The Churchill Series - Sept. 7, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Readers’ Note: In the Sept. 1 Series post I said :

In September, 1940 America and Great Britain reached an agreement. America gave Britain 50 destroyers in exchange for 99 year lease rights to naval ports and other facilities in British possessions in the Caribbean and North Atlantic. …

President Roosevelt and Churchill conducted much of the negotiations directly between themselves and in secret. Anticipating ultimate agreement, they made arrangements for the swift implementation of the agreement even before it was signed. For example, without public announcement British naval crews were sent to American bases where they were trained to sail the American destroyers. …

On September 5 Churchill announced the agreement in the House of Commons.

I followed my remarks with an extensive excerpt of Churchill’s announcement which I said illustrated his skill as a parliamentarian.

I promised to say more about that skill in a follow-up post. This is it. Below is an excerpt of Churchill’s announcement to the House. My comments are in parentheses and italics at the end of Churchill's paragraphs :

The memorable transactions between Great Britain and the United States, which were foreshadowed when I last addressed the House, have now been completed. …

(“[F]oreshadowed when I last addressed the House” is a very deft way of telling the members they knew something like this was coming and he’d told them what he could.)

I have no doubt that Herr Hitler will not like this transference of destroyers, and I have no doubt that he will pay the United States out, if he ever gets the chance. That is why I am very glad that the army, air, and naval frontiers of the United States have been advanced along a wide arc into the Atlantic Ocean, and that this will enable them to take danger by the throat while it is still hundreds of miles away from their homeland.

(This paragraph puts Members who’d object to any part of the treaty in the same “pub corner” with Hitler, but Churchill doesn’t actually say that. But the Members know they’ve been given “notice.”)

The Admiralty tell us also that they are very glad to have these fifty destroyers, and that they will come in most conveniently to bridge the gap which, as I have previously explained to the House, inevitably intervenes before our considerable wartime programme of new construction comes into service. …

(“The Admiralty tell us.” So it’s not Churchill who’s saying this agreement will make Britian's embattled navy, now defending the island home, “very glad.”

The Admiralty itself tell us that.

Again, without actually saying it, Churchill has challenged the Members: Do any of you want to get up in a few minutes and question what has made the Admiralty “very glad?”)

There will be no delay in bringing the American destroyers into active service; in fact, British crews are already meeting them at the various ports where they are being delivered. You might call it the long arm of coincidence.

(Churchill’s “long arm of coincidence” metaphor is a “wink and nod” to the Members.

He's really saying, “Sure, I've had to do some of the negotiating leading up to the agreement in secret but you can understand that. And you can smile with me as you learn what was done as regards British crews training to man the destroyers. We're all in this together.”)

I really do not think that there is any more to be said about the whole business at the present time. This is not the appropriate occasion for rhetoric. Perhaps I may, however, very respectfully, offer this counsel to the House: When you have got a thing where you want it, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.

(Just in case any Member missed the point of his remarks, Churchill says in his closing paragraph: “This is not the appropriate occasion for rhetoric.”

But having said what he intended to be a directive to the Members, but one we know under Parliamentary procedure he can't require they follow, we find our very skilled parliamentarian in the next sentence wondering if he might “very respectfully, offers this counsel to the House: When you have got a thing where you want it, it is a good thing to leave it where it is.

Churchill’s “counsel” is a repeat of his “This is not the appropriate occasion for rhetoric” statement but in a much softer vein.

It’s an acknowledgement to the Members that he knows he can’t direct them to remain silent on the agreement but he leaves them with a common sense reminder of why they should leave the agreement “where it is.”)

There’s more I could say, but time presses and I’ve pretty much got this post where I want it, so I’ll leave it where it is.
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Background information regarding the agreement and the text of Churchill's announcement to the House can be found in Winston S. Churchill's Their Finest Hour.