With the Battle of Britain Imminent, Winston Churchill Strongly Opposes Evacuating the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to Canada

A remarkable set of 2 manuscripts bearing the handwriting of both Churchill and his predecessor Neville Chamberlain

 

Two memos from June 1940 retained for posterity by Churchill’s private secretary John Colville, affixed by him in a form of journal entry, with Colville’s handwritten explanations

On evacuation:

Evacuation of children in Britain from the cities to the countryside started in September 1939, in the wake of seeing the German bombing of Poland. In the spring and summer of 1940, with the threat of German invasion in the air, the British government began evacuating children to dominion countries such as Canada and Australia. Moreover, some of the wealthy and influential British families began privately evacuating their children to the USA and Canada. The result was an impression of grave social injustice. When the Conservative MP Henry “Chips” Channon delivered his son Paul for overseas evacuation, he recalled that “there was a queue of Rolls-Royces and liveried servants, and mountains of trunks. It seemed that everyone we knew was there.” Those sent overseas at their parents’ expense included children with the surnames Mountbatten, Bowes-Lyon (the Queen’s maiden name), Sitwell and Guinness, families high in the upper echelons of British society. One atypical evacuee, Jessica Mann, the daughter of German Jewish refugees whose parents were determined to ensure her safety, recalled hearing children who fled the UK called “horrid little cowards who ran away”. In the end, about 13,000 were evacuated abroad.

Churchill’s private secretary at this time was John Colville, whose diaries, now in the Churchill Papers at Cambridge, form a prime resource for the times.

Despite the opprobrium, there were a lot of people, at that moment of danger, who felt that the Royal Family should be sent to Canada for safety sake, or at least the young princesses (Elizabeth, the present Queen, and Margaret Rose). We learn from this memo that one of these was the Lord President, Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain, who had been Prime Minister and was a friend of the King, was concerned for his family.

Autograph note, in the hand of Chamberlain: “The King and Queen have asked me to see them this afternoon. Could I have 2 minutes with the Cabinet alone to raise points which I think they will wish to talk?” Churchill has slashed an energetic red line across the paper indicating his refusal. Colville has notated Chamberlain proposed subject and Churchill’s response: “The points which the Lord president wishes to discuss with the War Cabinet alone were the proposals to evacuate the Princesses to Canada. This the Prime Minister, who has ticked this note in red pencil, strongly opposed and the plan was dropped.” Churchill felt that if the Royal Family left the country, it would be bad for morale, and strongly opposed such a plan. Moreover, he had just given his famous never surrender speech, “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…” Such a man was unlikely to approve of the Royal Family leaving their stations.

In any case, the Queen (later known as the Queen Mother) insulated the Royal Family from public resentment by choosing not to send princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to Canada because, as she said, “The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the king will not leave the country in any circumstances, whatever.”

King George VI refused to leave and stated that he wished to stay, fight and “get my German”, prompting Winston Churchill to lend his own personal Tommy gun to the Royal Family. The 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret, ten, alongside the Queen Mother, were given shooting lessons in the grounds of Buckingham Palace to ready them in the event of a raid by Nazi parachutists. The Queen Mother said that if the Germans came, armed with her gun, she would take some Nazis with her. The King and Queen remained at Buckingham Palace throughout the war. They sent their daughters to Windsor Castle part of the time, hoping it would be safer. Buckingham Palace suffered nine direct hits. And the King and Queen did not hide in the Palace; they toured many of the areas that had suffered from heavy bombing. They showed the people of London that they cared for them. And in October 1940, Princess Elizabeth gave her first speech – to the children of Britain. “Before I finish I can truthfully say to you all that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage. We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, everyone of us, that in the end all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place. My sister is by my side and we are both going to say goodnight to you.”

On enemy aliens:

Upon the declaration of war on September 3, 1939, some 70,000 UK resident Germans and Austrians became classed as enemy aliens. By September 28, the Aliens Department of the Home Office had set up internment tribunals throughout the country headed by government officials and local representatives, to examine every UK registered enemy alien over the age of 16. The object was to divide the aliens into three categories: Category A, to be interned; Category B, to be exempt from internment but subject to the restrictions decreed by a Special Order; and Category C, to be exempt from both internment and restrictions. Some 120 tribunals were established to examine the detainees. By February 1940 nearly all the tribunals had completed their work assessing some 73,000 cases. The vast majority (66,000) of enemy aliens being classed as Category C and let go. Most, but by no means all, of the 55,000 Jewish refugees who had come to the UK to escape Nazi persecution in the early and mid 1930s found themselves in Category C. Some 6,700 people were classified as Category B and 569 as A. Those classified in Category A were interned in camps being set up across the UK.

In May 1940, the German blitzkrieg exploded over Europe and the Germans conquered the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway. France was invaded and struggling to survive. On June 10, Italy declared war on Britain, and Italians resident in Britain were also considered for internment. Some 4,000 resident Italians who were known to be members of the Italian Fascist Party and others aged between 16 and 70 who had lived in the UK for fewer than 20 years, were ordered to be imprisoned. Then, on June 25, France fell and it seemed clear that Britain would soon be invaded. This led to a fifth column scare, that enemy aliens would endanger Britain’s already precarious position by spying and reporting important information to the Axis. Even anti-fascists and Jews were not exempt, as it was feared that spies or saboteurs would be placed among those groups, endangering Britain from that quarter. The internment of 27,000 “enemy aliens”, principally German, Austrian and Italian, occurred at the height of this fifth column scare. Even Winston Churchill, at this time Prime Minister for about a month, was not immune, and is reported as having said of the enemy aliens, “Collar the lot.”

But by August 1940, with the risk of invasion reduced, it had become clear that most of the interned refugees were no threat. When one internment camp officer discovered that most of his charges were Jewish, he reported: “Dammit – we’d got the wrong lot.” The British government soon began vetting the internees and releases started in the fall; 10,000 had been freed by the end of 1940, leaving some 19,000 still interned in camps in Britain, Canada and Australia. By March 1941, 12,500 internees had been released, rising to over 17,500 in August and by 1942 fewer than 5,000 remained interned.

The second of these memos, affixed to the other side, the content of which proclaims its date as June 1940, shows Churchill’s interest in a strict internment policy, while wanting to avoid the War Cabinet’s having to be constantly involved at every level when there was a war to run. At this time, Churchill was of course Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain was Lord President, the Home Secretary (whose department was in charge of the interment program) was Sir John Anderson, and Labor MP Arthur Greenwood was Minister Without Portfolio.

Manuscript, June 1940, in the hand of Churchill. Churchill writes in ink, “How would it be to ask M. without Portfolio to confer with Home Sec. with a view to greater stringency?”, and this is followed by Neville Chamberlain’s reply in pencil, “Yes, if that will enable us to stop the H.S. [Home Secretary] talking any more about it here”. Colville has affixed this to a notepaper sheet with blue ink comment on the side, saying “The Cabinet were rushed by public opinion into interning all enemy aliens, a policy they subsequently regretted. Sir John Anderson’s plea for proceeding gradually was overruled. The Minister without Portfolio was Mr. Greenwood, the Home Secretary Sir John Anderson. Question by the Prime Minister, reply by the Lord President [Neville Chamberlain]”. This memo makes it clear that the Cabinet felt pressed by public opinion, to an uncomfortable extent, yet felt the need to go along. The suggestion to move slower was rejected. Yet in time this internment policy was regretted, explaining how by the end of 1940 it had been reversed.

Churchill at War: in June 1940

Here we have two important mementos of Churchill’s first months in office. There is the refusal to consider sending the Royal Family overseas lest it harm morale; and the note on enemy aliens with the very rare combination of handwritings of Churchill and Chamberlain. Both are fully annotated in Colville’s hand. Truly extraordinary and rare remembrances of Churchill in World War II.