stonish

The huge zigzag in Jordan's eastern border with Saudi Arabia has been called "Winston's Hiccup" or "Churchill's Sneeze" because Churchill allegedly drew the expansive boundary after a generous lunch. — Michael R. Burch

T.E. Lawrence was the most influential delegate at the Cairo conference, which convened formally on the morning of Saturday, March 12, 1921. Winston Churchill had arranged the conference without inviting a single Arab (which is not surprising because in his memoirs Churchill said that he never consulted the Arabs about his plans for them).



Government House reception in Jerusalem on March 28th 1921. From the left to right on the front row: Emir Abdullah I of Transjordan, Sir Herbert Samuel, Winston Churchill, Clementine Churchill, T. E. Lawrence & the Emir Abdullah.





• On January 8, 1921, a month before formally becoming the Secretary of State for the British Colonies, Churchill decides to cut the budget for the Middle East in half. Churchill wanted to create regional governments that would not make "undue demands" on Britain. Despite his many orations about democracy, Churchill opined that Western political methods "are not necessarily applicable to the East, and basis of election should be framed".

• In February the new Colonial Secretary plans to visit Egypt for a conference in Cairo. Lord Milner warns Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner in Palestine, that Churchill is "too apt to make up his mind without sufficient knowledge."

• On March 12, 1921 the Cairo conference begins. The British "experts" include T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell. Churchill described the meeting as one of "Forty Thieves" and spent his leisure time practicing his new hobby of oil painting. During a break he did paintings of the pyramids. Churchill slashes the region's budget and sets up friends of T. E. Lawrence as puppet rulers of the artificially created nations of Jordan and Iraq. These hasty, ill-advised, imperialistic decisions would lead to many serious problems, including ever-escalating hostilities between Zionists and Palestinians.

• On March 23, 1921 the conference moves to Jerusalem. Churchill promises the just-appointed puppet ruler of Transjordan, King Abdullah, that the rights of Palestine's non-Jewish population would be protected, that no Arabs would be dispossessed. Was Churchill deliberately lying, or was he so naive that he didn't understand the real goals of the Zionists? In either case, the statement was as false as false can be.

• On March 29, 1921 at a Jerusalem ceremony, Churchill plants a tree at the site of the future Hebrew University and promises that Palestine will be happy and prosperous, a "paradise." More lies, or incredible naïveté.

• On March 31, 1921 the impetuous Churchill rushes to catch an Italian ship leaving for Genoa. In less than three weeks he has done damage that will last a century, or longer.

• On May 31, 1921 the great orator and proponent of democracy announces during a cabinet meeting that he will suspend the development of "representative institutions" (i.e., democracy) in Palestine.

• On June 14, 1921 in a speech before the House of Commons, Churchill insisted that Arab fears of being dispossessed of their land were "illusory." But of course their fears were entirely valid. Only eight days later, Churchill told the Canadian Prime Minister that if the Jews became the majority they would "naturally take it over." But there was nothing "natural" about the Zionists creating an artificial Jewish majority by ethnically cleaning hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, which is what would happen just a few years later, in 1948.

• On November 12, 1921 after riots that left five people dead, Churchill told his advisers not to forget that "everything else that happens in the Middle East is secondary to reduction in expense." Churchill cared more about money than the lives of Palestinians and Jews. But when there were riots in Ireland, Churchill was very concerned about reconciling the hostile factions.

• On July 4, 1922 while Americans were celebrating their independence, Churchill was lobbying the House of Commons to deny Palestinians any chance of real democracy or independence, as he supported the creation of Jewish National Home in Palestine. Even worse, he supported the Zionists having a monopoly over the development of water power in Palestine, even though Palestinians were much more numerous than Jews. Once again, Churchill was willing to throw democracy out the window in the Middle East. Churchill had his way, and another nail was driven into the coffin of Palestinian rights. A few months later, in October 1922, Churchill would lose his appendix and office in quick succession. But he certainly did a lot of damage during his short stint as Colonial Secretary.



Winston Churchill Racist and Imperialistic Quotes: Were Churchill and Hitler Twin Sons of Different Mothers?



"Everywhere one looks, one finds Churchill dripping blood from his mouth. He was fanatical about violence."



• Churchill sounded suspiciously like Hitler when he said that his country's "Aryan stock is bound to triumph."

• Churchill sounded like the KKK when he said that "Keep England White" was a good slogan.

• Churchill's beliefs about race may be summed up in his Hitleresque statement that "It is natural for a superior race to dominate an inferior one."

• Leopold Amery, the British Secretary of State for India, wrote in his diary that "on the subject of India, Winston is not quite sane" and that he didn't "see much difference between [Churchill's] outlook and Hitler's."

• Churchill called Gandhi a "half naked seditious fakir."

• Churchill was not much concerned with the deaths of Indians: "Starvation of anyhow underfed Bengalis is less serious than that of sturdy Greeks."

• Churchill had similar ideas about China: "I think we shall have to take the Chinese in hand and regulate them."

• Churchill was very consistent in his hatred of Orientals: "We shall wipe them out, every one of them, men, women, and children. There shall not be a Japanese left on the face of the earth."

• Churchill, like Hitler, advocated the forced sterilization of the "feeble-minded" and "insane."

• Churchill once again sounds like Hitler: "I propose that 100,000 degenerate Britons should be forcibly sterilized and others put in labour camps to halt the decline of the British race."

• Churchill told the Palestine Royal Commission: "I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

• Churchill also disdained the natives of India, saying: "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."

• Churchill blamed Indians for a famine they suffered, claiming they "breed like rabbits."

• Churchill referred disparagingly to Palestinians as "barbaric hordes who ate little but camel dung."

• Churchill boasted of personally killing three Sudanese "savages."

• Churchill said, "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."

• According to Warren Dockter, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and the author of Winston Churchill and the Islamic World, Churchill was in favour of using mustard gas against Ottoman troops in WWI.

• Churchill was the ultimate warmongering imperialist, writing to a friend: "I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it's smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can't help it — I enjoy every second of it."

• While the rest of the world was sickened by World War I, an enthusiastic Churchill wrote: "I would not be out of this glorious delicious war for anything the world could give me."

For updates on this issue and others, follow Johann at www.twitter.com/johannhari101



'Churchill's Empire' is published by Macmillan (£25). To order a copy for the special price of £22.50 (free P&P) call Independent Books Direct on 08430 600 030, or visit www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk







