John Simkin Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 In the spring of 1916 Herbert Asquith decided to send Lord Kitchener, his Secretary of State of War, to Russia in an attempt to rally the country in its fight against Germany. On 5th June 1916, Horatio Kitchener was drowned when the HMS Hampshire on which he was traveling to Russia, was struck a mine off the Orkneys. C. P. Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian, remarked: "he could not have done better than to have gone down, as he was a great impediment lately". Horatio Bottomley, the editor of the John Bull magazine, promoted the idea that Kitchener had been murdered as part of some Jewish conspiracy. In July 1920, Alfred Douglas, the former boyfriend of Oscar Wilde, became the editor of the weekly magazine, Plain English. According to Michael Kettle, the author of Salome's Last Veil : The Libel Case of the Century (1977): "Bosie (Douglas) at this time was obsessed with the story then circulating in Fleet Street that the Jews had somehow engineered the death of Lord Kitchener, who went down in the Hampshire in 1916, when on his way out to Russia; and that Churchill had deliberately circulated a false account of the Battle of Jutland (which took place just before the Hampshire sank), which enabled his friend the Jewish financier Sir Ernest Cassel to make a killing on the New York Stock Exchange and give the Churchills some £40,000 worth of furniture." Douglas continued his campaign against Winston Churchill and he issued 30,000 copies of a pamphlet entitled "The Murder of Lord Kitchener and the Truth about the Battle of Jutland and the Jews". As a result he was arrested and charged for criminal libel. He was found guilty and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. While in Wormwood Scrubs he wrote "In Excelis", his most famous poem. On his release he dropped his anti-Wilde mania and his campaign against Churchill. The man was obviously mentally ill and had been used by the far-right to blame the Jews for the death of a national hero. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdouglasA.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWbottomley.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 John, do you think the five volume ''Winston S. Churchill''(with compendiums) (of which I only have vol V) by Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert is a good companion to these posts you have been making about this era? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 John, do you think the five volume ''Winston S. Churchill''(with compendiums) (of which I only have vol V) by Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert is a good companion to these posts you have been making about this era? I am not sure you will find much information on this case in any book on Churchill. I have a couple of books on Asquith and they don't mention it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Brown Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Truly bizarre. Furniture, no less! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dolva Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 vol 5 '22-'39, initial general impression: big. p21 22 and earlier for background : On December 10 Churchill was present at The Old Bailey... Lord A Douglas...then pretty much what's been posted. It did cost him his seat tho earlier. There seems to be a lot of turmoil before and after the events that in some ways are related. Interesting window to this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 vol 5 '22-'39, initial general impression: big. p21 22 and earlier for background : On December 10 Churchill was present at The Old Bailey... Lord A Douglas...then pretty much what's been posted. It did cost him his seat tho earlier. There seems to be a lot of turmoil before and after the events that in some ways are related. Interesting window to this time. The third man involved in the case was Robert Ross. According to Frank Harris, Ross and Wilde met in a public lavatory in 1886. Both Ross and Douglas, because of their background, were never put on trial. Alfred Taylor, the owner of a male brothel Wilde had used, was not so lucky. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jwilde.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWrossR.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtaylorAT.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Colby Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Truly bizarre. Furniture, no less! It wouldn’t be that odd IF true Bernard Kerik went to prison for kickbacks in the form of renovations to his apartment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Truly bizarre. Furniture, no less! It wouldn’t be that odd IF true Bernard Kerik went to prison for kickbacks in the form of renovations to his apartment. What is not surprising is that they blamed Jews and Homosexuals for not winning the First World War between 1914-17. Hitler was not the first to blame Jews for political problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Colby Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 (edited) Truly bizarre. Furniture, no less! It wouldn’t be that odd IF true Bernard Kerik went to prison for kickbacks in the form of renovations to his apartment. What is not surprising is that they blamed Jews and Homosexuals for not winning the First World War between 1914-17. Hitler was not the first to blame Jews for political problems. Unfortunately Bottomly and Douglas weren't the first and Hitler wasn't the last. Even this forum has a few members who are convinced Jews are responsible for all sorts of problems - even Fetzer the liberal college professor strongly promoted a Mein Kampf like take on the causes and results of the World Wars. Such scapegoating is not limited to Jews as dozens (is not hundreds) of ethnic minorities have been blamed for a nations troubles (e.g. Asians in East Africa, Chinese in East Asia, refugees in South Africa, etc. etc.) PS - I forgot to note the irony of Kerik going to prison for kickbacks he got while was commissioner of the Department of Correction. Edited January 13, 2012 by Len Colby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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