CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Typewritten letter signed ("Winston S. Churchill") to a Mr. Jay Richard Kennedy, London, 30 July 1947.

One page, 240 x 190mm. (numerous hole punches, light soiling at lower margin, typical mailing folds crossing signature.) Sold with a custom blue clamshell with a matted portrait.

Churchill declares Franklin Roosevelt "the truest friend of European freedom" to a writer and filmmaker. Jay Richard Kennedy was writing and producing a film about the late President Roosevelt, and upon introduction to Churchill by Roosevelt's son James, wrote to the former Prime Minister on July 12th. In response, Churchill writes: "...I am afraid I could not answer any of your complex questions... I have made several speeches of appreciation of President Roosevelt, which I commend to your attention. As you know, I consider him one of the two or three greatest Americans who have ever lived. Certainly we found in him the truest friend of European freedom. I am much honored to have enjoyed his personal friendship."

[With:] CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Autograph letter signed to Lord Northcliff, Whitehall, 21 October 1911.

One page, 200 x 125mm., bifolium with blank integral leaf (light fingersoiling, a few small stains, else quite clean, tape remnants on blank integral leaf). Framed with a portrait.

Shortly after his appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill requests an audience with Lord Northcliff "on a matter of importance". If unavailable, Churchill requests him to send an address where "a special messenger can reach you with a letter". Lord Northcliff, whose full name is Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, was the owner of the influential London newspapers, The Daily Mail and The Times -- publications which published dramatic anti-German articles years before the outbreak of World War I. Churchill's "matter of importance" may be related to the Agadir crisis in North Africa during the summer of 1911, which threatened to drive Europe into war: "In an attempt to secure a naval base on the Atlantic Ocean, the German Government sent a gunboat, the Panther, to the Moroccan port of Agadir. France, which under the Anglo-French Entente of 1904 had a predominant sphere of influence in Morocco, asked Britain to challenge the German action by sending a British gunboat.... On August 30, as the Moroccan negotiations continued, Churchill suggested to Grey that if the negotiations failed, Britain should propose a triple alliance of herself, France and Russia, to safeguard the independence of Belgium, Holland and Denmark.... The Agadir crisis had given Churchill a sense of Britain's naval strengths and weaknesses. He was convinced that he had the energy and foresight, and could quickly acquire the knowledge, to make Britain invulnerable at sea" [Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life]. Churchill would send Northcroft a letter related to this crisis just one month prior to this example on 13 September 1911, in which he states: "far more important than anything that is happening or has happened in this country is the grave development of the European situation".