Sir Winston & the Dragons

No secret matter of state was ever so pleasing to Winston Spencer Churchill as the secret he kept to himself all last week. The secret: he was about to be knighted. The Prime Minister told no one about it, but observers of the Churchillian character should have taken warning of untoward events from the vitality of his bearing, his high good humor, and his eagerness for a parliamentary fight.

Dragon's Break. Entering the chamber during a debate on denationalization of truck transport, Churchill heard Acting Opposition Leader Herbert Morrison saying: "There is no hurry about this bill; in fact, it would be a good thing if it were never passed at all." Churchill rose to the fray. Standing with his feet apart, dimpled hands on the dispatch box, his face flushed a winy pink, he said: "The Right Hon. Gentleman is a master of the art of trying to have it all ways at once." His next words were almost lost in the din of angry voices. But Churchill went right on taunting and scoffing the Opposition for having shown so much "quiescence" over denationalization: "They have lashed up their fury, their pretended fury--all false, sham --all rubbish." Around him was uproar. Thrusting his face towards the Opposition benches, Churchill shouted: "Hon. Members opposite cannot do anything but yell. Let them have a really good yell if they want one."

That evening Churchill went off to attend a St. George's Day dinner with the Honorable Artillery Company, oldest serving British regiment. He told the gunners what would happen if St. George (about 300 A.D.) were alive today: "St. George would arrive in Cappadocia accompanied, not by a horse, but by a secretariat. He would be armed, not by a lance, but by several flexible formulas . . . He would propose a conference with the dragon. He would then lend the dragon a lot of money. The maiden's release would be referred to Geneva or New York, the dragon reserving all rights meanwhile."

Returning to the House in white tie and tails, Churchill was all sweetness. "I was hoping we should find ourselves in a friendly atmosphere tonight," he cooed with a wicked twinkle. "Nonsense!" shouted the dragons of Labor, but eventually his good humor spread to them. "Good night!" yelled the Laborites as the Prime Minister waddled out. Churchill turned and blew them a kiss.

The following afternoon Churchill's secret was out. At Windsor Castle, while Mrs. Churchill and Princess Margaret looked on, the 78-year-old Prime Minister knelt before his 27-year-old Queen. Taking the ceremonial sword from her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth II touched Churchill, first on the right shoulder, then on the left, and bade him: "Rise, Sir Winston." Then she shook him warmly by the hand and presented him with the insignia of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.* A higher honor of nobility elevating Churchill to the peerage would have removed him from his beloved House of Commons to the House of Lords.

Ostrich Plumes. Back in 1945, after the Labor election victory, Prime Minister Attlee advised King George VI that Churchill should be awarded any honor he chose to accept. But Churchill begged off, is alleged to have said: "How can I accept the Order of the Garter from my Sovereign when his people have just given me the order of the boot?" Now the rules have been changed: the Garter can be bestowed at Her Majesty's sole pleasure, without the advice of her minister, and Churchill was happy to accept. At Westminster Abbey during the crowning of Queen Elizabeth next month, Sir Winston will be entitled to wear, over his court dress, a black velvet hat with ostrich plume and black heron's feathers, a dark blue velvet mantle lined with white taffeta, and his Garter insignia, and to rank with dukes of the royal blood.

Fellow M.P.s gave him a glowing reception. When a Laborite wondered whether his new title meant he is "on the slippery slope to another place," Sir Winston replied, "If he means that in the parliamentary sense, I can give that assurance."

*A dark blue velvet garter, edged in gold. Legend says that Britain's 14th century Edward III Started the order to rebuke a courtier who leered when a lady of the court dropped her garter. "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Evil to him who evil thinks), the King is reputed to have said. With the garter goes a pendant of St. George on horseback driving his lance into the mouth of the dragon.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.