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*Churchill - Disclosed

Published by Campbell M Gold in Revisionist · Saturday 24 Feb 2024
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Churchill Disclosed

This material, filled with sensitive and controversial content, is presented here not to influence your opinions but to ignite your academic curiosity. The information and interpretations herein do not reflect any opinion of this editor or our clients. Instead, they invite you to delve into a contentious but crucial re-evaluation.

The following material is presented for academic interest and to stimulate converging thoughts as the first half of the 20th century is objectively reassessed...

For balance, visit winstonchurchill.org

Introduction

Sir Winston Churchill (30 Nov 1874 – 24 Jan 1965) was a British statesman, army officer, and prolific writer. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, leading the country during WWII and 1951 to 1955.

Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament from 1900 to 1964 and represented five constituencies.

Ideologically, Churchill was an imperialist and an economic liberal. For most of his career, he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. Additionally, he was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Churchill is connected to the royal family by Lady Cynthia Elinor Beatrix Hamilton (1892-1972), the daughter of the 3rd Duke of Abercorn, marrying Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer (1892-1975). The wedding occurred at St. James's Church in London on 26 Feb 1919.

Consequently, Churchill's family—the Spencer family—possess an elite bloodline through descendants from the royal house of Stewart/Stuart, which ruled in Scotland from the late 14th century and in all of Britain from 1603 to 1714.

It's no surprise that Churchill, the "monarchist" and "consummate imperialist," displayed aristocratic arrogance and implicitly believed in the innate right of his class to "invade and conquer, subjugate, rule, and reign with complete and unrestricted impunity."

His tenacious allegiance to and unconditional belief in the firm but benevolent ministrations of the empire and monarchy further confirmed this.

He viewed British imperialism as a form of altruism that benefited the people who were conquered and ruled. By dominating and ruling other peoples, the British protected, elevated, and civilised them. In his view, it was more than just imperialism; it was a form of religion.

Churchill believed in racial hierarchies. He thought that white Protestant Christians were at the top, followed by white Catholics. He also believed that Indians were superior to Africans. Additionally, he saw himself and Britain as winners in a Social Darwinian Hierarchy. Churchill fervently believed in racial hierarchies and eugenics.

(Churchill: The End of Glory, by John Charmley)

Be careful what you say. In Apr 2014, Labour candidate Benjamin Whittingham tweeted that Churchill was "a racist and white supremacist." Sir Nicholas Soames, Churchill's grandson, was outraged, and Whittingham's Conservative opponent Ben Wallace labelled the comments "ignorant" and "incredibly insulting." The tweet was deleted.

Churchill's Words

Hitler

"You must understand that this war is not against Hitler or National Socialism," Churchill is quoted as saying, "but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless of whether it is in the hands of Hitler or a Jesuit priest."

(Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace, by Emrys Hughes)

"One may dislike Hitler's system and yet admire his patriotic achievement. If our country were defeated, I hope we should find a champion as admirable to restore our courage and lead us back to our place among the nations."

(From his Great Contemporaries, 1937)

Jews

The Jewish holocaust was also part of the plan to justify the creation of the Masonic "Jewish" state. Bernard Wasserstein writes, "During the first two years of the war, when the German authorities bent their efforts to securing the exodus of the Jews from the Reich and from Nazi-occupied territory, it was the British Government which took the lead in barring the escape routes from Europe against Jewish refugees."

(Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945)

Race

"It is alarming and nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the east, striding half-naked up the steps of the viceregal palace while he is still organising and conducting a campaign of civil disobedience, to parlay on equal terms with the representative of the Emperor-King

(Commenting on Gandhi's meeting with the Viceroy of India, 1931)

"[India is] a godless land of snobs and bores."

(In a letter to his mother, 1896)

"I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

(Speaking to the Palestine Royal Commission, 1937)

Poland

"You are callous people who want to wreck Europe - you do not care about the future of Europe; you have only your own miserable interests in mind."

(Addressing the London Polish Government at a British Embassy meeting, Oct 1944)

Russia

"(We must rally against) a poisoned Russia, an infected Russia of armed hordes not only smiting with bayonet and cannon but accompanied and preceded by swarms of typhus-bearing vermin."

(Quoted in the Boston Review, Apr/May 2001)

"So far as Britain and Russia were concerned, how would it do for you to have 90% of Romania, for us to have 90% of the say in Greece, and go 50/50 about Yugoslavia?"

(Addressing Stalin in Moscow, Oct 1944)

Irish Spectre

"The choice was clearly open: crush them with vain and unstinted force or try to give them what they want. These were the only alternatives, and most people were unprepared for either. Here indeed was the Irish spectre - horrid and inexorcisable."

(Writing in The World Crisis and the Aftermath, 1923-1931)

Gassing Lower Races

"I cannot understand this squeamishness about the use of gas; I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. … The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effect on most of those affected."

(Writing as president of the Air Council, 1919)

Sterilise The Mentally Ill

"The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes, coupled as it is with a steady restriction among all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks, constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate... I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed."

(Churchill to Asquith, 1910)

The Anti-Semite

"This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States) ... this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire."

(Writing on "Zionism versus Bolshevism", in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 1920)

What Others Say

Bengal famine

In 1943, India, then still a British possession, experienced a disastrous famine in the northeastern region of Bengal - sparked by the Japanese occupation of Burma the year before.

At least three million people are believed to have died - and Churchill's actions, or lack thereof, have been the subject of serious criticism.

Madhusree Mukerjee, author of Churchill's Secret War, has said that despite refusing to meet India's need for wheat, he insisted that it exported rice to fuel the war effort.

"[The War Cabinet] ordered the build-up of a stockpile of wheat for feeding European civilians after they had been liberated. So, 170,000 tons of Australian wheat bypassed starving India - destined not for consumption but for storage," Mukherjee said upon release of the book in 2010.

Churchill even appeared to blame the Indians for the famine, claiming they "breed like rabbits".

"It's one of the worst blots on his record," says Toye. "It clearly is the case that it was difficult for people to get him to take the issue seriously."

"Churchill viewed it as a distraction," he explains. Preoccupied with battling Germany in Europe, Churchill didn't want to be bothered by it when people raised the issue.

"We have this image of Churchill being far-sighted and prophetic," says Charmley. "But what he does tragically in the case of the Bengal famine is show absolutely zero advance [since] the Irish famine 100 years earlier."

It was a horrendous event, but it needs to be seen within the context of global war, says Packwood.

"Churchill is running a global war at this point, and there are always going to be conflicting priorities and demands," says Packwood. "It's an incredibly complex and evolving situation - and he's not always going to get everything right."

Arthur Herman, author of Gandhi & Churchill, argued that the famine would have been worse without Churchill. Once he was fully aware of the famine's extent, "Churchill and his cabinet sought every way to alleviate the suffering without undermining the war effort", Herman wrote.

Toye claims it was a failure of prioritisation. While Britain's resources were stretched, it's no excuse given the relatively small effort it would have taken to alleviate the problem.

Gandhi

Churchill said of Gandhi: "A seditious lawyer, posing as a fakir."

Churchill had strong views on Gandhi, "It is alarming and nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir… striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal Palace," Churchill said of Gandhi in 1931.

"Gandhi should not be released on the account of a mere threat of fasting," Churchill told the cabinet on another occasion. "We should be rid of a bad man and an enemy of the Empire if he died."

It's not politically correct or woke to question Gandhi's non-violent political tactics today. In the UK, he is revered much like Churchill. However, he threatened Churchill's vision for the British Empire for years.

"He [Churchill] put himself at the head of a movement of irreconcilable imperialist romantics," wrote Boris Johnson in his biography of Churchill. "Die-hard defenders of the Raj and of the God-given right of every pink-jowled Englishman to sit on his veranda and… glory in the possession of India."

"Churchill was very much on the far right of British politics over India," says Charmley. "Even to most Conservatives, let alone Liberals and Labour, Churchill's views on India between 1929 and 1939 were quite abhorrent."

He was vociferous in his opposition to Gandhi, says Toye, and didn't want India to make any moves towards self-government to the extent of opposing his own party's leaders and being generally quite hostile to Hinduism.

Churchill's stance was very much that of a late Victorian imperialist, Charmley adds. "[Churchill] was terribly alarmed that giving the Indians home rule was going to lead to the downfall of the British Empire and the end of civilisation."

Younger Tories like Anthony Eden regarded Churchill with great mistrust during the 1930s because of his association with hard-line right-wingers in the party, says Charmley.

"People sometimes question why on Earth did people not listen to Churchill's warnings about Hitler in the late 1930s," says Charmley, "to which the short answer is that he'd used exactly the same language about Gandhi in the early 1930s."

Jews

In 2012, there were objections to a proposed Churchill Centre in Jerusalem on the basis that he was "no stranger to the latent anti-Semitism of his generation and class.

Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, countered that "he [Churchill] was familiar with the Zionist ideal and supported the idea of a Jewish state".

But being anti-Semitic and a Zionist are not incompatible, says Charmley.

"Churchill, with no doubt at all, was a fervent Zionist," he says, "a fervent believer in the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own and that state should be in what we then called Palestine."

But he also "shared the low-level casual anti-Semitism of his class and kind," Charmley continued. If we judged every one of that era by the standards of 21st-century political correctness, they'd all be guilty. "It shouldn't blind us to the bigger picture."

A 1937 unpublished article - allegedly by Churchill - entitled "How the Jews Can Combat Persecution" was discovered in 2007. "It may be that, unwittingly, they are inviting persecution - that they have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer," it said. "There is the feeling that the Jew is an incorrigible alien, that his first loyalty will always be towards his own race."

But there was immediately a row over the article, with Churchill historians pointing out that journalist Adam Marshall Diston wrote it and that it might not have accurately represented Churchill's views.

"Casual anti-Semitism was rampant," agrees Dockter, "[but] it's inconceivable to pitch him [Churchill] as anti-Semitic."

In a 1920 article, Churchill wrote: "Some people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world."

The key here is for you to research for yourself, and thereby draw you own conclusions.

Islam

Paul Weston, chairman of the Liberty GB party, was arrested last year (2014) on suspicion of racial harassment after reading aloud some of Churchill's thoughts on Islam.

Weston was quoting from Churchill's 1899 book The River War, in which he wrote: "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia [rabies] in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

"Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live."

Snippets of these quotes accompany Churchill's face in numerous internet memes, showing his anti-Islam stance.

"That was probably the most common view shared by British people of Churchill's era, and I've no doubt that he believed exactly that," says Charmley.

But Churchill's stance on Islam was much more nuanced, Dockter says. The 1899 book was written specifically to reference the Mahdists of Sudan immediately following Churchill's battle there.

Conversely, it was recently revealed that Churchill was sufficiently fascinated with Islam for his family to be concerned at one point that he might even convert.

In 1940, his cabinet set aside £100,000 for the construction of a mosque in London in recognition of the Indian Muslims who fought for the British Empire. He later told the House of Commons, "Many of our friends in Muslim countries all over the East have already expressed great appreciation of this gift."

"His relationship with Islam is far more complex than most people realise," Dockter suggests, noting that Churchill went on holiday to Istanbul and played polo in India with Muslims.

The key here is for you to research for yourself, and thereby draw you own conclusions.

Treatment of Strikers

Tonypandy Riots

Churchill's reputation as being anti-union primarily stems from the Welsh Tonypandy Riots in 1910. His handling of these riots caused much controversy and invited ill feelings toward him in South Wales for the rest of his life.

His grandson had to defend Churchill's actions as late as 1978, when UK Prime Minister James Callaghan referenced "the vendetta of your family against the miners of Tonypandy".

The riots erupted in Nov 1910 in a South Wales town because of a dispute between workers and the mine owners. It all escalated into strikes that lasted almost a year.

When the strikers clashed with local police, Churchill - then home secretary - sent in soldiers.

Allegations that the soldiers fired shots were unfounded, explains Toye. He'd [Churchill] sent a memo expressly denying that the use of violence was a possibility.

Louise Miskell, a historian at Swansea University, told the BBC in Mar 2014, "It made him [Churchill] a 'pantomime villain' in the area ever since."

Charmley suggests that the Tonypandy Incident resembles Margaret Thatcher's later struggles with miners. He says one could argue that the situation could have been much worse had Churchill not moved in troops, and he would have been criticised even more.

Liverpool Riots

But a year later, soldiers were again called in, this time to strike-related riots in Liverpool. On this occasion, the soldiers opened fire, and two people were killed.

And in later years, his contempt for unions became more pronounced, says Charmley.

Glasgow Riots

In 1919, under Churchill, Secretary of State for Air and War, tanks and an estimated 10,000 troops were deployed to Glasgow during widespread strikes and civil unrest amid fear of a Bolshevist revolt.

Social reform

In his biography, Boris Johnson promotes the more liberal side of Churchill as the "begetter of some of the most progressive legislation for 200 years."

Packwood says:"Together with [former PM David] Lloyd George, he (Churchill) deserves the title of Founder of the Welfare State." And adds further, that Churchill supported quite radical social reform, but it was more in the form of Victorian paternalism. He was a die-hard opponent of communism who saw its hand behind the Labour movement during the 1920s. "For someone who has this terrible reputation with the unions," says Packwood, "he actually goes on to run two very conciliatory governments."

Sidney Street Siege

Not long after the Tonypandy Riots, Nov 1910, Churchill was under fire for rash involvement of a different sort.

The Sidney Street Siege was a gunfight in London's East End in Jan 1911. Some 200 police surrounded the hideout of a gang of Latvian Anarchists led by "Peter the Painter", who had killed three policemen in Dec 1910.

The long gun battle ended with the deaths of two of the gang after Churchill had ordered firefighters not to put out the burning building they'd been hiding in until the shooting had stopped.

But the controversy for Churchill arose from the appearance that he'd been "issuing orders" and "directly meddling" in police operations. Arthur Balfour told the Commons: "He (Churchill) and a photographer were both risking valuable lives. I understand what the photographer was doing, but what was the right honourable gentleman doing?"

According to Toye, Churchill's opponents saw it as an example of rashness and instability. A newsreel film caught him amid the action.

Charmley said that a contemporary wrote in a letter that, "I do believe that Winston takes no interest in political affairs unless they involve the chance of bloodshed."

"Churchill liked a photo opportunity before the word had been invented," says Charmley.

Ireland

In January 1919, Churchill assumed the office of Secretary of State for War and Air. Eleven days later, the Irish War of Independence began.

Churchill's role in Ireland is most associated with deploying the controversial "Black and Tans" to fight the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Named after their uniforms, these temporary constables soon developed a reputation for excessive violence.

In Churchill: The Greatest Briton Unmasked, Nigel Knight claims that Churchill repeatedly refused to stand down the Black and Tans and even advocated the use of air power in Ireland.

But it would be unfair to label Churchill as anti-Irish, says Toye.

Toye explains - Although Churchill was against home rule for Ireland and initially implemented harsh repression, he was also an early advocate of partition. Churchill played a vital role in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which ended the war.

"It comes back to his character, which is: 'In war, resolution, in peace, magnanimity'," says Packwood. "When he felt that there was a fight he would push very hard [and] when he thought there was a chance of peace and dialogue he was also at the forefront of that."

Churchill had expressed support for Irish home rule as early as 1912.

Toye adds that he also recognised the role that Irish personnel serving in the British armed forces played in both WWI and later WW2.

Cash for Influence

"In return for a fee of £5,000, two oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell and Burmah Anglo-Persian Oil Company [later BP], asked him to represent them in their application to the government for a merger," Gilbert's official biography stated.

By modern British political standards, the 1923 payment would be considered "highly inappropriate."

According to a History of British Petroleum, Churchill, whose "political career was in the doldrums" at the time, agreed to use his parliamentary influence to raise the issue of the merger in return for money.

"But I'd be careful about calling it a bribe," Toye says. "He accepted all sorts of gifts, which in today's culture of full disclosure would get you expelled from the Commons. But those rules were not in place at the time."

The Register of Members' Interests was introduced in 1975. "You can argue that it was a conflict of interest, you can even argue that it was wrong, but you can't call it a bribe in the sense that it was actually illegal," Toye says.

"Politicians' links with business and the media weren't under the same level of scrutiny as they are now," says Packwood, "he was operating in a different ethical environment."

For balance, visit winstonchurchill.org

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