Details
CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to [Arthur] Strong (librarian at the House of Lords), 105 Mount Street, 13 October 1901, three pages, 8vo, bifolium; morocco-backed case. Provenance: Winifred Myers (certificate, 29 September 1948); Sotheby's New York, 26 June 1998, lot 355.
CAN A GOVERNMENT INTERFERE IN MILITARY CAMPAIGNS? Churchill asks the librarian at the House of Lords (a habitual point of reference on constitutional history) to elucidate 'how far ... a Government [is] justified by precedent in interfering ... with generals in the field', asking what instructions Pitt the Elder used to give, 'Can you find me instances of his marked interference when things were not going well[?] I want to show that it is not enough for a government to say, "The matter is in the hands of the military", we can do no more; we are not responsible'.
Army reform was Churchill's first big political cause after his election, and he was to spend much of his efforts in the following 18 months in orchestrating an effective campaign against the secretary for war, St John Brodrick, and his proposals to increase army expenditure.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
CAN A GOVERNMENT INTERFERE IN MILITARY CAMPAIGNS? Churchill asks the librarian at the House of Lords (a habitual point of reference on constitutional history) to elucidate 'how far ... a Government [is] justified by precedent in interfering ... with generals in the field', asking what instructions Pitt the Elder used to give, 'Can you find me instances of his marked interference when things were not going well[?] I want to show that it is not enough for a government to say, "The matter is in the hands of the military", we can do no more; we are not responsible'.
Army reform was Churchill's first big political cause after his election, and he was to spend much of his efforts in the following 18 months in orchestrating an effective campaign against the secretary for war, St John Brodrick, and his proposals to increase army expenditure.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
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