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The man who makes no mistakes never makes anything
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Martin Gilbert |
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We are in the midst of dangers so great and increasing, we are the guardians of causes so precious to the world, that we must, as the Bible says, "Lay aside every impediment" and prepare ourselves night and day to be worthy of the Faith that is in us."
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Martin Gilbert |
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There was a middle way between capitalism and socialism. 'I do not want to see impaired the vigour of competition,' Churchill told his Glasgow audience, 'but we can do much to mitigate the consequences of failure. We want to draw a line below which we will not allow persons to live and labour, yet above which they may compete with all the strength of their manhood. We want to have free competition upwards; we decline to allow free competiti..
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Martin Gilbert |
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To be good is noble; to teach others how to be good is nobler, & no trouble.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Maze also recalled how the sight of the Germans had an immediate effect on the villagers. 'Women started to wail, and rushed for home, followed by the men, while the children, torn by curiosity, lagged behind turning to see.' Then the Germans came nearer and firing broke out. 'At once the atmosphere changed--in a few seconds all these civilians were fleeing along the roads while the invasion, creeping up like a tide, steadily gained ground...
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Martin Gilbert |
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The Times correspondent who reported on the battle commented: 'The estimation of Austrian losses is somewhat difficult as many of the fallen were not discovered until the penetrating odour of decomposed humanity disclosed the presence of bodies in wood or unharvested field.
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Martin Gilbert |
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During his speech, Lord Sydenham warned that the Mandate as being presented by Churchill to the League of Nations, 'will undoubtedly, in time, transfer the control of the Holy Land to New York, Berlin, London, Frankfurt and other places. The strings will not be pulled from Palestine; they will be pulled from foreign capitals; and for everything that happens during this transference of power, we shall be responsible.'22 When the vote was tak..
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Martin Gilbert |
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In No-Man's Land near Loos an enormous flowering cherry tree had blossomed with stunning beauty that spring. After the blossoms had fallen a young British officer went out on night patrol and, climbing to the top of the tree, fixed a Union Jack to the trunk. As he was climbing down the tree, the Germans sent up a flare, and the officer was seen. A machine-gunner opened fire and he was hit. His body hung there: the attempts by two British pa..
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Martin Gilbert |
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The war could not be won 'unless we are supported by the great masses of the labouring classes of this country'.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Churchill was in his element; work and a clear plan.
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Martin Gilbert |
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That same week, on distant Lake Nyasa, in central Africa, a British naval officer, Commander E.L. Rhoades, sailed his gunboat, the Gwendolen, with its single 3-pounder gun, across the lake from the British port of Nkata Bay to the tiny German port of Sphinxhaven, thirty miles away. There he opened fire on, and captured, the German gunboat Wissman, whose commander, Captain Berndt, had not yet heard that war had broken out between Britain and..
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Martin Gilbert |
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would make 'a fatal bargain' if they allowed 'the moral force which this country has so long exerted to become diminished, or perhaps even destroyed, for the sake of the costly, trumpery, dangerous military playthings
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Martin Gilbert |
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for the first time in British history, gave votes to women; six million women gained the vote as a result of the new Act.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Due settimane dopo, il 30 maggio [1904],[...] critico apertamente il piu controverso tra i nuovi provvedimenti legislativi discussi in parlamento, il disegno di legge sugli stranieri. Il provvedimento[...] si proponeva di ridurre drasticamente l'immigrazione ebraica dalla Russia alla Gran Bretagna.[...] Era contrario ad abbandonare <
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Martin Gilbert |
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At Joncherey, near the German-Swiss border, a French soldier, Corporal Andre Peugeot, was killed, the first French victim of a war that was to claim more than a million French lives.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Churchill's article ended with a reference to his undiminished fear of Jewish Bolshevism, but on a positive, enthusiastic note: 'So long as the Zionist leaders keep their ranks vigilantly purged of the vicious type of Russian subversive they will have it in their power to revive the life and fame of their native land. They are entitled to a full and fair chance. All the great victorious Powers are committed in their behalf and Great Britain..
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Martin Gilbert |
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Churchill had long been fascinated by Jewish history, by the Jewish involvement with the events of the time, and above all by the Jews' monotheism and ethics. These seemed to him a central factor in the evolution and maintenance of modern civilisation. He published his thoughts about this on 8 November 1931, in an article in the Sunday Chronicle about Moses. Noting that the Biblical story had often been portrayed as myth, Churchill declared..
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Martin Gilbert |
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Hanfstaengel told Churchill that, as Hitler came each afternoon to that same hotel, 'nothing would be easier' than for the two men to meet. Hanfstaengel hoped that Hitler would join Churchill after dinner. 'I turned up at the appointed hour,' Hanfstaengel recalled. 'Mr Churchill taxed me about Hitler's anti-Semitic views. I tried to give as mild an account of the subject as I could, saying that the real problem was the influx of eastern Eur..
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Martin Gilbert |
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Churchill later recalled, of his near meeting with Hitler: 'In the course of conversation with Hanfstaengl, I happened to say "Why is your chief so violent about the Jews? I can quite understand being angry with Jews who have done wrong or are against the country, and I understand resisting them if they try to monopolise power in any walk of life; but what is the sense of being against a man simply because of his birth? How can any man help..
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Martin Gilbert |
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On 3 September 1937, as the Jewish leaders debated for and against Partition, Churchill wrote an article in the Jewish Chronicle that came down firmly against. He began, however, with a sympathetic account of Weizmann's desire to accept, reluctantly, the truncated Jewish State. He could 'readily understand', he wrote, Dr Weizmann, and others with him who have borne the burden and heat of the day, and without whose personal effort Zionism wo..
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Martin Gilbert |
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With extraordinary prescience, Churchill then made another point, full of foreboding. 'There is a danger,' he warned, 'of the odious conditions now ruling in Germany being extended by conquest to Poland, and another persecution and pogrom of Jews being begun in this new area.'6 There were six hundred thousand Jews in Germany in 1933, and more than three million in Poland. At a time when most British politicians doubted Germany's aggressive ..
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Martin Gilbert |
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The conference began on March 12. Among the experts were Lawrence, Cox and Gertrude Bell; for ten days they passed in review every aspect of the future of the Middle East. Economy was the goal, political stability the means.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Churchill's views on Zionism were well known. A year later, in an article in the Illustrated Sunday Herald, denouncing those Russian Jews who had taken a leading part in the imposition of Communist rule on Russia, he had called Zionism an 'inspiring movement', telling his readers, 'If, as may well happen there should be created in our own lifetime, by the banks of the Jordan, a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which m..
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Martin Gilbert |
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so that his formal appointment, made on 9 January 1919, was that of Secretary of State for War and Air. He
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Martin Gilbert |
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At the same time, in an attempt to calm Arab fears, he approved a proposal from Samuel that Jewish immigration would henceforth be limited by the 'economic capacity' of Palestine to absorb the newcomers.
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Martin Gilbert |
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It would be a 'tour de force' to do the two jobs, Clementine continued, 'like keeping a lot of balls in the air at the same time. After all, you want to be a Statesman, not a juggler.' Churchill had no intention of giving up his Air portfolio.
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Martin Gilbert |
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If I had two lives I would be a soldier and a politician. But as there will be no war in my time I shall have to be a politician.
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Martin Gilbert |
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Bernard Lewis, a lifelong student of Jews and Islam and himself a Jew, reflected on the fourteen centuries of Jewish life under Islamic rule, eight centuries after Maimonides' damning verdict. Lewis wrote: 'The Jews were never free from discrimination, but only rarely subject to persecution.' He noted that the situation of Jews living under Islamic rulers was 'never as bad as in Christendom at its worst, nor ever as good as in Christendom a..
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Martin Gilbert |