Shajil KumarBy: Shajil Kumar
Sir Winston Churchill was in the crosshairs of Indian extremists during a visit to the United States, nearly a decade before he became Britain’s famous wartime prime minister, newly uncovered papers reveal.
Files at the National Archives at Kew show that FBI agents were deployed to protect him from the Ghadr organisation during his 1931 lecture tour, Daily Mail reports.
Churchill, who was then a member of parliament, was provided a bodyguard and he personally paid for the officer’s food and lodgings during the trip.
He was receiving death threats from Indian extremist groups because of his firm support for the British empire.
The files show Churchill was warned of a plot by California-based terrorists who were part-funded by Moscow.
A Home Office memo sent to Churchill in November 1931 alerted him about the threat posed by the California-headquartered Ghadr Society.
It is composed mostly of revolutionary Sikhs from the Punjab state.
Later the Home Office told him that the threat specifically named him, according to the files.
Churchill went on a lecture tour of North America, hoping to recoup from financial losses from the Wall Street Crash.
He wrote, in another newly disclosed memo, that the threat was so serious that the FBI agents were tasked with staking out each venue ahead of his arrival.
His bodyguard Walter Thompson later referred in his memoirs to a ‘very correctly dressed Indian’ who entered the lecture hall in Chicago.
Thompson felt he intended to kill Churchill. He drew his gun, and the man ran into the arms of two plain-clothes officers but managed to escape.
Until now, no credible evidence has emerged to support this claim. David Freeman, of the International Churchill Society, said the documents presented ‘fresh material’ not previously included in the numerous Churchill biographies.
During the tour, he got wounded after being hit by a car while crossing the road in New York. But he recovered to continue the tour.
