Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

Staying There:
Mena House, the Summit of Cairo
His wartime travels proved that Churchill was always willing to put up with the
worst of everything, to twist a famous remark; but he’d always settle for luxury.
D A V I D D R U C K M A N
Reenacting Winston and Clementine Churchill’s famous
camel trek to the Pyramids in 1921 (below), David and Lynn
pose with their guides on the very same spot in 2009.
Probably quoting F. E. Smith, his closest friend,
Winston Churchill declared that he was “a man of
simple tastes…quite easily satisfied with the best of
everything.” 1 Thus it was with the choice of the five-star,
then-74-year old Mena House as a home and meeting place
for part of the 23-26 November, 1943 Cairo meeting
between WSC, Roosevelt, and Chiang Kai-shek.
The conference’s primary purposes were to address the
war against Japan and to review staff plans. Stalin did not
attend with Chiang there, either to avoid offending the
Japanese (with whom Russia was not yet at war), or because
of his famous aversion to straying far from the Soviet
Union. Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin in Teheran
shortly thereafter (see “Getting There,” previous pages).
Giza, Egypt is a city of 2.7 million, located just west
of the Nile River, 20 kilometers southwest of Cairo. Its
fame comes from the location of the Giza Plateau: the site
of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the
world, including the ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and
sacred structures, plus the Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of
Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples.
To those who know British and Middle East history, its
eminence also comes from Mena House.
The intention of the four-day meeting, code named
“Sextant,” was chiefly for British and American Chiefs of
Staff to coordinate plans; but as Churchill says they “were
sadly distracted by the Chinese story, which was lengthy,
complicated, and minor. Moreover, as will be seen, the
President, who took an exaggerated view of the Indian-
Chinese sphere, was soon closeted in long conferences with
the Generalissimo.” 2 >>
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Mr. Druckman’s visits to Churchill haunts include South Africa (FH 47),
Gallipoli (FH 90), Lady Randolph’s Brooklyn (FH 129), Schloss
Cecilienhof at Potsdam (FH 132), and Livadia Palace at Yalta (FH 146).
Photographs by the author and Lynn Druckman.
FINEST HOUR 148 / 23