PRIMARY DOSSIER № 03 / 05
CHURCHILL, W. L. S.
PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM (1940–1945)
Prime Minister whose War Cabinet systematically rejected emergency grain shipments to Bengal during the 1943 Famine, causing between 3.0 and 3.8 million civilian deaths.
PRIMARY INVESTIGATION & FINDINGS
Repeatedly denied requests from Viceroy Lord Wavell and Secretary of State Leopold Amery for 500,000 tons of emergency wheat for Bengal in 1943, prioritizing stockpiles for post-war European liberation.
Approved the 'Boat Denial' and 'Rice Denial' military policies in coastal Bengal (1942), confiscating over 66,000 boats and destroying rural distribution networks.
Privately recorded by Secretary Amery as stating during Cabinet debates that 'starvation of anyhow underfed Bengalis was less serious than shortage of Greeks' and asking 'why Gandhi hadn’t died yet.'
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