Evening star., 1921-10-23
THE MIRRORS. OF DOWNING STREET
By"A ACenIema WnhaD DuMe"

This is to say that to be saved from
himself Mr.. Churchill must be carried
away by enthusiasm for some great
ideal. an ideal so much greater than
his own place in politics that he is
willing to face death for its triumph.
even the many deaths of political life.
II is time-high tme-he hitched his
wagon to a star
Ever since 1 first met him, when he
was still in the twenties. Mr.. Church
III mas seemed to me one of the most
pathetic and misunderstood figures in
public life. People have got it into
their heads that he is noisy. shame
less. truculent and pushing person a
sort Of intellectual Horatio Bottom
ley of the upper classes. Nothing could
be farthem from the truth.
Mr.. Churchill il one of the most
sensitive of prominent politicians
and 1t is only by the exercise of his
remarkable courage that he has
mastered this element of nervous
ness: Ambition has driven him on
ward and courage has carried him
through, but, more often than the
public thinks. he has suffered sharp
of speech, which in his very nervous
moments would almost make one
think his mouth was roofless. would
have prevented many men from even
has always been handicap to Mr..
Churchill, but he has never allowed
it to stop his way. and / think it is
significant both of his courage and
the nervousness of his temperament
that, while at the beginning of
speech this thickness of utterance
is most noticeable. the speakers pale
face showing two patches of fiery
pink in his cheeks, the utterance be
comes almost clear. the face shows no
sign OF self-conSciousness, directly he
mas established sympathy with his audi
cnce. 1t is interesting to notice an
accent of brutality in his speaking.
so different from the suave and
charming tones OF Mr.. Balfour; this
accent of brutality, however. is not
the note of a brutal character, but
of highly strung temperament fight
ing Its own sensibilities for mastery
more often fighting himself than his
enemies.
* = !. x
HIS health has been against him: his
heart and his lungs have not
given him the support he needs for
his adventurous and stormy career.
At times, when every mans hand has
Seemed to be against him, he has had 10
| fight desperately with both body
and mind 10 keep his place in tn.
firing line. Some of his friends have
seen him in a state of real weak
| ness, particularly of physical weak
ness. and. for myself, have never
once found him in truculent or
self-satisfied frame Of mind. j be-
/ lieve he is at heart a modest man.
and i am quite certain he is a deli
cate and suffering man. But for
| the devotion of his wife / think he
| could not have held his place SO long.
Fate. too. has opposed him. His
the two names of Antwerp and CAL
lipoli. They are convenient terms OF
/ abuse. i suppose they would have
destroyed most politicians. But ia
truth, both of these strokes of mill
/ tary strategy We're sound in concep-
! ton. / doubt. indeed. if the military
| historian OF the future. with all the
documents before him. will not chiefly
! conderpL sthe sllies for their initial
| failure to- make Antwerp a seated
| menace to the back of the German
armies; while even in our own day
one doubts that if Lord Kitchener,
| in one of his obstinate moods, had
| not refused to send more divisions
to Gallipoli We should have taken
Constantinople. The fault of those
operations lay not in attempting them
| but in not adequately supporting:
them.
[, Mr.. Churchill has had bad luck in
these matters. but even here it is the
| lack OF character which has served
him most i'll. He never impressed
although that sullen temperament
grew in the end to feel an amused
! affection for him. He did excellent
work at the admiralty. work of the
! highest kind both before and at tho
outbreak of war, but his colleagues
| in the cabinet never realized the i'm
| portance of this work. judging it
merely as "one of Winstons new
crazes.'
| Ministers speak of him in their con-
| fidences with certain amount of af-
! fection, but never with real respect.
Many of them. of course. fear him,
for he is merciless critic. and has
an element of something very like
cruelty in his nature, but even those
who do not fear him, or on the whole
rather like him, will never tell you
! that he is a man to whom they turn
| in their difficulties, or a man to whom
! the whole cabinet looks for inspira-
tion.
| Gen. William Booth of the Salvation
Army once told Mr.. Churchill that he
stood in need of conversion" That
old man was a notable judge of char
| acter.
| copyrighted by G. +. Putname's Sons. All
| Rights Reseryed.)