>From Anthony Cave Brown's *'C' The Secret Life of Sir Stewart Menzies*(Macmillan, New York, 1987, page 398)
Aware of the discontent, Churchill visited Station X to encourage the staff, accompanied by "C," who kept well in the background. Churchill toured the entire project and appeared to be greatly impressed by what he saw and the high spirits he encountered; he described all and sundry as "the geese who lay the golden eggs and never cackled." At the end of the visit he gave a short address to a large number of Bletchleyites, using the bole of a demolished tree as a platform. He is supposed to have referred admiringly to the "conditions of creative anarchy" that he had encountered and remarked to "C" that "I know I told you to leave no stone unturned to find the necessary staff, but I didn't mean you to take me so literally." [9] The [9] gives the primary source as Ronald Lewin's *Ultra *book (which regrettably I do not have) but the attribution differs from the one in OB VI, page 612, note 2, viz. Ronald Lewin, *Ultra Goes to War *(London, Hutchinson, 1971). p. 184 The date of WSC's visit is confirmed in Malcolm Kennedy's diary entry for 6 September 1941, viz. The PM paid us a surprise visit this morning and after inspecting some of the work of BP gave a short talk thanking us for what we have done and stressing the great value of our work. Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord, paid a similar visit of thanks at the time of the Bismarck show. Very decent of these old boys to come down in person to thank us when they themselves must be terribly loaded down with their own work and vast responsibilities. Instructions issued to keep Churchill's visit a secret, but all Bletchlev seems to know about it. Malcolm Smith *Station X* (Channel 4 Books, 2000, page 78) Malcolm Kennedy, specialising in diplomatic codes, was one of the first recruits to BP, and was one of the few to keep a diary. Jim Lancaster -- Jim Lancaster j...@jrlancaster.com 00 33 2 33 43 52 48 (France) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to churchillc...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to churchillchat+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
