The letters and documents in this volume were written between July 1919 and March 1921, the period covered in the second part of Volume IV of the Churchill biography. For Churchill, the period was dominated by the early problems of peace, the continued intervention in Russia against the Bolsheviks, the Russo-Polish war, terrorism and the search for conciliation in Ireland, revolt in Iraq, Britain’s Palestine Mandate, and the future of Britain’s position in the Middle East.
6 February 1920, Sir Archibald Sinclair to Winston S. Churchill:
“The loyal Russian Jews, in spite of the disabilities under which they have suffered, have managed to play an honourable and useful part in the national life of Russia. As bankers and industrialists they have strenuously promoted the development of Russia's vast economic resources and they were foremost in the creation of those remarkable organisations, the Russian co-operative Societies. In politics their support has been given, for the most part, to liberal and progressive movements, and they have been among the staunchest upholders of friendship with France and Great Britain.”
“The Churchill papers constitute the richest single private archive of Twentieth Century British history. Nevertheless, where there are gaps I have tried to fill them from other archival sources, both private and public, including those in which Churchill is the subject of comment by others. For the six years covered by these three volumes I have drawn material from more than sixty archives, some of which contain important letters written by Churchill himself, but which he himself kept no copy.”
“The selection of documents has been very ably made by Martin Gilbert, who has arranged the material in such a way that all of the many issues are represented without the reader losing track of any one of them as the months go by. Churchill's private life is also given due weight.” Norman Stone, The Times Educational Supplement
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