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CHURCHILL, Sir Winston (1874-1965). Autograph letter signed ('W.') to Pamela, Countess of Lytton, Port Lympne, 12 September 1922.
5 pages, 203 x 127mm. Envelope. Provenance: Pamela, Countess of Lytton; and by descent.
Nostalgic thoughts of his first love, and reflections on Irish and Indian independence. Churchill's thoughts are often distracted by memories of Pamela and India, the 'shining scenes where we first met so many years ago'; Pamela's return [as wife of the Governor of Bengal] must feel 'an exile indeed [...] I wish events could have taken another turn [...] What twists fortune takes! When I cast my eye back over the past & see how many many things happening a little differently w[oul]d have been fatal to me so far as public life is concerned, I really wonder how it is one has got through so far at all'. On the domestic political scene, Churchill looks forward to the general election, and the incalculable effect of the millions of newly enfranchised voters. As to the newly-independent Ireland, it 'is going to save itself. They are a proud & gifted race [...] But the pangs will be cruel & long'; he reflects on the recent meeting of the Dail, with 'no oratory & enthusiasm', and concludes that 'responsibility is a wonderful agent'. With India, however, things are different: 'I do not needless to say apply this reasoning to the East. I am sure [...] you will do y[ou]r best to keep the Flag flying & the prestige & authority of the white man undiminished'; the true duty of British government in India is to 'those 300 millions' whose interests would be squandered by 'the chatterboxes' of the independence movement.
Churchill and Pamela had met in Hyderabad in 1898, when he was a subaltern in the Indian army, and she the daughter of Sir Trevor Chichele-Plowden, the Resident in the city. Churchill's reminiscences here are in the midst of one of the most turbulent periods of his life: his mother and two-year old daughter had died the previous year, while Clementine was to give birth to their youngest daughter, Mary, only three days after the present letter; this was also the month in which he purchased Chartwell. On the political front, the November 1922 general election to which he looks forward was to bring catastrophe for Churchill, leaving him, in his famous phrase, 'without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix'. Port Lympne, from which Churchill writes, was the home of Sir Philip Sassoon.
5 pages, 203 x 127mm. Envelope. Provenance: Pamela, Countess of Lytton; and by descent.
Nostalgic thoughts of his first love, and reflections on Irish and Indian independence. Churchill's thoughts are often distracted by memories of Pamela and India, the 'shining scenes where we first met so many years ago'; Pamela's return [as wife of the Governor of Bengal] must feel 'an exile indeed [...] I wish events could have taken another turn [...] What twists fortune takes! When I cast my eye back over the past & see how many many things happening a little differently w[oul]d have been fatal to me so far as public life is concerned, I really wonder how it is one has got through so far at all'. On the domestic political scene, Churchill looks forward to the general election, and the incalculable effect of the millions of newly enfranchised voters. As to the newly-independent Ireland, it 'is going to save itself. They are a proud & gifted race [...] But the pangs will be cruel & long'; he reflects on the recent meeting of the Dail, with 'no oratory & enthusiasm', and concludes that 'responsibility is a wonderful agent'. With India, however, things are different: 'I do not needless to say apply this reasoning to the East. I am sure [...] you will do y[ou]r best to keep the Flag flying & the prestige & authority of the white man undiminished'; the true duty of British government in India is to 'those 300 millions' whose interests would be squandered by 'the chatterboxes' of the independence movement.
Churchill and Pamela had met in Hyderabad in 1898, when he was a subaltern in the Indian army, and she the daughter of Sir Trevor Chichele-Plowden, the Resident in the city. Churchill's reminiscences here are in the midst of one of the most turbulent periods of his life: his mother and two-year old daughter had died the previous year, while Clementine was to give birth to their youngest daughter, Mary, only three days after the present letter; this was also the month in which he purchased Chartwell. On the political front, the November 1922 general election to which he looks forward was to bring catastrophe for Churchill, leaving him, in his famous phrase, 'without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix'. Port Lympne, from which Churchill writes, was the home of Sir Philip Sassoon.
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