CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965)

CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965)

‘We cannot continue to allow horrible outrages to be perpetuated under our very noses’

 

CHURCHILL WINSTON S.: (1874-1965) British Prime Minister 1940-45, 1951-55. Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1953. An exceptional, lengthy early A.L.S., Winston S. Churchill, five pages, 4to, Bangalore, India, 25^th October [1896], to Algernon West ('My dear Sir Algernon'). Churchill states that he has received a copy of the Nineteenth Century containing West's article and has 'passed a delightful morning reading it', remarking 'The alterations in the arrangement which you made since I had the opportunity of reading the typewritten proof have added improvements where I had thought none were possible. As it now stands the article is the most valuable tribute which his [Churchill's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died prematurely in January 1895] memory has received - and I shall be grateful to you all my life for having been the author. To those who were his friends it must vividly recall old days and associations - while for those for whom the subject has no special interest cannot fail to find your article pleasant reading.' Churchill continues to complain of the delay in news he receives from England, observing 'The Indian papers are the most despicable and worthless productions that can be imagined…..gushing accounts of the Viceroy's tour are the only matter: when the mail does come in there is such a plethora of news that one is tempted to rush through a week's “Times” in a single morning - or at any rate to read the last one first' and further writes of events at home and in Europe, 'It appears to me however that you are having anything but monotonous times in Europe. What with Mr. Gladstone's speech and Lord Rosebery's resignation and the Czar's visit - the newspapers are full of interest…..Perhaps we may be at war with Turkey - or perchance the Armenian question will have been finally settled by the exhaustion of its principle factor - the Armenians. It is a bad thing to prophesy, however. Our course seems to be quite clear. We cannot continue to allow horrible outrages to be perpetuated under our very noses. We cannot interfere ourselves and therefore the only course open is to allow some one else to put a stop to an impossible state of things. And after all - what country has a better right to Constantinople than Russia. The possession of an unfrozen port is the legitimate aspiration of a great people. Few nations - indeed - are so moderate. Turkey has got to go - sooner or later and it is much better that we should avail ourselves of an excellent excuse for evacuating an untenable position - than wait to be ignominiously expelled there from'. The young Churchill turns his attention to other foreign matters, 'So the Egyptian Expedition has terminated successfully and the revenues of the fertile province of Dongola will soon put the reservoir scheme on its legs again. Your party's gloomy anticipations were after all incorrect. I daresay you have seen the way in which we are continually attacked in Truth. Mr. Labouchere now insinuates that it was my influence….that prevented the W.O. from acting. Could anything be so absurd. He has been wrong all through this business and were he conversant with the actual facts, no one would be more sorry than he, for the line he has taken. Of course we are not allowed to say a word, or he would have got plenty of information and evidence. However, it sells his papers. I myself am now a regular subscriber.' With blank integral leaf. A letter of wonderful content. One very small spindle hole to the upper left corner of each page and some very light, extremely minor age wear, VG

 

Sir Algernon West (1832-1921) English civil servant who acted as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister William Gladstone.

 

Churchill had joined the British Army in 1895 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4^th Queen's Own Hussars, accompanying them to India in October 1896. Based at Bangalore, Churchill spent nineteen months in India during which time he joined expeditions to the North West Frontier and Hyderabad. It was whilst in India that Churchill also began a self-education project, reading a range of works from Plato to Darwin and also engrossing himself in the political almanac The Annual Register.