CHURCHILL, Winston S.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Autograph letter signed, hiring an assistant at the Colonial Office. Churchill writes as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies to offer Eliot Crawshay-Williams a job as his assistant private secretary.Churchill served as under-secretary from December 1905 to April 1908. Crawshay-Williams (1879-1962) had been defeated as a candidate for Churchill's Liberal Party in the January 1906 election. Churchill writes, "The Treasury have consented to allow me an extra private secretary at the salary of £150 a year; but this will only be paid during the Parliamentary session - i.e. about six months in each year. I fear that the renumeration is scarcely more than nominal; but of course the fact that a government salary is paid makes the post an official one. If you care to undertake the work, which may sometimes be hard, but which will not always be dull, you will place me under a deep obligation to yourself. It would give me great pleasure to have your assistance, & I feel certain that your help will be most valuable to me. It occurs to me that as you are now living in London, & are anxious to keep in touch with the House of Commons, & with political matters, the proposal which I venture to make may commend itself to you. Acceptance would impose only one restriction upon your freedom of political action - namely that having access to confidential departmental papers relating to the Colonial Office, it would not I think be desirable for you to speak on Colonial policy except in accord

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