Lord Moran (1882-1977). Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival 1940-65 (1966)
Part Two. The Prime Minister Falters
Chapter eight. An American Journey
The Queen Mary, December 30, 1951
...The indomitable spirit of the P.M. of those years, battling against a deadly threat to the world’s freedom, is now struggling only with the humiliations of old age and with economic problems that are quite beyond his ken.
Jock brought in a paper which he handed to the P.M.
P.M.: ‘In all my life I have never seen so bewildering a situation.’
Eden: ‘It is complicated.’
...P.M.: ‘Bewildering. And this war could easily have been stopped. At Locarno it was nearly stopped. Russia would have fought at Munich.’
Moran: ‘Isn’t that true of both wars?’
RM.: ‘Oh, no, Charles. The first war was different, it would have been difficult to prevent it. The French were out for revanche and the Germans for glory, and England said, “We don’t want to fight, but by Jingo if we do.” There was a lot of glory about. Even I - and there was a mischievous smirk - ‘with my very different feelings, was thrilled. You know, Anthony, if a grandson of the Kaiser had been left on the throne after 1918 Hitler would never have seized power. But it’s no use saying this to the Americans. The only King they think of is George III. Look at Austria. Why, all the countries which threw off her yoke, Czecho-Slovakia and the rest, have suffered endless, cruel tortures.’
January 4, 1952
... ‘What is today?’ he asked. ‘The fourth? On the seventh the terrible announcement will be made.^ People will be told that, if we go on spending as we are doing, by June there will be no money left. I’m glad I cannot be held responsible for it,’ he said gravely. ‘Never in my life have I faced an ordeal of this kind. It is worse than 1940. In Washington they will feel we are down and out. We have to tell them that if the rearmament is not spread out over a longer time the nations of Western Europe will be rushing to bankruptcy and starvation. When I have come to America before it has been as an equal. If, late in the war, they spoke of their sacrifices we could retort by saying that for a year and a half we fought alone; that we had suffered more losses.’ He sighed deeply. ‘They have become so great and we are now so small. Poor England! We threw away so much in 1945.’
January 8, 1952
...The only guest at lunch was Senator McMahon, Chairman of the Senatorial Atomic Energy Committee. The P.M. sent for the original document which set forth the terms of agreement with President Roosevelt about the atomic bomb.* When it was brought to him, he handed it to McMahon. The Senator read it.
P.M.: 'We have been grossly deceived. There has been a breach of faith.'
The Senator: 'If we had known this the Act would not have been passed. Attlee never said a word.'
*Roosevelt and Churchill agreed at the Quebec Conference, 1943, that Britain and the United States should exchange their information on the technical developments of atomic weapons. In 1946, however. Senator McMahon, who was unaware of the agreement, sponsored a Bill in the American Congress which severely curtailed this mutual exchange. The Labour Government failed to press home British rights in this matter and the Bill became law.