in the Pretoria Jail A
l'ocr pager the Nnksstcn,. noticed af-
Ter MS "s";'p" that he had been read
in. Mills Essay nn Liberty" and se-
riously deprecated tn" lnxity of the
authorities in allowing: prisoners ac-
cess I" sEc.l inf1ammntnry literature!
The cscane. whether due to Mills in
sp!ra'ior n not, was carried out in an
Ingenious vet simple fashion that re-
minds olo Of some of Stepnaiks sto-
ries of &ihilist adventure
career such as that now described
is anything but a normal preparation
for selt in the House of Commons.
record # this kind however, is not
at al! aSn;ns: Il mans chances when he
appeals To II popular constituency. At
Churchill was returned as Conserva-
tive mcn'ner for Oldham. a busy Ian.
cashirc anufacturing borough. At a
by eecti'.n two years before he had
made an unsuccessful attempt to win
The suffraecs nf the same constituent.
cy. At III" close of that previous elec-
full opponent, young Liberal named
Runciman. and said to him: Good.
by: l don't think the world has heard
| he last Of either of MS" The predic.
| tion is appropriately remembers: =.
day. when the same reconstruction oe
the Ministry which has brought
Churchill into the Cabinet has brought
Runcima, in also as Minister Of Ed
alton.
The new member for Oldham carried
into politics the qualities he had dis
played OF other fields. The self-pos-
session. TIE CT urage. the resource that
had stood him in such good stead on
| the South African field and in the
hill, campaigns of India made him one
Of the m"st promising assets of his
party in parliamentary conflict. But
| it became evident before long that his
capacity FOR independent Judgment
| was likely to make him at times an
embarrassment to his political associ-
ciates. Something like CONSERVATION
was reused on his own side Of the
House BY his frank declaration that IL
he were Boer he hoped he would be-