The Right Honourable
The Lord Moyne
DSO PC
First World War portrait, 1918
Leader of the House of Lords
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office
8 February 1941 – 22 February 1942
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterSir Winston Churchill
Preceded byThe Lord Lloyd
Succeeded byViscount Cranborne
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
In office
10 May 1940 – 8 February 1941
Serving with Tom Williams
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterSir Winston Churchill
Preceded byThe Lord Denham
Succeeded byThe Duke of Norfolk
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
In office
4 November 1925 – 4 June 1929
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded byE. F. L. Wood
Succeeded byNoel Buxton
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
5 October 1923 – 23 January 1924
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded bySir William Joynson-Hicks
Succeeded byWilliam Graham
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for War
In office
31 October 1922 – 5 October 1923
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterBonar Law
Stanley Baldwin
Preceded byRobert Sanders
Succeeded byWilfrid Ashley
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
21 January 1932 – 6 November 1944
Hereditary peerage
Preceded byPeerage created
Succeeded byThe 2nd Baron Moyne
Member of Parliament
for Bury St Edmunds
In office
24 August 1907 – 27 October 1931
Preceded byFrederick Hervey
Succeeded byFrank Heilgers
Personal details
Born
Walter Edward Guinness

(1880-03-29)29 March 1880
Dublin, Ireland
Died6 November 1944(1944-11-06) (aged 64)
Cairo, Egypt
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
SpouseLady Evelyn Erskine
Children3, including Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne
Parent(s)Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh
Adelaide Guinness
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service British Army
Years of service1899–1918
RankBrigade major
Battles/wars
Lord Moyne, Secretary of State for the Colonies, entertaining recruits from Jamaica on their arrival in London for RAF training.

Walter Edward Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, DSO & Bar, PC (29 March 1880 – 6 November 1944), was an Anglo-Irish politician and businessman. He served as the British minister of state in the Middle East until November 1944, when he was assassinated by the Jewish terrorist group Lehi in Cairo. The assassination of Lord Moyne sent shock waves through Palestine and the rest of the world.[1]

Early life and family

Walter Guinness was born in Dublin, Ireland, the third son of the 1st Earl of Iveagh. His family homes were at Farmleigh near Dublin, and at Elveden in Suffolk. At Eton, Guinness was elected head of 'Pop', a self-appointing group whose members have a status similar to school prefects, and was also appointed as Captain of Boats.[2]

On 24 June 1903, Guinness married Lady Evelyn Hilda Stuart Erskine (1883–1939), third daughter of Shipley Gordon Stuart Erskine, 14th Earl of Buchan. They had three children:

Military career

Guinness joined the yeomanry regiment The Loyal Suffolk Hussars as a second lieutenant on 15 November 1899, and volunteered for service in the Second Boer War, commissioned as a lieutenant in the 44th (Suffolk) company of the 12th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry on 7 February 1900.[5][6][7] The company left London on the SS Cornwall for South Africa in early March 1900,[8] and during the service he received the honorary rank of captain in the army. According to Wilson, "they had a devil-may-care ethos and distaste for military discipline ... they made lightning raids on Afrikaner positions; they skirmished ahead of advancing columns." At the end of May 1900, led by Major-General Hamilton, they assaulted the ridge at Doornkop, though Guinness was wounded immediately after the battle in mopping-up at Witpoortjie.[9] For his war effort, he was Mentioned in Despatches and was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps. Following the war, he was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant in the Suffolk Imperial Yeomanry (the Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars) on 12 March 1902,[10] and promoted to the substantive rank of captain the next month, on 5 April 1902.[11]

During World War I, he served with distinction in the Suffolk Yeomanry in Egypt, and at Gallipoli. He was appointed a brigade major in the 25th division in 1916. In the fighting around Passchendaele, he was awarded the DSO in 1917, and a bar to it in 1918 during the German spring offensive, for personal bravery, which was rare for an elected politician.[12][13] He ended the war as a lieutenant-colonel attached to the 66th division. His laconic war diaries were published in 1987, edited by Professor Brian Bond.[14]

Early political career

In the 1906 general election as a Conservative candidate, he unsuccessfully contested Stowmarket, a constituency in which he had a family estate. A year later, in 1907, Guinness was elected to the London County Council on which he sat until 1910 and also, at a 1907 by-election,[15] to the House of Commons as Conservative member for Bury St Edmunds,[16] which he continued to represent until 1931. He took the conservative line on Home Rule for Ireland,[17] suffragism[18] and reform of the House of Lords.[19] In 1912, the editor of the magazine Guinness owned, The Outlook, broke the Marconi scandal, accusing Lloyd George and other Liberal ministers of share frauds. Other publications developed the story, but it could not be proven even after lengthy debate. When his role was debated, Guinness explained that he was on safari in Africa at the start, and that his editor's target was inefficiency, not corruption.[20] He visited eastern Anatolia in 1913 and reported that Armenians were being armed secretly by Russia.[21][22]

World War I reduced Guinness's attendances and opponents accused him of cowardice for being in the House at all.[23] In a heated Armistice speech, he insisted that Germany pay full war reparations, that no ties be made with Russian Bolshevism, and that "Since the days of Mahomet no prophet has been listened to with more superstitious respect than has President Wilson" (of the USA).[24] Irish political developments after 1916 were a concern as the Guinness business was in Dublin. During the Easter Rebellion the brewery first-aid teams helped both sides. The Guinnesses were opposed to the Sinn Féin rebels, who hailed the Central Powers as "gallant allies." This attitude had to change, and by the time of the Treaty debates in 1922 which established the Irish Free State, he said he preferred "a slippery slope to a precipice" and voted in favour.[25] Despite their politics, during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War his family was popular enough to escape loss or injury. In 1922, the Chanak crisis caused the coalition Prime Minister Lloyd George to step down unexpectedly in favour of Bonar Law. Guinness's comments on Turkey were a part of the debate; he had come to admire Atatürk, despite serving at Gallipoli and he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Derby. Thereafter, his pronouncements appear less dogmatic. He lost office when a Labour government came to power in January 1924, but the following month, Guinness was sworn of the Privy Council.

Though they had generally been political opponents in 1907–21, Guinness's working political relationship with Winston Churchill started after the Conservative election victory in October 1924, when he was made Financial Secretary under Churchill, the new Chancellor. Together, they put the Pound sterling back on the gold standard; a point of pride, but not a policy that lasted for long. A ministerial vacancy enabled him to join the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture from November 1925 until June 1929, where his main success was in increasing the sugar beet area. The first beet processing factory was built in his constituency, partly on the advice of Martin Neumann (a grandfather of Stephen Fry), who became a manager there.[26]

After the Conservative defeat in 1929, he had to retire from office. He did not stand for re-election in the 1931 election and was created Baron Moyne, of Bury St Edmunds in the County of Suffolk on 21 January 1932.[27]

Business and charitable interests

Kenwood House

During his adult life, Moyne was a director of the brewing firm Guinness, established at the St. James's Gate Brewery by his great-great-grandfather Arthur Guinness in 1759.[28] The firm had been listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1886 by his father.[29]

Moyne also established British Pacific Properties in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[30] There he commissioned the Lion's Gate Bridge, then the longest bridge in the British Empire, which was opened by King George VI in 1938.[31]

He was also a trustee of the two charitable housing trusts set up by his father, the Guinness Trust in London (established 1888)[32] and the Iveagh Trust in Dublin (established 1890).[33] In 1927–28, he helped arrange the gift to the nation of Kenwood House which contains his father's art collection.

Yachts

Arpha

In 1926, Guinness bought the passenger ferry SS Canterbury from the Southern Railway. She was converted to a steam yacht and renamed Arpha. She was sold to Sark Motorships Ltd in 1938.

Roussalka

In 1931, Guinness bought the passenger ferry SS Brighton from the Southern Railway. She was converted to diesel power and renamed Roussalka. On 25 August 1933, Roussalka was wrecked in Killary Bay but all on board were rescued.

Rosaura

In September 1933, Moyne purchased the passenger ferry SS Dieppe from the Southern Railway. She was converted to diesel power and renamed Rosaura. He used this boat for social cruises, including a voyage in September 1934 from Marseille on to Greece and Beirut with the Churchills as his guests of honour.[34] From December 1934, he ventured further to the Pacific, with Clementine Churchill as a guest, and brought the first living Komodo dragon back to Britain. He wrote two books about the cultures that he had encountered in thousands of miles of travel around the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.[35][36] They are now quite rare: Walkabout; a Journey between the Pacific and Indian oceans (1936)[35] and Atlantic Circle (1938).[36]

The Rosaura explains Moyne's closer ties to Winston Churchill, which were to result in his untimely death. In 1930, they agreed that the government policies of dropping the Pound sterling off the gold standard and de-rating to cope with the Great Depression were inadequate, along with proposals for dominion status for India. When the 1931 coalition government was formed, their criticisms meant that as former ministers they were now out in the political cold. From 1934, they also warned about Hitler's rise to power and German rearmament.[37]

His ties to Churchill were also strengthened through "The Other Club," an informal dining club for politicians in London that Churchill had founded in 1911 and that Moyne later joined. A rule was that members had to freely express their opinions. Moyne was there on 29 September 1938 when the bad news came of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's capitulation to Hitler at Munich. Also present were Brendan Bracken, Lloyd George, Bob Boothby, Duff Cooper, J.L. Garvin, editor of The Observer, and Walter Elliot. "Winston ranted and raved, venting his spleen on the two government ministers present and demanding to know how they could support a policy that was 'sordid, squalid, sub-human and suicidal.'"[38] At that time, they still shared the minority view in parliament; the majority agreed with Moyne's cousin-in-law 'Chips' Channon MP, who recorded about the Munich that "the whole world rejoices whilst only a few malcontents jeer."[39]

On 11 September 1938, just before the Munich crisis, Churchill wrote an oft-repeated comment in a letter to Moyne: "Owing to the neglect of our defences and the mishandling of the German problem in the last five years, we seem to be very near the bleak choice between War and Shame. My feeling is that we shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later, on even more adverse terms than at present."[40]

Later political career

Even though an elevation to the Lords ends many political lives, Moyne spent part of 1932 in the colony of Kenya overseeing its finances. In 1933, he chaired a parliamentary committee supervising English slum clearances, in light of his experience gained in his family's charitable trusts mentioned above. In 1934, he joined the Royal Commission examining Durham University, as well as a 1936 committee investigating the British film industry.[41]

In 1938, Moyne was appointed chairman of the West Indies Royal Commission, which was asked to investigate how best the British colonies in the Caribbean should be governed, after labour unrest. The Report and notes were published in 1939 and are held by the PRO at Kew, London.[42] Just before he returned from the Caribbean, his wife Evelyn died on 21 July 1939.[43]

From the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Moyne sought the internment of Diana Mosley, his former daughter-in-law, who had left his son Bryan in 1932. She had remarried in 1936 in Berlin to the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, with Hitler and Goebbels as witnesses. File No KV 2/1363 at the PRO, Kew is part of a collection released in 2004 on British right-wing extremists. The PRO's on-line archivist notes that "Diana Mosley was not interned on the outbreak of war, and remained at liberty for some time. There is a Home Office letter of May 1940 explaining the Home Secretary's decision not to intern her at that time, and then correspondence from her former father-in-law, Lord Moyne, which seems to have resulted in her detention the following month." Moyne's friend Churchill had become prime minister on 10 May 1940. Moyne's last letter, dated 26 June 1940, is quoted in Anne de Courcy's book on Diana Mosley. Later that day her order of detention was signed by J.S. Hale, a principal Secretary of State.[44]

From September 1939, given Hitler's Invasion of Poland (1939), Moyne chaired the Polish Relief Fund in London and gave over his London house at 11 Grosvenor Place, in Belgravia near Buckingham Palace, for the use of Polish officers.[45] From the elevation of Churchill in May 1940, Moyne held several positions in the Churchill war ministry, starting with a Joint Secretaryship in the Ministry of Agriculture. In a cabinet reshuffle in February 1941, he took on his post in the Colonial Office and led the Churchill government's business in the House of Lords, with the honorific title of Leader of the House of Lords.[45]

Largely as a result of his travels and his work in the West Indies, Lord Moyne was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies by Churchill, serving from 8 February 1941 to 22 February 1942. Moyne was next appointed Deputy Resident Minister of State in Cairo from August 1942 to January 1944 and Minister-Resident for the Middle East from then until his death. Within the British system at that time, this meant control over Persia, the Middle East, including Mandatory Palestine, and Africa. The main task was to ensure the defeat of the Axis forces in North Africa, principally the Afrika Korps led by General Rommel. Another concern was the influence on Arab opinion of the Grand Mufti, a leader of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, who had moved on to Nazi German sanctuary in Berlin in 1941.

Moyne, Jews and Palestine

Views

Moyne's views were partly outlined in a speech about the recruitment of Jews into the British Army in the House of Lords on 9 June 1942. Moyne said that:

The Government have already explained what has been done to arm the Jews for the legitimate purpose of self-defence, and we shall no doubt hear from the noble Lord, Lord Croft, to-day how that process has continued in the last few weeks; but is it not clear that Lord Melchett and the responsible leaders of the Jews in this country generally seek to be saved from Lord Wedgwood in his attempt to make political capital out of the natural desire of the Jews to do their utmost to defend the cause of freedom against Nazi tyranny?

However, he opposed the establishment of specifically Jewish army units in the Middle East, "partly to avoid offending Arab sensibilities."[46]

In regard to the problems of the settlement he said:

It must surely have a deplorable effect upon our Allies to be told by an ex-Cabinet Minister that the Palestine Administration do not like Jews, and that there are enough anti-Semites in Great Britain to back up the Hitler policy and spirit. This suggestion is a complete reversal of the truth. If a comparison is to be made with the Nazis, it is surely those who wish to force an imported régime upon the Arab population who are guilty of the spirit of aggression and domination. Lord Wedgwood's proposal that Arabs should be subjugated by force to a Jewish régime is inconsistent with the Atlantic Charter, and that ought to be told to America. The second principle of that Charter lays down that the United States and ourselves desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned; and the third principle lays down that they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live.[47]

British policy in 1944 on immigration followed the White Paper of 1939. Charges against Moyne, amplified by Lehi propaganda,[48] included that Moyne was hostile to Jewish settlement in Palestine due to his support of an Arab federation in the Middle East and that he had made speeches containing antisemitic language, including one in the House of Lords where he suggested that Arabs should get sovereignty over Palestine as the Arab race was "purer" than the "mixed" Jewish race.[48][49][50] This opinion was supported by A.S. Yehuda, who wrote that Moyne taught the Arabs racism against Jews.[51] However, according to historian Bernard Wasserstein, both these charges are false.[48][50] Moyne believed in a federation of Palestine, Transjordan and Syria, but only conditional on the creation of a Jewish state.[48] Of racial purity, Wasserstein wrote, "In fact, Moyne's speech, when placed in the context of his known views on matters of race can be shown to contradict this interpretation totally."[48] Moyne, an amateur anthropologist, believed that racially intermixed groups were more advanced than the "primitive" racially pure groups like the natives of New Guinea.[48]

Palestine partition proposals

In November 1943, a committee of the British Cabinet had proposed a partition of Palestine after the war, based loosely on the 1937 Peel Commission proposal. The plan included a Jewish state, a small residual mandatory area under British control, and an Arab state to be joined in a large Arab federation of Greater Syria. The Cabinet approved the plan in principle in January 1944, but it faced severe opposition from the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden among others. "Moyne's position differed from that of nearly all the British civil and military officials in the Middle East: the consensus of British official opinion in the area opposed partition and opposed a Jewish state; Moyne supported both."[52] The partition plan was before the Cabinet for final approval in the same week that Moyne was assassinated.

"Blood for trucks" proposal

An anecdote, often cited by Lehi apologists in defense of Moyne's assassination, but dismissed by Bruce Hoffman as a canard, holds that Moyne was personally responsible for the deaths of a million Hungarian Jews.[53]

Joel Brand, a member of the Jewish-Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee, approached the British in April 1944 with a proposal from Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer in charge of deporting Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz. Eichmann's so-called "blood for trucks" (Blut Für Ware; literally "blood for goods") proposal was that the Nazis would release up to one million Jews in exchange for 10,000 trucks and other goods from the Western Allies.

Brand was arrested and taken to Cairo, where he was questioned for several months. Brand reported that during one of the interrogations an Englishman (sic) he did not know had asked him about Eichmann's proposal, then replied "What can I do with a million Jews? Where can I put them?". On leaving the room, Brand reported, his military escort had told him that the man who had made that remark was Lord Moyne.[54] Brand then added: "I later learnt that Lord Moyne had often deplored the tragic fate of the Jews. The policy which he had to follow, however, was one dictated by a cold and impersonal administration in London. It may be that he paid with his life for the guilt of others."[53]

Brand told this story to the Kastner libel trial in 1953,[55] but in his autobiography published in 1956, he added a caveat "I afterwards heard that the man with whom I spoke was not, in fact, Lord Moyne, but another British statesman. Unfortunately, I have no means of verifying this."[56] Brand later testified in the Eichmann trial in 1961 that it was Moyne who said "What shall I do with those million Jews?"[57] The story of the remark, attributed to Moyne, is regularly quoted by historians. Historian Bernard Wasserstein believes that "the truth is that Brand almost certainly never met Moyne".[58] This is supported by Shlomo Aronson, who traces the remark to a comment made by the head of the Refugee Section of the Foreign Office, Alec Randall, which was later repeated by Moshe Shertok at a meeting which Brand attended.[59]

During Brand's incarceration, both Brand and Moyne were interviewed by Ira Hirschmann, who had been appointed by Roosevelt as the War Refugee Board delegate in Turkey. According to Hirschmann, Moyne suggested sending Brand back to Hungary with a noncommittal reply that would enable the Jews there to continue talks.[60] Moyne also supported a proposal to offer money to the Germans instead of trucks.[61] However, the British government did not adopt either proposal.

The Western Allies, while skeptical of the offer, at first seriously considered discussing the offer with the Germans, but changed their minds when their intelligence investigations concluded that it was a German trap to embarrass the US government and damage the alliance with the Soviets.[62] The British released Brand in October 1944, about one month before Moyne's assassination, after which he joined the group Lehi which would commit the assassination.[63]

Two months before his death in 1964, Brand commented: "I made a terrible mistake in passing this on to the British. It is now clear to me that Himmler sought to sow suspicion among the Allies as a preparation for his much-desired Nazi-Western coalition against Moscow."[64]

Assassination

Condemnation of the assassination by official Jewish organizations[65]

In the early afternoon of 6 November 1944, Eliyahu Bet-Zuri and Eliyahu Hakim of the Jewish terrorist group Lehi waited for Moyne near his home in Cairo following a well-planned and much practised plan of action to assassinate Moyne.

Moyne arrived in his car with his driver, Lance Corporal Arthur Fuller, his secretary, Dorothy Osmond, and his ADC, Major Andrew Hughes-Onslow. The ADC went to open the front door of the residence and the driver got out to open the door for Moyne. They were suddenly told not to move, as Bet-Zuri emerged and shot Fuller in the chest, causing him to collapse in the driveway and bleed to death in minutes. Hakim then pulled the car door open and shot Moyne three times. The first bullet hit him in the neck on the right side, just above the clavicle, the second penetrated his abdomen, punctured his colon and large intestine, and became embedded to the right of the second lumbar vertebrae, while the third shot, fired after Moyne raised his right hand, ripped across four of his fingers and went in and out of his chest, causing no serious injuries.[66]

Hakim and Bet-Zuri ran out of the yard, jumped on their rented bicycles, and began pedalling down the street away from the scene. Major Hughes-Onslow rushed to the sentry box and raised the alarm. Hearing it, Hakim and Bet-Zuri turned onto a side street. They had very nearly gotten away when an Egyptian motorcycle policeman, El-Amin Mahomed Abdullah, caught up to them. Bet-Zuri fired a volley of warning shots in his direction, which he ignored. Abdullah then dismounted and ordered him to drop his weapon. Bet-Zuri attempted to shoot out the motorcycle's tires but found that his pistol had run out of ammunition, and as he attempted to reload it, Abdullah fired, hitting Bet-Zuri in the chest. Hearing the commotion, Hakim turned back to help Bet-Zuri, and within minutes, another policeman appeared, and the two were placed under arrest.[66]

Meanwhile, Moyne regained consciousness, and in a few minutes, a doctor and ambulance arrived. Moyne was rushed to a British military hospital in Cairo and admitted at 1:40 p.m., in critical condition, having lost a great deal of blood through gross haemorrhaging and suffering from shock. Five minutes later, he was given the first of three blood transfusions, causing his condition to improve. After he complained of a burning sensation down his right leg and an inability to move it, X-rays revealed an injury to his thoracic vertebrae. Later, his right arm also became paralyzed as a result of the neck wound. Doctors were reluctant to operate until his condition improved, but at 5:30, a lumbar puncture revealed a bloodstain, and it was decided to operate. He was given another blood transfusion, and in the operation that followed, surgeons removed the bullet lodged near the second lumbar vertebra and discovered the injuries to the colon and large intestine, while the neck wound and finger wounds were cleaned. Soon after the operation, his condition began to deteriorate, and he died at 8:40 pm, aged 64.[66]

As the principal witness at the trial, Major Hughes-Onslow became a marked man and was sent to Aden and then to Khartoum for his safety. He subsequently said, "No doubt Lord Moyne could have been regarded as a target for political assassination, but the shooting of the chauffeur was pure murder."[67][68]

Moyne's body was flown home to England and cremated on 17 November at Golders Green Crematorium.[69] His will was proven on 2 December, with his estate valued at £2 million (equivalent to £93,716,249 in 2021).[70][71]

According to a member of the Lehi's three-man executive, Natan Yellin-Mor, the group's founder Ya'ir Stern had considered the possibility of assassinating the British Minister Resident in the Middle East as early as 1941 before Moyne held the position.[72] Moyne's predecessor Richard Casey was deemed unsuitable because he was Australian.[73] When Moyne replaced Casey in 1944, planning for the operation began.

As well as being the highest British official within Lehi's reach, Moyne was regarded as personally responsible for Britain's Palestine policy. In particular, he was regarded as one of the architects of Britain's strict immigration policy, and to have been responsible for the British hand in the Struma disaster,[72] which followed a refusal to grant visas to Palestine for its Jewish refugee passengers, decided during his time as Colonial Secretary.[69] According to Bell, Lord Moyne was believed by the underground to be an Arabist, who had consistently followed an anti-Zionist line.[74]

However, according to Yellin-Mor:[75]

"Really these acts by Lord Moyne were without meaning for us. They were useful only as propaganda, because they allowed us to explain to the people why we had killed him. What was important to us was that he symbolized the British Empire in Cairo. We weren't yet in a position to try to hit Churchill in London, so the logical second best was to hit Lord Moyne in Cairo."

According to Yaakov Banai (Mazal), who served as the commander of the fighting unit of Lehi, there were three purposes in the assassination:[76]

  1. To show the world that this conflict was not between a government and its citizens as Britain had tried to show but between citizens and a foreign ruler.
  2. To demonstrate that the conflict was between the Jewish people and British Imperialism.
  3. To take the "War of Liberation" out of the Land of Israel and the Yishuv. The trial was not planned, but the action had to capture a place in the world press and lead political thoughts.

Author James Barr suggests that a French intelligence initiative was behind Moyne's murder, because of his support for the Greater Syria plan.[77]

Trial

Telegram sent to Cairo regarding the execution of the assassins of Lord Moyne

After the assassination, Lehi announced:

We accuse Lord Moyne and the government he represents, with murdering hundreds and thousands of our brethren; we accuse him of seizing our country and looting our possessions. We were forced to do justice and to fight.[78]

Bet-Zuri and Hakim initially gave false names, but their true identities were soon discovered. They were tried by an Egyptian military court. Both men were found guilty and, on 18 January 1945, sentenced to death. Their appeals for clemency were dismissed, probably partly in response to pressure from Winston Churchill, who had been Moyne's ally and close personal friend.[79] They were hanged on 23 March 1945.

Aftermath

Although the group had been targeting British Mandate personnel since 1940, Moyne was the first high-profile British official to be killed by them, though several failed attempts had been made to assassinate the British High Commissioner in Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael. This was therefore the opening shot in the new Lehi campaign.

Jewish authorities in Palestine, fearful of British retribution, were quick to distance themselves from Lehi actions. On the news of Moyne's death, Chaim Weizmann, who later became the first President of Israel, is reported to have said that the death was more painful to him than that of his own son.[80]

British prime minister Winston Churchill, who once described himself as a "Zionist,"[81] taking the view that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine would provide Britain with a more reliable and powerful ally,[75] for the time-being tempered his support for Zionism.[82][83] Moyne had been sent to Cairo because of their long personal and political friendship, and Churchill told the House of Commons:

If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of assassins' pistols and our labours for its future to produce only a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past. If there is to be any hope of a peaceful and successful future for Zionism, these wicked activities must cease, and those responsible for them must be destroyed root and branch. [...] In Palestine the executive of the Jewish Agency have called upon the Jewish community—and I quote their actual words: 'To cast out the members of this destructive band, deprive them of all refuge and shelter, to resist their threats, and to render all necessary assistance to the authorities in the prevention of terrorist acts, and in the eradication of the terrorist organisation.' These are strong words, but we must wait for these words to be translated into deeds.[84]

He also added, "I can assure the House that the Jews in Palestine have rarely lost a better or more well-informed friend."[85]

Moyne's parliamentary friend and cousin in law, Henry 'Chips' Channon M.P. wrote in his diary:

I went to sleep last night with strange emotions. Walter Moyne was an extraordinary man, colossally rich, well-meaning, intelligent, scrupulous, yet a viveur, and the only modern Guinness to play a social or political role.... He was careful with his huge fortune, though he had probably about three millions.[86]

The Times of London quoted Ha'aretz's view that the assassins "have done more by this single reprehensible crime to demolish the edifice erected by three generations of Jewish pioneers than is imaginable."[87] The assassination caused the Palestine partition proposals that were awaiting final approval in Cabinet to be immediately shelved and never resurrected. Moyne's successor in Cairo, Sir Edward Grigg, was opposed to partition.[88] Some historians, such as Wasserstein and Porath, have speculated that a Jewish state soon after the war had been a real possibility.[52][89]

The historian Brenner writes that the purpose of the attack on Moyne was also in order to show the efficacy of armed resistance and to demonstrate to the British that they were not safe in any place as long as they remained in Palestine. The assassination also seemed to affect the Arab side, particularly in stimulating Egyptian nationalism. Brenner makes a comparison between Moyne's death and the assassination of pro-British Ahmad Mahir Pasha. There were Lehi members who advocated the formation of a "Semitic Bloc" opposing foreign domination, and this made it possible for Arabs to actually join Lehi.[90]

In 1975, Egypt returned the bodies of Ben Zuri and Hakim to Israel in exchange for 20 prisoners from Gaza and Sinai.[91] They were laid in state in the Jerusalem Hall of Heroism, where they were attended by many dignitaries, including Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Ephraim Katzir.[92] Then they were buried in the military section of Mount Herzl in a state funeral with full military honours.[92][93] Britain lodged a formal protest, but Israel rejected the criticism, referring to Ben Zuri and Hakim as "heroic freedom fighters."[94][95] In 1982, postage stamps were issued in their honour.[96][97]

The two pistols used in the assassination were later found to have been used in eight previous murders.[98]

Miscellaneous

Lord Moyne's large collection of archeological and ethnographic artefacts was acquired by the British Museum in London[99] and the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology in Cambridge.

Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac07.htm Archived 25 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine The 'Hunting Season'. Accessed: 1 December 2009.
  2. ↑ Wilson (1998), p. 150.
  3. ↑ "Grania, Dowager Marchioness of Normanby", The Times, 7 February 2018, retrieved 10 February 2018
  4. ↑ "Grania, Dowager Marchioness of Normanby", The Yorkshire Post, 3 February 2018, retrieved 10 February 2018
  5. ↑ "No. 27162". The London Gazette. 6 February 1900. p. 809.
  6. ↑ http://www.angloboerwar.com/imperial-yeomanry/2359-44th-company-12th-battalion 44th company IY, list of members
  7. ↑ Lord Roberts, Despatch, 4 September 1901 [Boer War correspondence].
  8. ↑ "The War – Embarcation of Troops". The Times. No. 36081. London. 5 March 1900. p. 10.
  9. ↑ Wilson (1998), pp. 153–154.
  10. ↑ "No. 27415". The London Gazette. 11 March 1902. p. 1736.
  11. ↑ "No. 27422". The London Gazette. 4 April 1902. p. 2283.
  12. ↑ Wilson (1998), pp. 172–173.
  13. ↑ Guinness, Jonathan (1997). Requiem for a Family Business. London: Macmillan. p. 41. ISBN 0-333-66191-5.
  14. ↑ Guinness, Walter (1987).
  15. ↑ Page 214
  16. ↑ http://www.burystedmundsconservatives.com/page/1/336/ Archived 3 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine pdf – has some results.
  17. ↑ Hansard 5th series, 39, 1129
  18. ↑ Hansard 5th 19, 116.
  19. ↑ Hansard 5th 22, 311.
  20. ↑ The Times, 1913-06-19.
  21. ↑ The Times, 1913-12-31.
  22. ↑ Davison, R. H. (April 1948). "The Armenian crisis, 1912–1914". American Historical Review. New York. 53 (3): 481–505. doi:10.2307/1840566. JSTOR 1840566. OCLC 14285148.
  23. ↑ Hansard 5th, 84, 658, 1023, 2159.
  24. ↑ The Times, 1919-02-13.
  25. ↑ Hansard 5th, 153, 2330; The Times 1922-02-17.
  26. ↑ Who Do You Think You Are? (British TV series) online notes; downloaded October 2011
  27. ↑ "No. 33793". The London Gazette. 26 January 1932. p. 563.
  28. ↑ Dennison, S.R.; MacDonagh, O. (1998). Guinness 1886–1939 : from incorporation to the Second World War. Cork: Cork University Press. ISBN 1-85918-175-9.
  29. ↑ Error Page at www.guinness.com
  30. ↑ "British Pacific Properties LTD | Homes in West Vancouver". British Pacific Properties | West Vancouver, BC.
  31. ↑ Browne, L. (1996). Bridges : masterpieces of architecture. New York: Smithmark. p. 67. ISBN 0-7651-9942-4.
  32. ↑ Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine at www.guinnesstrust.org.uk
  33. ↑ Aalen, F.H.A. (1990). The Iveagh Trust: The first hundred years 1890–1990. Dublin: Iveagh Trust. pp. 58–93. ISBN 0-9515942-0-6.
  34. ↑ Wilson (1998), pp. 223–226.
  35. 1 2 Guinness, Walter (1936).
  36. 1 2 Guinness, Walter (1938).
  37. ↑ Wilson (1998), p. 206.
  38. ↑ Wilson (1998), pp. 222, 227.
  39. ↑ Channon, H.; James, R.R. (1967). Chips: the diaries of Sir Henry Channon. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 172–173. OCLC 53427734.
  40. ↑ Martin Gilbert, Churchill A Life Henry Holt & Company, New York, 1991; page 595.
  41. ↑ Wilson (1998), p. 222.
  42. ↑ Guinness, W.E. (1938–1945). "Moyne papers on West India Royal Commission". AIM25: Institute of Commonwealth Studies. GB 0101 ICS 56. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2006.
  43. ↑ Wilson (1998), p. 228.
  44. ↑ de Courcy, A. (2004). Diana Mosley. London: Vintage. pp. 220–222, 367–368. ISBN 0-09-947027-6.
  45. 1 2 Wilson (1998), p. 229.
  46. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 24. p. 215.
  47. ↑ Josiah Wedgwood, 1st Baron Wedgwood (9 June 1942). "Recruitment of Jews". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Lords. col. 208.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  48. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wasserstein (1980).
  49. ↑ Perlinger, Arie (2006). Middle Eastern terrorism. New York: Chelsea House. p. 37. ISBN 9780791083093.
  50. 1 2 Wasserstein (1979).
  51. ↑ "Moyne Taught Arabs Racism, Says Prof. Yehuda". Canadian Jewish Chronicle. 2 February 1945.
  52. 1 2 Wasserstein (1980), p. 36.
  53. 1 2 Bruce Hoffman, Anonymous Soldiers: the struggle for Israel,1917–1947 Knopf 2015 p.196.
  54. ↑ Brand, J.; Weissberg-Cybulski, A. (1958). Advocate for the Dead – the Story of Joel Brand. London: Andre Duetsch. OCLC 1199641.
  55. ↑ Bauer (1978).
  56. ↑ Weissberg, pp. 167. According to Ben Hecht (Hecht, B. (1997). Perfidy. Jerusalem: Milah Press. p. 280. ISBN 0-9646886-3-8.), Jewish Agency official Ehud Avriel had demanded that Brand "change the name of Lord Moyne and state that the man ... was another, unknown, British official."
  57. ↑ "Eichmann Trial relevant transcript, Session 59". vex.net. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 20 August 2006.
  58. ↑ Wasserstein (1980), p. 34.
  59. ↑ Shlomo Aronson (2004). Hitler, the Allies, and the Jews. Cambridge University Press. pp. 229–230, 252–253.
  60. ↑ Bauer (1994), pp. 194–195.
  61. ↑ Friling, T. (Winter 1999). "Nazi-Jewish negotiations in Istanbul in mid-1944". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 13 (3): 405–436. doi:10.1093/hgs/13.3.405. OCLC 95792215.
  62. ↑ Shlomo Aronson (2004). Hitler, the Allies, and the Jews. Cambridge University Press. pp. 232–240.
  63. ↑ Bauer (1994), p. 194.
  64. ↑ "Allied Rift Called Aim of '44 Nazi Ransom Plan'". The New York Times. 21 May 1964.
  65. ↑ To the Yishuv in the Land [of Israel]:
    Along with the entire cultural world, the Jewish public was shocked to hear of the heinous crime of the British minister's assassination in the Middle East – a sevenfold heinous crime, with the British people standing for the sixth year in miraculous heroism and supreme effort, along with allies, in war for life and death with the Nazi enemy. This horrific crime, which was committed outside the borders of our country and whose circumstances have not yet been clarified, raises again the great and growing danger of the terrorist gang that still exists in the country. Terrorism in the country may stifle the chances of our political struggle and destroy our internal peace. The Yishuv is required to vomit out of it all the people of this devastating and destructive (המהרסת והמחריבה) gang, deprive them of all shelter and refuge, not to succumb to their threats and to extend all the necessary help to the authorities to prevent acts of terrorism and eradicate this organization, because our lives depend on it.
    The executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine; National Committee of the Knesset of Israel (Vaad Leumi). (Haaretz, 8 November 1944, p1.)
  66. 1 2 3 Bell, Bowyer J.: Terror out of Zion (1976)
  67. ↑ Source: Major Hughes-Onslow's son, journalist James Hughes-Onslow.
  68. ↑ Ben-Yehuda (1993), p. 209.
  69. 1 2 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 24. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 125.
  70. ↑ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  71. ↑ "Moyne, baron, the right honourable Walter Edward". probatesearchservice.gov. UK Government. 1944.
  72. 1 2 Ben-Yehuda (1993), p. 207.
  73. ↑ Wasserstein (1980), p. 33.
  74. ↑ Bell, J Bowyer (1977). Terror Out Of Zion: Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI, and the Palestine underground, 1929–1949. New York: St. Martin’s Press. p. 92. ISBN 0-312-79205-0.
  75. 1 2 Bethell, Nicholas (1979). The Palestine Triangle. London: André Deutsch. p. 181. ISBN 0-233-97069-X.
  76. ↑ Banai, Y; Eldad, I (1987). Ḥayalim almonim: sefer mivtseʻe Leḥi (Unknown Soldiers The Operation Book of Lehi) (in Hebrew). p. 276. OCLC 45473424.
  77. ↑ James Barr (27 October 2011). A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East. Simon and Schuster. pp. 273–. ISBN 978-1-84983-903-7. Moyne...evidence from the time suggests that it was his support for Greater Syria that sealed his fate.
  78. ↑ Hernon, Ian (2007). Assassin!: 200 years of British political murder. London: Pluto Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780745327167.
  79. ↑ Wasserstein (1980), p. 37.
  80. ↑ Hecht, B. Perfidy(1999). Jerusalem: Milah Press, pp. 280, footnote 195. ISBN 0-9646886-3-8.
  81. ↑ The Last Romantic Zionist Gentile Archived 4 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine winstonchurchill.org
  82. ↑ Cohen, M.J. (1985). Churchill and the Jews. London: Frank Cass. pp. 306–308, 340. ISBN 0-7146-3254-6.
  83. ↑ Wasserstein (1980), pp. 36–37.
  84. ↑ The Prime Minister (17 November 1944), "Palestine (Terrorist Activities)", Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), vol. 404, cc2242-3
  85. ↑ Gilbert, M. (2007). Churchill and the Jews. London: Simon & Schuster Ltd. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-7432-9493-5.
  86. ↑ Channon, H. (1967). James, R.R. (ed.). Chips: the diaries of Sir Henry Channon. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 396–397. OCLC 12190801.
  87. ↑ "Comment in Palestine". The Times. 9 November 1944.
  88. ↑ Sofer, S.; Shefer-Vanson, D. (1998). Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-521-63012-6.
  89. ↑ Porath, Y. (1986). In Search of Arab Unity 1930-1945. London: Frank Cass. pp. 134–148. ISBN 0-7146-3264-3.
  90. ↑ Brenner, Y.S. (October 1965). "The 'Stern Gang' 1940–48". Middle Eastern Studies: 13.
  91. ↑ Mr Rabin leads Israel mourning for assassins, The Times, 1975-06-27, pp. 1.
  92. 1 2 Beit-Tzuri and Hakim are reinterred, Jerusalem Post, 1975-06-27, pp. 3.
  93. ↑ Israel honours British minister's assassins, The Times, 1975-06-26, pp. 1.
  94. ↑ The Daily Telegraph, 28 June 1975
  95. ↑ Israel defends honours for Moyne killers, The Times, 1975-07-01, pp. 1.
  96. ↑ Ben-Yehuda (1993), p. 210.
  97. ↑ "恒温恒湿试验箱-恒温恒湿试验机-冷热冲击试验机-温度冲击试验箱-东莞市高天试验设备有限公司". www.bait-tov.com.
  98. ↑ Eldad Harouvi (2016). Palestine Investigated, The Criminal Investigation Department of the Palestine Police Force, 1920–1948. Sussex Academic Press. p. 135.
  99. ↑ "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org.

References (books)

  • Bauer, Yehuda (1978). The Holocaust in Historical Perspective. Canberra: Australian National University Press. ISBN 0708110673.
  • Bauer, Yehuda (1994). Jews for Sale?. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05913-2.
  • Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (1993). Political assassinations by Jews: a rhetorical device for justice. Albany: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-585-09119-6.
  • Guinness (1st Baron Moyne), Walter Edward; Haddon, Alfred Cort; Cave, Alexander James Edward (1936). Walkabout: A Journey Between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. London: W. Heinemann Ltd. OCLC 5351894.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • Guinness (1st Baron Moyne), Walter Edward (1938). Atlantic Circle. Glasgow: Blackie & Son. OCLC 5509205.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • Guinness (1st Baron Moyne), Walter Edward; Bond, Brian; Robbins, Simon (1987). Staff Officer: The Diaries of Walter Guinness (First Lord Moyne), 1914–1918. London: L. Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-053-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • Wilson, Derek A. (1998). Dark and Light: The Story of the Guinness Family. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81718-3.

References (journals)

  • Wasserstein, Bernard (1979). "The assassination of Lord Moyne". The Jewish Historical Society of England – Transactions & Miscellanies. 27: 72–83.
  • Wasserstein, Bernard (1980). "New light on the Moyne murder". Midstream. 26: 30–38.

References (web)

Further reading

  • Heller, Joseph (1995). The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940–1949. Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 0-7146-4106-5.
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