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Auction: 20025 - Historical Documents, Postal History and Autographs
Lot: 639

Great Britain
Sir Winston Churchill
1929 (20 Feb) TLS thanking Lady Wise for her for her "interesting letter of the 17th instant". Signed "Winston S. Churchill" with "Ch. of Exchequer" added beneath in another hand. Sold with Lady Wise's undated and unsigned three page letter (likely a copy) which Churchill is writing in response to. Wise writes that she has read Churchill's 'The Aftermath' in The Times, explaining that her "husband, the late Sir Frederic Wise" had been tasked on March 17th 1919 in Paris to report on the Peace Conference and the "financial condition of Germany ... [and] her ability to pay reparations. He visited Munich & Berlin and ever source of information was made available to him. He interviewed Bettman, Holloway, Pritturty, President Elbert, Hoffman PM of Bavaria, Schneidemann, Rautzan, Havenstein, Glasenapp, Von Guyuner, Susmann, Schiffer, Hohlacher, Torrig, Bernstarff, Warburg [etc.] ... & brought to Paris a very full report, the gist of which was that Germany was in no condition to pay the smallest named reparations & might need help paying. He was greatly chagrined to find that his most telling & important figures were deleted when the report was presented in Paris & a curious reason given. He was told it was inadvisable that he should come in touch with Mr. Lloyd George at that time. His full report from February is in my possession with letters from the German leaders & his own private journal, so it seems that if the Prime Minister had seen him at that time in Paris it could not have been written with regard to reparations. On no occasion was any lower figure mentioned than 8000 million". Fascinating.

A wonderful insight into the cover-up of the financial situation of post-war Germany and the efforts made to ensure that Germany was crippled by reparations. The report mentioned in Lady Wise's letter is held at the British Library of Political and Economic Science, ref. GB 0097 WISE.

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Sold for
£800

Starting price
£800