Lord alfred douglas trial#

Hayes to Churchill: “I put it to you that you were influenced by Sir Ernest Cassel in these German overtures and dominated by his personality?”Ĭhurchill: “Certainly not. Churchill was influenced as a young man and dominated by Sir Ernest Cassel.” Justice Avory: “Is all this supposed to show the domination of Sir Ernest Cassel over Mr. The presiding judge was now growing impatient… Hayes: “We do not know the cause of that murder.Ĭhurchill: “I had nothing to do with it!” Poor Hayes then afforded Churchill the opportunity to display his wit. I do not think that at the time of the Kiel Regatta there was any intention of going to war on the part of Germany, but the whole situation was altered by the murder of the Archduke. Hayes: “Had you any idea that the Emperor was humbugging you with that hospitality at Kiel?”Ĭhurchill: “I do not think he was. Here Hayes attempted to show the German-born Cassel’s supposed sinister influence: One example involves Churchill’s visit to the June 1914 Kiel Regatta as a guest of Kaiser Wilhelm. To the dismay of Alfred Douglas, young Cecil Hayes was no match for Churchill on cross-examination. Had it arisen during cross-examination, it might have appeared more sinister. It is a tribute to Hogg’s lawyering that all of this was brought out in direct examination. It was not scandalous, but was previously unknown, as was Cassel’s management of Churchill’s literary earnings.

Lord alfred douglas trial#

This had not been mentioned in the first trial either. She consented.”Ĭhurchill also volunteered that in 1908, Cassel had given him a wedding present of £500. Hogg: “Did Sir Ernest Cassel give you any furniture?”Ĭhurchill: “The foundation for this was that in 1905 I took a small house in South Bolton Street, and Sir Ernest asked Lady Randolph whether he could furnish a library for me. But there was an element of truth hidden in the charge, which Hogg brought out on direct examination: These facts had not come out in the first trial five months earlier.Ĭhurchill denied that Cassel had given him a gift of furniture, or anything else after the Battle of Jutland. Cassel had charged nothing for his services. He gave Cassel £12,000 to invest (over $1,200,000 in current value). In 1899, Churchill had asked Cassel to invest his earnings as a writer and lecturer. Sir Ernest had long been a friend of the Churchill family, including his parents, Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill.

Churchill admitted their close friendship. Hogg turned to Churchill’s relationship with Sir Ernest Cassel, a German-born naturalized British subject and Privy Councillor. Now retired, Fisher told Churchill that his appreciation was “exactly right.” Next, Churchill said, he telephoned the Admiralty and authorized it to issue the communiqué over his name. He then showed it to Lord Fisher, then First Sea Lord. Typical of Churchill’s writing practice, he dictated the communiqué to an Admiralty stenographer. Hogg: “Did you know anything about it until it appeared in the Press?”Ĭhurchill then described how, at government request, he had come to write his more favorable “appreciation” of Jutland. Hogg: “Were you consulted as to its issue?” Hogg: “Did you know anything about the communiqué of June 3rd before it was issued?” This caused the drop in the market for stock of British companies for which Douglas had blamed Churchill. Churchill was asked about the first government communiqué about the Battle of Jutland.

The prosecutor was the Attorney General, Sir Douglas Hogg. Douglas’s counsel, Cecil Hayes, a junior barrister, was much more likely than his more experienced predecessor, Comyns Carr, to follow his client’s precise instructions on questions for “dear Winston.” ( Concluded from Part 1.)Ĭhurchill was the second witness for the prosecution. Lord Alfred Douglas thought he had Winston Churchill just where he wanted him-in the witness box, undergoing cross-examination. Here he presides over the signing of the Polish-Soviet agreement with Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Russian Ambassador to London Ivan Maisky, 30 July 1941-see our review of the Maisky Diaries at bit.ly/3gP3RwF. “The imminent shadow of the ‘Winston touch.’” As Lord Alfred Douglas published his sonnet to his old enemy, Churchill cemented Britain’s first wartime alliances.