Lord Moran (1882-1977). Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival 1940-65 (1966)
Part Three. Never Give In
Chapter Thirteen. Fighting Back
July 18, 1953
...Ike is in disgrace, and there was scorn in his voice when he said: ‘Apparently Ike is like a king; he can’t deal with detail. There was no nonsense of that sort about Franklin Roosevelt. Of course, Dulles is at the bottom of this.’
July 22, 1953
...The P.M.’s thoughts went back to his nursery' days: he was very happy with his old nurse, till he was sent to ‘penal servitude’. That was his description of his life at his prep, school at Brighton, where he was from his eighth to eleventh year. That was his description of his life at his prep school at Brighton, where he was from his eighth to eleventh year. He said that at the school there were volumes of Punch, and that he would pore over them and their story of what had happened in recent history.
Chequers, July 24, 1953
The P.M. moved from Chartwell to Chequers today. He loves Chartwell, though there is nothing there except a rather ordinary house - and the Weald. But Clemmie insisted that the servants must have a rest, or they would leave.
...'My plan for dividing Germany horizontally and not vertically was the right one. Prussia would have been treated politely but severely; there would have been a gathering of states on Vienna -Bavaria and the rest.'
Chequers, July 25, 1953
...‘I am trying, Charles, to cut down alcohol. I have knocked off brandy’ - the coming sally made him smile - ‘and take Cointreau instead. I disliked whisky at first. It was only when I was a subaltern in India, and there was a choice between drinking dirty water and dirty water with some whisky in it, that I got to like it. I have always, since that time, made a point of keeping in practice.’
But since the stroke he has discovered that alcohol does him no good. It makes his speech more difficult to understand and fuddles what is left of his wits; and yet he does not attempt to control his thirst.
July 27, 1953
...‘We have had a leisured class. It has vanished. Now we must think of the leisured masses. Why not? It isn’t impossible. When there is no longer a risk of war a lot of money will be set free, it will be available to provide leisure for the people.’
It was the old hankering for a romantic role. War had been his hobby. Nothing had been to him so consistendy stimulating. But that was gone and done with. And now, with his life running out, it was in his mind to end as a maker of peace among men; in this, his final role, he would appear before the world as, perhaps, the only hope of breaking the cold war.
And this was not just a dramatic curtain to his long life with all its vicissitudes. His generous heart seems, as the days pass, to be flushed with kindly thoughts about all mankind, even about the Germans. He has always admired them, they are a great people. He admired their Army, and would have liked, he once said, to go to Germany to appeal to young Germans to wipe out the disgrace of Hider and of the cruel murder of the Jews. There is so much to do and time is getting short.
‘Before I lead the British people into another and more bloody war, I want to satisfy my conscience and my honour that the Russians are not just play-acting. I believe they do mean something. I believe there has been a change of heart. I have talked with two Popes. What do you think we talked about? Bolshevism!’