CHURCHILL'S ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY was good news to the reverses Britain suffered in the first months of the war in South Africa. His arrival in Durban was greeted with great excitement. The people carried him shoulder high to the Town Hall, where he gave a speech, describing it all. Later Winston said he enjoyed and was thrilled with it all.
He was not yet done with that war. In January 1900 he accepted a post as lieutenant in the South African LIght Horse. He set off to Ladysmith which was still under siege.
A War Office order had banned serving officers from also being war correspondents. Churchill agree to serve without pay to preserve his status as correspondent for the Morning Post. Money was now no object in his life. Journalism earned him 12 times the pay for an officer of his rank. His novel Savrola was finished, and due to be published in 1900. His book on the South African War, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, would come out the same year.
Churchill continued to serve until it was clear the British were gaining the upper hand. He was present when the siege of Ladysmith was lifted at the end of February 1900. Three months later he participated in the British invasion of the Transvall which put and end to the series of Boer victories.
CHURCHILL ON HIS RETURN TO BRITAIN IN 1900
"I received the warmest of welcome on returning home. Oldham almost without distinction of party accorded me a triumph. I entered the town in state in a procession of ten landaus and drove through the streets crowded with enthusiastic operatives and mill girls. I described my escape (from prison) to a tremendous meeting in the Theater Royal. When I mentioned the name of Mr. Dewsnap, the Oldham engineer who had wound me down the mine, the audience shouted, 'His wife's in the gallery." There was general Jubilation."
A LIBERAL IN DISGUISE
Winston's life in politics was about to begin. The Conservative constituents of Oldham, where he had fail to win the by-election seat the year before, invited him to stand again. In October Churchill won one of the two seats; on February 14th 1901 he took his place in the House of Commons.
On the 18th of February he made his maiden speech in Parliament. The Daily Express said it was "spell binding." Throughout his career the news that Winston Churchill was on his feet and about to speak rapidly filled the benches in the Commons, no matter what the subject.
What was some of the basic things Winston stood for? The Boers should be treated generously, and was thankful that the terms of the peace treaty were lenient, including 3 million pounds of pompensation for farms destroyed in the fighting. All his life Churchill would appreciate guerrilla fighters who like the boers, fearlessly pitted themselves against the ruling powers. But his Boers stance was not popular with the electorate. In many ways Winston was a Liberal in Conservative clothing. He promoted social duties that he felt the Conservatives should perform. He passionately held to a policy that would give the working class a reasonable standard of living, the good health and welfare of the working class, unemployment benefits and pensions.
LECTURE TOUR
Outside of Parliament a good lecturer could obtain about 265 pounds for one lecture. Churchill was a natural for a touring lecturer; still basking in the sunlight of the fame of south Africa, and able to deliver a thrilling account. He could hold an audience for 90 minutes or more.
It was hard work but in just two months he had delivered 30 lectures from Dundee in Scotland to Belfast and Dublin in Ireland. Then off he went to tour in the USA and Canada, some lectures in those two countries earned him $1,000 a time. He continued to harangue his fellow MPs in Parliament. At this early age it was obvious to all he was going to be a controversial figure. He was even willing to attack his own side if he disagreed with any of their policies. One that he condemned was a 15 percent increase in army expenditure proposed by John Brodrick, the Secretary of State of War. for an ex-army man they thought this was not only surprising but shocking. His reason against such a move was that if any danger was to threaten the island nation of Britain it would come from the sea, not from the land. Winston said 15 percent would be better put towards the navy not the army.
REBEL MP
The Government was dismayed that one of their own should turn against them, especially when the Liberal opposition was so delighted. Winston became part of a group of young renegade Conservatives who, like himself, were dissatisfied with many aspects of Government policy. They were nick-named "Hooligans" or "Hughligans" after one of their members Lord Hugh Cecil. Churchill was increasingly out of step with the Conservative Party, and was moving more towards the Liberal Party. Their aims like his gave priority to social policies: healthcare, better housing and education, and secure employment for the working class.
By 1902, Winston was waging constant war, both inside and outside Parliament. He lashed at the conservatives for neglecting the poor. He advocated free trade with no tariffs, otherwise anything different had the effect of raising the price of food, and so hit the poor families the hardest. His attacks on Conservative policies and his open support for a Liberal candidate in a coming by-election smacked at betrayal. Hence Churchill was shunned by the Conservative Party inside and outside of Parliament. In his Oldham constituency, the conservative Association told him he would not be selected as their candidate in the next general election.
CROSSING THE FLOOR
By 1904 the Liberals offered Churchill to stand as a candidate in north-west Manchester in the next election. On March 29th, when Winston rose to speak to the Commons during a debate on the economy, the Conservative Prime Minster, Arthur Balfour, and his ministers and backbenchers walked out. Two days later, on May 1st, 1904 Churchill crossed the floor and joint the Liberals. He sat next to David Lloyd George, the charasmatic Liberal MP for Caernarvon, Wales.
Churchill had as they say in Parliament language "crossed the floor." He became a Liberal, but more than that, he became a member of the party's Radical wing, led by Lloyd George.
MINISTERIAL MATERIAL
It was obvious to all Liberals that Winston was ministerial material; he was offered a junior post as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to the new government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman, elected in January 1906. Churchill turned it down. A very clever move. Winston requested the post of Under Secretary of the Colonial Office. As junior in the lower house, he would have more independence abd, with that, a larger share of the parliamentary limelight.
His first move was to push for a generous approach to the Boer republic in South Africa. Churchill was determined that the Boer and British inhabitants should be treated equally, he said, "Do not let us do anything which makes us the champions of one race and consequently, deprives us for ever of the confidence of the other." And so both republics were granted self-government later in 1906. Boer governments were elected soon afterwards. He told the Commons, "The cause of the poor and the weak all over the world will have been sustained, and everywhere small people will get more room to breathe; and everywhere great empires will be encouraged by our example, to step forward into the sunshine of a more gentle and more generous age."
DUTY AND JUSTICE
CHURCHILL'S IDEALISM WAS AT THE CORE OF HIS LIBERAL THINKING. "Our duty is to insist that the principles of justice and the safeguards of judicial procedure are rigidly, punctiliously and pedantically followed." No case was too minor for Winston to consider, particularly if it concerned abuse of justice. When the Governor of Ceylon (now Sir Lanka) found it too "inconvenient" to bother about an appeal for reinstatement lodged by a former head guard on the railways, Churchill said: "The Liberal Party cares very much for the rights of individuals to just and lawful treatment, and very little for the petty pride of a Colonial governor."
On being overlooked once on an issue, Winston said, "In overruling me, you do not assign any reasons, nor attempt to do justice to the very grave arguments I have so earnestly submitted to you."
Churchill's zeal to confront head-on the injustices of the world irritated some of his colleagues. "He is most tiresome to deal with, and I fear will give trouble - as his father did - in any position to which he may be called" commented Sir Francis Hopwood, a senior civil servant at the Colonial Office. "The restless energy, the uncontrollable desire for notoriety ... make him an anxiety indeed."
THE MINIMUM STANDARD
Churchill was already thinking of the future and of the policies that lay beyond his Colonial Office remit. He had for some time been concerned about the poverty, squalor and insecurity of the working classes. In Britain's hierarchical society, sharply divided by class, there was little it seemed to be any different or change the natural order of things. But Winston believed thew State should intervene to improve the standards for workers and their families. So he devised a raft of new policies which he called the Minimum Standard. Two basic goals were to end the exploitation of child labor, and to set up a labor exchange, where employers and people looking for work could contact each other. Further, working hours would be reduced so people could have reasonable leisure time. And also State benefits would be paid to lesson the disastrous effect of unemployment on families. The policy also suggested a pension system to protect people who were no longer able to work.
All these were radical ideas in the early 20th century, and Winston knew they would face tough opposition.
The ailing Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman was replaced by Asquith in April 1908. And Asquith was impressed with Winston's Minimum Standard ideas. Churchill was promoted to President of the Board of Trade. This post gave Winston the change to promote his ideas and also to gain valuable experience in industrial relations. Churchill took his place in Cabinet for the first time on April 9th.
DUMBSTRUCK
Churchill was now 33 and his pressures in life were very high; he needed a supportive wife. A promising candidate was the beautiful and intelligent Clementine Ogilvy Hozier. They first met at a social ball in 1904, but it was an awkward meeting. Winston was dumbstruck by Clementine's striking looks and large expressive eyes. Later he was to say about her eyes that they were, "strange and mysterious."
Clementine recalls, "Winston just stared. He never uttered a word and was very gauche - he never asked me for a dance, he never asked me to have supper with him ... he just stood and stared."
Fours years later, they met again, and by now Winston was a somewhat important figure, and was more confident. He realized he had to marry a woman who could tolerate his hectic life style, mix easily with influential friends and colleagues, and live with his appetite for action and excitement. Over the year of 1908 he became convinced Clementine was the right lady that had the qualities he needed in a wife.
BLENHEIM PROPOSAL
To be continued
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