CHURCHILLIAN PEARLS

I finally got around to reading Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills  It contains a record of a real Edwardian marriage, one that had little to do with the Geisha type Jacklyn Kennedy shared with Jack.  On October 18, 1909 Winstone wrote Clementine -  "I hope you will not be angry with me for having answered the suffragettes sternly.   I shall never try to crush your convictions.  I must claim the same liberty for myself. "

But his letters also includes incontestably authentic comments on a wide variety of startlingly relevant subjects:

International conferences - "It is now a convention that foreign affairs are only to be treated in unctuous platitudes wh bear no relation to what is really going on. This is called 'Open diplomacy.'" (3/25/1925)

Arrogant presidential advisors - "He (George Marshall) talked much about . . . President Roosevelt with whom it seems he often disagreed & whom he sometimes did not consult - He said that he - the President  - would direct his mind like a shaft of light over one section of the whole subject to be considered, leaving everything else in outer darkness  - He did not like his attention being called to aspects which he had not mastered or which the lack of time or indolence or disinclination he has disregarded - Mind you he did not actually use these words, but the gist & I thought much more were implied." (12/16/1947) 

Price of old age - "Osbert Peake came to dine & sleep last night and Christopher and I had 4 hours' vy informative talk w him about OAP (Old Age Pensions), which is the dominant feature of next year's Conservative propramme . . .

Peake hates old people (as such) living too long and cast a critical yet on me. . . . I felt vy guilty. "(8/19/1954)

Western Muslim relations - "The unity of Islam is remarkable. There is no doubt that Libya, to whom we paid 5,000,000 (Pound Sterling) a year, like Jordania, to whom we paid 10,000,000 (Sterling) or more, are whold-heartedly manifesting hostility." (8/11/1956)