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CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to Eliot Crawshay-Williams, 10 Downing St., 28 June 1940, one page, 8vo; with a letter to Churchill by Crawshay Williams, 27 June 1940. Provenance: Sotheby's, 14 December 1992, lot 37.
'I AM ASHAMED OF YOU FOR WRITING SUCH A LETTER' -- A RIPOSTE TO DEFEATISM. A former assistant private secretary to Churchill, Crawshay-Williams had written a letter cravenly pleading with the prime minister to make terms with Hitler -- 'I'm all for winning this war if it can be done ... But it does seem to me, and, I know, to others, that "if and when" an informed view of the situation shows that we've really not got a practical chance of actual ultimate victory, no question of prestige should stand in the way of our using our nuisance value while we have one to get the best peace terms possible. Otherwise, after losing many lives and much money, we shall merely find ourselves in the position of France -- or worse. I hope this doesn't sound defeatist; I'm not that. Only realist'. Churchill's response is brief and brutal: 'I am ashamed of you for writing such a letter. I return it to you -- to burn & forget'.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
'I AM ASHAMED OF YOU FOR WRITING SUCH A LETTER' -- A RIPOSTE TO DEFEATISM. A former assistant private secretary to Churchill, Crawshay-Williams had written a letter cravenly pleading with the prime minister to make terms with Hitler -- 'I'm all for winning this war if it can be done ... But it does seem to me, and, I know, to others, that "if and when" an informed view of the situation shows that we've really not got a practical chance of actual ultimate victory, no question of prestige should stand in the way of our using our nuisance value while we have one to get the best peace terms possible. Otherwise, after losing many lives and much money, we shall merely find ourselves in the position of France -- or worse. I hope this doesn't sound defeatist; I'm not that. Only realist'. Churchill's response is brief and brutal: 'I am ashamed of you for writing such a letter. I return it to you -- to burn & forget'.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
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