Category: FAQs

Eugenics
Men of the Day No.1269: Caricature of The Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, by Frederick Drummond Niblett (1861-1928), in “Vanity Fair,” 8 March 1911. (Public domain)
Winston Churchill, Eugenics and the “Feeble-Minded” (1)

Winston Churchill, Eugenics and the “Feeble-Minded” (1)

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I pub­lished in 2010 an account of Churchill’s youth­ful (cir­ca 1910-12) fling with Eugen­ics, a pseu­do-sci­ence pop­u­lar at the turn of the cen­tu­ry. Eugen­ics favored ster­il­iz­ing or con­fin­ing the “fee­ble-mind­ed” to “main­tain the race.”

This drew an irate let­ter from a read­er who said he will nev­er think the same of Churchill, know­ing that he could have sup­port­ed such hor­ren­dous ideas:

No tru­ly edu­cat­ed intel­li­gent per­son, even in those ear­ly years, can have bought into Eugen­ics. Churchill’s was not just a fling of youth or imma­tu­ri­ty but the decid­ed opin­ion of a near­ly mid­dle-aged man. His sup­port of Eugen­ics could only lead to the extrem­i­ties prac­ticed to by the Nazis.…

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Shigemitsu
Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board USS Missouri. 2 September 1945. Lieutentant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, stands opposite. Foreign Ministry representative Toshikazu Kase is assisting Mr. Shigemitsu. Interestingly, the U.S. uniform of the day was working khaki, contrasting with the formal dress of the Japanese. (U.S. Army Signal Corps, National Archives, public doman)
Mamoru Shigemitsu: “When you have to kill a man…”

Mamoru Shigemitsu: “When you have to kill a man…”

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Q: Ambassador Shigemitsu

Churchill was crit­i­cized for his extreme­ly respect­ful let­ter to the Japan­ese Ambas­sador to Britain in Decem­ber 1941, when inform­ing him that their coun­tries were at war. Churchill’s response to crit­ics was, “After all, when you have to kill a man it costs noth­ing to be polite.” Was Shigemit­su acual­ly killed?  —W.H., New York

A: No, he lived on

Churchill was writ­ing in the abstract, so did not actu­al­ly pro­pose to slay the Ambas­sador. Mamoru Shigemit­su  was Japan­ese ambas­sador to the Sovi­et Union 1936–38 and to Britain 1938–41. Fol­low­ing Japan’s attacks of Decem­ber 1941 he received unham­pered pas­sage home.…

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Stalin
Stalin as Churchill’s Delphic Oracle (Nazi version): “Wird Englands Grosse und Macht erhalten? Ja, eine Macht wird sie erhalten!” (“Will England’s greatness and might get preserved? Yes, a power will preserve it.”) Cartoon by Erich Schilling, 1943 (Wikimedia Commons)
No Cards, No Flowers: Churchill on the Death of Stalin

No Cards, No Flowers: Churchill on the Death of Stalin

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Stalin redux

A cor­re­spon­dent to the Finan­cial Times slipped a red her­ring into our store of Churchill quo­ta­tions, and thanks to the news­pa­per for pub­lish­ing my correction.

In a let­ter to the FT, Mary Ellen Syn­on defend­ed Irish Taoiseach Eamon de Valera’s expres­sion of con­do­lences at the Ger­man Embassy upon the death of Adolf Hitler. Ms. Syn­on sug­gest­ed that this was just an ordi­nary diplo­mat­ic gesture—a for­mal­i­ty. After all, didn’t Churchill offer con­do­lences or a homi­ly fol­low­ing the death of Stalin?

Churchill was out­raged by de Valera’s action, but was not guilty of the same lack of pro­pri­ety (or hypocrisy).…

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resistance
German resistance to Hitler did operate early on. Georg Elser’s 7 November 1939 bomb in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller killed seven, and would certainly have killed Hitler, but after an unexpected short speech he left early. Elser was executed in 1945. (German Federal archives, public doman)
German Resistance: “Driven by the Restlessness of their Conscience”

German Resistance: “Driven by the Restlessness of their Conscience”

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Questions on the Weiss Rose resistance

A Ger­man par­lia­men­tary jour­nal quotes Churchill on the Ger­man resis­tance to Hitler: “These men and women fought with­out help from with­in or with­out, dri­ven only by the rest­less­ness of their con­science.  As long as they lived they were invis­i­ble and unrec­og­niz­able to us. In their death, the resis­tance became vis­i­ble. Their deeds and sac­ri­fices are the foun­da­tion of the recon­struc­tion.” (Hans-Adolf Jacob­sen, Ger­mans Against Hitler, 3rd ed., Berto-Ver­lag, Bonn, 1960; Bar­ry Sul­li­van, Thresh­olds of Peace, 1979).  I can­not find the orig­i­nal doc­u­ment and some­what doubt its authen­tic­i­ty. …

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Danzig
Danzig in 1939. Yellow areas are Poland. (Map by Ziegelbrenner, Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Albrecht Forster and Churchill’s Danzig Moment, 1939

Albrecht Forster and Churchill’s Danzig Moment, 1939

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An article argues that WSC supported appeasement and approved of Fascism. While this is a well-written critique, it tends to magnify specifics to justify generalities. It does not establish Churchill’s attachment to Fascism and Appeasement (although he approved of some forms of the latter). It does instruct us on the kinds of fascists Churchill dealt with in the 1920s and 1930s.

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jaw-jaw
President John F. Kennedy (L) meets with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Hamilton, Bermuda, 22 December 1961. (Photo by Robert Knudsen. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, public domain)
“Jaw to Jaw” Versus “Jaw-Jaw”: Supermac Still Owns the Latter

“Jaw to Jaw” Versus “Jaw-Jaw”: Supermac Still Owns the Latter

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“Jaw-Jaw” be-jaws the dialogue (from 2008):

On 27 June 1954, Churchill was quot­ed as say­ing “jaw-jaw is always bet­ter than to war-war.” (William H. Lawrence, “Churchill urges Patience in Cop­ing with Red Dan­gers,” The New York Times, page 1; and Wal­ter Tro­han, “‘Vig­i­lance and Time’ Asked by Churchill,” Chica­go Dai­ly Tri­bune, page 1. Did Churchill say this? —M.D.

No. From my Defin­i­tive Wit of Win­ston Churchill, page 37:

“Meet­ing jaw to jaw is bet­ter than war.” —1954 Com­mon­ly mis­quot­ed as ‘Jaw-jaw is bet­ter than war-war,’ an expres­sion coined four years lat­er by Prime Min­is­ter Harold Macmil­lan, on a vis­it to Australia.…

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alliance
View from St. Paul’s Cathedral toward the Old Bailey after the Blitz, 3 January 1941. (H. Mason, Daily Mail, public domain)
Grand Alliance: A Way Out of the Second World War?

Grand Alliance: A Way Out of the Second World War?

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Question:

“Pro­fes­sor John Charm­ley says in a pod­cast that Neville Cham­ber­lain believed a pre­war grand alliance against Hitler was not fea­si­ble. He was refer­ring to alliance between the UK and France and the Unit­ed States and USSR. Do you agree?”

Answer:

As Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) tells the Dis­trict Attor­ney (Lane Smith) in “My Cousin Vin­ny” (1992), “that’s a B.S. question.”

(To voir dire Miss Vito on “gen­er­al auto­mo­tive knowl­edge” the D.A. had demand­ed the igni­tion tim­ing of “a 1955 Chevro­let 327 V-8.” (Read­ers less mechan­i­cal­ly inclined than Miss Vito may enjoy her dev­as­tat­ing two-minute rebut­tal to this “trick question.”)…

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Paintatious
Paul Rafferty’s elegant book is reviewed at https://bit.ly/2ZTwktD
Paintatious – Paintaceous – Paintacious: What Was Churchill’s Word?

Paintatious – Paintaceous – Paintacious: What Was Churchill’s Word?

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Paul Rafferty’s mag­nif­i­cent Win­ston Churchill: Paint­ing on the French Riv­iera is being trans­lat­ed for a French edi­tion by Dr. Antoine Capet. The author and trans­la­tor posed an inter­est­ing ques­tion. How did Win­ston Churchill spell “painta­tious”?

(Any read­er bored by pedan­tic, picayune, obscure mean­der­ings about noth­ing of impor­tance should stop read­ing now. For my review of Paul’s book see: “Book of the Year.”)

“Painta­tious” was artist Churchill’s word for a scene wor­thy of his brush. He found many such venues on the French Riv­iera, which Paul explores so well. But this is a tricky ques­tion because “painta­tioius” not a real word.…

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Darlan
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” —Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart. right) in “Casablanca,” with Henreid, Bergman and Rains, 1942. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
“Casablanca,” Admiral Darlan, and Rick’s Letters of Transit

“Casablanca,” Admiral Darlan, and Rick’s Letters of Transit

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"Casablanca's" famous Letters of Transit were signed by General Maxime Weygand, not de Gaulle and not Darlan. This is confirmed by watching the Peter Lorre episode on YouTube. Lorres's character can clearly be heard saying "General Weygand." There is no evidence that a subtitle ever appeared substituting the names of Darlan or de Gaulle for American audiences. (Thanks to reader James Overmeyer for pointing this out.

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cartoon
Left: “Modesty, my dear Winston, is the secret of all success in the House of Commons, look at ME!! Cultivate it, my boy, I beseech you!” Right: “Nothing like a quiet, unobtrusive manner, my dear Churchill, to make you popular in the House! Keep your eye on ME!” (“Punch,” 5 December 1900)
In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

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First Cartoon? The Current Contender

We are asked: what was the first Win­ston Churchill polit­i­cal car­toon? The ear­li­est dis­cov­ered so far is this one, from the “Essence of Par­lia­ment” col­umn in Punch on 5 Decem­ber 1900. It appeared about two months after young Win­ston was elect­ed Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Old­ham, Lan­cashire, on 1 Octo­ber. Alas the car­toon (artist unknown) pos­es more ques­tions than it answers. Churchill is being urged to exhib­it mod­esty, a qual­i­ty he was not known for. But who is doing the urg­ing? We asked sev­er­al authorities.

I first thought the man at right might be Joseph Cham­ber­lain, known for his mon­o­cle.…

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Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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