South Africa Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Selective Quotes: Churchill on South Africa Prison Camps

9 September 2021 Comments 0 Comments

“Churchill on South Africa Prison Camps”: excerpted from my essay for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the unabridged original, together with endnotes, and WSC’s complete letter to The Times, click here.

1. Same old, same old…

An Indian colleague writes:

I’ve noticed that the same accusations about Churchill repeated frequently. Many writers seem to recycle them on trust. Take for example a new anti-Churchill article which I think needs a thorough debunking. In fairness to the author, it is not all bad; she concedes for instance that Churchill wanted to use tear gas in Iraq, not poison gas.…

Winston Churchill, Magnanimity and the “Feeble-Minded,” Part 2

15 July 2021 Comments 1 Comment

Continued from Part 1…

Youthful discretions

Churchill was born into a world in which virtually all Britons, from the Sovereign to a Covent Garden grocer, believed in their moral superiority. They preached it to their children. All learned that the red portions of the map showed where Britannic civilization had tamed savagery and cured pandemics. Churchill’s assertions, especially as a young man, were often in line with this. And yet he consistently displayed this odd streak of magnanimity and libertarian impulse.

It was Churchill, the aristocratic Victorian, who argued that Dervish enemy in Sudan had a “claim beyond the grave…no less good than that which any of our countrymen could make.”…

Pocahontas: Randolph Churchill’s Jibe at the Race Question

4 December 2020 Comments 1 Comment

Pretend Indians

We all know how a certain American politician was nicknamed “Pocahontas,” years after claiming to be, without foundation, a native American. This has often been tried. Sometimes, however, it backfires. “A friend got his son into a better public school by declaring he was tribal,” a colleague writes. “Unfortunately, they didn’t tell the boy, who was then invited to an after-school meeting for those interested in Indians. My friend attempted to correct himself, but he found that in that city, you can change your racial identification only once.” (Who writes these rules?)

During a recent encounter with the medical world I received a questionnaire with the inevitable question, “Race.”…