Dear Fellow Canadian Churchillians:
A Warm Welcome
To new Friends of Winston Churchill – Stephane Chauvette.
Annual Dinner, May 9 – Albany Club of Toronto
You will have received the Flyer for this exciting event, details are also available on our web site:
Our Guest Speaker, Charlotte Gray, is an award-winning author of twelve books of history and biography.
The Winnipeg Free Press has opined that Charlotte is “One of Canada’s Best Loved Writers of popular history and literary biography”.
With an international reputation as an author and public speaker, Charlotte explains the past with wit and a sense of drama.
Charlotte’s latest book “Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt,“ appeared in both the Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2023, and the Toronto Star’s “definitive 2023 book gift guide”. The Wall Street Journal included it in its Holiday Gift Books section as one of the top ten biographies of 2023.
Payment options will be detailed in the accompanying email.
Please join us for a guaranteed enthralling, entertaining evening.
Past Event – “An Evening with Sir Winston” – “Ukraine Connection”
A “Full House” on January 21, at the Albany Club of Toronto, was enthralled by the speech given by Ihor Kozak, a Ukraine-born graduate of the Canadian Royal Military College.
Ihor talked of his personal experiences in touring the war zones, and the inspiration that Premier Zelensky has derived from Churchill’s experience in the 1930’s, when he was exhorting the British Government to build up its military capacity to match that of Nazi Germany.
Ihor went on to repeat Churchill’s statement that “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” and that the situation in the Ukraine is very much like the late 1930’s, with now Putin replacing Hitler.
Putin, Ihor continued, has a long game. Firstly, to conquer the Ukraine and then proceed against other countries. The Russian dictator is not concerned with the thousands of Russian lives already lost; and as the world has seen with the murder of Alexei Navalny any opposition to him is brutally squashed. Sanctions from NATO countries has had an effect; but Putin does not care if Russian citizens suffer. While NATO has stipulated all member countries have to spend a minimum of 2% of GNP on the military, Russia is already spending 6%!
On the attitude of Ukrainian citizens to the suffering they are enduring, we were told that a recent public opinion poll showed 85% of Ukrainians are in favour of continuing the struggle.
The standing ovation given to Ihor was indicative of the reaction of the audience. Directors David Brady and Sheryl Mercer, who had arranged this most successful event, presented Ihor with Churchill related items.
Bill C-18 and it’s impact on ICS Canada’s Facebook Group.
In the Fall of 2022 ICS Canada created a Facebook Group. A primary endeavour was to use Facebook as an educational medium where we would gather and post links to articles and videos relating to and about Churchill.
On June 22, 2023 , Bill C-18, the Online News Act, received Royal Assent. The law requires the largest digital platforms to bargain fairly with Canadian news businesses for the use of their news content on their services. As a result, Meta (parent company of Facebook) has ended access to news on its social media sites for Canadian users. When we try to post links to articles on FB we are blocked.
We will maintain our presence on Facebook, albeit without the articles and videos that you are accustomed to seeing. Our challenge to FB is through creativity. We may not be able to post BUT if you see a reference to FB Police and to please Google …. That will lead you to the article.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Richard Langworth, a longtime friend of ICS Canada for continuing to support our FB Group through posting Churchillian articles he has written.
Outreach Program
For the past 10 years, ICS Canada has been awarding bursaries to students at a Scarborough, Ontario, High School. We have decided to broaden and supplement that initiative with an education component. Though still in its infancy, we are in the process of developing a program where an ICS Canada volunteer(s) will be giving an ICSC pre-approved “Churchillian” talk at high schools.
As this initiative progresses, further details will be provided.
Winston Churchill’s Visits to Canada
The Great Man’s Sixth Visit
To Quebec City – Quadrant Conference
August 10 to 31, 1943
Although Churchill had met with Roosevelt twice in 1943, he decided that a further meeting was necessary to ensure that the war schedule was adhered to.
The president agreed and suggested Quebec City as the venue.
Accordingly, a request was made to the Canadian prime minister. Mackenzie King prepared a response, cordially approving the idea, but before sending this to Churchill, he discussed the ramifications with his under-secretary, Norman Robertson, and the British high commissioner, Malcolm MacDonald.
The sensitivity of Canada’s position was the focal point of King’s concern; if WSC & FDR met on Canadian soil then King would have to be with them; and this he knew was not their intent.
As King wrote in his diary” “To refuse, except on conditions, would be to occasion real disappointment on the part of both Churchill and Roosevelt, and resentment as well by Churchill. On the other hand, to suggest it myself, that I would have the position mentioned, was to raise a difficulty that might be insuperable.”
After discussing with Robertson and MacDonald, King decided to simply send a friendly worded response, agreeing with the request, without reserve. However, MacDonald was to send a message to Churchill, covering the sensitive position of the Canadian prime minister.
A day later King’s diary outlined his amended thinking. He admitted that even if he was not formally a part of the discussions, it would be acceptable. “My own feeling is that Churchill and Roosevelt being at Quebec, and myself acting as host, will be quite sufficient to make clear that all three are in conference together, and will not only satisfy, but will please Canadian feeling, and really be very helpful to me personally.” He went on to look at the bigger picture. The conference would be a “memorable and marvellous event in Canadian History as well as in the history of the entire war. It would, too, I believe greatly please French Canadians.”
Churchill sailed on the Queen Mary, with his wife, Clementine, and daughter Mary. General Brooke recorded in his diary that Churchill managed to keep his fellow passengers amused with his “one liners,” as when he admonished a steward who was filling tumblers of water before going around with the champagne, “Winston stopped him by saying: “Stop pouring all that water out. It is too depressing a sight!”
Churchill arrived in Halifax, in the afternoon of August 9, and was transported directly to his special train. Winston recorded: “In spite of all precautions about security, large crowds were assembled. As my wife and I sat in our saloon at the end of the train, the people gathered round and gave us welcome. Before we started, I made them sing ‘The Maple Leaf’ and ‘O Canada.’”
On arriving in Quebec City Churchill was greeted by waves and cheers, and by Mackenzie King who welcomed the family to Canada. After the obligatory photographs, the Churchills were shown their rooms in the Citadel, the Quebec residence of the governor general. King wrote that they seemed very pleased with their accommodation and were filled with delight at the charm of the whole surroundings. Especially Mary who said that all her life she had hoped to come to Canada and would never believe she would have such a wonderful opportunity.
Churchill and King had a long discussion, with Churchill giving King a general outline of the current situation in the war, which, he said, was in a fluid state and so necessitated this further meeting with the president. King brought up the danger of a premature invasion of France. Churchill agreed adding that they might have some difficulty convincing the Americans of the wisdom of waiting: “The trouble was the Americans did not realize how long it took to accomplish some things.”
Continuing their conversation Churchill brought up a matter of increasing importance: “tube alloys,” the name for the nuclear weapons project. Churchill thought that there should be a tripartite policy committee established between the United States, Britain, and Canada. King agreed and decided that the Canadian representative would be C.D. Howe. Canada’s involvement was essential as the country was the primary source of uranium and heavy water. Later, on August 19, during the conference a secret agreement (Quebec Agreement) was signed by Churchill and Roosevelt, which stipulated that the US and the UK would pool their resources to develop nuclear weapons and that neither country would use them against the other, or against other countries, without mutual consent, or pass information about them to other countries.
The following day, August 11, a joint meeting of the U.K. War Cabinet and the Canadian War Cabinet was held at the Chateau Frontenac Hotel. Churchill remarked that this was a unique occasion of major importance; two of His Majesty’s Governments were sitting together in a formal discussion for the first time. Not surprisingly the term Anglo – American in describing the Allied forces was brought up – this had been a point of contention by Canada as this was initially used to describe the forces in the recent invasion of Sicily. It had taken a direct protest to Roosevelt to have this amended to the official communique - “British, American and Canadian troops have commenced landing operations in Sicily.”
Churchill explained the problem with specifically mentioning Canada when other countries were also involved.
King brought up the matter relating to Canadian – American relations after the war. There were times when it would be in Canada’s interest to take a North American point of view rather than a British one; also, it would not do for the United Sates to think that, “we of the British Empire were ganging up against them.”
At the luncheon, following the meeting, the guests included the recently famous wing commander Guy Gibson, who had led the “Dam Busters” raids, and had been awarded the Victoria Cross. Then it was on to the Quebec Legislature to meet Premier Godbout and the Quebec Cabinet.
On the way King suggested that Churchill say a few words in French at the meeting. This Churchill did rather slowly and choosing his words carefully. King recorded that Churchill became quite emotional when he referred to Quebec and the historic significance of meeting there and making decisions that would see France restored and given a worthy place in the world.
The next day, August 12, Churchill left for Hyde Park, the president’s residence with Mary. He asked King to keep an eye on Clementine, who was suffering from nervous exhaustion, and had decided not to accompany him. King’s diary recorded: “He said I wish you would go and have lunch with her. She likes you very much, and she will appreciate having a chance to talk with you. I told him it would be a pleasure.”
On the way to Hyde Park, Churchill took the opportunity to show Mary Niagara Falls. He was asked by a reporter as to what he thought of them, and he replied: “I saw them before you were born. I first came here in 1900. “To the question: “Do they look the same?” he replied: “Well the principle seems the same. The water still keeps falling over.”
On August 15, Churchill returned after his preliminary talks with Roosevelt. He and King chatted about the talks and Churchill said that the president and Cordell Hull were determined not to use the word “recognition” regarding the Free French.
On August 17, President Roosevelt arrived in Quebec City, and King met him at the train station. Roosevelt told him of his recent fishing holiday in Little Current, on Manitoulin Island, in Ontario, and how much he had enjoyed it.
The following day the Canadian Government hosted a dinner at the Citadel. King spoke of the appreciation that Quebec City had been chosen for the conference. He also spoke of the meeting with Roosevelt at Ogdensburg three years before where the Permanent Joint Board of Defence had been established stating that it was a wider measure for defence between the British Empire and the United States. In responding, Roosevelt, in a lighter vein, said that he was an undergraduate at Harvard when King was getting a Ph. D there. They were soon to add the third member to this connection – on September 6, 1943, Winston Churchill received an honorary degree.
On August 19, the first plenary session of the conference was held. The major matter agreed upon was that Operation Overlord, the invasion of Northern France, would take place on May 1, 1944.
While the leaders were looking ahead to the invasion of the northern coast of France, they received the very welcome news that the whole of Sicily was under Allied control. The operation had taken just thirty-eight days.
Discussions were acrimonious at times, with the matter of recognition of the Free French being one area of disagreement. Along with the heated exchanges, one incident occurred that in a strange fashion brought some levity into the proceedings. Louis Mountbatten, head of combined operations, received permission to demonstrate a new product called Pykrete, a mixture of sawdust, wood pulp, and ice, which he proposed be utilized to build artificial islands, for the use of fighter planes in the upcoming Normandy invasion. Mountbatten brought into the conference room a large block of ice and a large block of Pykrete and announced that he was going to demonstrate their different defensive qualities. He took a revolver out of his pocket and fired into the ice, which just splintered. Then he shot into the Pykrete, and the bullet ricocheted off and buzzed around the legs of the assembled chiefs of staff. In his book, Masters and Commanders, Andrew Roberts wrote, “When the shots were heard outside the room, one of the staff officers who had left at the start of the meeting explained: ‘Good Heavens, they’ve started shooting now!’ “Churchill also described the scene in his memoirs, stating that the bullet ricocheted, narrowly missed Portal (Air Chief Marshall). After quoting the staff officer, he wrote, “but who in war will not have his laugh amid the skulls? – and here was one.” Incidentally, Pykrete was not utilized in the war.
While this reads as an amusing incident, there is no evidence that Churchill saw this as evidence of the irresponsibility of Mountbatten (whom many considered had been promoted above his level of competence), and that the recent decision to promote him to be the supreme commander of the newly formed Southeast Asia Command, should be reconsidered.
Besides the important decisions that had to be made at the conference, there were days allotted for leisure. Churchill went fishing at the Lac des Neiges, and he sent some trout to the Governor General, The Earl of Athlone, who sent a letter of thanks that they were “quite delicious.”
On the final day, August 31 Churchill broadcast from the Citadel. He commenced, “Here at the gateway of Canada, in mighty lands which had never known the totalitarian tyrannies of Hitler and Mussolini, the spirit of freedom has found a safe and abiding home.” He continued recognizing that he was in the 8
heart of French Canada and that he had never wavered in his belief of the greatness of France, and that: “we can be sure that France will rise again free, united and independent.”
While Churchill was often remiss in not recognizing Canada’s contribution in the war, when he was in the country, he made sure that there would be no criticism in that regard. “The contribution which Canada has made to the combined effort of the British Commonwealth and Empire in these tremendous times has deeply touched the heart of the Mother Country, and of all the members of our widespread family of States and races. He went on to talk of the success of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Canadian merchant navy guarding the “vital life-line” across the Atlantic Ocean, and the most important part played by the munitions industry. And: “Last but not least, Canada has relieved Great Britain of what would otherwise have been a debt for these munitions of no less than $2,000,000. All this, of course, was dictated by no law. It came from no treaty or formal obligation. It sprang in perfect freedom from sentiment and tradition and a generous resolve to serve the future of mankind. I am glad to pay my tribute on behalf of the people of Great Britain to the great Dominion and to do it from Canadian soil.”
The Churchills were leaving that day and King saw them off at the train station. The Canadian Prime Minister called for three cheers from the crowd. Churchill responded: “God Bless You All.”
(The next issue will include details of Churchill’s 7th visit, to the Octagon Conference in Quebec City in September 1944).
We welcome your suggestions/comments - please e-mail, Terry Reardon, Editor at reardont@rogers.com.