WILDERNESS YEARS
There was a somewhat crisis situation for Britain in 1929, with the trouble in egypt, a British protectorate. Winston was on the side of doing something, but the Labor Prime Minister Baldwin did not see it, and sat stoned faced through Churchill's speech. The Conservatives did a lot of heckling. Once more Churchill found himself isolated from the rest of the Conservative Party.
The there was India. The Conservatives agreed to support Labor and give India a measure of self-government, but not full independence. Winston thought even that was too much for India. He was convinced India was not yet ready for even near self-governance. He had certainly one reason; hostilities between Hindus and Muslims showed no signs of fading away. Rioting and murder, including the killing of British officials was continuing.
Churchill was not entirely alone, the man who would eventually be Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlin, also agreed that it could be 50 years before India was ready for self-government.
Churchill was not very fond of Mahatma Gandhi, half naked here and there, while still organizing defiant campaigns of civil disobedience.
But Baldwin and the Labor Party had its way, and towards the end of 1931 India was granted "dominion status" by 369 for the government and 43 against.
NEAR-FATAL CRASH
In 1931 the Labor government ran into big trouble as it wanted to impose a 10 per cent cut in unemployment benefits. Some Labor ministers also disagreed, and so in August 1931 the Government resigned.
Churchill thought it was a good time for a Liberal-Conservative partnership, but it was not to be, the three main Parties united to form a Government. Churchill's majority at Epping was doubled BUT in Parliament he was out in the cold; not offered a place in the new government.
But Winston also had other troubles close to home. The collapse of the Wall Street stock market in October 1919 had left worldwide recession; and Winston had also had large losses; he need to try and recoup. The last volume of his World War 1 memoirs was published and sold well. He also signed a contract for a lecture tour of the United States. He would be guaranteed at least 10,000 pounds, and the Daily Mail newspaper agreed to pay him 8,000 pound for a series of articles on life in the USA.
All seemed to be going well and he'd be on the way to recovering financially....WHEN....ON DECEMBER 13TH WINSTON WAS WALKING ALONG Fifth Avenue in New York, while on a lecture tour, and making the mistake of not checking the traffic, he stepped out into the road and was hit by a car. He was seriously injured to his head and legs. He spent three weeks in the hospital in New York and another three weeks in the Bahamas to fully recover. And like Churchill, never missing an opportunity, he wrote an article about his mishap for the Daily Mail, which ended up being syndicated around the world. He also received sympathy mail from all over the world. Winston was back on the lecture tour in January 1932. In three weeks he gave lectures in 19 USA cities, earning 7,500 pounds, double what a British Prime Minister received in a year.
THE RISE OF NAZISM
AFTER World War 1 Germany was given stick rules about reduction in armed forced, banned the possession of tanks and heavy artillery. Churchill had predicted the onerous demands would cause a backlash of resentment and indeed by 1932 the truth of his warnings was becoming apparent.
The leader of the rising National Socialist Party, Adolf Hitler, was able to capitalize on the resentment. Hitler promised to retrieve lost territories and restore Germany's power and influence. By 1932 the Nazis became the largest single party in the German Parliament. On January 30th 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. He went on to become uncontrollable in power and influence.
In Britain, it was a different picture. The depression of the 1930s had left mass unemployment, near-destitution, business failures, a industrial slum, and widespread gloom and a feeling of hopelessness. The government was busy trying to recover industry, and refused to put money into defense and armaments. Churchill viewed Hitler as a great danger, but those who held to Russia being the enemy of freedom, thought Germany and Hitler would be a somewhat protector from communistic Russia.
Churchill had witnessed the new, militant Germany first hand in July 1932, when he was there to research a biography of his ancestor John Churchill. He saw also the germans, both young and old, whipped up to s frenzy of nationalism by Hitler, who gave very rabble-rousing speeches.
"AN ALARMIST WARMONGER"
ON THE 23RD OF MARCH 1933 Churchill told the House of Commons, "When we read about Germany, when we watch with surprise and distress the tumultuous resurgence of ferocity and war spirit, the pitiless ill-treatment of minorities ... the denial of the normal protections of civilized society to large numbers of individuals solely on the grounds of race - when we see that occurring in one of the most gifted, learned, scientific and formidable nations in europe, one cannot help feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not found, as yet, any other outlet [but] Germany."
Arrangements had tried to be made for Churchill to meet with Hitler, by Ernst Hanfstaengel, a friend of Churchill's son, Randolph, but Hitler was not interested, saying, "What part does Churchill play? He is in opposition and no one pays any attention to him."
Well as Hitler was to find out later, the Western world payed great attention to Churchill, when Britain declared war on Germany.
Not many in 1932 wanted to listen to Churchill. He was classified as a "war-monger" and "alarmist." Just about no one wanted to listen to Churchill about not doing a disarmament while Germany remained dangerous. Winston said, "The removal of the just grievances of the vanquished ought to precede the disarmament of the victors. to bring about anything like equality of armaments ... while those grievances remain unredressed would be almost to appoint the day for another European war - to fix it as if it were a prize fight."
CHURCHILL ON WAR IN THE AIR, FEBRUARY 7TH 1934
"THIS CURSED, hellish invention and development of war from the air has revolutionized our position. We are not the same kind of country we used to be ... only twenty years ago ... It is not merely a question of what we like and what we do not like, of ambitions and desires, of rights and interests, but it is a question of safety and independence ... I cannot conceive how, in the present state of Europe, we can delay in establishing the principle of having an Air Force at least as strong as that of any Power that can get at us .... To have an Air Force as strong as the air-force of France or Germany, whichever is the stronger, out to be the decision which Parliament should take, and which the National Government should proclaim."
REARMAMENT URGED
WINSTON was dismissed as a lone voice in the wilderness by his opponents in Parliament. He was concerned about the governments proposal to cut spending on the Royal Air Force and to close one of four flying schools. He was fully astute at what aircraft could now bring to towns and villages, bombs being the largest threat. secret intelligence reposts in Berlin had brought how the Nazis were building up their military aircraft. It was all being done "secretly" - i.e. Lufthansa, the German passenger airline, was used as camouflage for the development of aircraft for the Luftwaffe, the German air force. Gliding and flying clubs were training pilots who would later fight in World War 2. Artillery guns, there barrels were being disguised as factory chimneys. Tanks were made to look like farm tractors and torpedo boats made to look like pleasure craft.
Churchill not being in the Cabinet had to have his own grapevine of informants, and he did; people like civil servants and army and Royal Air Force officers who shared his anxieties. They were actually putting their lives on the line, disobeying the Official Secret Act, as they could have been imprisoned for so doing. But they did it, and by this means Winston got his information what the Germans were up to. He also learnt Britain was deficient in aircraft development and pilot training, and of shortage of gas masks, weapons, ammunitions, armored cars, tanks, trucks, and many other items needed for national defense. He constantly used his clandestine knowledge to harass the government over these shortcomings.
SECRET INFORMATION
WINSTON GOT A LOT OF HIS INFORMATION FROM MAJOR DESMOND MORTON, A FORMER COLLEAGUE AT THE WAR OFFICE. Morton headed a government intelligence unit that kept track of the movement of raw materials used for armaments by Germany and other European countries. He first contacted Morton in the spring of 1933. Churchill was not entirely alone, a few others thought as he did, but they also were called and labelled as "scaremongers" - all the few of them were ignored.
On the 14th of October 1933, Nazi Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the International Disarmament Conference, which had first met at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1927. On the 3rd of August, 1934, a day after the death of the aged President von Hindenberg, Hitler gained sole executive power in Germany - both as Chancellor and President. In March 1935 he repudiated the disarmament clause of the Versailles Treaty. He was then willing to admit Germany was rearming and that he had recreated the air force, known as the Luftwaffe.
PREDICTIONS OF DEVASTATION
To be continued
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