by David Lough
In December 1934 Churchill presided at Chartwell over a meeting to revise the Silver Jubilee film scipt: ‘We spent many hours jawing and seeking inspiration. Have no doubt that the film will be a commercial success and that I shall get at least my £10,000 out of it,’ he reported to Clementine. He had paid off all but £1,500 of their outstanding bills, he proudly told her on New Year’s Day: ‘We have finished up the year better than we have ever done and the financial prospects of this coming year are very much more favourable than anything we have known. If we avoid all large capital expenditure and save money wherever we can, we ought to be in a good position by this time next year.’32
Churchill’s New Year projections for his 1935 finances were characteristically optimistic. Thanks largely to London Films, he expected his income that year to exceed £25,000, well ahead of his spending, which he estimated at less than £11,000.33 But in mid-January the sums started to go awry.
The new Silver Jubilee screenplay did not find favour. ‘Korda dined with me last night at the flat,’ Churchill wrote to Clementine, ‘and said that while I had contributed a great quantity of material, he was not at all satisfied with the way it had been handled by the technical people. In other words, it would not do at all.’34 Days later came another blow: ‘It appears that an Act of Parliament says that a film which does not consist wholly or mainly of topical news reels, and which is longer than two reels, must be provisionally released six months before it can be finally released,’ Churchill explained.35 Government lawyers had ruled that it could not, therefore, be released until November, far too late for the Silver Jubilee in May. Two days later, he wrote sadly of the final cut:
The film is busted and all my work and thought produced no result. I am to hear tonight from Korda what they propose about me. I have asked for either £5,000 or another film on the same terms as the Jubilee film, and also for the renewal of the £4,000 a year contract for another year for the short films. I hope to sell the articles based on the film in America for £1,000 and have already sold the English counter-part to the Evening Standard for £1,000. So while all the large hopes have disappeared for the time being there will still be enough to leave us comfortable this year.36
Korda opted for a second film, but there was to be no profit share and no renewal of the ‘short films’ retainer. Churchill was to receive £2,000 for their nominal ‘supervision’,37 but he had to acknowledge that his hoped-for breakthrough into the lucrative world of film had failed for the time being.
By coincidence, he had reached the point in the next volume of Marlborough when his ancestor had fallen out of favour at Queen Anne’s court, only to bounce back shortly afterwards. ‘What a downy bird he was,’ Churchill told Clementine. ‘He will always stoop to conquer. His long apprenticeship as courtier had taught him to bow and scrape and to put up with second or third best if he could get no better.’38
It was an apt summary of his own approach. Inspired by his ancestor’s resilience, he tried to sell the Jubilee script first to the Daily Mail, which passed, and then to Beaverbrook’s Evening Standard, whose editor, Percy Cudlipp, snapped up Churchill as a new contributor without even bothering to quibble over his £1,000 fee.39
The Daily Mail made amends by committing to take fifteen articles in 1935, although it spiked the second of these, entitled ‘The Grave Weakness of Britain’s Defences’. Churchill was told that the centre pages were being kept ‘as clear as possible of armaments and the more belligerent phases of international affairs’. Churchill’s article appeared the next day, however, and a secretary at the Mail noted: ‘Settled by Mr C. himself with Lord Rothermere 3.4.35.’40
In stark contrast, The Strand positively encouraged a ‘frank’ and ‘outspoken’ portrait of Hitler, though Churchill refused valuable offers to write in similar terms about his senior Tory colleagues. He remained at heart a politician keen to regain office and the Conservative Stanley Baldwin appeared close to succeeding the ailing Ramsay MacDonald as prime minister of the National Government. Now that Indian independence had finally receded into the political background, Churchill was rebuilding his credibility on the issue of German rearmament, helped by Hitler’s recent announcement that Germany’s air force already matched Britain’s in strength. Among the many friends and contacts whom Churchill enlisted to assist his campaign was Brendan Bracken’s co-owner of The Economist magazine, the austere Sir Henry Strakosch.*6 As chairman of Union Corporation, the South African mining business, Strakosch passed on confidential details of the raw materials which his company was supplying to the German armaments industry.
Soon Clementine would return from her cruise (with two ‘dragons’ for London Zoo, neither more than six feet in length), and Churchill looked forward at his financial prospects for the remainder of 1935 with renewed confidence. Discussions with London Films had reached a satisfactory conclusion, he told Clementine: ‘In a nutshell, they pay me £2,000 a year for another year on account of the short films, and £5,000 compensation for the failure of the Jubilee film.’41 He promised Clementine that on her return she would find their bills almost up to date and underlined the point by enclosing a birthday cheque for 100 guineas. ‘Everything has been paid up every month this year, and there are only three or four old stagers which exist.’42
In June 1935, shortly after Clementine’s arrival, Stanley Baldwin became prime minister for the third time, but there was no cabinet post for Churchill. Baldwin did, however, invite him to join the Imperial Defence Committee’s new air research sub-committee and, having sought assurances that this appointment was not intended to silence him on the issue of rearmament, Churchill accepted. So began a new round in his long-running battle with the Cabinet Office over his entitlement to keep cabinet papers.
A year earlier, just before Churchill set off on his Mediterranean cruise, he had received a letter telling all retired cabinet ministers of a decision by the cabinet to tighten up rules governing the custody and use of official papers. Lloyd George and Churchill had thwarted a similar move in 1919, but the more pliable cabinet of 1934 had accepted the need for change after a recent Labour cabinet minister’s biography had quoted from official papers without prior clearance.*7 The new rules required all ministers to return their papers on leaving office, but the government could only request past ministers such as Churchill to do so. They would then have to visit the Cabinet Office in person to inspect their papers, which Churchill regarded as a serious threat to his literary livelihood.43
He replied to officials: ‘The present Cabinet is no doubt entitled to make any arrangements which it chooses for the safe keeping of its documents. So far as concerns the past I am not aware of any facts which would lead me to accept your invitation to return any documents of the kind specified which I may have in my possession.’45
Now, on Churchill’s appointment to the air research sub-committee, the veteran cabinet secretary, Sir Maurice Hankey, visited Chartwell to make a personal appeal to Churchill for the return of official documents. He found himself entertained to an excellent lunch before Churchill re-asserted his legal ownership of the documents and letters which the Cabinet Office wanted back; Sir Maurice beat a judicious retreat.45
Churchill’s confident financial forecasts for 1935 failed to allow for any investment or gambling losses, both of which were to feature during the summer. He had found it impossible to understand Vickers da Costa’s share accounts for the first half of the year: ‘What is so jolly about this is that it is absolutely impossible for me to learn the only thing that I want to know, namely, if everything were sold today at the present price, how much should I owe?’ he complained to Jack. The answer was in the accounts, but it was not the one that he wanted to hear: even if he sent Vickers a cheque for £1,000 as requested, Churchill would still owe £800 on closing all his accounts.46
His response was to step up the pace of his dealing during the parliamentary recess. He asked his brokers to telephone every day with the New York prices, then he returned to tradin
g his favourite names, including ‘BMTs’, moving in and out of each share according to its position within what he observed as its usual price range. Each day his secretary supplied him with a slip showing his gross and net balances.
August was not a success. Churchill started the month with net holdings of $42,000 and an accumulated loss of $4,500, but he finished it with positions of $62,000 and the loss more than doubled.47 He carried on buying in September, until Jack and Cecil Vickers both gave warnings, after which Churchill made thirteen sales within a week to reduce his holdings by $50,000.48 A week later, he was back asking Baruch: ‘Do you advise buying BMT around 41?’ ‘Yes’ came the reply.49
A young visitor to Chartwell recorded the picture that week in his diary: ‘Found Churchill in blue overalls painting in his studio and in very grim mood. He was receiving frequent reports of Stock Exchange prices in London and New York – his secretary brought one in while we were at tea; said markets were very depressed owing to the political tension.’50
Churchill spent his summer holiday at Maxine Elliott’s home in Cannes. The news was grim as Benito Mussolini tried to enlarge Italy’s empire by invading Abyssinia. Churchill passed his days painting, rather than writing, and his evenings at the Cannes casino. Here he found the transport minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, playing for stakes that Churchill judged much too high. His own losses had been ‘nothing serious’,51 he told Clementine. But a success at baccarat persuaded him to stay one extra night, so as to treat his hostess to dinner at the casino. That evening Churchill drew 35,000 francs in cash. That made a total of 65,000 francs for the entire stay, but on his return he deposited only 10,100 francs.
His summer holiday had cost him at least £750.52 Churchill had once again exceeded his overdraft limit and on his return to Britain Stanley Williams was lying in wait for him. Churchill blamed London Films for missing one of its payments, but this time Williams was not convinced. He refused Churchill’s request for a grace period and enforced a sale of shares held by the bank as security to bring the overdraft below £8,000.53
*1 Adam Marshall Diston (1893–1956), journalist, Amalgamated Press 1919; assistant editor, acting editor Answers 1934; an official of the National Union of Journalists.
*2 The Other Club is a cross-party political dining society founded in 1911 by Churchill and F. E. Smith. Both men were considered too controversial for election by members of its well-established precursor, The Club. The Other Club’s founders ‘elected’ its members, which included ‘distinguished outsiders’, such as Camrose, in addition to politicians.
*3 Alexander Korda (1893–1956), born in Hungary; founded London Film Productions 1932; British citizen 1936; produced 112 films, including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935); knighted 1942.
*4 Randolph drafted replies to possible questions at the launch press conference: ‘Mr Korda and Mr Myers will certainly be asked whether Mr Winston Churchill’s contract involves his retirement from politics. They will register an emphatic negative. They will also be asked what salary Mr Churchill is being paid. [They] will say that it is not the policy of the Company to disclose the details of its interior finance. ’ CHAR 8/495/54, 55–6.
*5 The 1,200-ton Rosaura had been converted from her former life as Dieppe, a cross-Channel steamer; she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1939 and sank off Tobruk in 1941.
*6 Henry Strakosch, (1871-1943), born in Austria; clerk, Anglo-Austrian Bank of South Africa, London 1891; assistant managing director Goerz & Co., South Africa 1895, chairman (renamed Union Corporation 1918) 1924–43; naturalized British citizen 1907; chairman, The Economist magazine 1929–43; adviser, central banking and reserves policy to the governments of South African and India; member, Council of India 1930–7; adviser, secretary of state for India 1937–42; knighted 1921.
*7 George Lansbury: My Father (1934) by Edgar Lansbury, who was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. See D. Reynolds, In Command of History, p. 26.
17
‘We can carry on for a year or two more’
Films, Columns and Debts, 1935–7
Exchange rate: $4 = £1
Inflation multiples: US x 17; UK x 60
MARLBOROUGH HAD FAILED to make any progress during the holidays and Churchill used the cover of a possible general election to warn George Harrap of further delays: ‘If we have an election and I am forced to make a great many speeches, I doubt if it will be possible to complete the volume before the early autumn.’1 Days later, Stanley Baldwin asked the voters to endorse the National Government’s mandate, putting forward a platform of collective security that would be achieved through the League of Nations.
In the election that followed on 14 November 1935, the Conservatives won 432 seats in the House of Commons, dwarfing the Labour and Liberal parties’ combined total of 175. At a post-election party, Lord Beaverbrook predicted that Churchill would not be asked to join the cabinet – and he was right. Wounded, Churchill ‘set out with my paint-box for more genial climes’,2 but first there were business affairs to settle.
Adam Marshall Diston had already ghostwritten most of Churchill’s News of the World series due to appear in January 1936. The paper’s new chairman Sir Emsley Carr was so pleased with ‘The Great Men I Have Known’ (who included Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain) that he signed Churchill up straightaway for another series in 1937.3 William Chenery at Collier’s was less impressed and demanded changes to ‘Rockefeller’ and ‘Charles Chaplin’, declaring them ‘written in a form better calculated to meet the requirements of English than American mass magazines’.4
More awkwardly for Churchill, Clementine insisted that before leaving for Paris, Majorca and Barcelona, they should make an impression on their pile of unpaid bills. Churchill’s relations with Lloyds Bank were still strained, because he had used his London Films cheques to pay for election expenses rather than reduce his borrowings as promised. Armed with another post-dated cheque from the News of the World, however, he was able to persuade Stanley Williams to keep his overdraft limit at £8,000.5 Even so, this left only £1,200 to allocate to the bills, which included one for more than £900 alone from the wine merchants Randolph Payne & Sons. Their bill particularly worried Clementine, because the company’s chairman Lord Sandhurst had written to Churchill pointing out that he had promised three years earlier to pay any fresh bills straightaway, and also to reduce ‘from time to time’ his backlog of old accounts amounting to £660. Neither pledge, the chairman claimed, had been honoured.6
Before paying, Churchill asked his secretaries to analyse the household’s alcohol consumption during the past year. The result was a cost of £920, including £268 spent on ten magnums, 185 bottles, 183 pints and 68 imperial pints of champagne.7 Clementine sent Lord Sandhurst a cheque to clear the ‘current account’ only. By the time he wrote to ask for more, the Churchills had left.
Clementine and Mary returned for Christmas at Blenheim, followed by skiing in Austria, while Churchill and Randolph headed on to Africa. Christmas in Tangier was not a success, partly because of the rain and partly because of political events weighing on Churchill’s mind. Sir Samuel Hoare, the foreign secretary, had misjudged the public mood by agreeing with his French counterpart that part of Abyssinia should be ceded to Italy following Mussolini’s invasion of the country. Sir Samuel resigned and Churchill wondered if he should return to London. However, when Anthony Eden replaced Sir Samuel it seemed the matter was settled and Churchill and his son moved on to Marrakech, in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Churchill’s spirits revived in the sunshine and in the company of Lloyd George and Lord Rothermere, who ensured a regular supply of London newspapers. Churchill told Clementine of a wager:
Rothermere offered me 2 bets. First £2,000 if I went teetotal in 1936. I refused as I think life would not be worth living, but 2,000 free of tax is nearly 3,500 & then the saving of liquor, 500 = 4,000. It was a fine offer. I have however accepted his second bet of £600 not to drink any brandy or undiluted spirit
s in 1936.8
Lacking a casino, the Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech turned out to be an ideal base for Churchill.
This is a wonderful place. In my opinion it is better than any of the hotels that I have stayed in on the Riviera... I spend the whole day painting and on Marlborough (apart from eating and drinking) but no neat spirits according to the bet.9
Churchill was preparing to leave after a stay of almost a month when news came through of the death of George V. The News of the World cabled, asking him for a tribute in time for the weekend’s newspaper, at a fee of £400. Churchill dictated to Mrs Pearman while sitting among the party’s suitcases and on the train to Tangier, where he left his tribute to the king for the Daily Mail’s local correspondent to transmit to London.10
Two hundred pages of Marlborough had yet to be written, but Churchill was distracted by well-paid commissions as soon as he returned to London in January 1936. He accepted £250 from The Strand to write about the launch of Cunard’s new transatlantic liner the Queen Mary. Although he fully intended to visit the ship in Glasgow, in the end he decided he could not afford the time and he sub-contracted the task to Marshall Diston for the usual fee of 15 guineas.11
For a long time Churchill had wanted higher fees for his fortnightly political columns in the Daily Mail, but the paper would not pay more than £75. Churchill and his agent thought they should fetch £200 or even £250 if sold properly around the world.12 Curtis Brown procured an offer from the editor of the Evening Standard, Percy Cudlipp, of £100 a column, to which Churchill could add any money which he raised from overseas syndication. Negotiations stalled until March when Cudlipp accepted Churchill’s demand that he must be allowed to continue his lucrative non-political writing for the News of the World.13 They were interrupted again almost immediately when Hitler’s troops marched into the demilitarized Rhineland.