India.

The rare cloth-bound issue of Churchill's speeches on the independence of India. Most were issued as paperbacks and an unknown quantity, but certainly much fewer, were issued in cloth and boards as here.

The speeches originate from an episode in the author's early political career when, in January 1931, Churchill resigned from the Conservative Shadow Cabinet because Baldwin supported the decision of the Labour government to grant Dominion status to India. Churchill believed that enhanced home rule status would hasten calls for full independence which, of course, it did. He was particularly opposed to Mohandas Gandhi, whom he considered 'a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a faki'. His views enraged Labour and Liberal opinion although he was supported by many grass root Conservatives.

The rare hardbound copies of the first edition appear in two variants, with the black lettering on the spines blocked horizontally or, as here in the present copy, vertically. There is no priority of issue.

First edition, first issue; 8vo (19 x 13 cm); original publisher's orange cloth with black lettering to upper boards and spine, some slight fading to spine and lower cover as is common, small scuff to spine head, neat contemporary ownership inscription to front pastedown, a very good copy; 141, [3]pp.

Woods A38.