CHURCHILL, SIR WINSTON S. Typed Letter Signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), one page, quarto, Chartwell, Westerham, Kent, September 16, 1924. To Graham Greene (his former Admiralty staff secretary). Fine condition; original mailing folds, slight toning at edges, otherwise clean and boldly signed.
A remarkably direct letter from the fall of 1924, written just five days after Churchill accepted the Conservative nomination for Epping—the seat he would hold for forty years. Here, Churchill acknowledges his recovery from gout, confirms his imminent Edinburgh speech, and delivers a blunt assessment of the Irish Boundary Commission then in its preliminary stages. "We are all agreed that Ulster must not be coerced," he writes, foreshadowing the Commission's eventual collapse and the permanent partition of Ireland. The letter also references his close political ally F.E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) and Ulster Unionist leader Sir James Craig, demonstrating Churchill's active behind-the-scenes maneuvering on the Irish question even as he prepared for his return to Parliament.
This letter complements Churchill's earlier August 8th letter to Greene (referencing "Irish development" and "difficulties") and offers a rare, unguarded glimpse into Churchill's calculations during the pivotal weeks of his political comeback. An exceptional piece connecting the Irish Treaty settlement, Churchill's Conservative re-alignment, and the coming general election of October 1924.