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WINSTON CHURCHILL, Part Two

© Viola Ashford

After Churchill returned to England he was called 'the rat of Blenheim' and regarded by many as a class traitor because he left the Conservative side of politics, associated with the Establishmen.. Influenced by Rowntree's book on poverty in which Rowntree contended that 40%of the British lived in poverty Churchill joined the Liberal party, eventually becoming President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary. This position enabled him to establish labor exchanges and Trade Boards to regulate sweated labor. He also introduced health and unemployment insurance. A maverick aristocrat, Churchill was also interested in prison reform. However, he was ambivalent about the suffragettes, surprisingly for a man who advocated reform of society in so many different ways..

As First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill reformed and modernized the Navy. He could see that Germany had begun to have an arms race with Britain and hastened the building of new battleships. He also ordered that the ships be powered by oil instead of the old-fashioned coal.

However, Churchill would find it difficult to retain his reputation after the disaster of the Dardanelles. Churchill thought that attacking the Dardanelles would open the way to Constantinople (the Turkish capital) and 'knock Turkey out of the war'. Turkey, a German ally, was blockading the Russian Black Sea ports, preventing supplies to the Russian army from getting through, and threatening Egypt. The campaign ended in a bloodbath. The Allied fighters were trapped on the beaches by Turkish fire at Gallipoli. A second larger landing failed. The campaign resulted in 250,000 Allied casualties.1.

Churchill was blamed by the Liberal government and demoted. Soon afterwards he went to fight himself as Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th Battalion of the Scottish Royal Fusiliers. Although popular with the men he gave up when the battalion amalgamated with another, returning to writing articles.

Later, somewhat forgiven, as Minister of Munitions of War he increased the efficiency of industry and gave the workers a 12.5% pay rise. However, he was sympathetic to the White Russians fighting against the Bolsheviks and began to lean back to the Conservatives.

Although Churchill made other mistakes apart from the Dardanelles his wonderful achievements during the Second World War ensures that he will always be loved by the British people. These mistakes included his actions in Ireland and his opposition to the independence of India. His sending in the Black and Tans resulted in civil war in Ireland and he was also very much against India having dominion status and very unsympathetic towards Gandhi. To give him credit here, however, he feared for the Muslims and the Untouchables, with some justice.