Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-11-14 | Page 6 | Churchill

CHURCHILL. . ' , Jt is regrettable that the narrowest ' partisan politicb should force Winston Spencer Churchill out of the cabinet. In the world at 'large the merits and i ' defects of Churchill- are fairly weighed, : - and the balance on the side of merit i i considerable. It is possible that m Client Britain the offensive side of his personality is more apparent and causes i j more resentment than elsewhere, but it .' is patent that the tories have made j . him a particular target for their poison t darts. He has not been accorded jus-I jus-I j tice, and as he himself remarks in his ' h-tter of resignation, time will vindi-i vindi-i I cute his acts while a member of the i war cabinet. i Churchill has a dramatic, strenuous i ! and extremely vital personality. These I qualities give hint immense force, but ' ' arouse bitter antagonism. It is to be , ' expected that such a character will be 1 1 daring and therefore run great risks. ' This is evidenced by the Dardanelles ' i fiasco, lor which he is held largely re- i sponsible. The attempt to break ' ! i . through by the sheer force of a naval i ! bombardment was laughable, and at the I same time pitiful, even to a layman. It revealed the boldness and the erraucy II of Churchill's character and afforded i his enemies a splendid opportunity to wreck his career as a statesman. I ; I liurchill, however, performed one ! ! brilliant service for bis country which i ' outweighs all his errors. Just before : the war began the English navy was mobilized in all its force off Spithead. Whether this naval review was planned as the result of a foresight that looked I far into the future and saw the clouds ! ' of tear ou the horizon is not certain, ' but the fact remains that the first lord I of the admiralty saw far enough into 1 ' the future to keep the fleet mobilized 1 , after the review had ended. This was iu the last days of July, and Great . - Britaiu declared war on Germany on '. August 1. The English fleet was ready; the German fleet was not. The English , fleet was able to take immediate com- ; tnand of the sea, and the German fleet was forced to remain shut up iu the Kiel canal or the Baltic. Great Britain . i has maintained this command until now. ' .It has euabled her to seize the German colonies, to drive the German raiders from the seas, to seud more than a million mil-lion troops abroad and to supply them, ' to .afford a stupendous amount of aid to her allies and to protect her immense commerce throughout the world. Preparedness Pre-paredness obtained these results, and Churchill is to be given most of the ; i credit for this preparedness. As a strategist and tactician, naval or military, mili-tary, he was weak and at times absurd, ab-surd, as is sufficiently proved by his side-splitting, comic-opera attempt to relieve Antwerp and the naval breakdown break-down at the Dardanelles.' But both failures are mere incidents of a great war. The command of the seas gave I " the allies a victory such as even Ger-I Ger-I many has not obtained upon land. It is half the war. It is the only thing that has saved the allies from annihilation annihila-tion and it is the one thing that gives them hope of ultimate triumph. Churchill is not only dramatic and I dariug he is ambitious, but his tal- I , ents make his ambition not unworthy. j For a time he will serve as a minor officer of-ficer with the army at the front, but J . when the war ends he will, if he sur-! sur-! vives. undoubtedly serve his country once more in the hisiest offices.