Evening star., 1961-11-12

espousal of politics; Winston,
q subaltern cavalry officer
and an enthusiastic War-cor-
respondent. had no intrinsic
interest In government. He
had no causes to champion,
knew nothing Of the prob
lens of the proletariat, was
from. rather than of. the
nobility. He was rather ap-
proving Of the status quo
as he found 1t in the last
decade of the 10th century.
But he wanted above every
thing to win in the arena
which had seen his fathers
defeat. He did not believe
that history finds the great
man when she needs him,
but that the great man Gre
ates his own issues, his own
history.
The first time he stood
for Commons, he was de-
feated. And then something
happened that makes one
laugh at mankind but also
appreciate its innate, IL un-
conscious, sense Of drama.
In Africa as q war CORES
pondent in the Boer War,
Churchill was taken prisoner
by the Beers, and all efforts
of neutrals to effect his re-
lease were bootleSs, since the
Beers claimed he was armed.
After q month in prison,
he escaped by hiding in the
latrine, and, with q reward
out for him dead or alive"
made his way over 800 miles
of enemy territory to the
Portuguese border and safety.
This was in 1899 when
Churchill was IS: the drama
tic escape made him world
famous overnight: he be-
came . hero whose seat in
Commons was assured even
before he reachAd England.
The story of Churchilrs
first 10 years in Commons.
and his career as Under
secretary for the Colonies,
Home Secretary. and First
Lord Of the Admiralty. does
not lend itself easily to sum-
narration, since an account
Of q political battle with
out details of the fights is
Of doubtful interest. Church.
ills desertion of his party
for the Liberal benches has
been called expediency and
worse, but 1t was probably
no more than the result of
the exploding energy Of the
man, who was intellectually
neither radical nor Tory.
and whose characteristic en-
deavor was usually to CO.
ordinate action with his
acute sense of timing and
Of prognostication.
The Liberals prepared a
bill that destroyed the veto
on money bills and curbed
1t elsewhere. The adroit and
crafty craftsmanship by
which the Lords were forced
to castrate themselves and
approve this legislation
makes an involved and ex-
citing tale. 1t hinges on
the King. who usually "reigns
but does not govern" but
who this time, exactly like
the King in an end-game Of
chess. became as powerful as
a House of Parliament. The
Liberals exacted from the
King a promise that If the
veto bill were repassed by a
newly elected Commons and
vetoed-he, the King, would
create 800 new peers, and
thus pack the House Of
Lords. The Lords had no
recourse but capitulation.
= 4
THE ROAD TO WAR, the
first volume of Prom the
Dreadnought to Scapa Flow"
(the second volume was ac-
cidentally destroyed and Is
being rewritten by the
author, professor of history
at the University of Hawaii,
covers the same ground as a
major part Of Mr.. de Mendels-
sohn's book, and its hero,
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John
Fischer, Is a principal char
acter in the latter work.
second only to Churchill and
Lloyd George. How inter-
esting collateral reading Prof.
Marder's book is can be sur
missed from the fact that one
historian considers Fisher one
Of the great figures Of Brit
iSh naval history, while the
other exclaims: Had Lloyd
George and Churchill had
but an inkling Of the trea-
Sonable disloyalty perpetrat-