WASHINGTON Churchill augurs war in letters

An exhibit on the British leader opens today at the Library of Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Winston Churchill predicted World War I two years before it broke out, Library of Congress scholars discovered in a newly unearthed collection of the British prime minister's letters.
The letters to Churchill's cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, have not been seen in decades, even by scholars, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said.
As first lord of the Admiralty in 1912, Churchill updated his cousin on the war between Turkey and an alliance of Balkan states. Churchill took a stand against the Turks.
"But the European situation is far from safe and anything might happen," he wrote. "It only needs a little ill will or bad faith on the part of a great power to precipitate a far greater conflict."
The spark
Two years later, the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand provided the spark that Churchill foresaw. Turkey took Germany's side in the war, and a bloody, unsuccessful campaign against Turkish territory cost Churchill his cabinet post.
The duke donated the letters to the library at the urging of Bainbridge Colby, secretary of state under President Wilson, but they were misfiled.
They were uncovered when Daun Van Ee, a military historian at the library, found them in a collection of manuscripts as she was preparing an exhibit on Churchill's life. "Churchill and the Great Republic" opens today at the Library of Congress.
Grandson visits
While on a visit Wednesday to see the exhibit, the prime minister's 63-year-old grandson spoke of his grandfather's reputation for prophecy.
He said a classmate at Harrow, the elite boys' school, recalled once hearing the future hero of World War II tell a friend: "Well, maybe I'll go into the army, but I shall save London. There will be a great crisis which I can't foresee the details of. ... I shall save England and the empire."
The exhibit will be open through June 26. Admission is free.