382 J.-A. PEMBERTON
the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the
British Empire. For that task, if ever it were prescribed, someone else
would have to be found’.^120 Churchill’s Mansion House speech had
given rise to consternation in the United States, with one American sen-
ator stating that he found it chilling. How could he suggest to young
American men, the same senator asked, that they were being sent to war
to restore the British Empire?^121
Perham, mindful of the consternation in the United States to which
Churchill’s speech had given rise, almost immediately penned two arti-
cles for the Times. In those articles, she warned of the danger of America
drawing away from Great Britain in order to distance itself ‘from the
contamination of Imperialism of which Britain is the main exponent’
and of America outflanking Britain in ‘liberalism.’^122 She stated that
there had been signs of the latter danger in recent months, pointing in
this regard to the talks that the American Republican politician Wendell
Wilkie, who had stated that he was shocked by Churchill’s stance in
regard to British colonial policy, had held with ‘the leading men’ in
China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, during which he ‘found them in
substantial agreement as to the necessity of abolishing imperialism.’^123
Perham observed that Churchill’s ‘declaration of. tenacity’ in the face
of growing American criticism, may well have matched ‘a mood of justifi-
able self-confidence,’ but it did not ‘answer American doubts.’^124 Perham
called for leadership on the question, urging the government to under-
take the urgent task of convincing American audiences that Britain was
indeed ‘liquidating’ what the Americans ‘strongly, if somewhat vaguely’
felt to be an ‘obsolete and dangerous’ idea, namely, that of colonial pos-
sessions, both ‘from above by a readiness for international cooperation
and from below by strenuous education in self-government.’^125
(^120) ‘Prime Minister Churchill’s Speech,’ New York Times, November 11, 1942.
(^121) International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations, War and Peace in the Pacific,
121.
(^122) Margery Perham, ‘America and the Empire—An Outline of the British Position:
II—The Need for Definitions,’ Times, November 21, 1942. See also Margery Perham,
‘America and the Empire—The Aftermath of Mr. Wilkie’s Broadcast: I—The Dangers of
Misunderstanding,’ Times, November 20, 1942.
(^123) Times, November 21, 1942.
(^124) Ibid.
(^125) Ibid.