Mr. Churchill

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 193, 5 March 1943, Page 3

Mr. Churchill

T seems safe at last to assume that Mr. Churchill is almost well again and reckless to say more than that. He is sixty-eight years old; he has lived an exhausting life; for four years he has carried a load that would have oppressed any man in his vigorous youth; for four months he had almost the whole future of Givilisation on his shoulders; . three weeks ago he returned from a flight of ten thousand miles; and-we know it now-he has had pneumonia. We can therefore feel easy about him only if we go on taking it for granted that his body is as tough as his mind. So far it has been. Till the war is won we must go on hoping that it will be. But it is neither reasonable nor intelligent nor kind to forget what he has already endured. Strong as he is, he can be broken; worshipped though he is by millions-danger-ously, since no man is_ proof against that-yhe can be confused by incessant and exasperated by senseless earping until his very strength brings him down. Once only in recent history has a man so’ old been able to save his nation and the world; and he was a man so cynical and hard that criticism scarcely touched him. Criticism there must be if. selfgovernment is to survive; but. it should be responsible and _informed, and never while the battle lasts should its aim be ‘to breed mistrust. It is after all not very difficult in normal times to find a leader who deserves a fall. For those who delight in such ‘sport game are plentiful in every democracy and the hounds always ready. But if we have not learnt yet when to leave the hounds chained we deserve to lose the war; and that is another way of saying that we shall ourselves wear the collars and drag the chains. _