Empire Lost - Andrew Stewart [32]
With his preference for the term 'British Empire' as opposed to 'British Commonwealth', his approach to the Dominion idea was entirely consistent with his wider Imperial beliefs. Pre-war he had written a regular column for The Sunday Despatch and in March 1940 an old piece he had written some time before was published. This appeared to detail his views neatly on the Empire:
Then there are the great questions of peace and war. In the main, in these matters the Dominions trust the Mother Country, which lies so close to Central Europe and bears the brunt of Imperial Defence. But still they do not mean to take orders from anyone. They mean to judge for themselves and join in any war of the Empire as volunteers and not pressed men. What then is the new Constitution of the Empire, written and unwritten alike? It is that the self-governing Dominions are in every respect equal partners with Great Britain and that they have the same direct relation to the Crown as we have. We have in fact a seven-fold monarchy, and King George VI is seven constitutional sovereigns rolled into one. Ministers of Great Britain are his advisers in no sense superior to those of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the others. Complete equality of status has been established. If the British Empire holds together it is only because it wants to hold together.4
Such apparently liberal views seemed at odds with some of his previous actions and comments. Despite a second term at the CO, this time as secretary of state, he had opposed the DO's creation from the outset, arguing that Dominion affairs required, at most 'the deliberate and reflective study of two or three selected and experienced officials'.5 He had subsequently gone on to raise serious objections about the Statute of Westminster, 'a clumsy attempt to remove imaginary grievances', which he feared would provide an undesirable precedent for India and Eire.6 In a letter to Lord Linlithgow a few years before the war, Churchill recognized the limits of his approach. 'Of course my ideal is narrow and limited. I want to see the British Empire preserved for a few more generations in its strength and splendour. Only the most prodigious exertions of British genius will achieve this result.'7 For one official within the DO these were 'quaint notions about the Commonwealth' and harked back to an Empire Churchill had known in his youth.8 One of the prime minister's wartime military advisers agreed, noting that he often forgot that his Dominion counterparts 'required handling rather differently ... from the way in which they were handled thirty years before'.9
Personal experience was always critical in terms of how Churchill viewed those around him, and his contact with the Dominions and their leaders had been sparse. South Africa was best placed as he had gained first-hand knowledge of the country and its people from his soldiering days during the Boer War. He had also subsequently developed a good relationship with Jan Smuts which endured to the latter's death and meant that Churchill was perhaps freer with his time and information with his fellow prime minister in Pretoria than with any other Dominion figure.10 The South African was a regular wartime correspondent and an important confidante, but he was not blind to the strengths and limitations that were a feature of his old friend's character. Hence his advice to Waterson that, 'Winston is an actor, an artist, and in this war he is playing his part and no one can stop him.'11 New Zealand was also generally well thought of, although he had never met any of its key politicians prior to the war. Aside from its staunch backing of Britain much of the reason for this can perhaps be put down to his admiration for General Bernard Freyberg who commanded the Dominion's forces. As with Smuts, here was another individual whose exploits during the First World War, when he had been awarded a Victoria Cross, ensured Churchill's lasting respect.12 The fact that he was British by birth might also have had some