Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, Winston S. Mr. Brodrick's Army . London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1903.
CHURCHILL, Winston S. Mr. Brodrick's Army . London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1903. Second edition. 8° ( 220 x 154mm). (Lacking final blank). Slightly later dark blue library cloth. Provenance : National Unionist Association Reference and Political Library (cancelled stamps to verso of title and p.45); Sotheby's (Hodgson's), 19 December 1980, lot 438. ARMY REFORM: CHURCHILL'S FIRST POLITICAL PUBLICATION. In 1901, the secretary for war, St John Brodrick, proposed a 15 per cent increase in military expenditure, which Churchill considered to be both unnecessary and ineffective, arguing that if extra money were to be spent, it would be more productive to spend it on the navy rather than the army. He carried his campaign against Brodrick through 1902, finally publishing the present work of collected speeches against the Army scheme in 1903. Such Conservative back-bench opposition orchestrated by Churchill, coupled with the findings of the the Elgin and Norfolk royal commissions and the very different reforms proposed by the Esher committee on War Office reconstruction, left Brodrick politically isolated. He refused to resign, but Balfour used his cabinet reshuffle to remove him from the War Office and appointed him Secretary for India in October 1903. RARE. According to ABPC-online, only two copies have sold at auction since 1975, and none since this one in 1980. Woods A6(b).