Churchill and the Jews
Sir: In his piece ‘Churchill was “too fond of the Jews”’ (17 March), Sir Martin Gilbert suggests that Winston Churchill should not be held responsible for the article ‘How the Jews Can Combat Persecution’, which was commissioned from him in 1937 by the US magazine Liberty and to which I draw attention in my book, Lloyd George and Churchill: Rivals for Greatness. Sir Martin and I both agree that the article was drafted by a ghostwriter, Adam Marshall Diston.
It has been reported in some parts of the media that Churchill rejected Diston’s draft because he did not agree with it. I note that Sir Martin does not make that claim in his article, but rather observes that Churchill’s piece ‘was twice offered for publication’. It would seem that the grounds of debate have narrowed considerably. On the one hand, there is the contention that although Churchill tried to get the article published, he was not answerable for its contents because his efforts to do so were unsuccessful. On the other is my argument that Churchill’s attempts to get it into print under his own name demonstrate that in 1937 (though not in 1940, when the question arose again) he was happy to endorse the sentiments it contained.
Richard Toye
Homerton College, Cambridge
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