David and Winston by Robert Lloyd George

Author:Robert Lloyd George [LLOYD GEORGE, ROBERT]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS015000, HIS027100, BIO011000, BIO010000, BIO008000
ISBN: 9781468305999
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

After that second significant meeting at the Bar in May 1917, Lloyd George came to depend upon Churchill’s advice on a daily basis. As was his wont, he carefully sounded out his Tory colleagues on the question of bringing Churchill back into the Cabinet. Did they not think that a man of such energy and imagination was needed in the Government? Was not Churchill wasted outside office? ‘No’ was the resounding answer. Bonar Law, now Lloyd George’s closest ally, was asked whether he would prefer to have Churchill on his side or against him. The Scotsman replied, ‘I would rather have him against me.’Lord Derby, the War Secretary, wanted none of Churchill and nor did the other Conservative members of the Cabinet. ‘Some of them felt stronger about Churchill than about the Kaiser,’ Lloyd George later told his son Richard. The press was also against his return to office.

Nevertheless, despite his promise to keep Churchill out of the Cabinet, Lloyd George sent Bonar Law’s close friend, Beaver-brook, round to talk to him. Beaverbrook, who was also a friend of Churchill, was one of the few people who were not envious of his dynamic energy and genius. After two days Bonar Law was finally won round. Richard Lloyd George described the ensuing uproar: ‘As the news swept through Parliament of Churchill’s impending appointment as Minister of Munitions, scores of MPs gathered in furious conclave. “Down with Churchill! Down with Lloyd George! Have them both out!” “He’s tricked us!” “He’s broken his promise! Out with Lloyd George and his amateur strategist, Winston Churchill!”’ More than a hundred MPs formed an anti-Churchill Coalition Front. But there was no organised leadership and there were no resignations. Lloyd George’s gamble paid off. As one contemporary observer put it, ‘His throne tottered but did not fall.’

Lloyd George observed privately, ‘I have got back Winston. That was not easy … but I have had my way.’ The Conservatives clearly understood that his reinstatement was an act of friendship. The Morning Post commented that ‘by appointing Churchill the Prime Minister had proved to be a man who allows private partiality to overcome public duty’.

In his War Memoirs of 1933, Lloyd George described Churchill as:

One of the most remarkable and puzzling enigmas of his time … His fertile mind, his undoubted courage, his untiring industry, and his thorough study of the art of war, would have made him a useful member of a War Cabinet. Here his more erratic impulses could have been kept under control and his judgment supervised and checked, before plunging into action. Men of his ardent temperament and powerful mentality need exceptionally strong brakes … Even the Tory antipathy to him was so great that for a short while the very existence of the Government was in jeopardy …

Why were they so bitter and implacable? His political record naturally exasperated his old Party. He does nothing by halves, and when he left it he attacked his old associates and condemned his old principles with a

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