Winston Churchill's 9 October 1948 Speech to the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference published in the Report of the Proceedings

London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1948. 1st Edition. Paperback. This booklet contains the first printed appearance of Churchill's speech of 9 October 1948 at the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference. Three years earlier, Churchill's Conservatives had been soundly defeated in the General Election at the end of the war. Churchill would head opposition to the Labour Government until the General Election of 1951, which returned the Conservatives to majority and Churchill to the office of Prime Minister.

At the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference, Churchill delivered a 65-minute address to a crowd of about 2,500 in the Pier Pavilion, Llandudno, Wales. This address appears at pp.149-56 of this 160-page "Verbatim Report of the Proceedings together with the Text of Mr. Churchill's Speech". The booklet measures 9.75 inches x 6 inches and is bound in blue card wraps.

Condition is very good+. The blue card binding is unfaded and square, with sharp corners and an uncreased spine. The covers show only trivial wear at extremities and an "AREA EDUCATION OFFICES" ink stamp at the top right front cover. The contents are clean and bright with no spotting and no previous ownership marks. The only flaw of note is that the glue that holds the wrapper to the spine is starting to fail, but the covers are still fully intact and attached to the text block and this deficiency is easily repaired. The binding is protected with a removable, clear mylar cover. The speech herein was later printed in Europe Unite at pp.409-24 under the title "Conservative Mass Meeting" and later still in Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, Vol. VII, pp.7707-17 under the title "Perils at Home and Abroad".

Reference: Cohen D134, Woods D(b)70/I