Lord Butler and Mr. Hogg
Sin, 1 am sorry that Mr. Hogg, who is a friend of Lord Butler's and myself, finds that like Lord Butler
I am a source of embarrassment to my friends. I have never been embarrassed by Mr. Hogg. 1 love him dearly as a brother. Indeed. I ill-advisedly sup- ported his candidature for the Tory party leadership after the unfortunate departure of Mr. Harold Mac- millan.
I don't think he knows or is even deeply interested in contemporary history, fine classical scholar though he is. Mr. Hogg complains that i should criticise a man whom my father 'chose to be Chancellor of the Exchequer throughout the entire period (1951-55) of his post-war government.' I was not attempting to write a biography of Lord Butler. 1 admire very much his Education Act and his work at the Treasury after the war. I was concerned with Lord Butler's conduct as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1940. I don't know why people like my friends Lord Birkenhead and Mr. Hogg who were only indirectly concerned in the issue of Munich and further appeasement efforts in 1940 should stick their necks out as they have done. As indicated last week in the Evening Standard, the Master of Trinity and I know the facts. Lord Birken- head and Mr. Hogg don't. The full facts may soon become apparent—perhaps earlier than they think. I suggest they hold their horses until then, as the Master of Trinity has prudently done.
In his last paragraph Mr. Hogg fails 'to see what possible light the Oxford by-election of 1938 ... can conceivably throw on Mr. Prytz's telegram of 1940. . . It throws no light on Mr. Prytz: it merely goes to show that Mr. Hogg was a man of Munich.
I did not mean to draw attention to this unfor- tunate fact. Mr. Hogg has forced me to do so. Mr. Hogg calls my article `apoplectic.' I don't think that comes very well from the author of 'Bonkers.' What I wrote was written with knowledge and with ice- cold objectivity. Great is the truth, long may it pre- vail. Do not let us have it obfuscated by people who have not done the necessary research. They will only, as the Americans say, 'get themselves further out on the limb.'
Stour, East Bergholt, Suffolk
RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL
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