Thanks, Greg, for pointing this out (sigh). FYI, from *Finest Hour* 160, Autumn 2013, "Around & About," page 5:
A new book makes headlines with the sophomoric notion that Churchill’s war speeches inspired few and annoyed many—based on colorful but unquantified exclamations in a wartime speak-your-mind register, Mass Observation. This will gather zzzs among the knowledgeable, since the same material was published back in 1994 (see “The Myth of the Blitz,” page 8). The author’s first book concluded that Churchill was an anti-Semite, based on the “discovery” of a hack manuscript Churchill never wrote and rejected—first reported by Martin Gilbert in 1981 (FH 135: 40). His next book used selective quotes to conclude that Churchill hated Indians—a charge dating to 1944; claimed that Churchill tortured President Obama’s grandfather in Kenya—who had left prison, as was already known, before Churchill regained power (FH 150: 9); and that the Jews rejected the 1948 UN plan for the partition of Palestine (FH 153: 5)—the opposite of reality, as Martin gilbert reported back in 2008. We will objectively review this book (reviewed FH 161 pp 50-51), expecting it to distinguish between Churchill’s speeches in the Commons and those over the radio, which he frequently found tiresome, and which even supporters like Jock Colville said lacked the original fire. Of course the measure of Churchill's standing during the war is not the cranks and “truthers” of Mass Observation but the broader indicators—like his unwavering 80% Gallup rating, the affection with which he was almost always received in public, his support in Parliament, and the two votes of confidence, which he won by 464-1 and 475-25. Then there is the testimony we’ve recorded over the years, from those at the other end of the wireless in those days, from london to latvia, about what those speeches meant to them. ==================== On Friday, October 10, 2014 3:17:07 PM UTC-4, Gregory B. Smith wrote: “On the other side of the Atlantic, the young Winston Churchill wrote of taking part in “a lot of jolly little wars against barbarous peoples” in the British Empire. In one of those jolly little wars, he wrote “we proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation.” Churchill defended these atrocities on the grounds that “Aryan stock is bound to triumph,” and he said he was “strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes.” He blamed the people of India for a famine caused by British mismanagement because they kept “breeding like rabbits,” adding “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.” “ The above paragraph is taken verbatim from page 658 of Stephen Pinker’s recently published (2011) masterful work on the decline of violence The Better Angels of our Nature which I have just finished reading. He cites Toyes’ book Churchill’s Empire and an August 12, 2010 New York Times article by J. Hari as his sources. Pinker purports to examine the mindset of historical figures showing their moral limitations by modern standards. Too bad he didn’t bother to consult www.winstonchurchill.org or back issues of Finest Hour where these out-of-context quotes have been shown most decidedly not to be reflections on Churchill’s morality. The battle continues.... Gregory B. Smith ... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
