The Churchillian Spring 2014 | Volume 5 | Issue 1 The Magazine of the National Churchill Museum CHURCHILL, ZIONISM AND THE MIDDLE EAST Winston Churchill and Palestine A Jewish National Home, 1922 Sir Winston's Plea for Tolerance Churchill and Ben-Gurion SPECIAL FEATURE: Full coverage of the 2014 Churchill Weekend and the Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lectureship The Real Churchill • From the Archives Museum Educational and Public Programming Board of Governors of the Association of Churchill Fellows FROM THE Jean-Paul Montupet MESSAGE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Chairman & Senior Fellow St. Louis, Missouri A.V. L. Brokaw, III Warm greetings from the campus of St. Louis, Missouri Westminster College. As I write, we are Robert L. DeFer still recovering from a wonderful Churchill th Weekend. Tis weekend, marking the 68 Earle H. Harbison, Jr. St. Louis, Missouri anniversary of Churchill’s visit here and his William C. Ives Sinews of Peace address, was a special one for Chapel Hill, North Carolina several reasons. Firstly, because of the threat R. Crosby Kemper, III of bad weather which, while unpleasant, Kansas City, Missouri never realized the forecast’s dismal potential Barbara D. Lewington and because of the presence of members of St. Louis, Missouri the Churchill family, Randolph, Catherine St. Louis, Missouri and Jennie Churchill for a frst ever visit. William R. Piper Tis, in tandem with a wonderful Enid St. Louis, Missouri PHOTO BY DAK DILLON and R. Crosby Kemper Lecture delivered by Paul Reid, defed the weather and entertained a bumper crowd of St. Louis, Missouri Churchillians at both dinner, in the Museum, and at a special ‘ask the experts’ brunch. More details and photographs can be found on pages New York, New York James M. Schmuck 28-31 and of course re-caps seen at our website. As events fair in the former USSR many look back to Churchill’s stern warnings about the Cold War. In this issue of Te Churchillian, we too look back to more of Churchill’s thoughts on another area of continued tension, the Middle East, with articles that explore both Churchill’s pronouncements on events there as well as his own actions that helped Hjalma E. Johnson, Emeritus shape this most fascinating and complex part of the world. Churchill’s public pronouncements are known for their prescience so it is most th apt that, as we prepare for the 50 anniversary of Winston Churchill’s St. Louis, Missouri death in January of 2015, esteemed Churchillian Richard Langworth takes stock of Churchill’s reputation today in the age of the internet. Seal Beach, California William H. Tyler, Emeritus Pebble Beach, California Finally, we look ahead to a summer and autumn of exciting exhibitions th Churchill Institute & Museum marking two landmarks in world history. Te frst marks the 70 Committee of the Board of Trustees, anniversary of the D-Day landings that opened a second front in Europe Westminster College in the decisive fashion that Stalin had so longed for. Our second special James M. Schmuck, Chair exhibition looks at the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Jane Bell, Vice Chair One. Te ‘war to end all wars’ was, unfortunately, not the end point Fulton, Missouri th of such confict, but its course and consequences would shape the 20 Bruce Brookby century. Winston Churchill, needless to say, featured prominently in both events. Ron J. Kostich I’m delighted to announce that we will welcome another eminent Ken Meyer Churchillian to the National Churchill Museum on May 30/31st. J. Christopher Panettiere Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill College Archives Centre in Cambridge will make his frst visit to Fulton. Allen will be present at the opening of our D-Day Exhibition and also speak at a dinner in St Louis. Prairie Village, Kansas Stay tuned for more information. St. Louis Missouri I hope to see you all at one or both of these exhibitions and look forward to the occasion. Dr. Rob Havers Executive Director, National Churchill Museum Rob Havers Executive Director 2 the Churchillian | Spring 2014 The Churchillian The Magazine of the National Churchill Museum Spring 2014 | Volume 5 | Issue 1 4 10 Churchill on a Jewish National Home, 1922 — Page 12 — 12 by Winston S. Churchill A “Monster of His own Creation? 18 by Max E. Hertwig 22 by Joseph Stone The Literary Churchill 26 Tennyson: His favorite Poet? — Page 22 — 28 The National Churchill Museum is 32 From the Archives National Churchill Museum. 573-592-5369, Message from the Director of Development www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org 33 Copyright material by Winston S. Churchill The Churchillian with 34 behalf of the Estate of Sir Winston Churchill. Cover: Churchill on VE-Day 1945, 8x10- inch oil on canvas by Larry Kryske, 1993. A 35 example (www.YourFinestHour.com). the Churchillian | Spring 2014 3 Understanding the Richard M. Langworth Real Churchill As he moves from a figure of the recent past to a figure for the ages, the Digital Era tends to obfuscate Churchill: who he was, what he stood for. It is up to us Churchillians to keep the record accurate. 4 the Churchillian | Spring 2014 n the flm “ Stand-Up Guys,” a Quotations editor Nigel Rees Like it or not, the World Wide Web character played by Al Pacino says: “If you don’t know the author of is where people go. And so much of it makes a pregnant statement a choice remark, credit it to Churchill, is so little checked that it sometimes that stopped me in my tracks. Einstein, Lincoln or Martin Luther warps what matters. Professor John “YouI really die twice,” Pacino says. King. Everyone will be impressed, and Charmley, a famous Churchill critic “First when the last breath leaves your they all said so much that nobody will who nevertheless admires him, wrote: body, and second when the last person know the diference.” “A recent survey in the UK revealed who knew you says your name.” that most schoolchildren think Churchill was a mythical fgure. Tat’s probably true for Afer holding our heads in our most of us, but it doesn’t apply hands and deciding that the to Sir Winston Churchill. world has indeed gone to the Almost half a century since his dogs, we might care to refect death, those who knew him that there may be an irony have dwindled to a tiny handful; in this. Churchill did set out but his name is all over the to make himself a legendary news and the Internet. When fgure; so it may be only just the last person who knew him that he seems to have become dies, Churchill will surely live one.” on—like Washington, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts and, on the Frequently misunderstood darker side, Hitler and Stalin. are his risky injections of But among those immortals, it humor into serious situations. is still Winston Churchill who Take his order discontinuing dominates the ether. the plan to ring church bells if the Germans invaded Britain in For young people today he 1940: “I cannot help feeling that may fade into the blue distance anything like a serious invasion of the Middle Ages. But would be bound to leak out.” anyone who thinks Churchill Moscow 1942: Their later meetings were more cordial than their Or on Hitler in 1941, getting belongs to history, rather than first but in any case, longstanding gallows humor about Stalin bogged down in the Russian foursquare in the middle of shooting his interpreter is a shaggy dog story. winter, “He must have been events, just doesn’t follow the very loosely educated.” People news. We who know something about But the truth matters, or it should. accused him of undue levity when he him, and respect what we know, have Who was the real Churchill? What did said such things. both a problem and an opportunity. he stand for? We’ll not get the answers As the world turns more and more on from obscure enthusiasts with Wi-Fi Today’s web-crawlers ofen are that electronic Hyde Park Corner, the connections. perplexed at Churchill’s unexpected Internet, we face a bubbling, digital outbursts of magnimity—because, soup, in which Winston Churchill I think, magnanimity is so rare in can say anything, or do anything, The Challenge of the today’s discourse. Take his remark to from deserting a sinking ship to fre- Internet the House of Commons about Erwin bombing Dresden. Our task is to put Rommel, commander of the German the record straight. Churchill’s name elicits 20 to 40 Afrika Korps, in the midst of battle million Google hits, though as Andrew in 1942: “We have a very daring and Many will remember the Roberts wrote, “admittedly many are skillful opponent against us, and, may widespread Churchill misquote afer about schools, ships, scholarships and I say across the havoc of war, a great the Costa Concordia tragedy in 2012, a variety of red sweet pea, Lathyrus general.” Tat earned him a host of when the cruise ship ran aground with odoratus, that was named afer him. outraged complaints. But that was the the loss of at least thirty lives. He liked Ten there are the Internet questions, real Churchill: a man unable to hide Italian liners, Sir Winston supposedly many of which require the answer admiration for admirable qualities, said, because “in time of emer gency, ‘No’—such as: ‘Was Churchill Jewish?,’ even among his enemies. there is none of this non sense about ‘Was Churchill anti-Semitic?,’ ‘Was women and chil dren frst.” Only the Churchill born in a ladies’ loo afer a Ofen however, these surprise truly ignorant could believe he ever dance?‚’ and ‘Did Alexander Fleming asides give people entirely the wrong said that.