1 JULY 1966, Page 14

Churchill the Historian

SIR,--I have read with interest Dr J. H. Plumb's article on Churchill as a historian.

In it Dr Plumb makes the, to me, extraordinary statement that Churchill was a man of very moderate intelligence. If this is true of Churchill, who was soldier, statesman, historian, painter, great parliamentarian and the outstanding Englishman of his time, where do lesser mortals stand, including, with respect, Dr Plumb?

I feel it to be a judgment few of Sir Winston's contemporaries would endorse, particularly those who crossed swords with him in debate.

But perhaps Dr Plumb was using the word intelligence in some academic sense unknown to the