The Last Lion 01 - Winston Churchill - Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by William Manchester

Author:William Manchester [Manchester, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Churchill; Winston, Great Britain - Foreign Relations - 20th Century, Great Britain - Politics and Government - 20th Century, Great Britain, Prime Ministers, Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Political, History, Europe
ISBN: 9780316545037
Google: UZbtAAAAMAAJ
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 1983-05-29T14:00:00+00:00

Russia was mobilizing against Austria-Hungary. Germany, as Austria’s ally, therefore proclaimed a “threatening state of war.” At midnight on Thursday, July 30, the kaiser demanded the Russians demobilize at once, giving them twenty-four hours to stop and “make us a distinct declaration to that effect.” In England it was Bank Holiday Weekend. Saturday morning the governor of the Bank of England called on Lloyd George with the message that the City was “totally opposed to our intervening” in the coming conflict. In the Foreign Office, Grey was reluctantly informing the French ambassador, Paul Cambon, that thus far the dispute on the Continent had been “of no interest” to England, though “Belgian neutrality might become a factor.” Asquith wrote in his diary: “Of course everybody longs to stand aside.”213

Not everybody. His first lord of the Admiralty now relished the prospect of a fight — Jennie wrote Leonie that he now thought war “inevitable” — and the cabinet meeting that day was, as a consequence, tumultuous. Sir Maurice Hankey later wrote: “Winston Churchill was a man of a totally different type from all his colleagues. He had a real zest for war. If war there must needs be, he at least could enjoy it.” Asquith described him in that session as “very bellicose. . . . It is no exaggeration to say that Winston occupied at least half the time.” When he wasn’t talking, he was passing notes to Lloyd George, trying to persuade him to change his mind. Churchill wanted the cabinet to authorize full mobilization of the navy, including a call-up of all naval reserves. After what one minister called “a sharp discussion,” he was refused on the ground that such a move might, under the circumstances, be considered incendiary. Grey, suggested that preliminary plans be drawn up for the dispatch of an expeditionary force to France. He, too, was turned down.214

Of the eighteen ministers present, twelve went on record as being opposed to any support of France. Morley, John Burns, Sir John Simon, and Lewis Harcourt threatened to resign if they were overruled. Because of his seniority, Morley was their acknowledged leader, but the most vociferous pacifist was Lloyd George. George wasn’t even sure he would fight over Belgium. If the Germans took the direct route to France, he said, they would only cross a corner of the little country; it would just be a “little violation.” (Berlin would soon describe its earlier guarantee of Belgian neutrality as “a scrap of paper.”) Liberal back-benchers were even more vehement. That afternoon, in an informal caucus, they voted four to one for neutrality, “whatever happens in Belgium or elsewhere.” When news of the vacillation at No. 10 reached Printing House Square, the editor of The Times wrote his aunts: “Saturday was a black day for everyone who knew what was going on — more than half the Cabinet rotten and every prospect of a complete schism or a disastrous or dishonouring refusal to help France. . . . Winston has really done more than anyone else to save the situation.

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