Jan Smuts Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Richard M. Langworth

Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

12 December 2017 Comments 0 Comments

“Stanley Baldwin, showing an unexpected familiarity with Indian phrases, described Brendan Bracken as ‘Winston’s faithful chela,‘ wrote the biographer Charles Lysaght. “This is what gave Bracken his place in history, a minor but still an important one.”

The Hillsdale College Churchill Project has published two articles on Brendan Bracken, Churchill’s loyal ally and friend for four decades. The first begins with a memoir by the late Ron Robbins, a Canadian journalist who early on covered the House of Commons, where he met Bracken. The postscript is by me, followed by reviews of the two Bracken books by George Gale and A.J.P.…

Churchill, Smuts and Apartheid: Questions and Answers

18 May 2017 Comments 0 Comments

I read your article about busting four myths about Winston Churchill from The Federalist. Here is an article I’d like you to read and hear your feedback: “Apartheid, made in Britain: Richard Dowden explains how Churchill, Rhodes and Smuts caused black South Africans to lose their rights.” (The Independent, 19 April 1994.) —David E., Ohio

Accurate, But Not Dispositive

Mr. Dowden’s article seems to me broadly accurate, but not dispositive.

It is true that Britain dropped its opposition to making South Africa a “white man’s country” in 1909 by passing the Union of South Africa Act.…

“Welcome Mr. Gandhi” —Winston Churchill

11 July 2014 Comments 3 Comments

This article first appeared in The Weekly Standard scrapbook for 21 July 2014.

Every time you realize how badly the media mangles something you know about, you wonder how well they are reporting everything else.

The announcement that a statue of Gandhi would be placed in Parliament Square near that of Winston Churchill unleashed a barrage of ignorance. Would Churchill wish to share space with his “onetime nemesis”?

The Associated Press quoted Churchill’s famous “half-naked fakir” crack (inaccurately), and said he called Gandhi a “middling lawyer.” (Churchill’s term was “Middle Temple lawyer,” something else entirely.)

The Wall Street Journal worried that Parliament Square also includes a statue of Jan Smuts, “a prime minister of South Africa in the early 20th century who favored segregation.”…