CHURCHILL, Winston S.

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Typed letter signed, to Lord Beaverbrook, criticizing a controversial cartoon. Churchill writes to his old friend, the press magnate Lord Beaverbrook, complaining of an anti-apartheid cartoon that appeared in his newspaper. "Here is another cartoon by Vicky. This sort of thing helps no-one but our enemies". Vicky - Victor Weisz (1913-1966) - was born in Berlin to Hungarian-Jewish parents, fled to England, and became one of Britain's leading cartoonists. He was then working for Beaverbrook's Evening Standard. His cartoon, published in the newspaper for 6 March 1961 and widely syndicated, depicts a ragged Black African in a shanty town separated by barbed wire from a modern city guarded by an armed white man (a clipping is included). The caption is "Our policy of apartheid has often been misunderstood. It can best be described as a policy of good neighbourliness" - a remark made by South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd on his arrival in London on 4 March for the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.South Africa had declared itself a republic and sought readmission to the Commonwealth on that basis. Though Churchill opposed apartheid, he hoped to keep South Africa in the Commonwealth - he had fought there in his youth, had maintained the alliance in the Second World War, and regarded it as part of the fraternity of English-speaking nations. Ultimately Verwoerd withdrew the application after strong condemnation of apartheid from other Commonwealth leaders. Churchill's

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