![CHURCHILL, Winston S. Draft typescript signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), "The Economic Collapse of Europe," n.d. [ca. 1931]. 13 pages, 4to, EXTENSIVELY CORRECTED IN CHURCHILL'S HAND, slight staining along a few margins, punch hole top left corner.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/NYR/2012_NYR_02572_0179_000(churchill_winston_s_draft_typescript_signed_the_economic_collapse_of_e123318).jpg?w=1)
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. Draft typescript signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), "The Economic Collapse of Europe," n.d. [ca. 1931]. 13 pages, 4to, EXTENSIVELY CORRECTED IN CHURCHILL'S HAND, slight staining along a few margins, punch hole top left corner.
"GERMANY...HAS BEEN TRYING TO ESTABLISH A SPLENDID SCIENTIFIC CAPITALIST CIVILIZATION...NOW THE VERY GROUND TREMBLES BENEATH THEM"
Churchill writes on the eve of a major international conference in London on war debts, and predicts the destruction of the German economy at the hand of a vengeful France. "Modern wars do not end with the peace," he notes. "The victors expect not only what they can carry away in their wagons; they expect prolonged tributes for the whole lifetime of man to be paid by the defeated." The victors expected the vanquished to serve as a "perpetual milch-cow to the victorious nations. It doesn't happen. It won't happen." The Germans resentfully paid their war indemnities to the French by borrowing massive sums from the United States. "Thus, all moved forward to the inevitable hour of reckoning," Churchill writes. "It has come."
Churchill is sympathetic to Germany's plight, but brutally realistic about its fate: "Germany in the last decade has been trying to establish a splendid scientific capitalist civilisation without any capital...Now the very ground trembles beneath them...The French...have neither forgotten nor forgiven what they suffered in the War. They do not mean to let go of Germany. They are not afraid of Germany turning Bolshevik. If Germany cannot or will not pay what has been agreed upon in the revised Treaties, they will put the bailiffs in...they will take and hold by force everything that they can lay their hands upon." He expects the "financial structures of German and Central Europe" to "crash together." They did, and he counsels that "The statesmen meeting in London should endeavor to hold Germany up, if it does not cost too much." They did not, and it cost more in treasure and bloodshed than anyone could have possibly imagined in 1931. A powerful and disturbing analysis of the political and economic crisis that laid the groundwork for the rise of Hitler and the coming of the Second World War.
"GERMANY...HAS BEEN TRYING TO ESTABLISH A SPLENDID SCIENTIFIC CAPITALIST CIVILIZATION...NOW THE VERY GROUND TREMBLES BENEATH THEM"
Churchill writes on the eve of a major international conference in London on war debts, and predicts the destruction of the German economy at the hand of a vengeful France. "Modern wars do not end with the peace," he notes. "The victors expect not only what they can carry away in their wagons; they expect prolonged tributes for the whole lifetime of man to be paid by the defeated." The victors expected the vanquished to serve as a "perpetual milch-cow to the victorious nations. It doesn't happen. It won't happen." The Germans resentfully paid their war indemnities to the French by borrowing massive sums from the United States. "Thus, all moved forward to the inevitable hour of reckoning," Churchill writes. "It has come."
Churchill is sympathetic to Germany's plight, but brutally realistic about its fate: "Germany in the last decade has been trying to establish a splendid scientific capitalist civilisation without any capital...Now the very ground trembles beneath them...The French...have neither forgotten nor forgiven what they suffered in the War. They do not mean to let go of Germany. They are not afraid of Germany turning Bolshevik. If Germany cannot or will not pay what has been agreed upon in the revised Treaties, they will put the bailiffs in...they will take and hold by force everything that they can lay their hands upon." He expects the "financial structures of German and Central Europe" to "crash together." They did, and he counsels that "The statesmen meeting in London should endeavor to hold Germany up, if it does not cost too much." They did not, and it cost more in treasure and bloodshed than anyone could have possibly imagined in 1931. A powerful and disturbing analysis of the political and economic crisis that laid the groundwork for the rise of Hitler and the coming of the Second World War.