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In the "Psalm" format commonly used by Churchill for his reading copies of speeches?And how ill-timed is this new conversion of the government to what I told them three years ago. They could hardly have hit it off worse. In fact, it is the record of misfits. When the world was safe on the morrow of our victory. The government and the admiralty squandered our money on keeping up a vast strength against nothing. Now that danger revives, they are found in the process of casting away the numbers and strength of our forces???An extraordinary rarity, being just the second time we have seen a Churchill speech to Parliament reach the marketplace. We also carried that previous oneThe ministerial post of First Lord of the Admiralty is the civilian head of the Royal Navy. Winston Churchill was appointed to the coveted post in late 1911 and he took it up with great gusto. Churchill adored Navy life aboard the Admiralty yacht Enchantress and after taking office he set out to visit every capital ship and every Royal Navy base in the British Isles. He spent eight months of his first twelve in office aboard the yacht. Churchill was instrumental in reshaping the Royal Navy, with larger more powerful ships and modernizing them from coal to oil. His moves proved instrumental in preparing the Royal Navy for the First World War. He was removed from his post in 1915 over the Gallipoli disaster, for which, though not at blame, he was used as a fall guy.Churchill served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924-1929, when the Conservatives lost office at the 1929 General Election. This began his ?wilderness years?, which lasted until 1939, when he held no cabinet office but was a constant and often much-ridiculed voice crying out about the danger from the Nazis and insisting on preparedness. The period of Churchill?s exile ended when the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. It was now clear that Churchill had been right all along. On the day that the British declared war, Churchill was brought back into government. This would be the second time he would be appointed to the office of First Lord of the Admiralty. Upon hearing the news, the Royal Navy?s Board of the Admiralty sent out a signal to the fleet, ?Winston is back!?Churchill?s identification with the Navy continued. When throughout World War II he corresponded with President Roosevelt, who had been Undersecretary of the Navy for Woodrow Wilson, Churchill always signed himself ?Former Naval Person?.In July 1945 Churchill?s Conservative government was shockingly voted out of office. Now Clement Attlee was prime minister and Churchill was in the opposition. Post-war Britain was in a period of austerity, and the Attlee government sought to cut expenses, particularly those for the military. The war, after all, was over. He cut the Navy budget and also the number of ships in the Royal Navy. For example, there were 801 frigates and destroyers in 1945; in 1950 there were 280. This aroused Churchill?s ire, as he saw the world as unstable and the Soviet Union under Stalin a real threat.On March 8, 1948, the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, John Dugdale, spoke to Parliament. He defended the government policy and promised that some ships taken out of commission would be returned to duty. ?It is my duty today, and my privilege, to speak on behalf of the officers and men of the Royal Navy. I am particularly glad to do this because the Navy has recently been subjected to a great deal of criticism; some of it well-intentioned, some of it malicious, and some of it merely ill-informed. We are told that the Navy today is being fast reduced to nothing, that it is a decaying force. Words such as these are not pleasant for the officers and men of the Royal Navy to hear?men who know they are carrying out an arduous duty, and who do not like to hear fun being made of it.?We are asking this year for a sum of no less than ?153 million. This is a big reduction on last year's Estimate. The p. Seller Inventory # 25201
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